Skip to content

Chico State scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$28,756per year · 2026-2027 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

Chico State may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
4 school sources to explore

Published rules, with the school sources close at hand. Confirm the details before you count on an award.

The award collection

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.

Where does your student land?

  1. Wildcat Scholarship (one application, merit + need-based pool)Varies — over $1.6 million awarded each year to more than 1,000 students; individual amounts not publishedNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Wildcat Scholarship (one application, merit + need-based pool)

    Varies — over $1.6 million awarded each year to more than 1,000 students; individual amounts not published

    Variable or qualified amountNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Minimum 2.0 GPA and full-time enrollment to apply; individual scholarships may set higher GPA
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Wildcat Scholarship (one application, merit + need-based pool)

    Who qualifies

    Single online application in the Wildcat Scholarship Portal (Jan 2–Feb 15); three 300-word essays; FAFSA/CADAA by March 2 for need-based awards. Open to incoming freshmen, transfers, continuing, graduate, credential, and international students.

    How to keep it

    Awards are made 'for the upcoming academic year'; the page lists no automatic multi-year renewal. Recipients must maintain full-time enrollment (12 units undergrad / 8 graduate) and any scholarship-specific GPA; the office may adjust the award based on unmet need.

    Worth knowing

    This is the main institutional merit vehicle, but it is a competitive pool that mixes merit and need-based awards (the page cites 'over 240 scholarships that are need based'). No fixed dollar amount or automatic stats cutoff is published. Includes the President's Scholarship (no amount published) and the Alumni Association Scholarship ($1,000).

  2. Academic & Performance (A&P) Recruitment ScholarshipAmount not publishedNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Academic & Performance (A&P) Recruitment Scholarship

    Amount not published

    Published award termsNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    Start with the award’s published eligibility.

    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Academic & Performance (A&P) Recruitment Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    First-time admit recipients are selected by the Enrollment Management Committee; no separate University Scholarship Application required.

    How to keep it

    No renewal terms published.

    Worth knowing

    Merit/talent-based recruitment award handed to selected incoming admits by a committee — NOT automatic on a published GPA/test grid and NOT student-applied. No dollar amount, cutoff, or count is published on the official page.

  3. CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding AchievementUp to $7,000Not automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement

    Up to $7,000

    Variable or qualified amountNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale and good academic standing
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement

    Who qualifies

    Must be nominated by a faculty member; CSU systemwide award. Deadline April 15, 2026 11:59pm.

    How to keep it

    No renewal terms published; faculty re-nomination implied each cycle.

    Worth knowing

    CSU systemwide donor-funded award, faculty-nominated and competitive — not automatic. Cap of $7,000 is the published ceiling, not a guaranteed amount.

  4. MESA Engineering Program (MEP) Scholarship$500–$2,500 per yearNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    MESA Engineering Program (MEP) Scholarship

    $500–$2,500 per year

    Published rangeNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    Start with the award’s published eligibility.

    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for MESA Engineering Program (MEP) Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Continuing and new students in College of Engineering majors; separate application via the MEP/CSC² program. Application period Jan. 2 – Apr. 24 (2026).

    How to keep it

    Renewable up to a maximum tenure of four years; amount 'depending on funding.'

    Worth knowing

    Departmental engineering award (College of Engineering). Competitive, separate application; amount varies with available funding.

  5. Alumni Association Scholarship$1,000Not automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Alumni Association Scholarship

    $1,000

    Published amountNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Minimum 2.0 GPA
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Alumni Association Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Recipient must be a dependent of a Chico State alum; awarded through the Wildcat Scholarship application.

    How to keep it

    No renewal terms published.

    Worth knowing

    One of four $1,000 awards for dependents of alumni. Legacy-based, not a stats-based automatic award.

Free Merit Check

Check the rules that could cut this.

The free Merit Check shows which Chico State award your student's numbers reach, and the rules that could change it. About 30 seconds.

Checking merit aid at Chico State

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.

This page covers one school.

Your playbook does this for every school on your list, sorted by what you’d pay.

Ready in under 10 minutes. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Get my playbook$79
  • Secure payment through Stripe
  • “it told me what to ask and what the renewal GPA looked like, which I was not going to find on my own”Melissa

The fine print

Renewal ruleWildcat Scholarship (one application, merit + need-based pool): renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

Awards are made 'for the upcoming academic year'; the page lists no automatic multi-year renewal. Recipients must maintain full-time enrollment (12 units undergrad / 8 graduate) and any scholarship-specific GPA; the office may adjust the award based on unmet need. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

Aid capHard $28,756 cost-of-attendance ceiling

Institutional aid at Chico State cannot push the package past $28,756. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

What makes Chico State different

Chico State publishes no automatic GPA/test merit grid; institutional merit runs through the competitive Wildcat Scholarship application (over $1.6M/yr to 1,000+ students, most awards in the low-thousands) plus a faculty/committee-selected Academic & Performance recruitment award and a handful of capped named/CSU-system awards.

Merit tiers5See who qualifies
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

Selection beyond grades and scores

Start with the selection process.

These awards are not recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read each award's selection rules, application steps and dates. Meeting a minimum is not an award offer.

  1. Read the selection rules

    Look for the school's stated criteria and whether an additional application is needed.

  2. Check the application dates

    Confirm the current admission and scholarship deadlines directly with the school.

  3. Know what happens next year

    Check renewal, credit requirements and how other aid affects the award.

