BYU· Renewal Rules

Keeping BYU’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 May 20269 days ago· PT

At a glance

Renewable tiers
4 of 5
One-time tiers
1
Tiers with published renewal terms
4
Renewal risk profile
high

Renewal risk profile

BYU's top merit tiers carry renewal floors at or above 3.5 cumulative GPA — above the median freshman college GPA at most US flagships. A single rough semester can knock a four-year award out without a published reinstatement path. Plan year-one course load with renewal in mind, not just first-year survival.

  • Presidential Scholarship (Dallin H. Oaks): See notes
  • Heritage Scholarship: See notes
  • National Merit Scholarship: See notes
  • University Scholarship: See notes

Renewal terms by tier

  • Presidential Scholarship (Dallin H. Oaks)

    150% of Latter-day Saint tuition

    To keep it: 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.

    Source: https://enrollment.byu.edu/financial-aid/new-freshman-scholarships

  • Heritage Scholarship

    Full Latter-day Saint tuition

    To keep it: 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.

    Source: https://enrollment.byu.edu/financial-aid/new-freshman-scholarships

  • National Merit Scholarship

    Full Latter-day Saint tuition + $500/yr National Merit stipend

    To keep it: Renewable for up to 8 semesters subject to the same GPA, enrollment, and thank-you-letter rules as other BYU merit awards.

    Source: https://enrollment.byu.edu/financial-aid/new-freshman-scholarships

  • University Scholarship

    Half or full Latter-day Saint tuition

    To keep it: Renewal terms vary by award. Multi-year awards issued in 2024-25 or later require a 3.70 cumulative BYU GPA.

    Source: https://enrollment.byu.edu/financial-aid/new-freshman-scholarships

How families lose this aid

  • 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.

  • 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.

Renewal questions families ask

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.
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.

Rules that bite at BYU

The renewal trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook — derived from BYU's own tier rules, not generic advice.

  • renewalPresidential Scholarship (Dallin H. Oaks): renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

    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. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

How BYU compares across our verified dataset

  • 8 of 78 verified schools publish a top renewal tier requiring 3.5+ GPA or major-GPA gating.

    BYU is one of them. Calibrate year-one academic load against the renewal floor, not just freshman survival.

  • 70 of 78 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    BYU is one of them. The cohort minority (8 schools) only awards one-year scholarships — meaning the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

  • 38 of 78 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.

    BYU is one of them. NMF packages typically carry their own stacking and renewal carve-outs separate from the standard automatic merit ladder — confirm those before assuming the headline NMF value is final.

Sources used on this page

Every renewal claim is checked against BYU’s own published materials.

More on BYU merit aid

Get your student’s plan$179