Elizabethtown auto-awards test-optional named merit ($16,000-$21,500), but the catch is on a separate page: those awards get cut if your total gift aid tops Tuition+Food+Housing, or if you receive an employer tuition benefit.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Elizabethtown worth a closer look?
Elizabethtown is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 5 published awards, and 4 are based on those numbers.
Merit tiers54 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 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.
$21,500
Excelsior Scholarship
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
~3.9 GPA, top of high school class
SAT
Test-optional
ACT
Test-optional (reviewed with or without scores)
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
Most challenging curriculum; positive school/community contributions
How to keep it
Remain full-time in good academic and social standing; available for eight semesters (10 for 4+1 MOT, 12 for OTD, 8 for accelerated 5-year PA). Not for summer sessions.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Elizabethtown's published information.
Renewal ruleExcelsior Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Remain full-time in good academic and social standing; available for eight semesters (10 for 4+1 MOT, 12 for OTD, 8 for accelerated 5-year PA). Not for summer sessions. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
Aid capHard $57,128 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Elizabethtown cannot push the package past $57,128. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
What families often miss
Merit (Excelsior/Presidential/Founders/Dean's) is reduced if your total gift aid exceeds the cost of Tuition + Food + Housing — a COA-SUBSET cap (it excludes books, transportation, personal, and even the comprehensive fee), so the ceiling is lower than full cost of attendance.
Etown explicitly reduces merit scholarships if the student 'receives tuition benefits' — an employer/parent tuition-remission benefit can shrink your Etown merit award.
Outside scholarships do NOT reduce merit; they first fill unmet need, then cut need-based gift aid (Trustee Scholarship) dollar-for-dollar — but the merit cap above can still bite if total gift aid is high.
'Late state grants received reduce institutional need-based gift aid by 100%' — a late PHEAA grant displaces Etown's own need-based aid dollar-for-dollar (PHEAA needs your FAFSA by May 1).
Merit scholarships are available for eight semesters only (with program-specific exceptions for OT/PA tracks) and are not transferable to summer sessions.
Music scholarship holders must participate in a designated College ensemble (pass grades) and take private lessons for credit with no less than a B- to keep the award.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Strong-GPA students who want a sizeable automatic, test-optional award (top of class wins the $21,500 Excelsior), and competitive applicants who can hit the Jan 15 Stamps deadline for full tuition.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $57,128 for 2026-2027. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Elizabethtown, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Elizabethtown, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$17,776
$30,001–$48,000
$17,113
$48,001–$75,000
$20,967
$75,001–$110,000
$25,064
$110,001+
$31,198
All income levels (average)
$26,598
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$37,950
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$26,598
That works out to roughly a 48% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $50,865 (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
76%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
84%
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)
$62,399
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
24%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
73%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Outside scholarships first fill unmet need (including need-based self-help); if they exceed unmet need, the College reduces its need-based gift aid (e.g., Trustee Scholarship) dollar-for-dollar. Merit scholarships (Excelsior/Presidential/Founders/Dean's) are NOT reduced by outside scholarships, BUT are reduced if the student receives tuition benefits or if total gift aid exceeds the cost of Tuition, Food, and Housing (a COA-subset cap). Late PA state grants reduce institutional need-based gift aid 100%.
From the dedicated outside-scholarship page. The merit cap is on a SUBSET of COA (Tuition + Food + Housing), not the full COA, and employer/tuition-benefit receipt independently triggers a merit reduction.
Submit a completed application by January 15; interviews are encouraged. Stamps covers 100% of tuition plus an enrichment fund, renewable up to eight semesters.
Can outside scholarships reduce my Elizabethtown aid?
Outside awards first fill unmet need, then reduce need-based gift aid (Trustee Scholarship) dollar-for-dollar; they do not reduce merit scholarships. However, merit is reduced if total gift aid exceeds Tuition + Food + Housing or if you receive tuition benefits.
How long do the merit scholarships last?
Eight semesters for most programs (10 for the 4+1 MOT, 12 for the OTD, 8 for the accelerated 5-year PA program), contingent on full-time enrollment and good academic and social standing; not available in summer.
See sources and other schools+
How Elizabethtown compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Elizabethtown 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.
Elizabethtown 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 Elizabethtown’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
