Skip to content

Capital University · Ohio

Capital University scholarships and merit aid

Every admitted full-time first-year student gets the automatic Main Street Scholarship ($20,000/yr, minimum $80,000 over four years), and a GPA-based Capital Merit award stacks on top of it — $2,000-$8,000/yr — pushing the combined automatic merit to $22,000-$28,000/yr.

Verified Jul 20262 months ago

The short answer

Is Capital University worth a closer look?

Capital University is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 11 published awards, and 6 are based on those numbers.

Merit tiers116 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

Free Merit Check

See what Capital University's published rules mean for your student. Takes 30 seconds.

Checking merit aid at Capital University

We’ll email you this result and a few short merit-aid pointers. We store score ranges only, never your student’s name. Unsubscribe anytime. See our privacy policy.

Published scholarships

These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.

$20,000 per year…$20,000 per year (minimum $80,000 over four years)

The Main Street Scholarship

Based on grades or scoresCan continue
See who qualifies
Who qualifies

All accepted, full-time, incoming undergraduate students entering their first year of college, including transfer and international students working on their first college degree. Students who started prior to Fall 2022 are not eligible. No separate scholarship application — the admission application serves as the scholarship application.

How to keep it

Awarded annually and potentially renewable for up to eight semesters. Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA.

Notes

The automatic base award for every admit. The Capital Merit Scholarship (GPA grid below) stacks on top of this. Comet Community Award ($1,000 toward housing/meal costs) is available to residential students.

Source

$2,000 per year…$2,000 per year (stacks with Main Street for $22,000/yr)

Capital Merit Scholarship — 1830 Award (3.0-3.19 GPA)

Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
3.0-3.19 high school GPA
See who qualifies and how to keep it
Who qualifies

Automatically determined by high school GPA; no separate application.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average and any other award-specific requirements.

Notes

The Capital Merit Scholarship is a stackable award added to the Main Street Scholarship. The '1830 Award' is the lowest tier of the five-tier GPA grid.

Source

$4,000 per year…$4,000 per year (stacks with Main Street for $24,000/yr)

Capital Merit Scholarship — Dean's Award (3.2-3.49 GPA)

Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
3.2-3.49 high school GPA
See who qualifies and how to keep it
Who qualifies

Automatically determined by high school GPA; no separate application.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average.

Notes

Second tier of the Capital Merit Scholarship grid; stacks on the Main Street Scholarship.

Source

$6,000 per year…$6,000 per year (stacks with Main Street for $26,000/yr)

Capital Merit Scholarship — Trustees' Award (3.5-3.79 GPA)

Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
3.5-3.79 high school GPA
See who qualifies and how to keep it
Who qualifies

Automatically determined by high school GPA; no separate application.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average.

Notes

Third tier of the Capital Merit Scholarship grid; stacks on the Main Street Scholarship.

Source

$7,000 per year…$7,000 per year (stacks with Main Street for $27,000/yr)

Capital Merit Scholarship — Provost's Award (3.8-3.99 GPA)

Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
3.8-3.99 high school GPA
See who qualifies and how to keep it
Who qualifies

Automatically determined by high school GPA; no separate application.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average.

Notes

Fourth tier of the Capital Merit Scholarship grid; stacks on the Main Street Scholarship.

Source

$8,000 per year…$8,000 per year (stacks with Main Street for $28,000/yr)

Capital Merit Scholarship — President's Award (4.0+ GPA)

Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
4.0 and above high school GPA
See who qualifies and how to keep it
Who qualifies

Automatically determined by high school GPA; no separate application.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average.

Notes

Top tier of the Capital Merit Scholarship grid; stacks on the Main Street Scholarship for $28,000/yr in combined automatic merit.

Source

Full tuition and term fees

Capital Gateway Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue
GPA
High school cumulative GPA of 3.5/4.0 or better
See who qualifies and how to keep it
Who qualifies

NEED-LINKED. Ohio residents only; new undergraduate students (high school seniors), not available to transfer students; complete the FAFSA; family income between $0 and $60,000.

How to keep it

Renewal terms not stated on the page.

Notes

Need-linked, not pure merit — the income cap and FAFSA requirement gate it. Delivered 'through a combination of Capital-sponsored scholarships/grants and federal/state grant aid,' so the headline 'full tuition' is funded partly by federal/state grants, not all institutional merit.

Source

Up to Full Room & Board

National Merit Scholarship (institutional award)

Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies
Who qualifies

Recognition through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Considered automatically as part of merit-based scholarship review.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA.

Notes

Capital's institutional award for National Merit recognition; covers up to full room & board. Specific qualifying status (Finalist vs. recognized) not detailed on the page.

Source

Up to $5,500 toward Tuition

Conservatory Performance Award

Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies
Who qualifies

Conservatory of Music applicants; audition-based. Awarded toward tuition.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA and any other award-specific requirements (e.g., audition/performance requirements).

Notes

Talent-based music award; stacks toward the merit package. Audition required (audition details not stated on this page).

Source

Up to $5,500 toward Tuition

Music Composition Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies
Who qualifies

Music composition applicants; portfolio/audition-based. Awarded toward tuition.

How to keep it

Renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA and any other award-specific requirements.

Notes

Talent-based composition award; up to $5,500 toward tuition.

