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Loyola Chicago scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$73,270per year · 2025-2026 · On-campus
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

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

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
3 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. Presidential / Damen / Loyola / Trustee / Dean / Regent's Scholarships$14,000–$31,000 per year (Fall 2025 entering class, last verified range); awarded by tier with the tier name announced on the admission letter.AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Presidential / Damen / Loyola / Trustee / Dean / Regent's Scholarships

    $14,000–$31,000 per year (Fall 2025 entering class, last verified range); awarded by tier with the tier name announced on the admission letter.

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

    Start with the award’s published eligibility.

    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Presidential / Damen / Loyola / Trustee / Dean / Regent's Scholarships

    Who qualifies

    All six tiers are awarded as part of the admission decision based on academic achievement. No separate application. Loyola recommends submitting the admission application by December 1 to ensure admission by the February 1 cutoff for scholarship consideration. Restricted to full-time undergraduates pursuing their first bachelor's degree; second-bachelor's students are ineligible.

    How to keep it

    Tuition-restricted awards renewable as outlined in the admission letter. Standard renewal contingent on maintaining required GPA each year.

    Worth knowing

    Loyola Chicago publishes a single range, not stat-banded tier-by-tier cutoffs. The specific tier (Presidential at the top through Regent's at the bottom) is decided by the admission committee.

Lights up against Loyola Chicago'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

Outside awardsDifferent aid types are displaced differently

Loyola Chicago treats loans, work-study, and institutional grant under different rules. The same $5,000 outside award can land against any of them depending on category.

What makes Loyola Chicago different

Jesuit university in Chicago with six named merit tiers (Presidential, Damen, Loyola, Trustee, Dean, Regent's) automatically awarded at admission. The range published for Fall 2025 entrants is $14,000 to $31,000 per year — all tuition-restricted.

Merit tiers11 based on grades or scores
First-year students with school awards32%First-year students, CDS 2025-2026 (school-estimated)
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

Published academic criteria

Start with the thresholds.

These awards are recorded as automatic on academic criteria. Match the published grades and scores, then check residency, entering year and every additional condition.

  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 Loyola Chicago'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. Loyola's merit scholarships are tuition-restricted, which means the moment the merit award plus a tuition-restricted outside scholarship exceeds tuition, Loyola reduces the institutional merit first. Outside awards that are not tuition-restricted are governed by federal need-based rules instead.

  2. Loyola does not publish a separate scholarship deadline — but it tells applicants explicitly that 'freshmen should be admitted no later than February 1 for scholarship consideration,' which means the admission application should reach the Undergraduate Admission Office by December 1 to leave time for review.

  3. Loyola's main scholarships page publishes a wider range — $14,000 to $31,000 per year (Fall 2025, last verified) — covering all six tiers including Dean's and Regent's. Families looking only at the admissions marketing page underestimate the floor by $6,000.

See award cutoffs and special programs

Presidential Scholarship — Loyola Chicago's top automatic tier

The Presidential Scholarship sits at the top of Loyola Chicago's six-tier merit ladder. The full ladder — Presidential, Damen, Loyola, Trustee, Dean, Regent's — is awarded automatically based on the admission application, with no separate scholarship essay or interview. Loyola publishes a single award range of $14,000 to $31,000 per year for Fall 2025 entrants and does not disclose the GPA or test-score thresholds that move an applicant from Regent's to Presidential. The decision is holistic. To be in the running, the completed admission application should reach Loyola by December 1, because the university needs to issue an admission decision by February 1 to load the scholarship onto the offer letter.

Source

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students looking for a mid-sized urban Jesuit campus where merit aid is competitive but fully automatic on the admission application — no separate scholarship essay. December 1 application is the practical deadline because Loyola needs to issue admission decisions by February 1 to put scholarships on the offer letter.

