Get merit aid25%First-year students, CDS 2023-2024
Last verifiedJun 2026Analyst CC
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See what Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)'s published rules mean for your student's numbers. Takes 30 seconds.
The merit-aid verdict at Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)
AUM runs a fully automatic, no-application freshman merit ladder of $2,000-$10,000/year (8 tiers) set on superscore + a 3.0 GPA (2.5 for the entry tier), but the ladder awards do NOT stack with each other — you get the single highest one you qualify for.
Rules that bite at Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)
The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)'s own published policy, not generic advice.
renewalOutstanding Scholars Award: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable for up to four years contingent on full-time enrollment and a maintained minimum cumulative institution GPA of 3.0 or higher. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
displacementNo published displacement order
Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)'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.
Common merit-aid mistakes at Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)
These are different campuses with completely different scholarship grids. Main Auburn's 'Spirit of Auburn' / 'Academic Presidential' awards (auburn.edu) are NOT available at AUM. AUM's grid is the Outstanding Scholars / Principal / Warhawk / Opportunity ladder on aum.edu. Use aum.edu numbers only.
They do not. AUM states the eight non-competitive awards 'are not stackable with each other. A student is awarded the highest one they meet the qualifications for' — so a student who clears multiple tiers still receives just one award (the largest), not the sum.
You can earn the entry tier with a 2.5 high-school GPA, but every AUM merit award renews only with a cumulative institution GPA of 3.0 or higher plus full-time enrollment. A first-year student who coasts at a 2.5-2.9 college GPA loses the award — a genuine renewal cliff.
The Freshman Leadership Scholarship 'may be combined with other freshman academic scholarships (excluding Deichelmann).' If you win Deichelmann, you cannot add the Leadership $2,000 on top.
The automatic grid only needs an admission application by June 1. But the competitive awards (Deichelmann, Freshman Leadership, AUM State) require a SEPARATE application by March 1 — miss it and those awards are off the table even if you qualify.
AUM's published 2025-2026 Alabama-resident undergraduate Estimated Tuition/Fees is $11,276, but the full estimated cost of attendance is $30,742 once Housing & Food ($13,167), Transportation ($3,150), Books/Supplies ($1,500), Personal ($1,530), and loan fees are added. A $6,000/yr Warhawk award covers tuition-and-fees-scale costs, not the whole bill.
Who this school is for
Alabama (and out-of-state) students who want a predictable, no-application, score-driven merit award at an affordable regional public university; strong applicants in the top 10% of their class can compete separately for the $44,000 Deichelmann award.
Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $30,742 for 2025-2026. Source
Federal cost and outcome data
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Auburn at Montgomery (AUM), what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Auburn at Montgomery (AUM), academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$11,706
$30,001–$48,000
$12,309
$48,001–$75,000
$13,202
$75,001–$110,000
$17,387
$110,001+
$16,117
All income levels (average)
$13,224
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$9,700
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$20,668
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$13,224
That works out to roughly a 38% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $21,353 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Auburn at Montgomery (AUM) is a public school; Scorecard's net price figure covers in-state, Title-IV-aid-recipient payers only — there is no comparable federal figure for out-of-state students.
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
33%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
68%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$25,000 (~$265/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$44,391
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
51%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
43%
Institutional merit aid tiers
Every tier below is sourced to the school’s own published financial aid pages. Renewal terms apply only if the student maintains the stated GPA.
Where you landAutomatic merit aid by ACT compositeEach bar marks the ACT score range that qualifies for the tier.
Outstanding Scholars Award$10,000
ACT 30SAT 1400 · GPA 3.0
Principal Scholarship$9,000
ACT 29SAT 1350 · GPA 3.0
Vice Principal Scholarship$8,000
ACT 28SAT 1310 · GPA 3.0
Counselor Scholarship$7,000
ACT 27SAT 1280 · GPA 3.0
Warhawk Scholarship$6,000
ACT 25SAT 1200 · GPA 3.0
Achievement Scholarship$5,000
ACT 23SAT 1130 · GPA 3.0
Recognition Scholarship$4,000
ACT 20SAT 1020 · GPA 3.0
2024283236
Not on this ladder:Opportunity Scholarship, Deichelmann Memorial Scholarship, AUM Freshman Leadership Scholarship — application required, holistic, or scored on a different axis.
View as table
Tier
ACT composite
Award
Outstanding Scholars Award
30
$10,000 per year ($40,000 over 4 years)
Principal Scholarship
29
$9,000 per year ($36,000 over 4 years)
Vice Principal Scholarship
28
$8,000 per year ($32,000 over 4 years)
Counselor Scholarship
27
$7,000 per year ($28,000 over 4 years)
Warhawk Scholarship
25
$6,000 per year ($24,000 over 4 years)
Achievement Scholarship
23
$5,000 per year ($20,000 over 4 years)
Recognition Scholarship
20
$4,000 per year ($16,000 over 4 years)
$10,000 per year…$10,000 per year ($40,000 over 4 years)
Outstanding Scholars Award
AutomaticRenewable
GPA
3.0
SAT
1400
ACT
30
Requirements & details+
Eligibility
First-time, full-time freshman entering AUM in the Fall directly from high school; face-to-face programs only; superscore used (best ACT/SAT)
Renewal terms
Renewable for up to four years contingent on full-time enrollment and a maintained minimum cumulative institution GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Notes
Top tier of the automatic, non-competitive freshman grid. No separate application — awarded automatically on superscore + GPA. Does NOT stack with the other grid tiers; you receive only the single highest award you qualify for.