Source

$1,000…$1,000 (applied toward housing and meal plan costs)

Comet Community Award

Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies
Who qualifies

Residential (on-campus) students.

How to keep it

Renewal terms not stated on the page.

Notes

Housing/meal-plan award for residential students; can be applied toward housing and meal plan costs. Stacks alongside the Main Street Scholarship.

Source

See what could change an award

Rules that could change the answer

These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Capital University's published information.

  • Outside awardsNo published displacement order

    Capital University's policy doesn't specify whether outside scholarships hit loans, grants, or only the COA ceiling. Get a written aid-office answer before chasing private awards.

What families often miss

  1. The Main Street Scholarship and the GPA-based Capital Merit Scholarship are automatic — 'your admission application also serves as your scholarship application.' No separate financial aid application is required to receive them.

  2. Gateway is need-linked, Ohio-residents-only, and capped at family income $0-$60,000 with a 3.5 GPA. It is funded 'through a combination of Capital-sponsored scholarships/grants AND federal/state grant aid' — so part of the 'full tuition' depends on your FAFSA-driven federal/state grants, and it is not available to transfer students.

  3. The 2026-2027 total cost of attendance for an on-campus first-year student is $63,826 — tuition & fees ($45,600) plus food & housing ($13,800), books/materials ($2,238), transportation ($808), personal expenses ($1,278), and federal loan fees ($102). Merit awards are stated against tuition (or tuition/room/board), not the full COA.

  4. The Capital Merit award is set by your high school GPA at the point of admission review; the tiers (1830 / Dean's / Trustees' / Provost's / President's) map to fixed GPA bands from 3.0 to 4.0+.

  5. Capital scholarships are 'renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average' — drop below it and renewal is at risk.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students who want a large, fully-automatic merit floor with no separate application at a mid-size Lutheran (ELCA) university near downtown Columbus; lower-income Ohio residents with a 3.5+ GPA can stack toward free tuition via the Capital Gateway Scholarship.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $63,826 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Capital University, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.

Average annual net price by family income at Capital University, academic year 2021-22
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$19,062
$30,001–$48,000$18,574
$48,001–$75,000$20,331
$75,001–$110,000$23,348
$110,001+$27,299
All income levels (average)$22,576

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$43,234
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$22,576

That works out to roughly a 60% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $57,130 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

Outcomes for students who enrolled here

Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
60%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
76%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$26,889 (~$285/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$54,143
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
41%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
65%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

Capital's GPA-based Capital Merit Scholarship explicitly stacks on top of the automatic Main Street Scholarship (the published grid sums the two, e.g., $8,000 President's Award + $20,000 Main Street = $28,000/yr). No published rule was found describing how third-party OUTSIDE scholarships displace Capital institutional aid for traditional undergraduates; the only displacement-style language found ('institutional scholarships cannot exceed the direct cost of tuition') appears on the Law School site, not the traditional-undergraduate pages.

Institutional stacking is confirmed for traditional undergrads: 'The Capital Merit Scholarship is a stackable award and is added to the Main Street Scholarship,' and the grid arithmetic ($2,000-$8,000 added to $20,000) is published. The treatment of outside (third-party) scholarships against institutional merit for traditional undergraduates is not stated on the official traditional-undergraduate financial-aid pages reviewed.

Source

Other Capital University scholarships worth checking

These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.

AmountUp to Full Tuition w/ Room & BoardEligibilityROTC participants; awarded as part of the merit-based scholarship review.

Listed among Capital's automatic merit-based awards alongside the federal ROTC scholarship; covers up to full tuition with room & board. Specific terms not detailed on the page.

Source

AmountVariesEligibilityOhio residents in eligible STEM/STEMM majors; state-funded program administered through Capital.

State of Ohio program (not pure institutional merit); amounts and renewal set by the state program. Listed on Capital's financial-aid site.

Source

Capital University merit aid FAQ

  • Do I have to apply separately for Capital's merit scholarships?

    No. The Main Street Scholarship and the GPA-based Capital Merit Scholarship are automatic — your admission application serves as your scholarship application, and there is no separate financial aid application required to receive them.

  • How much automatic merit can I expect?

    Every admitted full-time first-year student receives the Main Street Scholarship ($20,000/yr, minimum $80,000 over four years). The Capital Merit Scholarship then stacks on top based on high school GPA: $2,000/yr (3.0-3.19), $4,000 (3.2-3.49), $6,000 (3.5-3.79), $7,000 (3.8-3.99), or $8,000 (4.0+) — bringing combined automatic merit to $22,000-$28,000/yr.

  • Can my Capital scholarships be combined?

    Yes for the institutional awards: 'The Capital Merit Scholarship is a stackable award and is added to the Main Street Scholarship,' and the published grid sums the two. Residential students can also add the $1,000 Comet Community Award. How outside third-party scholarships affect Capital aid is not stated on the official undergraduate pages — confirm with the aid office.

  • What do I need to keep my scholarship each year?

    Scholarships are renewable for students maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress with a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA (and any award-specific requirements). The Main Street Scholarship is potentially renewable for up to eight semesters.

See sources and other schools

How Capital University compares

  • 133 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.

    Capital University is in a recognizable cluster (133 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.

  • 133 of 749 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.

    Capital University is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.

  • 665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    Capital University is one of them. The cohort minority (84 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 claim is checked against Capital University’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

Keep exploring Capital University merit aid