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The merit-aid verdict at Covenant College
Covenant College auto-awards every applicant a named merit scholarship from a published five-tier grid ($13,000-$22,000/year) just for applying, with no separate scholarship application — plus competitive add-ons up to full tuition (Maclellan).
Rules that bite at Covenant College
The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from Covenant College's own published policy, not generic advice.
displacementNo published displacement order
Covenant College'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.
Common merit-aid mistakes at Covenant College
Covenant publishes the AVERAGE academic profile of recipients for each tier (e.g., Founders' avg 3.95 GPA / 30 ACT), not a hard floor. Your actual tier is set by the admissions office from your full application, so a number slightly below 'average' does not automatically disqualify you from a tier — but it also is not a promise.
'The Maclellan Scholarship is mutually exclusive with other institutional aid.' It replaces your Founders'/Tower/etc. award rather than adding to it, so the marginal value over a large automatic tier is smaller than the full-tuition figure suggests.
Wilberforce is 'stackable with other aid up to the cost of tuition' and the funds are 'not to exceed the cost of tuition.' If your other institutional aid already approaches tuition, Wilberforce dollars can be capped.
'The deadline for all scholarships (except Music Scholarships ...) is November 10.' The five automatic merit tiers need no separate application, but Maclellan, Wilberforce, Presidential, and Visual Arts are competitive and require meeting that deadline.
The 2026-27 on-campus cost-of-attendance budget total is $64,450 (tuition $44,050 + student fee $1,328 + living/housing & food $13,770 + books $1,170 + miscellaneous/personal $3,132 + transportation $920 + average loan fees $80). Merit scholarships are quoted against tuition, not the full cost of attendance.
Who this school is for
Christian students seeking a Reformed/PCA-affiliated liberal-arts college who want predictable, stats-aligned merit aid with no extra scholarship application; strong applicants (3.85+ GPA, 28+ ACT) can compete for the full-tuition Maclellan Scholarship.
Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $64,450 for 2026-2027. Source
Federal cost and outcome data
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Covenant College, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Covenant College, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$18,310
$30,001–$48,000
$15,929
$48,001–$75,000
$24,606
$75,001–$110,000
$24,836
$110,001+
$30,172
All income levels (average)
$26,265
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$42,040
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$26,265
That works out to roughly a 54% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $57,467 (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
71%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
88%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$22,500 (~$239/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$50,412
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
19%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
40%
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.
$22,000
Founders' Scholarship
AutomaticRenewable
GPA
Avg recipient 3.95 GPA
SAT
Avg recipient 1410 SAT
ACT
Avg recipient 30 ACT
Requirements & details+
Eligibility
Avg recipient 95 CLT. Awarded automatically from admissions materials; no separate application.
Renewal terms
Renewal GPA/terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Notes
Top tier of Covenant's five automatic merit scholarships. The published numbers are stated as the AVERAGE academic profile of recipients, not hard cutoffs — the page does not publish a guaranteed GPA/test floor for each tier.
Minimum 90 CLT. Based on Christian commitment, scholastic achievement, leadership, and extracurriculars. Competitive; deadline November 10.
Renewal terms
Renewal terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Notes
Covenant's top competitive award (full tuition). IMPORTANT TRAP: 'The Maclellan Scholarship is mutually exclusive with other institutional aid' — it does NOT stack on the automatic merit tiers; it replaces them. GPA/test minimums are stated as requirements to compete, not as guarantees of the award.
First-time, degree-seeking students from specific regions (Atlanta GA, Birmingham AL, Dalton GA, Gainesville GA, Charlotte NC, Chattanooga TN, Nashville TN, Columbia MO, St. Louis MO, Michigan). Commitment to Christ, leadership, academic diligence, extracurricular interest. Competitive; deadline November 10.
Renewal terms
Renewal terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Notes
Competitive, region-restricted. STACKS, but capped: 'stackable with other aid up to the cost of tuition' — Wilberforce funds will not exceed the cost of tuition. No academic minimums to compete.
Based on scholastic achievement, artistic achievement, work ethic, commitment to Christ, institutional fit. Art major not required to compete. Competitive; deadline November 10.
Renewal terms
Renewal terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Notes
Competitive talent-style award; you do not have to declare art as a major to compete. No academic minimums to compete.
The school does not publish a specific outside-scholarship displacement policy; confirm treatment with the aid office before counting on stacking.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): Private Aid -- Private aid is available through both private lenders and independent scholarship foundations. Private Loans. Private Scholarships. Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: The Maclellan full-tuition scholarship is 'mutually exclusive with other institutional aid' (it replaces, not stacks). Maclellan = mutually exclusive with other institutional aid; in certain circumstances state/federal aid can be applied to other costs of attendance. Wilberforce = stackable with other aid but capped at cost of tuition (funds 'not to exceed the cost of tuition'). (per https://covenant.edu/admissions/costs/aid.html)
Amount$1,000 per year (or $10,000 comprehensive for faculty/staff dependents)EligibilityGraduates of Chattanooga Christian School enrolling as freshmen.
Contingent on maintaining a minimum institutional GPA of 2.5 after each fall semester. Dependents of full-time CCS faculty/staff get a $10,000 comprehensive package including all merit and non-merit aid.
Amount$1,000 per yearEligibilityNew students who attend the Summit Student Conference after their sophomore or junior year of high school and subsequently enroll.
Provides $1,000 per year for up to four years if academic standards are maintained.
Do I have to apply separately for Covenant's merit scholarships?
No for the five automatic tiers. 'Covenant College provides a variety of scholarships and grants that automatically consider applicants based on their admissions materials, so no separate application is needed.' The competitive awards (Maclellan, Wilberforce, Presidential, Visual Arts) do require applying by the November 10 deadline.
What is the scholarship deadline?
November 10 for all competitive scholarships except Music Scholarships, which have a separate deadline tied to the Music Audition Form. The automatic merit tiers are based on your admissions application.
Can I combine Covenant scholarships?
It depends. The Wilberforce Scholarship is 'stackable with other aid up to the cost of tuition.' The Maclellan full-tuition scholarship is 'mutually exclusive with other institutional aid' — it replaces, rather than stacks with, your automatic merit award.
What GPA do I need to keep my scholarship?
Covenant's scholarships & aid page does not publish a renewal GPA for the main merit tiers (some school-specific grants like the Chattanooga Christian and Hilger grants require a 2.5 institutional GPA). Confirm renewal terms directly with the financial aid office.
How Covenant College compares across our verified dataset
135 of 750 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
Covenant College 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.
Covenant College 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.
Covenant College 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 Covenant College’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
