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?
Academic Achievement Scholarship (First-Year)$18,000-$27,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
Published awardAcademic thresholds
Academic Achievement Scholarship (First-Year)
$18,000-$27,000 per year
Published rangeAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
GPA
Based on internally calculated high-school GPA
RenewableCheck the conditions
Open award details for Academic Achievement Scholarship (First-Year)
Who qualifies
Students admitted without conditions are automatically considered; for non-visa (domestic) students; awarded regardless of financial need
How to keep it
Renewable for up to four years; students must maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA (and 67% completion ratio for federal SAP).
Worth knowing
TUITION-ONLY: 'These scholarships may be applied to tuition charges only.' Range stated for Fall 2026 entrants.
Transfer Scholarship$11,000-$18,000 per year (GPA grid)AutomaticRenewable
Published awardAcademic thresholds
Transfer Scholarship
$11,000-$18,000 per year (GPA grid)
Published rangeAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
GPA
3.5-4.0 = $18,000; 3.0-3.49 = $16,000; 2.75-2.99 = $11,000 (cumulative GPA of all previous college work)
RenewableCheck the conditions
Open award details for Transfer Scholarship
Who qualifies
Must be admitted without conditions; amount notified shortly after admission
How to keep it
Available for up to four years; 2.0 cumulative GPA to renew (Eckerd merit awards renew at 2.0).
Worth knowing
Distinct transfer GPA grid (separate from the first-year academic award).
Sunshine City ScholarshipTuition + mandatory fees + standard double housing + meal charges (in combination with institutional, federal and state aid), up to four yearsNot automaticRenewable
Published awardOther selection criteria
Sunshine City Scholarship
Tuition + mandatory fees + standard double housing + meal charges (in combination with institutional, federal and state aid), up to four years
Variable or qualified amountNot 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 Sunshine City Scholarship
Who qualifies
Graduate from a Pinellas County high school in 2026; new first-year entering Autumn 2026; live on campus; admitted by March 1, 2026; submit Sunshine City application by March 1, 2026; FAFSA (code 001487) results received by Feb 1, 2026; selected on academics, activities, and demonstrated financial need
How to keep it
Up to four years.
Worth knowing
Pinellas-County local exclusivity. Covers tuition+fees plus standard double housing and meals when combined with other aid — close to full cost for the standard package, but assembled from multiple sources.
International Student GrantUp to $27,000Automatic
Published awardAcademic thresholds
International Student Grant
Up to $27,000
Variable or qualified amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Start with the award’s published eligibility.
Open award details for International Student Grant
Who qualifies
International first-year applicants who require a visa and have not taken college coursework are automatically considered; international students are not eligible for need-based aid
Worth knowing
Parallel automatic award for visa-requiring international students.
Community Engagement and Leadership Scholarship$4,000 per year (plus a $2,000 study-abroad grant)Not automaticRenewable
Published awardOther selection criteria
Community Engagement and Leadership Scholarship
$4,000 per year (plus a $2,000 study-abroad grant)
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 Community Engagement and Leadership Scholarship
Who qualifies
New first-year students demonstrating academic excellence and leadership; application by February 1; Autumn Term/Fall Semester starters only
Worth knowing
Competitive application-based award.
Artistic Achievement Award$1,000 per yearNot automaticRenewable
Published awardOther selection criteria
Artistic Achievement Award
$1,000 per year
Published amountNot 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 Artistic Achievement Award
Who qualifies
Talent in creative writing, music, theatre, film or visual arts; application by February 1; Autumn Term/Fall starters only
How to keep it
To receive in subsequent years, recipients must meet with faculty in their discipline for specific renewal criteria.
Worth knowing
Talent-based; applications by Feb 1.
Lights up against Eckerd's published cutoffs. Not an award offer; confirm with the financial aid office. Award terms and residency rules change; some awards differ for in-state and out-of-state students. Always confirm at the school’s source page.
Free Merit Check
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The fine print
Aid capHard $75,198 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Eckerd cannot push the package past $75,198. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
Armacost Library at Eckerd College
What makes Eckerd different
Eckerd's automatic academic merit ($18,000-$27,000) is generous but explicitly TUITION-ONLY, so it can't touch the ~$26K of housing/food/fees that make up the rest of the bill.
Merit tiers63 based on grades or scores
First-year students with school awards30%First-year students, CDS 2023-2024
Research checkedJun 2026By our research team
More than one award path
Separate the two paths.
Some awards use published academic thresholds. Others have different selection criteria. A score chart does not describe every award at this school.
Match the published criteria
Use all requirements together, including residency and the entering class.
Check the application dates
Confirm the current admission and scholarship deadlines directly with the school.
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.
A printable research summary, source links and room for your questions.
See what could change an award+
Straight from the aid office
What Eckerd's aid office says
Per the Financial Aid Office, Eckerd College, August 2026. How we verify
Eligibility for Community Engagement and Leadership Scholars
Who is eligible for the Community Engagement and Leadership Scholarship?
The scholarship is awarded to new first-year students.
“The Community Engagement and Leadership Scholarship is a scholarship awarded to new first-year students.”
Application process for first-year scholarships
Is there an application process for this scholarship?
