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Cal State San Bernardino· Renewal Rules

Keeping Cal State San Bernardino’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 20264 days ago· CC

At a glance

Renewable tiers
2 of 2
One-time tiers
0
Tiers with published renewal terms
2
Renewal risk profile
low

Renewal risk profile

Cal State San Bernardino'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.

  • Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarship (PAES) / Presidential Academic Excellence Program (Honors College): See notes
  • University Legacy Scholarship (Palm Desert Campus): See notes

Renewal terms by tier

  • Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarship (PAES) / Presidential Academic Excellence Program (Honors College)

    Amount not published (covers unmet tuition & mandatory fees, books, an internship award, and first-year housing & meals)

    To keep it: Supports 4 years (8 semesters) toward a bachelor's degree; recipients must maintain University Honors College eligibility and complete a minimum of 30 units per academic year. No fixed dollar amount or renewal GPA is published.

    Source: https://www.csusb.edu/honors-college/presidential-academic-excellence-scholarship-paes

  • University Legacy Scholarship (Palm Desert Campus)

    Up to $7,425 (net of financial aid) for up to four years

    To keep it: Renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study, contingent on ongoing involvement as a leader at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus.

    Source: https://www.csusb.edu/pdc/current-students/scholarships

How families lose this aid

  • Expecting an automatic GPA/test merit scholarship at CSUSB.

    CSUSB publishes no automatic merit grid. Almost all institutional scholarships are competitive and donor-funded, applied for through the CSUSB Scholarship Portal; the largest awards (PAES honors) are need-blended and limited (20 freshmen). Plan around the low sticker price plus Cal Grant / Middle Class Scholarship, not a guaranteed merit check.

  • Missing the early scholarship and program deadlines.

    Most CSUSB scholarships are due before March 2 annually, and the PAES honors program has its own earlier track (CSUSB application priority Nov 30, PAES application Mar 1). Applying late forfeits the strongest awards.

Renewal questions families ask

Does CSUSB give automatic merit scholarships based on GPA or test scores?
No. CSUSB publishes no automatic merit grid. Institutional scholarships are competitive and applied for through the CSUSB Scholarship Portal in MyCoyote. The flagship academic award (the Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarship) is competitive, limited to 20 local first-time freshmen, and states no fixed dollar amount.

How Cal State San Bernardino compares across our verified dataset

  • 669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    Cal State San Bernardino is one of them. The cohort minority (82 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 Cal State San Bernardino’s own published materials.

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