Chatham University · Pennsylvania

Chatham University Merit Aid

Verified Jul 20264 days ago· HX-AUTO

Merit tiers51 automatic on stats

Get merit aid25%First-year students, CDS 2024-2025 (school-estimated)

Last verifiedJul 2026Analyst HX-AUTO

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Checking merit aid at Chatham University

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The merit-aid verdict at Chatham University

Chatham offers merit awards recognizing academic achievement, community involvement, and specialized talents across disciplines.

Rules that bite at Chatham University

The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from Chatham University's own published policy, not generic advice.

displacementNo published displacement order
Chatham 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.

Who this school is for

Strong academic performers should explore Chatham's merit scholarships. Transfer students, Pennsylvania residents, and those with talents in nursing or music will find targeted opportunities.

Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $61,224 for 2026-2027. Source

Federal cost and outcome data

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

Average annual net price by family income at Chatham University, academic year 2021-22
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$22,675
$30,001–$48,000	$24,086
$48,001–$75,000	$26,051
$75,001–$110,000	$30,120
$110,001+	$33,636
All income levels (average)	$29,954

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23: $44,626
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $29,954

That works out to roughly a 51% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $61,261 (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: 63%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 78%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $23,250 (~$246/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $52,410
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 26%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 66%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not Chatham University's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not Chatham University's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

Institutional merit aid tiers

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.

Up to $1,500

Keystone Scholarship

ApplicationRenewable

Source

Up to $1,000

Pa Resident Scholarship

ApplicationRenewable

Source

$22,000–$32,000

Chatham Merit Scholarship

AutomaticRenewable

Source

$2,500

Lesley Hilfman Hume Scholarship

Application

Source

Up to $3,000

Legacy Award

ApplicationRenewable

Source

Outside scholarship stacking policy

The Steel City Scholarship can be combined with the PA Resident Scholarship.

The Steel City Scholarship can be combined with the PA Resident Scholarship.

Source

Common Data Set snapshot

From the Chatham University Common Data Set 2024-2025 (school-estimated figures):

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Chatham University’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.

25%of admitsget merit

Average award$9,585Covers ~16% of $61,224 cost of attendance

At Chatham University, roughly 1 in 4 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $9,585 — about 16% of total cost.

As filed in Chatham University's CDS Section H2A: of 272 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 67 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $9,585. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 334 of 1,147, averaging $9,560. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

The 2024-2025 column is marked "estimated" in the school's own CDS filing — school-projected figures, not final audited counts.

Receive institutional merit25%First-year students, CDS 2024-2025 (school-estimated)

Average merit award$9,585Across recipients, CDS 2024-2025 (school-estimated)

Source: Common Data Set 2024-2025 (verified 2026-07-23)

Lesser-known scholarships at Chatham University

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

Minna Kaufmann Ruud Music Scholarship

AmountUp to $3,500EligibilityThe Minna Kaufmann Ruud Music Scholarship awards up to $3,500 annually to qualified vocalists who plan to major in music or incorporate music into an interdepartmental major; participation in Chatham Choir and an audition are required, and the priority deadline is February 6.

Source

Integrated Degree Program Scholarship

AmountUp to $500EligibilityThe Integrated Degree Program Scholarship awards up to $500 annually to students enrolled in an IDP-related major and maintaining a minimum GPA of 3.5.

Source

Susan Bergman Gurrentz Scholarship

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Susan Bergman Gurrentz ’56 Scholarship supports students who share Susan's passion for the fine arts.

Source

Harriet Lewis Franklin Endowed Scholarship

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Harriet Lewis Franklin Endowed Scholarship honors Chatham students with a passion for English.

Source

Joan Finegold Memorial Scholarships In Nursing

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Joan Finegold Memorial Scholarships in Nursing are scholarships in honor of Joan Finegold, a nurse with a passion for helping others.

Source

Elizabeth Waite Prine Scholarship Fund

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Elizabeth Waite Prine ’61 Scholarship Fund supports students majoring in environmental sciences at Chatham.

Source

Anne Putnam Mallinson Scholarship

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Anne Putnam Mallinson ’61 Scholarship has a first preference for a student from Warren County or Western Pennsylvania who majors in Music or Performing Arts at Chatham.

Source

Phi Theta Kappa Honors Scholarships

AmountUp to $2,000EligibilityPhi Theta Kappa Honors Scholarships award up to $2,000 annually to community college transfer students with a minimum 3.0 cumulative college GPA and documentation of PTK membership.

Source

How Chatham University compares across our verified dataset

135 of 750 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
Chatham University is in a recognizable cluster (135 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
135 of 750 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.
Chatham University is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.
668 of 750 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Chatham University 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 claim is checked against Chatham University’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

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Keep exploring Chatham University merit aid

Chatham University scholarship stacking — Whether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
Does Chatham University displace outside scholarships? — The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.