Eastern Pennsylvania LAC that combines a tight Marquis/Cur Non merit ladder (half- to full-tuition, plus a $17,500-$31,500 broad band) with a meet-full-need promise and one of the cleanest no-displacement outside-scholarship policies published anywhere.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago· CB-1
The short answer
Is Lafayette worth a closer look?
Lafayette may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers3See who qualifies
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.
Full tuition
Marquis Fellowship
Apply separatelyCan continue
GPA
3.00 minimum for renewal
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
All applicants automatically considered; selection based on the academic record prior to enrolling at Lafayette. Admissions interview encouraged. No additional application required.
How to keep it
Renewable annually for up to 8 semesters of full-time study with cumulative 3.00 GPA
Notes
Lafayette's top-tier merit award. ED applicants are considered but the college flags that students for whom merit is critical should apply RD.
All applicants automatically considered; selection based on academic record, curriculum, grades, rank, and optional standardized test scores. Curious-engagement and community-impact signals are weighted alongside grades.
How to keep it
Renewable annually for up to 8 semesters of full-time study; specific GPA contract not published — confirm renewal terms in writing.
Notes
The broad-band award — most non-Marquis merit recipients land somewhere on this ladder.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Lafayette's published information.
renewalMarquis Fellowship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable annually for up to 8 semesters of full-time study with cumulative 3.00 GPA A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
What families often miss
Lafayette explicitly cautions: 'If your enrollment here is critically dependent on being awarded a merit-based scholarship, you should apply under the Regular Decision option.' ED is binding, so a student admitted ED without the Marquis or Cur Non award they need is stuck. Apply RD to preserve the option to walk away.
Lafayette is one of the ~200 colleges that still require the CSS Profile alongside FAFSA for institutional need-based aid. Lafayette also uses the College Board's IDOC service for tax documents. FAFSA alone gets you federal aid but not the Lafayette institutional grant.
Cur Non Scholarships range from $17,500 to $31,500 per year — a $14,000 spread between the floor and ceiling, or $56,000 over four years. Lafayette does not publish a stat-to-dollar table within the range. Plan the family budget around the Cur Non floor until the actual award arrives.
Lafayette is one of the few LACs that publicly commits to not reducing institutional grant aid in response to outside scholarships. The only exception is when total aid would exceed federal maximum allowed financial aid. For families with significant outside scholarship potential (regional, employer, civic awards), this is meaningfully more valuable than at peer schools that follow a grant-first displacement policy.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Academically strong students who want a small Pennsylvania LAC with both real merit and meet-full-need aid; especially attractive to families under $200,000 income (class of 2028 onward) who qualify for Lafayette's loan-reduction initiative and want freedom to stack outside scholarships without losing institutional grant.
Cost of attendance$90,358 for 2025-2026Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
On-campus$90,358
$68K
$21K
Tuition & fees
Housing & food
Books
Travel
Personal
Loan fees
Federal COA, First-Year/Entering Students 2025-2026. Tuition & fees combines tuition ($66,496), activity fee ($360), matriculation fee ($750).
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Lafayette, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Lafayette, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$12,716
$30,001–$48,000
$7,445
$48,001–$75,000
$10,881
$75,001–$110,000
$12,581
$110,001+
$52,608
All income levels (average)
$34,433
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$65,398
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$34,433
That works out to roughly a 59% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $83,133 (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
88%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
90%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$16,000 (~$170/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$91,410
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
14%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
20%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Lafayette explicitly does not displace institutional grant aid in response to outside scholarships, except when total aid would exceed federal limits — one of the most stacker-friendly published policies among LACs of this tier.
Per Lafayette's published FAQ, the college encourages outside scholarships and does not reduce need-based grant funding in response, with the only exception being when total aid would push a student above federal maximum allowed financial aid. Outside scholarships should be reported via the Report Outside Scholarships form.
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
AmountEliminates or lowers loan burden for students from families with incomes under $200,000EligibilityClass of 2028 and forward. Awarded as part of the need-based aid package; requires CSS Profile and FAFSA.
Lafayette publishes three named merit awards: the Marquis Fellowship (full tuition), the Marquis Scholarship (half tuition), and the Cur Non Scholarship ($17,500-$31,500 per year). All applicants are automatically considered with no separate application required. All three are renewable for up to 8 semesters with a 3.00 cumulative GPA.
Does Lafayette meet full demonstrated need?
Yes. Lafayette is one of approximately 100 U.S. colleges that guarantees to meet the full demonstrated financial need of admitted students who submit the CSS Profile, FAFSA, and IDOC tax documents by the appropriate deadlines. Need-based aid is reviewed and re-awarded each academic year.
Will outside scholarships reduce my Lafayette aid?
Generally no. Lafayette's published policy is that the College does not reduce need-based grant funding in response to outside scholarships unless a student is already receiving the maximum amount of financial aid according to federal regulations. This is one of the most generous published outside-scholarship policies among LACs of this tier.
Is the Marquis Fellowship harder to get if I apply Early Decision?
Lafayette says all ED I, ED II, and RD applicants are considered for merit, and merit awards are noted in the acceptance letter. But the College explicitly warns: if merit is critical to your enrollment, apply RD. ED is binding, so a student who needs a specific award level should not lock themselves in before that award is known.
Does Lafayette have a no-loan or low-loan policy?
Yes, beginning with the class of 2028. Lafayette is among a small number of top colleges and universities eliminating or lowering the loan burden of students from families with incomes under $200,000. The mechanics are folded into the need-based aid package — apply with the CSS Profile and FAFSA by the deadlines.
See sources and other schools+
How Lafayette compares
14 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use no-displacement displacement.
Lafayette is in the small minority (14 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
667 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Lafayette 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 Lafayette’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
