BYU Merit Aid

BYU works for academically strong LDS families who want the lowest published sticker price in BYU's selectivity band, and for non-LDS families who accept the Honor Code, ecclesiastical endorsement process, and 2x tuition differential. The named merit ladder is denominated in LDS tuition rather than dollars, so award values scale with annual tuition changes rather than with cost inflation: the Presidential Scholarship (Dallin H. Oaks) covers 150% of Latter-day Saint tuition over 8 semesters with a competitive essay application and roughly 50 recipients per year; the Heritage Scholarship covers full LDS tuition for 8 semesters; the National Merit Scholarship covers full LDS tuition plus a $500 annual stipend for up to 8 semesters when a Finalist lists BYU as first choice with NMSC; University Scholarships award half or full LDS tuition. BYU does not publish GPA or test-score cutoffs for any of these awards, review is holistic, and the middle 50% of enrolled freshmen in the 2024-25 Common Data Set scored SAT 1290-1440 or ACT 28-32 with an average 3.90 high school GPA. Multi-year awards issued in 2024-25 or later require a 3.70 cumulative BYU GPA to renew, and every recipient must submit an annual thank-you letter before the add/drop deadline or the scholarship is canceled.

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.

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.

Verbatim from BYU's scholarship eligibility page: recipients cannot combine awards from different semesters, and the Financial Aid Office limits scholarship eligibility to eight semesters of fall/winter scholarship per student. For outside (off-campus) scholarships, BYU publishes an explicit application order, tuition, class fees, international studies program fees, housing, meal plans, textbooks, short-term loans, insurance, with any leftover amount refunded to the student beginning the third day of classes. If the granting organization doesn't specify a GPA requirement, BYU releases the funds regardless of GPA, and the default credit-hour requirement is 0.5 credits (less than half-time). BYU does not publicly document a loan-first or grant-first displacement rule for how outside scholarships interact with institutional need-based aid packaging. Families planning to stack large outside scholarships on top of institutional merit should confirm the specific displacement treatment with BYU Financial Aid before committing. Mission deferment is automatic for off-campus funds unless the grantor stipulates otherwise.

Source

From the BYU Common Data Set 2024-2025:

Source: Common Data Set

Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.

1. Assuming BYU's low tuition applies to every admitted student.+

   BYU publishes two distinct annual tuition rates: $6,888 for undergraduates who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and $13,776 for non-members (exactly 2x the member rate). Non-LDS students are welcome and regularly admitted, but they pay the higher tier as a matter of published institutional policy. Families who see "BYU tuition" in media coverage without noting the LDS vs non-LDS split consistently underestimate net cost for non-member students by about $7,000 per year.

2. Overlooking the ecclesiastical endorsement requirement.+

   Every BYU applicant, LDS or not, must secure an annual ecclesiastical endorsement for admission and retention. LDS applicants interview with their bishop; non-LDS applicants interview first with their own religious leader (or a local LDS bishop) and then with the university chaplain. Losing the endorsement mid-year can end enrollment, which in turn ends any active institutional scholarship. This is a BYU-specific retention risk that does not exist at other schools in the registry, and it should be factored into any multi-year cost projection before committing.

3. Missing the required annual thank-you letter.+

   BYU's scholarship eligibility page states that recipients must submit one thank-you letter per year before the add/drop deadline or the scholarship is canceled. This is a paperwork trigger that catches families every year. The letter is submitted through the scholarship portal and is a retention condition on every multi-year award, Presidential, Heritage, National Merit, and University. Mission deferments require separate paperwork before the semester ends to preserve the scholarship.

4. Assuming the NMF award is automatic without listing BYU first-choice.+

   The BYU National Merit Scholarship (full LDS tuition plus $500 annual stipend) requires the student to be a named National Merit Finalist AND list BYU as their first-choice school with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation by NMSC's deadline. Admission to BYU alone does not trigger the award. Families who submit BYU applications without completing the NMSC first-choice step forfeit the full-tuition-plus-stipend package entirely, even if the student is a confirmed Finalist enrolled at BYU.

• Can a non-LDS student attend BYU, and what will it cost?

  Yes. Non-LDS students are welcome at BYU but must meet the same Honor Code and ecclesiastical endorsement standards, with endorsement handled through the student's own religious leader and the BYU university chaplain. Non-LDS undergraduate tuition is $13,776/year versus $6,888/year for LDS students, and total 2025-26 on-campus cost of attendance is $29,488 versus $22,600. BYU's named merit awards are denominated as a percentage of LDS tuition, so a non-LDS recipient of the Heritage Scholarship receives the equivalent of full LDS tuition (about $6,888/year at current rates), which offsets roughly half of the non-LDS tuition rate.

• What GPA and test scores do I need to win a merit scholarship at BYU?

  BYU does not publish hard GPA or test-score cutoffs for the Presidential, Heritage, or University Scholarships, review is holistic across academic performance, program rigor, character, and leadership. For context from the 2024-25 Common Data Set, the middle 50% of enrolled freshmen scored SAT 1290-1440 or ACT 28-32 with an average 3.90 high school GPA. Multi-year awards issued in 2024-25 or later require a 3.70 cumulative BYU GPA to renew; earlier awards require 3.60.

• How does the Presidential Scholarship work?

  The Presidential Scholarship (Dallin H. Oaks) is BYU's top named freshman merit award, covering 150% of Latter-day Saint tuition for up to 8 semesters. At 2025-26 LDS tuition of $6,888, 150% works out to about $10,332 per year. It requires a separate competitive application with a mandatory essay and is awarded to about 50 recipients per year. Because the award is expressed as a percentage of LDS tuition rather than a fixed dollar amount, its cash value adjusts when BYU changes LDS tuition.

• Will an outside scholarship reduce my BYU aid?

  BYU does not publicly document an explicit loan-first or grant-first displacement rule for how outside scholarships interact with institutional need-based packaging. What BYU publishes is an application order for outside funds, tuition, class fees, international studies fees, housing, meal plans, textbooks, short-term loans, insurance, in that sequence, with any leftover amount refunded to the student starting the third day of classes. Outside scholarships are also automatically deferred during mission service unless the grantor stipulates otherwise. Families stacking large outside awards should confirm displacement treatment directly with BYU Financial Aid before committing.

• What happens to my BYU scholarship when I leave for a mission?

  BYU's scholarship eligibility page requires students to submit a deferment request before the end of the semester they last attend, or the scholarship is canceled. Off-campus (outside) scholarship funds are automatically deferred during mission service unless the granting organization stipulates otherwise. The 8-semester scholarship cap applies to fall and winter semesters in residence, so mission service does not count against the eight-semester ceiling when the proper deferment paperwork is on file.