Miami's large Hispanic-serving public where the headline aid story is FIU's Golden Promise — a 100% tuition-and-fees guarantee for Florida residents with SAI ≤ 0 — stacked with state Bright Futures rather than a stat-driven merit ladder.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago· CC-1
The short answer
Is FIU worth a closer look?
FIU is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 2 published awards, and 2 are based on those numbers.
Merit tiers22 based on grades or scores
First-year students with school awards33%First-year students, CDS 2024-2025
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.
100% of tuition and fees
FIU's Golden Promise
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
2.0+ cumulative GPA each semester for renewal
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
Florida resident, U.S. citizen or permanent resident, FAFSA filed before enrollment, Student Aid Index (SAI) of 0 or less. First-time-in-college freshman (fall 2017+) or new transfer (fall 2023+). Minimum 12 credits per semester (15 recommended).
How to keep it
Covers up to 30 credits per year, 120 credits (4 years), provided the student completes 30 credit hours each year and maintains a 2.0+ cumulative GPA each semester.
Notes
Funded through a combination of federal, state, and institutional grants — not a single line-item institutional scholarship. SAI ≤ 0 is the binding test, not high-school GPA or test scores.
Amount varies…Amount varies; named tiers and dollar values not published on the public scholarship page
FIU Institutional Merit Scholarships
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Awarded by the FIU Office of Scholarships to incoming freshmen and transfers based on the admission application. Details and specific tier names live in the AcademicWorks scholarship search portal rather than on the public scholarship page.
How to keep it
Renewal terms vary by individual scholarship; verify in the offer letter.
Golden Promise is gated by Student Aid Index (SAI) of 0 or less, not by GPA or test scores. A high-stats student whose family doesn't qualify on SAI cannot tap Golden Promise — they have to make affordability work through Bright Futures + institutional aid + family contribution.
FIU's Golden Promise explicitly requires the FAFSA to be filed BEFORE the student enrolls. Late FAFSAs disqualify the student from the program even if the family otherwise meets the SAI threshold.
Golden Promise requires 30 credits per year for renewal. Students who take only 12 credits per semester (24/year) fall short of the renewal floor and lose the award. FIU recommends 15 credits per semester to stay safely above the requirement.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Florida residents whose family Student Aid Index (SAI) is at or near zero, plus Bright Futures-eligible families who can stack the state award with FIU institutional aid. Out-of-state students should weigh the $41K+ sticker without expecting a deep merit discount.
Cost of attendance$28,232–$41,870 for 2025-26Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
Out-of-state, on-campus$41,870
$20K
$14K
In-state, on-campus$28,232
$6.6K
$14K
Tuition & fees
Housing & food
Books
Travel
Personal
Loan fees
Public; both in-state and out-of-state on-campus published. Both scenarios sum exactly. Health insurance not itemized.
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at FIU, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at FIU, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$7,003
$30,001–$48,000
$7,873
$48,001–$75,000
$10,925
$75,001–$110,000
$14,568
$110,001+
$18,200
All income levels (average)
$9,288
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$6,565
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$18,964
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$9,288
That works out to roughly a 57% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $21,462 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
FIU 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
74%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
92%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$16,500 (~$175/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$60,249
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
47%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
10%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
More school data
From the FIU Common Data Set 2024-2025:
Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From FIU’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
33%of admitsget merit
Average award$2,149Covers ~5% of $41,870 cost of attendance
At FIU, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $2,149 — about 5% of total cost.
As filed in FIU's CDS Section H2A: of 3,453 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 1,130 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $2,149. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 1,438 of 27,076, averaging $2,044. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
AmountTiered state award covering a portion to all of FIU tuition and fees depending on tierEligibilityFlorida high school graduates meeting the state's GPA, test, and service-hour thresholds. State sets the award.
Stacks with FIU institutional aid and Golden Promise toward the 100% tuition-and-fees target for eligible Florida residents.
Florida residents who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, file the FAFSA before enrolling at FIU, have a Student Aid Index (SAI) of 0 or less, and are either first-time-in-college freshmen (starting fall 2017+) or new transfers (starting fall 2023+).
What does FIU's Golden Promise cover?
100% of tuition and fees through a stack of federal, state, and institutional grants. It covers up to 30 credits per year, 120 credits (4 years) total. Housing, food, books, and personal expenses are NOT covered.
Does FIU publish named merit scholarship tiers and dollar amounts?
Not publicly. FIU references merit scholarships and an AcademicWorks scholarship search portal, but does not publish a stat-driven tier ladder with dollar amounts on its public scholarship page. Specific awards appear in the admission decision.
Can I stack Bright Futures with FIU institutional aid?
Yes. Bright Futures is the Florida state-funded foundation; FIU institutional grants and Golden Promise stack on top up to the 100% tuition-and-fees target. The combined stack is the standard path to affordability for in-state students.
How much does FIU cost?
Florida residents on-campus: $28,232 (2025-26). Non-residents on-campus: $41,870. At-home Florida residents: $20,218. The FIU board is considering an out-of-state fee increase for fall 2026.
See sources and other schools+
How FIU compares
667 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
FIU 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 claim is checked against FIU’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
