Henderson awards automatic GPA-only academic scholarships (no test score required) on separate grids for on-campus residents, commuters, and transfers — but commuters receive about half what residents get, and only the test-gated Distinguished award reaches full tuition.
Verified Jun 20263 months ago
The short answer
Is Henderson State worth a closer look?
Henderson State 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 checkedJun 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.
Full tuition
Distinguished Freshman Scholarship
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
GPA
4.0 weighted or unweighted
SAT
SAT equivalent of ACT 26
ACT
26+ (or SAT equivalent)
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
First-time freshman, living on campus track. The only freshman award that requires a test score. U.S. citizens only (non-U.S. citizens/international students are not eligible).
How to keep it
Renewable academic scholarship (scholarship-specific renewal GPA not published on these pages; federal SAP requires a 2.0 cumulative GPA). Recipients also receive automatic admission to the Honors College.
Notes
Top award — full tuition (not full cost of attendance). Deadline February 1. Same 4.0 GPA without the 26 ACT maps instead to the Chancellor award ($6,000).
$1,000-$2,500 per semester…$1,000-$2,500 per semester (escalates by class level)
Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship (state)
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Arkansas residents (state lottery scholarship program); available to new, current, first-time, or re-enrolling students. Separate state application/eligibility through the Arkansas Academic Challenge Program.
How to keep it
Continues by class level: Freshman $1,000/semester, Sophomore $2,000/semester, Junior $2,000/semester, Senior $2,500/semester (traditional). Non-traditional amounts step by earned hours.
Notes
State award hosted at Henderson; the freshman-year amount ($1,000/semester) is the lowest, increasing in later years.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Henderson State's published information.
Aid capHard $28,272 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Henderson State cannot push the package past $28,272. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
What families often miss
Commuter amounts are about half the residential amounts at every GPA band (e.g., a 4.0 Chancellor is $6,000 on campus but $3,000 as a commuter), and the full-tuition Distinguished award is not available to commuters.
Full tuition (Distinguished) requires a 4.0 GPA AND a 26+ ACT/SAT equivalent and a February 1 deadline; a 4.0 without the test score maps to the Chancellor award ($6,000 on campus).
The page states non-U.S. citizens and international students are not eligible for admissions academic scholarships.
The Academic Challenge award is only $1,000/semester in the freshman year and steps up to $2,000 and then $2,500/semester in later years.
Except for the Distinguished award, the academic scholarships are determined by GPA only (weighted or unweighted) with no test score required.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Test-optional applicants who can lean on GPA: a 4.0 with a 26 ACT lands full tuition and Honors admission, while strong-GPA students living on campus get materially more than commuters.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $28,272 for 2025-2026. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Henderson State, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Henderson State, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$23,386
$30,001–$48,000
$23,208
$48,001–$75,000
$25,051
All income levels (average)
$23,405
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$8,244
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$10,620
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$23,405
That works out to roughly a 15% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $27,385 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Henderson State 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
37%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
62%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$19,500 (~$207/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$43,459
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
66%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
53%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
No specific institutional stacking/displacement policy was published on the pages reviewed. The financial-aid pages state only that the federally defined Cost of Attendance sets the maximum total aid (loans, grants, scholarships, fee-waivers) a student may receive.
The Costs & Fees page explains that Cost of Attendance 'is used by the school to determine the maximum amount of financial aid (loans, grants, scholarships, fee-waivers, etc.) a student may receive for that award year.' No rule specific to how private/outside scholarships displace Henderson awards was found.
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
AmountAmount not published (varies by donor award)EligibilityApply annually; funded by private donors, alumni, faculty, staff, organizations, corporations
AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityAll HSU students (music and non-music majors); audition required (Instrumental/Band, Vocal/Choral, Keyboard, String)
The Distinguished Freshman Scholarship has a February 1 deadline; other academic scholarships are evaluated automatically from your admission GPA.
Do I need an ACT or SAT score?
No, except for the Distinguished Freshman Scholarship (which requires a 26+ ACT or SAT equivalent). All other academic scholarships are based on weighted or unweighted cumulative high school GPA with no test score required.
Are the scholarship amounts different for commuters?
Yes. On-campus residents receive higher amounts than commuters at each GPA band, and only on-campus students are eligible for the full-tuition Distinguished award.
See sources and other schools+
How Henderson State compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Henderson State 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.
Henderson State 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 Henderson State’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
