California State University, Bakersfield · California
CSU Bakersfield scholarships and merit aid
CSUB is a low-cost, overwhelmingly need-based CSU campus with NO automatic GPA/test merit grid — institutional scholarships are competitive, donor-funded, and typically range $300-$2,500, applied for through one Roadrunner Scholarship Universe application.
Verified Jun 20263 months ago
The short answer
Is CSU Bakersfield worth a closer look?
CSU Bakersfield may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers2See who qualifies
Research checkedJun 2026By our research team
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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.
$1000 each year…$1000 each year (four-year scholarship)
Fine Arts Merit Award Scholarship (FAMAS)
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See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Incoming freshmen from Kern County; an audition or interview, a short essay, and a letter of recommendation are required. Apply for CSUB admission and complete the scholarship application at csub.scholarshipuniverse.com.
How to keep it
Described as a 'four-year scholarship'; awardees 'receive $1000 each year.' Specific renewal GPA/conditions are not published on the page.
Notes
Competitive arts award, NOT automatic on stats. Restricted to incoming freshmen from Kern County who pursue Fine Arts (administered via the Theatre Program). The $1,000/yr figure is the only published fixed merit dollar amount found for an incoming freshman at CSUB.
Competitive. One general application on csub.scholarshipuniverse.com matches the student to scholarships they meet criteria for; awards are based on academic achievement, financial need, and/or other donor-established criteria. Priority application period January 1 - March 2.
How to keep it
Not stated; awards are selected by donors and/or scholarship committees each cycle and 'are usually disbursed over multiple terms.' Renewal is donor/committee-dependent, not a published institutional rule.
Notes
This is the umbrella pool for most CSUB institutional scholarships — NOT an automatic GPA/test merit grid. Amounts and criteria are set per-donor. There is no guaranteed award. The $300-$2,500 figure is the published typical range across all CSUB academic scholarships, not a single award.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from CSU Bakersfield's published information.
Aid capHard $28,850 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at CSU Bakersfield cannot push the package past $28,850. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
What families often miss
CSUB publishes NO automatic merit grid. The catalog states awards 'are selected by donors and/or scholarship committees' and 'typically range from $300 to $2,500.' Nothing is guaranteed on stats — you must submit the Roadrunner Scholarship Universe application and compete.
The priority application period for CSUB academic scholarships on csub.scholarshipuniverse.com is January 1 through March 2 prior to the academic year. One general application matches you to scholarships you qualify for; miss it and you forfeit consideration for that cycle.
The 2025-2026 CA-resident on-campus Cost of Attendance budget TOTAL is $28,850 (current official 2025-2026 CA-Resident PDF; the older HTML table's $28,980 included $130 in direct loan fees) — that includes mandatory campus fees ($2,046), housing, food, books, transportation, personal expenses, and loan fees on top of the $6,450 systemwide tuition fee. Budget to the COA total, not just tuition.
CSUB states merit scholarships and fee waivers are 'not awarded based upon a student's Student Aid Index (SAI) or financial need.' But they ARE 'included when determining unmet need,' so winning a scholarship (or an outside award) can reduce other need-based aid in your package.
CSUB requires you to disclose all private scholarships. Once reported, the award is added to your aid as an externally awarded scholarship and a revised award notification is issued; awards earmarked for fees can reduce or cancel your State University Grant.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Cost-conscious California (especially Kern County) families who want an affordable CSU (resident systemwide tuition ~$6,450/yr) and are willing to file the FAFSA/Dream Act for need-based aid and submit one competitive scholarship application — NOT families looking for a guaranteed, stats-based automatic merit award.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $28,850 for 2025-2026. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at CSU Bakersfield, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at CSU Bakersfield, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$3,536
$30,001–$48,000
$3,817
$48,001–$75,000
$5,835
$75,001–$110,000
$9,480
$110,001+
$16,069
All income levels (average)
$5,652
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$8,090
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$20,690
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$5,652
That works out to roughly a 71% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $19,522 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
CSU Bakersfield 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
50%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
79%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$16,600 (~$176/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$59,009
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
68%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
15%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
CSUB requires all outside scholarships to be disclosed; they are treated as a resource and added to the financial aid package as an externally awarded scholarship, with a revised award notification issued. Total aid from all sources is coordinated against Cost of Attendance/unmet need. Merit scholarships and fee waivers are themselves 'included when determining unmet need,' so outside awards can reduce other need-based aid rather than the merit award. No grant-vs-loan displacement order is published, so the precise displacement order is unclear — confirm with the aid office.
The Scholarship Disclosure Form states outside scholarships are a resource the federal government requires students to report; once notified, the scholarship is included in financial aid awards as an externally awarded scholarship and a revised award notification is sent. The 'need' page states merit scholarships/fee waivers are not awarded on SAI/need but ARE included when determining unmet need. The CSU State University Grant rules note awards earmarked for fees (Cal Grant, fee waivers, etc.) will reduce or cancel SUG. No explicit loan-first vs grant-first order for outside scholarships is published.
AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityMajor in the College of Social Sciences and Education with an interest in a career in social services and counseling; cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher; preference to first-generation or re-entry students. Recipient may or may not be a U.S. citizen.
Donor scholarship; no published dollar amount. GPA floor is low (2.0).
AmountFunded by a $500,000 endowment (per-award amount not published)EligibilityUpper-division students who transfer from a California community college.
NOT for incoming freshmen — transfer-only, upper-division. The $500,000 figure is the endowment size, not an award amount.
AmountTargeted at $2,000 each (e.g., fall 2025 goal: 30 scholarships at $2,000 each)EligibilityHigh school seniors / incoming CSUB freshmen, and community college transfers, who identify as being of Hispanic heritage; academically excellent and financially deserving (open to any student regardless of race or ethnicity per the program).
Separately-administered community fund (CSUB-HESF) with its own application and deadline (e.g., May 30, 2025). Need + merit. Amount is a stated goal, not a guaranteed automatic award.
Does CSUB give automatic merit scholarships based on GPA or test scores?
No. CSUB publishes no automatic stats-based merit grid. Institutional scholarships are competitive and selected by donors or scholarship committees; amounts typically range from $300 to $2,500. You apply through one general application on csub.scholarshipuniverse.com.
What is the scholarship deadline?
The priority application period for CSUB academic scholarships is January 1 through March 2 prior to the start of each academic year, submitted on csub.scholarshipuniverse.com. The FAFSA/California Dream Act priority filing period is October 1 through March 2.
Is there any fixed-dollar merit award for incoming freshmen?
The Fine Arts Merit Award Scholarship (FAMAS) is a four-year award of $1,000 each year for incoming freshmen from Kern County, requiring an audition/interview, a short essay, and a letter of recommendation. It is competitive, not automatic.
If I win an outside scholarship, does it reduce my CSUB aid?
You must report all outside scholarships. CSUB adds them to your aid package as an externally awarded scholarship and issues a revised award notification; total aid is coordinated against your cost of attendance, so an outside award can reduce other need-based aid. The exact order in which aid is reduced is not published — ask the aid office.
See sources and other schools+
How CSU Bakersfield compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
CSU Bakersfield 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.
CSU Bakersfield 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 CSU Bakersfield’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
