How much is the core merit scholarship?

Earlham does not publish the amount — the achievement-based Merit Scholarship is determined by the Office of Admissions from your application and 'amounts vary.' It renews for four years with a 2.0 cumulative GPA and full-time enrollment.

Earlham· Renewal Rules

Keeping Earlham’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.

Verified Jun 2026today· COWORK

At a glance

Renewable tiers: 11 of 11
One-time tiers: 0
Tiers with published renewal terms: 7
Renewal risk profile: low

Renewal risk profile

Earlham'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.

Merit Scholarships (core, achievement-based): 2.0 GPA
INspire Earlham Program: See notes
Honors Scholarship: 3.4 GPA
Quaker Fellows Scholarship: See notes
Heartland Region Scholarship: See notes
Community Scholars Program: See notes
Elizabeth Thompson Jewish Studies Scholarship: See notes

Renewal terms by tier

Merit Scholarships (core, achievement-based)
Amount not published
To keep it: Renewable for four years; renewal requires a 2.0 cumulative GPA and full-time enrollment.
Source: https://earlham.edu/cost-affordability/types-of-aid/scholarships/
INspire Earlham Program
Free tuition
To keep it: Must remain eligible for state (21st Century Scholars, Frank O'Bannon) and federal (Pell) aid.
Source: https://earlham.edu/cost-affordability/types-of-aid/scholarships/
Honors Scholarship
$1,000
Entry requirements: 3.4 (renewal) GPA
To keep it: To remain eligible, participate in the first-year Honors seminar (HONR 150) in the fall and maintain a 3.4 GPA.
Source: https://earlham.edu/cost-affordability/types-of-aid/scholarships/honors-scholarship/
Quaker Fellows Scholarship
$2,500
To keep it: Requires re-enrollment each year based on academic standing; sustained active interest in the Religious Society of Friends.
Source: https://earlham.edu/cost-affordability/types-of-aid/scholarships/
Heartland Region Scholarship
$2,000 (=$8,000 over 4 years)
To keep it: $2,000 each year for up to four years.
Source: https://earlham.edu/cost-affordability/types-of-aid/scholarships/
Community Scholars Program
$2,000-$5,000
To keep it: Four-year, service-based program.
Source: https://earlham.edu/cost-affordability/types-of-aid/scholarships/
Elizabeth Thompson Jewish Studies Scholarship
$1,500
To keep it: Renewable up to 4 years.
Source: https://earlham.edu/cost-affordability/types-of-aid/scholarships/

How families lose this aid

Overlooking the Honors Scholarship renewal cliff
The Honors Scholarship ($1,000) renews only if you take the first-year Honors seminar (HONR 150) in the fall AND maintain a 3.4 GPA — a higher bar than the 2.0 GPA used for the core merit scholarship.

Renewal questions families ask

How much is the core merit scholarship?: Earlham does not publish the amount — the achievement-based Merit Scholarship is determined by the Office of Admissions from your application and 'amounts vary.' It renews for four years with a 2.0 cumulative GPA and full-time enrollment.

Rules that bite at Earlham

The renewal trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook, derived from Earlham's own tier rules and not generic advice.

renewalMerit Scholarships (core, achievement-based): renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable for four years; renewal requires a 2.0 cumulative GPA and full-time enrollment. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

How Earlham compares across our verified dataset

247 of 272 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Earlham is one of them. The cohort minority (25 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 Earlham’s own published materials.