DRAFT: MACU publishes its 2026 freshman/transfer merit tables only as image flipbooks, but posts clear flat-dollar affiliation awards (Church of God leadership, pastor-family, church-match, alumni-referral) — each around $1,000-$6,000 a year with explicit no-stacking pairs and a tuition-and-fees cap on the Alumni award.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is MACU worth a closer look?
MACU may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers5See 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.
Amount not published…Amount not published (table posted only as an image flipbook)
Traditional Freshman Scholarships (2026 Scholarship Table)
Apply separately
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
MACU links a '2026 Scholarship Table - Traditional Freshman' (published May 18, 2026, per the hosting page) from its scholarships page; the table's contents are images and could not be machine-read — request the table from admissions
Notes
Institutional scholarships are only available for students taking traditional 16-week classes (per the financial-aid page).
New, incoming College of Arts and Science students referred by a GBC, MBC, or MACU alumnus via the Alumni Scholarship Referral Form; full-time degree-seeking; student-athletes may not be eligible; not available to international students (they get the International Match Scholarship, up to $2,000)
How to keep it
Valid for up to 4 years (8 semesters); students must complete 12 hours with a GPA of 2.0 or above during their first 12 hours or 'no scholarship being awarded.'
Notes
Tuition-and-fees only: 'cannot be stacked with any other institutional scholarship that exceeds the cost of tuition and fees.'
3SLI: completed the Tri-Level Student Leadership Institute. State/National: serve on a state Student Leadership Planning Team or the National Student Leadership Planning Team.
Notes
Each page states the two awards 'cannot be stacked' with each other — a student qualifying for both still gets only $2,000/year.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from MACU's published information.
Outside awardsNo published displacement order
MACU's policy doesn't specify whether outside scholarships hit loans, grants, or only the COA ceiling. Get a written aid-office answer before chasing private awards.
What families often miss
MACU states each 'cannot be stacked' with the other — qualifying for both still yields one $2,000/year award.
The Alumni Scholarship 'is to only assist in covering tuition and fees and cannot be stacked with any other institutional scholarship that exceeds the cost of tuition and fees' — it cannot push total institutional aid above billed tuition + fees, and cannot be redeemed for cash.
Per the Alumni Scholarship page, 'Student-athletes may not be eligible,' and per the financial-aid page, 'Institutional scholarships are only available for students taking traditional 16-week classes' — accelerated evening/online students are excluded.
The Alumni Scholarship requires completing 12 hours with a 2.0+ GPA 'during their first 12 hours. Failure to meet these requirements will result in no scholarship being awarded.'
The 2026 freshman/transfer merit tables are posted only as image flipbooks on a third-party host (Issuu) and are not readable as text — get the current table and your exact tier in writing from an admissions counselor.
Per MACU's aid page: SEOG requires FAFSA by March 1; OTAG FAFSA 'as soon as possible after Oct. 1 and at the latest completed by Dec. 1'; OTEG by March 15 (fall) / Oct. 15 (spring). MACU's FAFSA priority date is two weeks before each start date.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
DRAFT: Best fits Church of God-connected students (pastor's kids, 3SLI grads, churches that partner) and students with an alumni referral; pure academic-merit amounts must be pulled from MACU's image-based 2026 tables or an admissions counselor.
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at MACU, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at MACU, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$14,517
$30,001–$48,000
$15,027
$48,001–$75,000
$15,646
$75,001–$110,000
$20,665
$110,001+
$24,590
All income levels (average)
$16,692
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Total cost of attendance (sticker), AY 2021-22
$31,313
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$21,294
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$16,692
That works out to an average 47% discount off the sticker price above — both figures come from the same federal AY 2021-22 Scorecard report, not a number the school itself published.
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
44%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
65%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$26,394 (~$280/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$46,116
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
59%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
45%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
The school does not publish a specific outside-scholarship displacement policy; confirm treatment with the aid office before counting on stacking.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): [Alumni Scholarship] cannot be stacked with any other institutional scholarship that exceeds the cost of tuition and fees. Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: MACU publishes pairwise no-stacking rules (3SLI vs State/National Leadership) and a tuition-and-fees cap on the Alumni Scholarship ('cannot be stacked with any other institutional scholarship that exceeds the cost of tuition and fees'). (per https://www.macu.edu/prospective-student/scholarships/alumni-scholarship/)
MACU posts no single merit deadline; its FAFSA priority filing date is 'two weeks prior to each start date.' State/federal grant deadlines on the aid page: SEOG — FAFSA by March 1; OTAG — by Dec. 1 (file soon after Oct. 1); OTEG — March 15 for fall, Oct. 15 for spring. 'Scholarship dollars go fast,' per MACU — file early.
Where are the freshman merit scholarship amounts?
In the '2026 Scholarship Table - Traditional Freshman' and the transfer equivalent, linked from macu.edu but hosted as image flipbooks on Issuu. The amounts could not be extracted as text for this draft — request the table from admissions (405-692-3281).
What Church of God awards exist?
MAP (up to $6,000/yr for future CHOG pastors), V2G ($1,500/semester via a church covenant), Church Match (up to $1,000/yr), CHOG Pastor/Staff ($2,000/yr), and 3SLI or State/National Leadership ($2,000/yr, not stackable with each other).
Do online students get institutional scholarships?
No — 'Institutional scholarships are only available for students taking traditional 16-week classes.' Accelerated evening/online students are pointed to an external scholarship list instead.
See sources and other schools+
How MACU compares
133 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
MACU is in a recognizable cluster (133 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
133 of 749 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.
MACU is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
MACU 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 MACU’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
