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Hampton scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$46,500per year · 2025-2026 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

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

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
5 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. Hampton University Merit Scholarship$10,000-$25,000 per academic yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Hampton University Merit Scholarship

    $10,000-$25,000 per academic year

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

    GPA
    Minimum 3.5 unweighted cumulative GPA
    SAT
    Minimum 1000 SAT (EBRW & Math)
    ACT
    Minimum ACT Composite 22
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Hampton University Merit Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    First-time freshman; completed admission application by the Early Action deadline (November 15); test scores REQUIRED — Test Optional applicants are NOT eligible. Award amount is based largely on the standardized test score.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for three consecutive years beyond the first year, provided the student attains a cumulative 3.0 grade point average by the end of the spring semester each academic year.

    Worth knowing

    Automatic on stats: no separate scholarship application is required if the completed admission application is submitted by the Nov. 15 Early Action deadline. The deciding factor in the award amount is the standardized test score, so test-optional applicants are excluded from merit consideration. Hampton states it no longer uses named tiers (Trustee, Presidential, etc.).

  2. Legacy Scholarship$1,000 per yearNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Legacy Scholarship

    $1,000 per year

    Published amountNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Maintain a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA to renew
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Legacy Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Full-time student who is a direct descendant (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents) of a Hampton University attendee. Separate application required; submit to legacyscholarship@hamptonu.edu.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for up to three additional years; a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 must be maintained to renew.

    Worth knowing

    Legacy/affinity award, not stats-based. Separate application required by the June 30 deadline (see Section C — the official 2025-2026 application PDF states June 30, 2025; the admissions page text references June 30, 2026; confirm the current cycle's date with admissions).

Lights up against Hampton'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.

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The fine print

Aid capHard $46,500 cost-of-attendance ceiling

Institutional aid at Hampton cannot push the package past $46,500. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

What makes Hampton different

Hampton awards stats-based merit scholarships of $10,000-$25,000 per year automatically to first-time freshmen who apply by the Nov. 15 Early Action deadline with at least a 3.5 GPA and a 1000 SAT / 22 ACT — but test-optional applicants are shut out entirely.

Merit tiers21 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 Hampton'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. Hampton states plainly that 'Students who apply using the Test Optional Policy are NOT eligible for merit based scholarships,' and that award size is based largely on the test score. If you want merit aid here, you must submit a qualifying SAT/ACT score.

  2. Automatic merit consideration only applies to students who submit a completed admission application by the Early Action deadline (Nov. 15). Apply later and you forfeit the automatic merit review even with strong stats.

  3. Both thresholds must be met: a minimum 3.5 unweighted cumulative GPA AND a minimum 1000 SAT (EBRW & Math) or 22 ACT Composite. Hitting only one does not qualify, and selection is described as competitive with limited funding.

  4. Hampton states it 'no longer has scholarships that are named Trustee, Presidential, etc.' Merit awards are a single stats-driven $10,000-$25,000 band, not named tiers.

  5. Hampton caps the total package at the direct cost (tuition, fees, room and board), and requires you to report all expected aid. An outside award can reduce, rather than add to, your Hampton aid once you reach that ceiling; failing to report it can trigger reduction or cancellation of aid.

  6. The 2025-2026 on-campus 'Total Cost for School Year' is $46,500.00 — tuition $28,308 plus a $3,204 comprehensive fee, $7,800 room, and $7,188 board (19-meal plan). Technology fee, e-books, insurance, and any residence-hall surcharges are additional.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

High-stats first-time freshmen (3.5+ GPA, 1000+ SAT or 22+ ACT) who are willing to submit test scores and apply Early Action by Nov. 15 — and especially Hampton legacy families. Test-optional applicants and below-threshold students get no merit consideration here.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $46,500 for 2025-2026. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at Hampton, academic year 2021-22
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$32,101
$30,001–$48,000$14,207
$48,001–$75,000$14,305
$110,001+$31,528
All income levels (average)$25,319

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$30,592
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$25,319

That works out to roughly a 45% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $46,027 (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
57%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
85%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$25,442 (~$270/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$59,159
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
36%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
53%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

Hampton caps the total of all scholarships at the school's direct cost. The total financial package for students who receive scholarships through Admission, the Athletic Department, and/or Academic Departments cannot exceed the direct cost (tuition, fees, room and board). Students must report all expected aid, including outside scholarships, or risk reduction or cancellation of aid — i.e., outside awards are absorbed under a cost-of-attendance / direct-cost ceiling rather than stacked on top without limit.

The admissions scholarship page states the total package cannot exceed direct cost (tuition, fees, room and board). The Scholarships FAQ separately requires all students to report all instances of expected aid to the Financial Aid Office, warning that failure to do so 'could result in the reduction, retraction or even cancellation of some or all of the student's financial aid award.' No page found specifies the order in which an outside scholarship reduces aid (loan/work-study first vs. institutional grant first).

Source

Other Hampton scholarships worth checking

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

AmountVariesEligibilityContinuing students; Hampton notes 'literally hundreds of students with grade point averages between 3.0 and 4.0' each year.

Awarded on a competitive basis with limited funding; typically awarded once spring grades are finalized in May. Not an entering-freshman merit award.

Source

AmountVariesEligibilityVaries by external provider; Hampton is now a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF).

Hampton curates an External Scholarships Database PDF and links TMCF, StudentScholarships.org, and FastWeb as outside-aid resources. These are third-party awards, not institutional merit.

Source

Hampton merit aid FAQ

  • Do I have to apply separately for a Hampton merit scholarship?

    No. Students who submit a completed admission application by the Early Action deadline (November 15) are automatically considered for merit awards — a separate scholarship application form is not required.

  • What does it take to qualify for a Hampton merit scholarship?

    A minimum 3.5 unweighted cumulative GPA and a minimum 1000 SAT (EBRW & Math) or a 22 ACT Composite. You must submit test scores — test-optional applicants are not eligible — and the award amount is based largely on the test score. Awards range from $10,000 to $25,000 per academic year.

  • How do I keep my merit scholarship each year?

    Merit scholarships are renewable for three consecutive years beyond the first year, provided you attain a cumulative 3.0 GPA by the end of the spring semester each academic year.

  • Can I stack an outside scholarship on top of my Hampton award?

    Only up to a point. Your total financial package cannot exceed the direct cost (tuition, fees, room and board), and you must report all expected aid to the Financial Aid Office. Outside awards may reduce your Hampton aid once you reach that cap, and unreported aid can be reduced or cancelled.

See sources and other schools

How Hampton compares

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

    Hampton 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.

    Hampton 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 Hampton’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

Keep exploring Hampton merit aid

The next chapter

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