Butler· Renewal Rules

Keeping Butler’s Merit Aid for Four Years

What the financial-aid office actually requires after freshman year: minimum GPA, credit-hour pace, and the cliffs that quietly downgrade families mid-degree.

Verified Jun 2026today· COWORK

At a glance

Renewable tiers: 5 of 5
One-time tiers: 0
Tiers with published renewal terms: 5
Renewal risk profile: low

Renewal risk profile

Butler's published renewal rules cluster around a 3.0 floor with no major-GPA gating, which is survivable for the typical freshman with steady study habits. The risk is non-renewal due to enrollment status (dropping below full-time), not GPA.

Academic Scholarship Program: See notes
Morton-Finney Scholars Award: See notes
The Compass Center Scholarship: 3.0 GPA
Butler Tuition Guarantee: See notes
Jordan College of the Arts Award: See notes

Renewal terms by tier

Academic Scholarship Program
$18,000-$30,000
To keep it: Renewable as long as the student maintains the renewal criteria in the scholarship offer.
Source: https://www.butler.edu/admission-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/first-year/
Morton-Finney Scholars Award
$5,000-Full tuition
To keep it: Renewable with renewal criteria plus Morton-Finney Scholars Program participation (meeting attendance, campus/community engagement, monthly journal reflections).
Source: https://www.butler.edu/admission-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/first-year/
The Compass Center Scholarship
$4,000
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.
Source: https://www.butler.edu/admission-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/first-year/
Butler Tuition Guarantee
Full tuition (guaranteed when combined with all federal, state, and University scholarships and grants)
To keep it: Renewable with the renewal criteria in the award offer.
Source: https://www.butler.edu/admission-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/first-year/
Jordan College of the Arts Award
Amount not published (varies)
To keep it: Renewal not detailed on the page.
Source: https://www.butler.edu/admission-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/first-year/

How families lose this aid

Missing the separate competitive-scholarship deadlines
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.

How Butler compares across our verified dataset

247 of 272 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Butler is one of them. The cohort minority (25 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 renewal claim is checked against Butler’s own published materials.