The starting point
Private religious flagship with two published tuition tiers: $6,888/year for Latter-day Saint undergraduates and $13,776/year for non-members. Named merit awards (Presidential, Heritage, National Merit) are denominated as a percentage of LDS tuition rather than fixed dollars, and every undergraduate, LDS or not, must secure an annual ecclesiastical endorsement for admission and retention.
More than one award path. Some awards use published academic thresholds. Others have different selection criteria. A score chart does not describe every award at this school.
Awards to discuss
First 3 of 5 recorded awards, in chapter display order. This is a selection, not a ranking. Read the full chapter for all awards. Amounts retain the original units and conditions; confirm the entering year with the school.
National Merit Scholarship
Full Latter-day Saint tuition + $500/yr National Merit stipend · Published coverage or package
Recorded as automatic on academic criteria; all conditions apply.
Eligibility: Named National Merit Finalist who lists BYU as first-choice school with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Decisions are issued after June 1.
Renewal: Renewable for up to 8 semesters subject to the same GPA, enrollment, and thank-you-letter rules as other BYU merit awards.
Other terms: BYU's Finalist-specific award. Unlike the Presidential and Heritage Scholarships, this one is automatic once the NMSC first-choice step is complete, with no separate BYU scholarship application required. The $500 stipend is the named National Merit cash component; full LDS tuition is the institutional layer BYU adds on top.
https://enrollment.byu.edu/financial-aid/new-freshman-scholarships
Presidential Scholarship (Dallin H. Oaks)
150% of Latter-day Saint tuition · Published coverage or package
Not recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules.
Eligibility: Separate competitive application with a mandatory essay. 50 new entering freshman students awarded annually (verbatim per BYU's freshman scholarships page). ACT or SAT score required for consideration (BYU does not publish a hard test-score cutoff but a submitted score is part of the holistic review). For context, the middle 50% of enrolled 2024-25 freshmen scored SAT 1290-1440 or ACT 28-32 with an average 3.90 HS GPA.
Renewal: Renewable for up to 8 semesters. Multi-year awards issued in 2024-25 or later require a 3.70 cumulative BYU GPA through each winter semester; earlier awards require 3.60. Students must also complete 12 credits each fall and winter and submit an annual thank-you letter before the add/drop deadline.
Other terms: BYU's top named freshman merit award, and the only one denominated above full LDS tuition. Because the award is expressed as a percentage of LDS tuition rather than a fixed dollar amount, its cash value tracks future tuition changes. At 2025-26 LDS tuition of $6,888, 150% works out to about $10,332 per year, which covers LDS tuition in full and a portion of other billed costs.
https://enrollment.byu.edu/financial-aid/new-freshman-scholarships
Heritage Scholarship
Full Latter-day Saint tuition · Published coverage or package
Not recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules.
Eligibility: Separate scholarship application required. ACT or SAT score required for consideration (BYU does not publish a hard test-score cutoff). Review is holistic across academic performance, program rigor, character, and leadership.
Renewal: Renewable for up to 8 semesters. Multi-year awards issued 2024-25 or later require a 3.70 cumulative BYU GPA; earlier awards require 3.60. Annual thank-you letter required before add/drop or the scholarship is canceled.
Other terms: The second named tier in BYU's freshman merit ladder. Denominated as full LDS tuition rather than a fixed dollar amount, which at 2025-26 LDS tuition works out to about $6,888 per year.
https://enrollment.byu.edu/financial-aid/new-freshman-scholarships
Ask before you decide
- Which entering-year policy and residency category apply to us? What are the admission and scholarship deadlines?
- What grades and credits are required to renew, and for how many terms?
- How would other school awards or outside scholarships change the offer?
Recorded stacking policy: BYU's published scholarship eligibility page is explicit that recipients cannot combine awards from different semesters, and caps total institutional scholarship eligibility at 8 semesters of fall/winter scholarship per student. BYU does not publish an explicit displacement rule for how outside scholarships interact with institutional need-based aid calculations, it publishes an application order instead, routing outside funds to tuition, then class fees, then housing, meals, and personal items before refunding any leftover amount to the student.
Our unanswered questions / Family notes