There is an application process for this and all other first-year scholarships once students are accepted.
“There is an application process for this and all other first-year scholarships once students are accepted.”
Office responsible for the scholarship
Which office administers this scholarship?
These scholarships are awarded by Admissions, so the family should contact their student's Admissions Counselor for more information.
“These scholarships are awarded by Admissions so I would connect with your student's Admissions Counselor for more information.”
Scholarship application opening date
When will the Community Engagement and Leadership scholarship application open?
The scholarship application will open no later than October 1st.
“The scholarship application will open no later than October 1st.”
Scholarship application deadline
By when must the student submit the scholarship application?
The student must submit the scholarship application no later than February 1st.
“Your student will need to submit the application for the scholarship no later than February 1st”
Admission requirement for consideration
Does the student need to be admitted to Eckerd to be considered for the scholarship?
The student must be accepted to Eckerd College to be considered for the scholarship.
“be accepted to Eckerd College to be considered for the scholarship”
Selection criteria
What do they look for when selecting scholarship recipients?
Selection is based on the quality of the application provided by the student.
“When we select students for the scholarship, we look for the quality of the application that is provided by the student.”
Application questions confidentiality
Can the office share the specific application questions?
The office cannot provide the specific questions asked on the application.
“I am unable to provide the questions that are asked on the application”
Number of application questions
How many questions will the student answer for the scholarship application?
There are 5 separate questions that the student will answer for the scholarship.
“there are 5 separate questions that the student will answer for the scholarship”
What families often miss
Eckerd states the Academic Achievement Scholarship 'may be applied to tuition charges only' — it cannot offset housing, food, or fees (~$26K of the cost), so the net price is higher than subtracting merit from total cost.
The COA table embedded on the financial-aid page lists tuition of $49,668 — a prior-year figure. The current 2026-27 full-time tuition is $54,270 per the Bursar's '2026-27 Tuition & Fees (Effective July 1, 2026)' page; use the Bursar page for current numbers.
Eckerd College merit awards and grants are 'Renewable for up to four years. Students must maintain a 2.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average,' and falling below 2.0 also makes you ineligible for institutional and state aid.
It is limited to students graduating from a Pinellas County high school in 2026, requires living on campus, and has hard March 1 admission/application deadlines plus a Feb 1 FAFSA-results target.
'Total awards cannot exceed your cost of attendance' — a COA cap. Additionally a named donor scholarship can replace part or all of your Eckerd College Grant, and a Yellow Ribbon grant replaces previously awarded Eckerd scholarships/grants.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Solid-GPA first-year students who can use a tuition-directed award (and will still budget for housing/food), transfer students who slot into the published GPA grid, and Pinellas County residents who can compete for the near-full-cost Sunshine City Scholarship.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $75,198 for 2026-2027. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Eckerd, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Eckerd, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$29,615
$30,001–$48,000
$34,524
$48,001–$75,000
$34,294
$75,001–$110,000
$35,840
$110,001+
$43,955
All income levels (average)
$38,071
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$51,884
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$38,071
That works out to roughly a 45% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $68,944 (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
66%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
76%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$27,000 (~$286/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$51,819
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
23%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
48%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Total awards cannot exceed the cost of attendance (a COA cap). The need-based Eckerd College Grant may at any point be replaced in whole or part by a named (donor) scholarship. Veterans' Yellow Ribbon institutional grant explicitly REPLACES any previously awarded Eckerd scholarship or grant.
Financial-aid page: 'Total awards cannot exceed your cost of attendance.' Types page: 'The Eckerd College Grant program is partially funded by the college's endowment therefore, at any point, a student may see a named scholarship replace all or a portion of the previously awarded Eckerd College Grant.' Yellow Ribbon: 'The institution's portion of Yellow Ribbon Grant will replace any previously awarded Eckerd College scholarship or grant.' The pages do not spell out the displacement order for private third-party outside scholarships beyond the overall COA cap.
Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Eckerd’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
30%of admitsget merit
Average award$19,528Covers ~26% of $75,198 cost of attendance
At Eckerd, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $19,528 — about 26% of total cost.
As filed in Eckerd's CDS Section H2A: of 534 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 158 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $19,528. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 673 of 1,923, averaging $19,967. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
Receive institutional merit30%First-year students, Common Data Set 2023-2024
Average merit award$19,528Across recipients, Common Data Set 2023-2024
AmountNeed-based (amount not published)EligibilityPresbyterian Church members; church/community involvement + financial need; pastor recommendation; apply by Feb 1
Eckerd College merit awards and grants are renewable for up to four years as long as you maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA (and meet the 67% completion ratio for federal aid).
What is the Sunshine City Scholarship deadline?
Be admitted and submit the Sunshine City application by March 1, 2026, and file the FAFSA (Eckerd code 001487) so results arrive by February 1, 2026. It is limited to Pinellas County high-school graduates who live on campus.
Can my academic scholarship pay for housing or food?
No. The Academic Achievement Scholarship may be applied to tuition charges only; housing, food, and fees must be covered by other funds.
See sources and other schools+
How Eckerd compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Eckerd 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.
Eckerd 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 Eckerd’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
