Lees-McRae College · North Carolina

Lees-McRae scholarships and merit aid

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

Verified Jun 20263 months ago

The short answer

Is Lees-McRae worth a closer look?

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

Merit tiers51 based on grades or scores

Research checkedJun 2026By our research team

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Checking merit aid at Lees-McRae

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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.

Amount not published

Athletic Scholarship

Apply separately

Source

$6,000–$15,000

Academic Merit Scholarship

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

Source

Amount not published

Sam And Mary Hart Endowed Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$2,000

Presbyterian Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 2.5 GPA

Source

Full tuition

Elizabeth Mcrae Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

See what could change an award

Straight from the aid office

What Lees-McRae's aid office says

Per the Financial Aid Office, Lees-McRae College, August 2026. How we verify

Full-time enrollment requirement

How many credit hours must a student take to maintain aid eligibility?

Students must typically maintain full-time enrollment of 12 or more credit hours per semester.

“Typically, students must maintain full-time enrollment (12 or more credit hours per semester) and maintain SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress), which includes maintaining at least a 3.0 GPA and academic program pace.”

Institutional award (e.g. honors) obligations

Are there extra requirements for institutional awards like the honors award?

Students awarded certain institutional awards, such as the honors award, must maintain participation in the program and meet the academic/social responsibilities set by the program coordinator.

“If a student is awarded certain institutional awards, such as the honors award, they must maintain their participation in the program and the needed academic/social responsibilities outlined by the program coordinator.”

Award-specific obligations vary by offer

Does every student get the same award obligations?

Such awards depend entirely on what is included in the student's individual aid offer.

“Again, those awards are dependent entirely on what the student is awarded when we create their aid offer.”

Program coordinator contact for award obligations

How will a student learn about their specific award obligations?

If offered such awards, the student will be connected with the proper program coordinator to understand the obligation tied to their participation.

“If a student is offered such awards, they will be connected with the proper program coordinator to better understand the obligation that may come with their participation.”

Steps to be considered for merit/athletic scholarships

What should a prospective student do first to be considered for scholarships?

The office advises completing the FAFSA and first being admitted to the college, after which Admissions typically awards merit and/or athletic scholarships, supplemented by federal/state need-based aid.

“The best thing we can advise now is to complete the FAFSA application, and first be admitted to the college. Admissions will typically award merit and/or athletic scholarships, which we will then supplement with any federal/state need-based aid.”

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

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

Published yearly cost: Approximately $59,230 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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.

See other scholarships and cost examples

Other Lees-McRae scholarships worth checking

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

Shelton Scholarship

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe 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

See sources and other schools

How Lees-McRae compares

665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Lees-McRae 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 Lees-McRae’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Cost of attendanceLees-McRae cost-of-attendance worksheet
Merit tiersAthletic Scholarship

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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.