Alma publishes one of the clearest GPA-banded merit grids anywhere — every admitted first-year gets $28,000-$36,000/year by GPA band — and lets students stack a $3,000 campus-visit scholarship, a $1,000 FAFSA-filing award, $1,000 out-of-state money, and a $1,500 legacy award on top, with up to 15 full-tuition Distinguished Presidential Scholarships by competition.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Alma worth a closer look?
Alma is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 8 published awards, and 3 are based on those numbers.
Merit tiers83 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team
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Published scholarships
These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.
Available to incoming first-year and international students; merit decisions made at the time of admission with no separate application; GPA-based
How to keep it
Current-student section: 'Student's current awards renew based on the criteria in the documents above' (annual aid-program documents); awards continue for returning students at original levels.
Notes
Grid explicitly labeled 'For the 2026-2027 academic year.' The identical grid applies to Winter 2026 entrants. Even students below 3.00 receive $28,000/year.
Competitive: application process opened October 1, 2025; deadline for consideration December 16, 2025; selected students attend an in-person interview on campus January 31, 2026; up to 15 awarded
Notes
Page text says the process is 'for the 2025-26 academic year' while listing 2025-2026 application dates that align with fall-2026 entry — the academic-year label looks inconsistent; flagged in Section C.
Visit campus (Mon-Fri and select Saturdays; excludes College Game Day Saturday visits); Winter 2026 entrants earn $2,000; international students may earn it via virtual visit
How to keep it
Renewable for up to a total of $12,000 over four years.
Notes
Multiple visits are encouraged but only one Scottish Hospitality award can be received.
Audition required; open regardless of major; Distinguished awards at faculty discretion with a May 1 deadline — students auditioning or accepted after May 1 are eligible only for the base award
How to keep it
Base $1,500 renewable; Distinguished Awards $2,000+ replace standard performance awards previously offered.
Notes
Anti-stacking within category: 'Students are only eligible to receive one scholarship per year in this category' — if offered awards from multiple departments, they must select one.
Portfolio application (single PDF with letter of intention + 12 labeled images) to the art faculty; first-year section states base requires an art & design minor and Distinguished requires a major; other sections state Distinguished requires a minor — texts conflict (see Section C). May 1 deadline for Distinguished
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Alma's published information.
Outside awardsNo published displacement order
Alma's policy doesn't specify whether outside scholarships hit loans, grants, or only the COA ceiling. Get a written aid-office answer before chasing private awards.
What families often miss
The Scottish Hospitality Scholarship pays $3,000/year (renewable to $12,000 over four years) just for visiting — but College Game Day Saturday visits don't count, and you can only ever receive one such award no matter how many times you visit.
Up to 15 full-tuition scholarships require an application by December 16, 2025 (process opened October 1, 2025) and an on-campus interview January 31, 2026 — the regular merit grid caps at $36,000 otherwise.
Filing the FAFSA itself earns a $1,000/year scholarship (up to $4,000 over four years), separate from any need-based aid.
'Students are only eligible to receive one scholarship per year in this category'; offers from multiple departments require choosing one, and a Distinguished award replaces (does not add to) the base performance award.
'There is a May 1 deadline for all distinguished awards. Students who submit an audition or are accepted to Alma after May 1 are only eligible for the base performing arts scholarship' ($1,500 instead of $2,000+).
Students must complete two Spring Term courses in four years, with added charges ($2,220 tuition plus ~$1,080 food/housing in 2027) and 'typically, no financial assistance is offered for Spring Term classes.'
The on-campus cost estimate totals about $76,439 (direct $69,312 + indirect $7,127); even the top $36,000 grid award covers under half, and full-tuition Distinguished Presidential still leaves living expenses and fees.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Students who want guaranteed, published merit money — even a sub-3.0 GPA earns $28,000/year. High-GPA students (3.8+) should target the full-tuition Distinguished Presidential competition (December deadline), and everyone should schedule a campus visit for the extra $3,000.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $76,439 for 2026-2027. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Alma, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Alma, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$17,162
$30,001–$48,000
$18,009
$48,001–$75,000
$18,076
$75,001–$110,000
$18,699
$110,001+
$23,618
All income levels (average)
$20,694
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$49,552
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$20,694
That works out to roughly a 67% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $63,650 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
63%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
85%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$27,000 (~$286/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$54,742
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
24%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
52%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Alma's published bonus awards (visit, FAFSA, legacy, out-of-state, performance, e-sports) are presented as additive to the merit grid, with two explicit caps: only one Scottish Hospitality award ever, and only one performance/arts award per year per category (Distinguished replaces base). No outside-scholarship displacement policy is published on the scholarships page.
Performance category: 'Students are only eligible to receive one scholarship per year in this category' and a Distinguished award 'will replace standard performance awards previously offered.' Scottish Hospitality: 'you can only be awarded one scholarship' despite multiple visits. Transfer intro frames stacking positively ('you'll be eligible for $4,000 in awards... $1,000 for completing your FAFSA and $3,000 when you visit'). Outside scholarships are encouraged with search tips; treatment/displacement unstated. The page directs students to the academic catalog for 'situations that may affect your financial aid.'
Amount$1,500-$4,000 per year (totaling $6,000-$16,000 over 4 years)EligibilityCheer athletes attending a Champion overnight camp; coach referral + application by 8:00 a.m. on day 2 of camp; up to five athletes per camp session; one win per athlete ever
AmountFinancial need met through state, federal, and institutional grants, scholarships, and work programsEligibilityFirst-year students with household income of $85,000 or less who live or attend high school in Wayne County; 3.00 cumulative GPA (sub-3.0 reviewed individually); FAFSA with Alma listed; up to 15 awarded
Income- and geography-gated full-need program, not a merit award.
For 2026-2027 first-years: 3.80+ GPA = $36,000/yr (Presidential); 3.60-3.79 = $34,000 (Trustee); 3.30-3.59 = $32,000 (Dean's); 3.00-3.29 = $30,000 (Tartan); below 3.00 = $28,000 (Alma Scholarship). No separate application — decisions are made at admission.
What are the key scholarship deadlines?
Distinguished Presidential Scholarship: application deadline December 16, 2025, with on-campus interviews January 31, 2026. Distinguished performance/fine-arts awards: May 1. Outside-scholarship searches: Alma advises starting in early November with most local deadlines in February-March.
What do transfers get?
A GPA-banded grid for Fall or Winter 2026 entry: $26,000 (<3.00), $28,000 (3.00-3.24), $30,000 (3.25-3.49), $32,000 (3.50+), plus $3,000 for visiting, $1,000 for filing the FAFSA, and $2,000 for Phi Theta Kappa scholars.
What does Alma cost?
2025-26 billed charges total $66,672 (tuition $51,254, room $8,706, meals $6,042, fees). The COA charts (flat-rate tuition $53,304) estimate on-campus direct costs of $69,312 plus $7,127 indirect — roughly $76,439 all-in.
Do international students get merit aid?
Yes — the same $28,000-$36,000 GPA grid applies (GPAs converted to a 4.0 scale), with no separate application, and international students can earn the $3,000 Scottish Hospitality Scholarship through a virtual visit.
See sources and other schools+
How Alma compares
133 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
Alma is in a recognizable cluster (133 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
133 of 749 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.
Alma is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Alma is one of them. The cohort minority (84 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
Sources used on this page
Every claim is checked against Alma’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