$2,000 per year…$2,000 per year ($8,000 over 4 years)
Opportunity Scholarship
AutomaticRenewable
GPA
2.5
SAT
940
ACT
18
Requirements & details+
Eligibility
First-time, full-time freshman entering AUM in the Fall directly from high school; face-to-face programs only
Renewal terms
Renewable for up to four years contingent on full-time enrollment and a maintained minimum cumulative institution GPA of 3.0 or higher. (Note: entry GPA to win the award is 2.5, but renewal requires a 3.0 institution GPA — a real cliff.)
Notes
Entry tier of the automatic grid; the only tier with a 2.5 (not 3.0) minimum HS GPA. No separate application. Does not stack with other grid tiers. Watch the renewal cliff: you can win it at 2.5 but must reach a 3.0 institution GPA to renew.
$44,000 total — $10,000/year toward…$44,000 total — $10,000/year toward tuition and fees, $500/year for books, plus a one-time $2,000 freshman summer stipend
Deichelmann Memorial Scholarship
ApplicationRenewable
View requirements+
Eligibility
Competitive and limited in number. First-time freshman admission to AUM; top 10% of graduating class; application to the AUM University Honors Program required; typed application + resume + one letter of recommendation; interview late March/early April
Renewal terms
Renewable up to 4 years; Deichelmann Scholars must maintain a 3.4 cumulative institution GPA, full-time enrollment (12 hours minimum) each fall/spring term, and good standing in university engagement expectations (per the official Deichelmann FAQ).
Notes
AUM's flagship competitive award. Separate application required, due March 1, 2026 (email PDF to scholarships@aum.edu). This is the single richest published AUM freshman award. It does NOT combine with the Freshman Leadership Scholarship.
Limited number available; separate application required; recipients participate in a freshman leadership program and serve three hours per week in the campus community
Notes
The one true stacking exception at AUM: 'This scholarship may be combined with other freshman academic scholarships (excluding Deichelmann).' Separate application, postmarked no later than March 1.
AUM's eight automatic freshman grid scholarships do NOT stack with each other — a student receives only the single highest grid award they qualify for. The AUM Freshman Leadership Scholarship is the explicit exception: it may be combined with other freshman academic scholarships, but NOT with Deichelmann. No official AUM page was found stating how third-party OUTSIDE scholarships displace institutional aid.
The Scholarships-at-a-Glance page states the non-competitive grid awards 'are not stackable with each other. A student is awarded the highest one they meet the qualifications for.' The Freshman Leadership page states it 'may be combined with other freshman academic scholarships (excluding Deichelmann).' No official AUM outside-scholarship displacement policy was located; the federal rule that total aid cannot exceed cost of attendance applies but was not stated on an AUM page.
From the Auburn at Montgomery (AUM) Common Data Set 2023-2024:
Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
25%of admitsget merit
Average award$3,906Covers ~13% of $30,742 cost of attendance
At Auburn at Montgomery (AUM), roughly 1 in 4 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $3,906 — about 13% of total cost.
As filed in Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)'s CDS Section H2A: of 408 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 101 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $3,906. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 338 of 3,350, averaging $4,043. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
AmountAmount not published on the official scholarships landing page (a third-party guide describes it as covering a portion of housing costs; treat as unconfirmed until AUM publishes it).EligibilityCompetitive; separate application required per AUM admissions materials.
Listed in AUM recruiting materials alongside Deichelmann and Freshman Leadership as a competitive award requiring application, but no official AUM web page with a published dollar amount was located. Do not publish a dollar figure until confirmed with the aid office.
Amount$100 per credit hour for eligible summer coursesEligibilityFirst-time AUM students, all transient students, and all graduate students enrolled in approved Eligible Incentive Courses.
Automatic, no application. Per the AUM Catalog: 'the summer incentive scholarship of $100 towards each credit hour taken with enrollment in the approved scholarship courses.'
Do I have to apply separately for AUM's freshman merit scholarships?
Not for the automatic grid. The eight Freshman Academic Scholarships (Outstanding Scholars through Opportunity) are non-competitive and awarded automatically on your superscore and GPA — just apply for admission by June 1. The Deichelmann Memorial, AUM Freshman Leadership, and AUM State scholarships are competitive and require a separate application by March 1.
Can I combine multiple AUM scholarships?
Generally no. The eight automatic grid awards 'are not stackable with each other' — you get only the highest one you qualify for. The one exception: the AUM Freshman Leadership Scholarship 'may be combined with other freshman academic scholarships (excluding Deichelmann).'
What GPA do I need to keep my AUM scholarship?
All merit-based awards are renewable for up to four years with full-time enrollment and a maintained cumulative institution GPA of 3.0 or higher. The Deichelmann Memorial Scholarship is stricter — a 3.4 cumulative institution GPA plus Honors Program requirements.
Which AUM award is the largest?
The competitive Deichelmann Memorial Scholarship, totaling $44,000 ($10,000/year toward tuition and fees, $500/year for books, plus a one-time $2,000 summer stipend). Among the automatic grid, the Outstanding Scholars Award is the top tier at $10,000/year.
How Auburn at Montgomery (AUM) compares across our verified dataset
135 of 750 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
Auburn at Montgomery (AUM) is in a recognizable cluster (135 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
135 of 750 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.
Auburn at Montgomery (AUM) is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.
668 of 750 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Auburn at Montgomery (AUM) is one of them. The cohort minority (82 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 Auburn at Montgomery (AUM)’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
