Lees-McRae College · North Carolina

Lees-McRae Merit Aid

Verified Jul 202625 days ago· HX-AUTO

Merit tiers41 automatic on stats

Last verifiedJul 2026Analyst HX-AUTO

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Checking merit aid at Lees-McRae

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The merit-aid verdict at Lees-McRae

Lees-McRae offers merit awards across academics, athletics, and specialized programs for students who thrive in a close-knit mountain community.

Who this school is for

Students seeking a smaller campus environment with strong programs in the humanities or performing arts will find dedicated scholarship pathways here.

Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $59,230 for 2026-2027. Source

Federal cost and outcome data

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

Average annual net price by family income at Lees-McRae, academic year 2021-22
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$23,030
$30,001–$48,000	$22,733
$48,001–$75,000	$25,905
$75,001–$110,000	$28,854
$110,001+	$33,664
All income levels (average)	$28,340

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23: $33,250
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $28,340

That works out to roughly a 43% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $49,498 (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: 42%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 69%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $17,375 (~$184/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $43,415
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 31%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 65%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not Lees-McRae's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not Lees-McRae's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

Institutional merit aid tiers

Every tier below is sourced to the school’s own published financial aid pages. Renewal terms apply only if the student maintains the stated GPA.

Amount not published

Athletic Scholarship

Application

Source

$6,000–$15,000

Academic Merit Scholarship

AutomaticRenewable

Source

Amount not published

Sam And Mary Hart Endowed Scholarship

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Renewal terms

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$2,000

Presbyterian Scholarship

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Renewal terms

Maintain 2.5 GPA

Source

Lesser-known scholarships at Lees-McRae

Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.

Shelton Scholarship

Amount$130,000+EligibilityThe Shelton Scholarship provides full tuition and room and board to one student selected during Scholars Day; qualified students must have at least a 3.75 GPA and 1150 SAT score or ACT equivalent and agree to be active members of the Honors Program, and the scholarship is valued at more than $130,000 over four years.

Source

Theatre Arts Scholarships

Amount$1,000–$5,000EligibilityTheatre Arts Scholarships are available to students interested in all areas of theatre arts, range from $1,000–$5,000, and require an audition or interview.

Source

Humanities Scholarship

Amount$2,000EligibilityThe Lees-McRae Humanities Scholarship provides $2,000 to selected incoming undergraduate main campus students planning to major in English, history, or religious studies; it is renewable with good academic standing, a minimum 3.0 GPA, and a declared humanities major, and is stackable with other institutional aid.

Source

How Lees-McRae compares across our verified dataset

668 of 750 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Lees-McRae 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 Lees-McRae’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

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Keep exploring Lees-McRae merit aid

Lees-McRae four-year renewal rules — GPA floors, credit-hour pace, and the renewal cliffs that knock awards out by sophomore year.