Covenant College· Renewal Rules
Keeping Covenant College’s Merit Aid for Four Years
What the financial-aid office actually requires after freshman year: minimum GPA, credit-hour pace, and the cliffs that quietly downgrade families mid-degree.
At a glance
- Renewable tiers
- 9 of 9
- One-time tiers
- 0
- Tiers with published renewal terms
- 9
- Renewal risk profile
- low
Renewal risk profile
Covenant College's published renewal rules cluster around a 3.0 floor with no major-GPA gating, which is survivable for the typical freshman with steady study habits. The risk is non-renewal due to enrollment status (dropping below full-time), not GPA.
- Founders' Scholarship: See notes
- Tower Scholarship: See notes
- Thistle Scholarship: See notes
- Shield Scholarship: See notes
- Tartan Scholarship: See notes
- Maclellan Scholars Program: See notes
- Wilberforce Scholarship: See notes
- Presidential Scholarship: See notes
- Visual Arts Scholarship: See notes
Renewal terms by tier
Founders' Scholarship
$22,000Entry requirements: Avg recipient 3.95 GPA GPA · Avg recipient 1410 SAT SAT · Avg recipient 30 ACT ACT
To keep it: Renewal GPA/terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Tower Scholarship
$20,000Entry requirements: Avg recipient 3.82 GPA GPA · Avg recipient 1320 SAT SAT · Avg recipient 28 ACT ACT
To keep it: Renewal GPA/terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Thistle Scholarship
$18,000Entry requirements: Avg recipient 3.67 GPA GPA · Avg recipient 1250 SAT SAT · Avg recipient 26 ACT ACT
To keep it: Renewal GPA/terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Shield Scholarship
$15,000Entry requirements: Avg recipient 3.5 GPA GPA · Avg recipient 1130 SAT SAT · Avg recipient 23 ACT ACT
To keep it: Renewal GPA/terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Tartan Scholarship
$13,000Entry requirements: Avg recipient 3.4 GPA GPA · Avg recipient 1040 SAT SAT · Avg recipient 20 ACT ACT
To keep it: Renewal GPA/terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Maclellan Scholars Program
Full tuitionEntry requirements: Minimum 3.85 high school GPA GPA · Minimum 1320 SAT SAT · Minimum 28 ACT ACT
To keep it: Renewal terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Wilberforce Scholarship
$15,000Entry requirements: No academic minimums to compete GPA
To keep it: Renewal terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Presidential Scholarship
$5,000Entry requirements: Minimum 3.5 high school GPA GPA · Minimum 1240 SAT SAT · Minimum 26 ACT ACT
To keep it: Renewal terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
Visual Arts Scholarship
$5,000Entry requirements: No academic minimums to compete GPA
To keep it: Renewal terms not stated on the scholarships & aid page.
How families lose this aid
- Treating the published GPA/ACT/SAT numbers as guaranteed cutoffs for each merit tier.
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.
Renewal questions families ask
- 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
- 669 of 751 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 renewal claim is checked against Covenant College’s own published materials.
More on Covenant College merit aid
- Covenant College merit aid overviewFull tier ladder, named scholarships, departmental awards, and how families decide.
- Covenant College scholarship stackingWhether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
- Does Covenant College displace outside scholarships?The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.