The fine print / Three questions to carry forward

Before you count on it.

Does it apply to us? Confirm the entering year, residency and every eligibility condition.

Can we keep it? Check renewal GPA, credits and how long the award lasts.

Can we combine it? Ask how outside scholarships and other school awards change the offer.

Take Chico State's decision sheet

A printable research summary, source links and room for your questions.

See what could change an award

What families often miss

  1. It does not. There is no published stats-based automatic merit table. Institutional merit runs through the competitive Wildcat Scholarship application and a committee-selected A&P recruitment award — neither publishes a guaranteed dollar amount or a stats cutoff.

  2. The single Wildcat application is open only Jan 2 – Feb 15. Miss it and you forfeit the entire institutional merit + need pool for that year; there is no rolling alternative.

  3. Many of the Wildcat awards are need-based (the page cites over 240 need-based scholarships). The FAFSA or California Dream Act Application must be filed by March 2 to be considered for those, and need can also affect how a merit award is packaged.

  4. Reporting outside awards is mandatory. Failing to disclose may require you to repay all or part of your need-based aid, and total aid above the cost of education triggers a package reduction.

  5. The 2026-27 resident total cost of attendance is estimated at $28,756 once books ($1,174), housing ($6,835), food ($5,979), transportation ($1,922), and personal expenses ($3,502) are added — roughly three times tuition and fees alone.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Cost-conscious California (and WUE) students who want a low published price (~$9,300/yr resident tuition+fees) and are willing to file one competitive Wildcat Scholarship application by Feb 15 — not students expecting a guaranteed, automatic, stats-based merit award at admission.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $28,756 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at Chico State, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$9,902
$30,001–$48,000$10,099
$48,001–$75,000$12,961
$75,001–$110,000$16,506
$110,001+$23,566
All income levels (average)$14,480

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$8,472
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$21,072
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$14,480

That works out to roughly a 45% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $26,283 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

Chico State is a public school; Scorecard's net price figure covers in-state, Title-IV-aid-recipient payers only — there is no comparable federal figure for out-of-state students.

Outcomes for students who enrolled here

Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
63%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
82%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$16,552 (~$175/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$64,172
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
41%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
35%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

Chico State applies federal over-award rules: outside scholarships must be reported, and total aid from all sources cannot exceed the cost of education — if it does, the financial aid package is reduced. The recipient page also warns that scholarships earmarked for tuition/fees can reduce other fee-based aid. No published rule states institutional merit is reduced loan-first vs grant-first; the displacement is described only as a cost-of-education cap, so it is treated as a COA cap.

External scholarships are mandatory to report; failure to disclose may require repayment of need-based aid. Over-award reductions occur only when total aid exceeds the school's cost of education. The over-award page does not state which aid type is reduced first; the recipient-info page adds that tuition/fee-specific scholarships 'may also reduce other fee based aid.'

Source

Other Chico State scholarships worth checking

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

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityChico State faculty nomination required; satisfactory academic progress; minimum twelve units at Chico State; full-time both award semesters.

Faculty-nominated merit award; nomination deadline April 13. No dollar amount published.

Source

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityAwarded to highly qualified and deserving high school seniors via the Wildcat Scholarship application.

Described as 'one of the University's most prestigious' awards; no dollar amount published.

Source

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityCollege of Engineering / CIM students; separate application Jan 2 – Apr 15.

Departmental engineering award; currently closed; no dollar amount published.

Source

Chico State merit aid FAQ

  • Does Chico State give automatic merit scholarships based on my GPA or test scores?

    No. There is no published automatic stats-based merit grid. Institutional merit comes through the competitive Wildcat Scholarship application (one window, Jan 2–Feb 15) and a committee-selected Academic & Performance recruitment award for some admitted students — neither guarantees a fixed amount.

  • What is the scholarship deadline?

    The Wildcat Scholarship application is open Jan 2–Feb 15. For need-based consideration, file the FAFSA or California Dream Act Application by March 2. Some CSU/departmental awards have later deadlines (CSU Trustees' Award April 15; MEP April 24).

  • How much money is available?

    Chico State states it awards 'over $1.6 million in scholarship awards to more than 1,000 students' each year through the Wildcat program. Individual award amounts are not published; most are in the low thousands (e.g., Alumni Association $1,000, MEP $500–$2,500, CSU Trustees' up to $7,000).

  • If I win an outside scholarship, will it reduce my Chico State aid?

    You must report it. Federal over-award rules require the school to reduce your package only if total aid from all sources exceeds the cost of education; tuition/fee-specific scholarships can also reduce other fee-based aid. Ask the aid office how it will package in your specific case.

See sources and other schools

How Chico State compares

  • 235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.

    Chico State is in a recognizable cluster (235 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.

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

    Chico State 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 Chico State’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

  • UCLA merit aid. California public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
  • UC Berkeley merit aid. California public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
  • UC San Diego merit aid. California public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
  • Cal Poly SLO merit aid. California public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.

Keep exploring Chico State merit aid

The next chapter

Where does Chico State fit in your plan?

You have the school’s rules. Now put them in the context of your student and the rest of your list.

  1. Check your student’s numbers, free
  2. Explore another school
  3. See how the research becomes a plan

Ready to work through your whole list? Get my playbook

Inside the sample

Jordan’s playbook

Same student.
Four schools.
Four very different bills.

An illustrative student profile, with a school order, scholarship research and a to-do list. Open the sample to see how it works.

Open the sample playbook