Bryn Mawr offers a single, holistic Bryn Mawr Merit Scholarship of up to $45,000/year — automatically considered, awarded only at admission, non-negotiable — alongside a commitment to meet 100% of demonstrated need.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Bryn Mawr worth a closer look?
Bryn Mawr may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers1See who qualifies
First-year students with school awards17%First-year students, CDS 2024-2025 (school-estimated)
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.
Up to $45,000
Bryn Mawr Merit Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
First-time undergraduates automatically considered; no additional application. Holistic review (academic coursework/performance, school and community involvement, leadership, recommendations, writing, potential to contribute). Test-optional for all applicants.
How to keep it
Awarded for a maximum of eight semesters and renewable provided that the student is enrolled full-time at Bryn Mawr. No published renewal GPA threshold.
Notes
Single merit scholarship. May be received with no demonstrated financial need. Non-negotiable and only awarded at the time of admission. The how-apply page states merit aid is also awarded to international students (see Section C re: a possible citizenship-eligibility conflict to verify).
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Bryn Mawr's published information.
Renewal ruleBryn Mawr Merit Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Awarded for a maximum of eight semesters and renewable provided that the student is enrolled full-time at Bryn Mawr. No published renewal GPA threshold. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
Outside awardsDifferent aid types are displaced differently
Bryn Mawr treats loans, work-study, and institutional grant under different rules. The same $5,000 outside award can land against any of them depending on category.
What families often miss
The page states merit scholarships are 'non-negotiable and only awarded at the time of admission' — there is no later reconsideration.
There is one Bryn Mawr Merit Scholarship (up to $45,000), determined through holistic admission review. Bryn Mawr is also test-optional, so scores aren't required and there's no stat-based grid.
You must apply for aid from the College as a first-year (answer 'Yes' to the Financial Aid Intent question on the Common App) to be considered for institutional aid in ANY of your four years. Federal aid can still be requested annually regardless.
Bryn Mawr is need-sensitive: the amount of aid a student requests may affect the admission decision once admissibility is determined and funds are distributed until the budget is depleted. This matters for how families approach the aid request.
The scholarship is renewable for up to eight semesters only while the student is enrolled full-time; dropping below full-time can jeopardize it.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
A strong applicant (including full-pay families and, per the how-apply page, international students) who wants merit recognition without a separate application — but who understands the award is set at admission, non-negotiable, and not driven by a published GPA/test grid.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $94,291 for 2026-2027. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Bryn Mawr, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Bryn Mawr, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$11,017
$30,001–$48,000
$18,457
$48,001–$75,000
$17,262
$75,001–$110,000
$19,330
$110,001+
$40,085
All income levels (average)
$31,759
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$65,920
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$31,759
That works out to roughly a 62% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $83,250 (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
82%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
92%
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)
$75,217
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
14%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
66%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Treatment of outside scholarships explicitly differs by aid type or program; see the sourced policy excerpt for the split.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): Treatment of Outside Scholarships for Domestic Students Receiving Need-Based College Aid: "Bryn Mawr allows outside scholarships to reduce the student resource expectation, which includes a minimum student contribution, loans, and academic year employment award. For most students receiving need-based college aid, the student resource expectation is $9,000, consisting of $2,000 in student employment, a $5,500 loan expectation, and a $1,500 minimum student contribution. Bryn Mawr Grant will only be reduced when the total of outside scholarships or grants is greater than the student resource expectation. An outside grant or scholarship cannot replace the student's parent contribution or the student's asset contribution." / Treatment of Outside Scholarships and Assistance for Students Receiving College Merit Aid: "The amount of Bryn Mawr merit aid will not be reduced for students receiving outside scholarship and entitlements unless the total amount of the merit aid and the outside scholarship and entitlements exceed the cost of attendance, in which case the merit award will be reduced such that the total aid does not exceed the cost of attendance."
From the Bryn Mawr Common Data Set 2024-2025 (school-estimated figures):
Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Bryn Mawr’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
17%of admitsget merit
Average award$5,438Covers ~6% of $94,291 cost of attendance
At Bryn Mawr, roughly 1 in 6 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $5,438 — about 6% of total cost.
As filed in Bryn Mawr's CDS Section H2A: of 380 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 63 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $5,438. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 426 of 1,352, averaging $53,735. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
The 2024-2025 column is marked "estimated" in the school's own CDS filing — school-projected figures, not final audited counts.
Receive institutional merit17%First-year students, Common Data Set 2024-2025 (school-estimated)
Average merit award$5,438Across recipients, Common Data Set 2024-2025 (school-estimated)
Yes — the Bryn Mawr Merit Scholarship, up to $45,000 per year, for which all first-time undergraduates are automatically considered with no separate application.
Do I need to apply separately for the merit scholarship?
No. All admitted first-time undergraduates are automatically considered through the holistic admission review.
Can I get a merit scholarship if I don't have financial need?
Yes. Students may receive a Bryn Mawr Merit Scholarship even with no demonstrated financial need.
How long does the merit scholarship last?
Up to eight semesters, renewable provided you remain enrolled full-time at Bryn Mawr.
What are the application deadlines?
Early Decision I: November 15; Early Decision II: January 1; Regular Decision: January 15; Transfer/McBride: March 1. Financial aid materials (CSS Profile, FAFSA for domestic students) are due at the same time as the admission application.
See sources and other schools+
How Bryn Mawr compares
32 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use mixed displacement.
Bryn Mawr is in the small minority (32 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Bryn Mawr 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 Bryn Mawr’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
