Skip to content

Hampden-Sydney scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$82,128per year · 2026-2027 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

Hampden-Sydney awards automatic merit on admission. Hampden-Sydney does not publish a GPA or test chart, so you cannot self-calculate the dollars.

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
6 school sources to explore

Published rules, with the school sources close at hand. Confirm the details before you count on an award.

The award collection

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.

Where does your student land?

  1. Academic Scholarships (named ladder)$15,000-$45,000AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Academic Scholarships (named ladder)

    $15,000-$45,000

    Published rangeAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    Start with the award’s published eligibility.

    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Academic Scholarships (named ladder)

    Who qualifies

    All applicants for admission are automatically considered; no special forms required. Awarded to candidates with the highest levels of academic achievement. No GPA/test grid published.

    How to keep it

    Renewal terms not stated on this page; confirm with the Office of Financial Aid.

    Worth knowing

    Named tiers for students entering as freshmen 2026-2027: Birthplace $45,000; Cushing $35,000; Venable $30,000; Middlecourt $28,000; Penshurst $25,000; Garnet & Grey $15,000-$20,000. The College does NOT publish the GPA/test thresholds that map to each tier.

  2. Eagle Scout Scholarship$120,000 ($30,000/yr)Not automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Eagle Scout Scholarship

    $120,000 ($30,000/yr)

    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 Eagle Scout Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Accepted applicant who has earned (or will earn before matriculation) the rank of Eagle Scout and attends H-SC.

    How to keep it

    Granted as $30,000 per year over four years.

    Worth knowing

    Awarded IN PLACE OF any primary academic scholarship (does not stack with the academic ladder). Page states it is for 'new students beginning in the fall of 2025' — confirm the current-cycle amount.

  3. Boys State Participant (Citizen-Leader) Scholarship$100,000 ($25,000/yr)Not automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Boys State Participant (Citizen-Leader) Scholarship

    $100,000 ($25,000/yr)

    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 Boys State Participant (Citizen-Leader) Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Accepted applicant who has participated in Boys State and attends H-SC.

    How to keep it

    Granted as $25,000 per year over four years.

    Worth knowing

    If the student's merit-based scholarship is BELOW $25,000/yr, the Citizen-Leader award takes its place. If the merit award is $25,000/yr or above, the student keeps the merit award and receives an additional $1,000/yr for Boys State participation.

  4. Davis FellowshipFull tuitionNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Davis Fellowship

    Full tuition

    Published coverage or packageNot 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 Davis Fellowship

    Who qualifies

    Competitive; one recipient every other year.

    How to keep it

    Awarded every other year to one member of the incoming class; renewal duration not detailed on this page.

    Worth knowing

    FULL-TUITION only (not full cost of attendance). Distinct from the Madison Scholarship, which covers room and board.

  5. Madison ScholarshipFull tuition, fees, room, and boardNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Madison Scholarship

    Full tuition, fees, room, and board

    Published coverage or packageNot 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 Madison Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    One exceptional student who has excelled academically and made a positive community impact.

    How to keep it

    Offered for up to four years.

    Worth knowing

    Full COST-OF-ATTENDANCE-level award (tuition, fees, room, and board) — broader than the Davis Fellowship's full-tuition-only.

Lights up against Hampden-Sydney'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

Check the rules that could cut this.

The free Merit Check shows which Hampden-Sydney award your student's numbers reach, and the rules that could change it. About 30 seconds.

Checking merit aid at Hampden-Sydney

We’ll email you this result and a few short merit-aid pointers. We store score ranges only, never your student’s name. Unsubscribe anytime. See our privacy policy.

This page covers one school.

Your playbook does this for every school on your list, sorted by what you’d pay.

Ready in under 10 minutes. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Get my playbook$79
  • Secure payment through Stripe
  • “it told me what to ask and what the renewal GPA looked like, which I was not going to find on my own”Melissa

The fine print

Aid capHard $82,128 cost-of-attendance ceiling

Institutional aid at Hampden-Sydney cannot push the package past $82,128. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

What makes Hampden-Sydney different

Hampden-Sydney auto-considers all male applicants for a named academic scholarship ladder ($45,000 down to $15,000) but publishes no GPA/test criteria, and its leadership awards (Eagle Scout, Boys State Citizen-Leader) replace rather than stack with the academic award.

Merit tiers51 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 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.

