See what Chestnut Hill's published rules mean for your student's numbers. Takes 30 seconds.
The merit-aid verdict at Chestnut Hill
DRAFT: Chestnut Hill publishes a fully automatic, GPA-only merit grid ($12,000–$24,000/yr) with no test scores required and an award tier for every GPA band — even below 2.5 — plus stackable legacy and Catholic-high-school awards.
Common merit-aid mistakes at Chestnut Hill
CHC policy: outside grants/scholarships plus institutional grant funding 'can never result in a credit balance' — if they would, 'the student's institutional funding will be reduced and no refund will be credited.' Outside money can displace CHC aid once your account would go into credit.
The Financial Aid Policies page states federal regulations require all financial resources to fit within the student's COA; overawards are resolved by reducing aid, and any resulting balance is the student's responsibility.
The types-of-aid page states 'Students must be full-time to receive scholarships and grants from CHC.'
Students 'are eligible to receive institutional funding for a maximum of four years (8 semesters).'
The page says Legacy of Service 'is a stackable scholarship with the exception of students in IDHP' — Honors students cannot add it.
The page warns: 'If these requirements are not met the athletic grant may be rescinded. Should this happen, the rescinded athletic grants may not be replaced by other grants.'
Who this school is for
DRAFT: Students who want guaranteed, application-free merit money based purely on high-school GPA — including B/C students, since even a sub-2.5 GPA earns $12,000/yr; Catholic-high-school grads and alumni-family students can stack extra awards on top.
Federal cost and outcome data
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Chestnut Hill, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Chestnut Hill, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$28,011
$30,001–$48,000
$24,447
$48,001–$75,000
$22,714
$75,001–$110,000
$28,168
$110,001+
$33,175
All income levels (average)
$27,970
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Total cost of attendance (sticker), AY 2021-22
$58,168
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$39,870
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$27,970
That works out to an average 52% discount off the sticker price above — both figures come from the same federal AY 2021-22 Scorecard report, not a number the school itself published.
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
49%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
62%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$26,389 (~$280/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$52,015
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
56%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
83%
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.
Must be full-time; GPA is based on a 4.0 sliding scale; no additional application required
Renewal terms
These awards are renewable as long as you remain in good academic standing; institutional funding limited to a maximum of four years (8 semesters).
Notes
Awarded by the Admissions Office at admission. Grid bands skip 2.90-2.99 as published (Rise Award 2.5-2.89, Promise Award 2.49 and below) — gap reproduced exactly as on the page.
Up to 25 first-year students interested in pursuing a major and/or career in STEM
Notes
Includes book stipend and support services. A separate program page lists eligibility criteria (min cumulative GPA 2.5, FAFSA financial-aid qualification, STEM major) — see Section C.
Chestnut Hill reduces institutional grant funding only when combined outside grant/scholarship aid and institutional grant funding would create a credit balance on the student's account (i.e., aid exceeding billed costs); no refund is issued in that case. This credit-balance trigger is narrower than the full cost of attendance the college separately uses to define an overaward.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): If a student receives outside grants, scholarships or tuition assistance in addition to institutional grant funding, a combination of these resources can never result in a credit balance on the student's account. Therefore, in instances where outside grant assistance and institutional grant funding result in a credit on the student's account, the student's institutional funding will be reduced and no refund will be credited. ... An overaward of financial aid occurs when all of the financial aid received by a student exceeds the student's cost of attendance (COA). ... All financial resources that are received must be reviewed to ensure that it fits within the established budget for the student and does not exceed the cost of attendance (COA). Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: Some named awards (Alumni Legacy, Legacy of Service) are explicitly stackable, but Legacy of Service does not stack with IDHP. (per https://www.chc.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/applying-for-aid/financial-aid-policies/)
Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.
Amount$250-$21,950 per year depending on fundEligibilityRecipients determined by the Admissions Office on the basis of academic excellence, leadership, community involvement and other special talents; no additional application required.
Full published list ranges from the Sister Patrick Flood Scholarship ($250) to the Keohane-McDermott-Bellwoar Scholarship ($21,950).
AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityPer the program application page found in search: requires at least a 3.0 GPA; provides 'last dollar' scholarship support for four years (application form page; details not fully verified — see Section C).
Do I need a separate application for Chestnut Hill's merit scholarships?
No. The Admissions Office awards them automatically based on academic achievement: 'no additional application is required to apply for these awards.'
What is the scholarship deadline?
No separate merit-scholarship deadline is published — the matrix awards are automatic at admission. The only hard date on the aid pages is for Pennsylvania residents: PHEAA state-grant programs 'require that students submit their FAFSA before May 1st.'
How do I keep my scholarship each year?
Awards 'are renewable as long as you remain in good academic standing.' A specific renewal GPA for merit awards is not published; federal SAP minimums (1.65–2.00 GPA depending on credits, 67% completion) govern overall aid eligibility. Ask the aid office whether merit renewal uses a higher GPA than SAP.
Are test scores required for merit scholarships?
The published First-Year Scholarship Matrix is based on academic GPA only ('GPA is based on a 4.0 sliding scale'); no SAT/ACT cutoffs appear in the grid.
How Chestnut Hill compares across our verified dataset
241 of 750 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Chestnut Hill is in a recognizable cluster (241 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
668 of 750 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Chestnut Hill 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 Chestnut Hill’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
