Butler awards an automatic $18,000-$30,000 Academic Scholarship to first-year applicants through the Common App, but all Butler gift aid is for tuition only, and its headline 'full tuition' awards are either competitive (Morton-Finney) or a need-based top-up guarantee (Tuition Guarantee), not flat merit.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Butler worth a closer look?
Butler may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
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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.
$18,000-$30,000
Academic Scholarship Program
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Who qualifies
Based on academic record and test scores (if submitted). Apply via Common App by November 1 and be admitted Early Action/Early Decision for maximum consideration; later/Regular Decision considered based on available funds
How to keep it
Renewable as long as the student maintains the renewal criteria in the scholarship offer.
Notes
Automatic with the Common App (no separate application). Tuition-only (all Butler gift assistance is for tuition only unless otherwise stated). Amounts are 2025-26 and vary by year based on the applicant pool.
Strong academic rigor/performance and a commitment to fostering inclusion; Common App by Nov 1 (EA/ED) or Feb 1 (RD), plus the Morton-Finney application by Nov 15/Feb 15; interviews (Butler Blue Scholars' Day)
How to keep it
Renewable with renewal criteria plus Morton-Finney Scholars Program participation (meeting attendance, campus/community engagement, monthly journal reflections).
Notes
'Awards range from $5,000 to full tuition (with other Butler gift assistance, state, and federal aid)' — the full-tuition ceiling is reached in combination with other aid. Competitive, separate application.
Admitted Early Action or Early Decision; Common App by Nov 1, Compass Center application by Nov 15; essay; demonstrated interest in interfaith/religious exploration, leadership, or service
How to keep it
Renewable for the first four years; students should maintain a 3.0 GPA and participate at least 10 hours/semester of interfaith engagement on campus.
Notes
Offered to fewer than 10 incoming students per year; competitive.
Full tuition…Full tuition (guaranteed when combined with all federal, state, and University scholarships and grants)
Butler Tuition Guarantee
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Who qualifies
NEED-BASED (FAFSA); must attend and anticipate graduating from a Marion County high school; solid academic record; HS extracurriculars/community service. Apply by Nov 1, admitted EA/ED, FAFSA by Dec 1. Priority for free/reduced-lunch, 21st Century Scholars, first-gen, IPS students
How to keep it
Renewable with the renewal criteria in the award offer.
Notes
NOT a flat merit award — it is a guarantee that gift aid will reach full tuition once all federal, state, and University scholarships and grants are combined. Need-based and geographically gated. Not available to students ineligible for federal aid (international/undocumented/DACA).
Audition, interview, or artwork submission required in addition to the Common App; only for JCA — School of Music; Dance, Theatre, Arts Administration; and the Arts Program
How to keep it
Renewal not detailed on the page.
Notes
Amounts vary by performance ability/interview/submitted work and departmental needs.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Butler's published information.
Aid capHard $72,060 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Butler cannot push the package past $72,060. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
Straight from the aid office
What Butler's aid office says
Per the Office of Financial Aid, Butler University, August 2026. How we verify
GPA required for scholarship renewal
What minimum GPA does a student need to maintain to renew the academic scholarship?
The academic scholarship renews at a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.
“The academic scholarship renews at a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.”
What families often miss
All Butler gift assistance — including the Academic Scholarship — is for tuition only unless otherwise stated, so room, board, and indirect costs are not covered by these awards.
The Butler Tuition Guarantee is a need-based award (FAFSA) limited to Marion County high-school graduates; it guarantees full tuition only by combining all federal, state, and University aid — it is not a stand-alone merit grant and is unavailable to FAFSA-ineligible students.
The Morton-Finney award ranges from $5,000 to full tuition, and the full-tuition figure is reached 'with other Butler gift assistance, state, and federal aid' — and it requires a separate competitive application plus ongoing program participation.
Maximum Academic Scholarship consideration requires applying by November 1 and being admitted Early Action or Early Decision; Regular Decision applicants are considered only based on available funds.
Morton-Finney and Compass Center require a SECOND application (by Nov 15 for EA/ED) beyond the Common App, plus interviews — submitting only the Common App forfeits them.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Strong first-year applicants who apply by November 1 for the automatic Academic Scholarship; high-achieving students committed to inclusion can compete for Morton-Finney (up to full tuition), and need-eligible Marion County students can reach full tuition via the Tuition Guarantee.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $72,060 for 2025-2026. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Butler, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Butler, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$25,278
$30,001–$48,000
$25,696
$48,001–$75,000
$32,679
$75,001–$110,000
$36,778
$110,001+
$41,134
All income levels (average)
$36,041
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$47,560
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$36,041
That works out to roughly a 45% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $65,970 (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
80%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
87%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$26,000 (~$276/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$77,235
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
19%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
47%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
All Butler gift assistance (including the Academic Scholarship) is for tuition only unless otherwise stated and is limited to full-time students pursuing a first bachelor's degree. The Morton-Finney 'full tuition' ceiling and the Butler Tuition Guarantee 'full tuition' are both reached by COMBINING Butler gift aid with state and federal aid, not by a single flat award.
Tuition-only gift aid; full-tuition outcomes are aggregate (Butler + state + federal). The pages opened do not state an explicit order for reducing outside/private scholarships (a separate Outside Scholarships page was not opened).
Do I need a separate application for the Academic Scholarship?
No — completing the Common App is enough. Apply by November 1 and be admitted Early Action or Early Decision for maximum scholarship consideration.
Are Butler scholarships applied to tuition only?
Yes. All Butler gift assistance is for tuition only unless otherwise stated, and only for full-time students pursuing a first bachelor's degree.
What is the cost of attendance?
For 2025-26, the total cost of attendance is $72,060 (tuition $48,900); for 2026-27 it rises to $75,080 (tuition $50,860).
See sources and other schools+
How Butler compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Butler is in a recognizable cluster (235 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.
Butler 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 Butler’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