  1. Match the published criteria

    Use all requirements together, including residency and the entering class.

  2. Check the application dates

    Confirm the current admission and scholarship deadlines directly with the school.

  3. 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.

Take Hampden-Sydney's decision sheet

A printable research summary, source links and room for your questions.

See what could change an award

What families often miss

  1. The Eagle Scout Scholarship is granted 'in place of any primary academic scholarship' — it substitutes for, rather than supplements, the named academic award.

  2. If your academic merit award is below $25,000/yr, the Citizen-Leader award replaces it (so the net gain is only the difference). You keep both — plus just $1,000/yr extra — only if your academic award is already $25,000/yr or more.

  3. The Davis Fellowship is full TUITION only; the Madison Scholarship covers tuition, fees, room, AND board. With on-campus COA at $82,128 and tuition at $55,981, that room/board gap is roughly $26,000/year.

  4. H-SC lists the dollar amounts (Birthplace $45,000 down to Garnet & Grey $15,000) but does not publish the GPA/test thresholds that map to each tier — the award is determined holistically after acceptance.

  5. The Tuition & Fees page shows direct billed charges only (tuition $55,981 + comprehensive fee $3,169 + housing/meals). The full federal cost of attendance for an on-campus student is $82,128, which includes books, transportation, and personal expenses.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

A strong male applicant — especially an Eagle Scout, Boys State participant, or pre-med — who is comfortable that H-SC discloses no GPA/test cutoffs and that leadership awards substitute for, rather than add to, the academic scholarship.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $82,128 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Hampden-Sydney, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.

Average annual net price by family income at Hampden-Sydney, academic year 2021-22
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$13,422
$30,001–$48,000$12,458
$48,001–$75,000$17,547
$75,001–$110,000$22,600
$110,001+$32,133
All income levels (average)$22,400

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$54,550
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$22,400

That works out to roughly a 68% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $70,325 (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
62%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
84%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$26,000 (~$276/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$67,640
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
25%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
42%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

Outside awards reduce College aid only when combined grant aid would exceed billed costs (tuition, required fees, room, and board); reductions then come from the need-based grant first, then the academic scholarship, then the citizen/leader award.

Verified policy language (2026-07-02): If outside scholarships and grants are received which, in combination with College scholarships and grants, exceeds billed costs (tuition, required fees, room, and board) in any semester, College aid is reduced in this order-need-based grant, academic scholarship, then citizen/leader award-until billed costs and total grant aid are equal. There are no refunds of Hampden-Sydney grant aid above billed costs.

Source

Other Hampden-Sydney scholarships worth checking

These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.

Amount$5,000/yr for two yearsEligibilityUpperclassmen; awarded in addition to any academic award.

$5,000 in addition to any academic award per year for two years.

Source

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityRegional scholarship for students entering the Pre-medical Studies program.

Source

Hampden-Sydney merit aid FAQ

  • Do I need to fill out a separate application for merit scholarships?

    No. All applicants for admission are automatically considered, and no special forms are required. Students awarded a scholarship are notified after acceptance.

  • What are the named academic scholarship amounts for 2026-2027?

    Birthplace $45,000, Cushing $35,000, Venable $30,000, Middlecourt $28,000, Penshurst $25,000, and Garnet & Grey $15,000-$20,000 per year.

  • If I'm an Eagle Scout, do I get $30,000 on top of my academic scholarship?

    No. The Eagle Scout award ($30,000/yr) is granted in place of any primary academic scholarship, not in addition to it.

  • What's the difference between the Davis Fellowship and the Madison Scholarship?

    The Davis Fellowship covers full tuition only; the Madison Scholarship covers tuition, fees, room, and board for up to four years.

See sources and other schools

How Hampden-Sydney compares

  • 235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.

    Hampden-Sydney 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.

    Hampden-Sydney 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 Hampden-Sydney’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

Keep exploring Hampden-Sydney merit aid

The next chapter

Where does Hampden-Sydney fit in your plan?

You have the school’s rules. Now put them in the context of your student and the rest of your list.

  1. Check your student’s numbers, free
  2. Explore another school
  3. See how the research becomes a plan

Ready to work through your whole list? Get my playbook

Inside the sample

Jordan’s playbook

Same student.
Four schools.
Four very different bills.

An illustrative student profile, with a school order, scholarship research and a to-do list. Open the sample to see how it works.

Open the sample playbook