Cost of attendance$73,270 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$73,270
  • Tuition & fees
  • Housing & food

Official LUC Bursar 2025-2026 tuition ($54,530) + mandatory full-time fees (Student Development $475 + Technology $130 + CTA U-Pass $160 per semester x2 = $1,530). Housing from official Res Life 2025-2026 rates (https://www.luc.edu/reslife/futureresidents/roomboardrates/2025-2026rates/) standard first-year double (de Nobili) $10,950/yr; board from official 2025-2026 meal plans (https://www.luc.edu/campuscard/mealplans/non-residentmealplans/2025-2026mealplans/) lowest required All-Access plan (5-Day #1) $3,130/sem x2. Billed-only.

Loyola Chicago cost-of-attendance source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at Loyola Chicago, academic year 2021-22
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$28,992
$30,001–$48,000$28,663
$48,001–$75,000$32,432
$75,001–$110,000$36,853
$110,001+$42,346
All income levels (average)$36,079

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$53,710
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$36,079

That works out to roughly a 46% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $67,408 (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
73%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
82%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$24,157 (~$256/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$71,530
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
32%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
49%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

Loyola Chicago documents both a tuition-cap rule for merit (outside + merit scholarship cannot exceed tuition; merit is reduced first) and a need-based rule (private scholarships may reduce need-based aid, with loans and work-study cut before grants per federal regulations).

Loyola's merit aid is tuition-restricted, which triggers a hard tuition cap when combined with outside tuition-restricted scholarships — the institutional merit award is reduced first to keep the total at or below tuition. Separately, for federally-monitored need-based aid, receipt of a private scholarship may reduce need-based aid; in that case Loyola reduces self-help (work-study and loans) before federal or institutional gift assistance. Students must submit an Outside Scholarship Notification Form to the Financial Aid Office.

Source

More school data

From the Loyola Chicago Common Data Set 2025-2026 (school-estimated figures):

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Loyola Chicago’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
32%of admitsget merit
Average award$27,362Covers ~37% of $73,270 cost of attendance

At Loyola Chicago, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $27,362 — about 37% of total cost.

As filed in Loyola Chicago's CDS Section H2A: of 2,605 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 842 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $27,362. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 4,139 of 11,120, averaging $24,260. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

The 2025-2026 column is marked "estimated" in the school's own CDS filing — school-projected figures, not final audited counts.

Receive institutional merit32%First-year students, Common Data Set 2025-2026 (school-estimated)
Average merit award$27,362Across recipients, Common Data Set 2025-2026 (school-estimated)

Source: Common Data Set 2025-2026 (verified 2026-07-23)

Loyola Chicago merit aid FAQ

  • Do I need a separate application for Loyola Chicago's merit scholarships?

    No. Loyola states that scholarships are awarded based on information provided in the admission application process — with no separate scholarship application. All six tiers (Presidential, Damen, Loyola, Trustee, Dean, Regent's) are awarded through the admission decision.

  • What are the actual merit scholarship amounts?

    For Fall 2025 entrants (the last range verified on the public scholarship page), Loyola publishes a range of $14,000 to $31,000 per year. The six tier names (Presidential at the top, Regent's at the bottom) are not paired with specific stat cutoffs publicly — the admissions committee assigns the tier based on overall academic achievement.

  • When do I need to apply by?

    Loyola states: 'Because freshmen should be admitted no later than February 1 for scholarship consideration, the completed application should be sent to the Undergraduate Admission Office by December 1.' Transfer students must be admitted by June 1.

  • Can outside scholarships stack on top of my Loyola merit?

    Up to a tuition cap, yes. Loyola's rule states that 'In the event a student receives both internal and external scholarship funding which is restricted to tuition only and the total amount exceeds tuition, the merit-based scholarship will be adjusted first.' Below the tuition cap, outside awards layer cleanly; above it, your Loyola merit shrinks.

  • Can I keep the merit scholarship while studying abroad?

    Generally yes for affiliated programs like the John Felice Rome Center. For non-affiliated study abroad, Loyola says students 'forfeit scholarship eligibility for the term(s) away.' Check directly with the Financial Aid Office before committing to a non-Loyola program — that semester may cost you a full term of merit aid.

See sources and other schools

How Loyola Chicago compares

  • 32 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use mixed displacement.

    Loyola Chicago is in the small minority (32 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.

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

Compare with similar schools

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