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MSU Billings scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$26,506per year · 2025-2026 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

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

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
5 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. Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship — University Campus$1,000-$3,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship — University Campus

    $1,000-$3,000 per year

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

    GPA
    Unweighted HS GPA: Tier 1 = 3.95 and above ($3,000); Tier 2 = 3.949-3.65 ($2,000); Tier 3 = 3.649-2.85 ($1,000)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship — University Campus

    Who qualifies

    First-time, full-time, degree-seeking students seeking their first associate or bachelor's degree. GED 165-200 and HiSET 75-100 score equivalents accepted. Not deferrable.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for two or four years. Students must maintain continuous full-time enrollment (12 semester hours at the University Campus) during Fall and Spring and maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA (evaluated at the end of each Spring semester).

    Worth knowing

    Fully automatic based on unweighted high school GPA — no scholarship application required. Apply for admission and submit official high school transcripts. The base tier reaches down to a 2.85 GPA, which is a notably low floor. City College amounts are lower (see separate tier).

  2. Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship — City College$500-$1,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship — City College

    $500-$1,000 per year

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

    GPA
    Unweighted HS GPA: Tier 1 = 3.95 and above ($1,000); Tier 2 = 3.949-3.65 ($500); Tier 3 (3.649-2.85) = N/A (no award at City College)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship — City College

    Who qualifies

    First-time, full-time, degree-seeking students seeking their first associate or bachelor's degree. GED/HiSET equivalents accepted. Not deferrable.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for two or four years. Students must maintain continuous enrollment (9 semester hours at City College) during Fall and Spring and maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA (evaluated at the end of each Spring semester).

    Worth knowing

    City College awards are smaller than University Campus and the lowest GPA tier (3.649-2.85) earns nothing at City College. Automatic on unweighted HS GPA; no scholarship application required.

  3. Chancellor's Excellence AwardAmount not published on the award pageNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Chancellor's Excellence Award

    Amount not published on the award page

    Published award termsNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA OR
    SAT
    1240
    ACT
    26 composite OR
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Chancellor's Excellence Award

    Who qualifies

    New incoming freshman from an accredited high school; full-time, pursuing a Bachelor's degree; demonstrate leadership and a record of school/community service; three letters of recommendation; signed declaration to complete a four-year degree; essay responses and unofficial transcript for qualified applicants. Finalists undergo mandatory interviews.

    How to keep it

    Renewable up to four academic years (or until completion of the Bachelor's degree) for recipients who continue to meet the continuation/renewal qualifications, provided funding is available.

    Worth knowing

    Competitive, not automatic — qualification (3.5 GPA OR ACT 26 OR SAT 1240) only gets you considered; finalists interview. The award page does NOT publish a dollar amount, so no figure is asserted here. Firm deadline of February 1st. You are automatically considered based on a completed General Application.

  4. Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) reduced tuitionReduced non-resident tuition & fees of $10,480/yr (vs $7,690 resident) — not a scholarship dollar awardNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) reduced tuition

    Reduced non-resident tuition & fees of $10,480/yr (vs $7,690 resident) — not a scholarship dollar award

    Published coverage or packageNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Must meet non-Montana resident admissions standards (no separate GPA published on WUE page)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) reduced tuition

    Who qualifies

    Residents of AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, NV, NM, ND, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY (and CNMI). Working toward first undergraduate degree. Apply for admission to be considered.

    How to keep it

    Tuition-rate benefit, not a cash award; continues while the student remains eligible and works toward their first undergraduate degree.

    Worth knowing

    WUE is a reduced-TUITION program (WICHE), not a scholarship that pays cash. The $10,480 vs $7,690 figures are 2025-2026 estimated University Campus tuition & fees at 12+ credits. Not stackable as 'extra money' — it lowers the bill instead.

Lights up against MSU Billings'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

Renewal ruleYellowjacket Excellence Scholarship — University Campus: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

Renewable for two or four years. Students must maintain continuous full-time enrollment (12 semester hours at the University Campus) during Fall and Spring and maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA (evaluated at the end of each Spring semester). A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

Outside awardsNo published displacement order

MSU Billings'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 makes MSU Billings different

MSU Billings gives every admitted freshman an automatic, GPA-based Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship of $1,000-$3,000/year at the University Campus (with three GPA tiers down to a 2.85), and competitive students can layer the renewable Chancellor's Excellence Award on top, though that award publishes no dollar figure.

Merit tiers42 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

More than one award path

Separate the two paths.

Some awards use published academic thresholds. Others have different selection criteria. A score chart does not describe every award at this school.

  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 MSU Billings'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. Those numbers only qualify you to be considered. It is a competitive award — finalists undergo mandatory interviews and must submit three letters of recommendation, an essay, and a signed four-year-degree declaration by the firm February 1st deadline.

  2. City College Yellowjacket Excellence amounts are lower ($500-$1,000 vs $1,000-$3,000), and the lowest GPA tier (3.649-2.85) earns N/A — no award at all — at City College.

  3. The full 2025-2026 University Campus cost of attendance for a Montana resident living on campus is $26,506 (direct + indirect costs). Off-campus students have an additional $2,704 added to Food & Housing in the COA that does not appear on the MSUB bill.

  4. WUE is a reduced-tuition rate ($10,480 vs the much higher non-resident rate), not a cash scholarship. It lowers your bill; it does not add a check on top of other aid.

  5. Yellowjacket Excellence renewal requires a 2.0 cumulative GPA (checked each Spring) and continuous enrollment of 12 semester hours (University Campus) / 9 (City College) each Fall and Spring. Miss either and the award does not renew; it is also not deferrable.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

In-state Montana and Western-state students who want a guaranteed, automatic GPA-based merit award at an affordable public university; the GPA floor is unusually low (2.85), so solid-but-not-top students still qualify for the base tier.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $26,506 for 2025-2026. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at MSU Billings, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$13,927
$30,001–$48,000$14,387
$48,001–$75,000$16,749
$75,001–$110,000$18,948
$110,001+$20,035
All income levels (average)$16,524

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$7,280
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$22,897
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$16,524

That works out to roughly a 18% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $20,054 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

MSU Billings is a public school; Scorecard's net price figure covers in-state, Title-IV-aid-recipient payers only — there is no comparable federal figure for out-of-state students.

Outcomes for students who enrolled here

Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
30%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
56%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$18,209 (~$193/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$44,296
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
41%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
44%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

No published institutional rule was found on msubillings.edu describing how outside (third-party) scholarships displace MSUB merit aid, or how the Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship interacts with the Chancellor's Excellence Award. The Yellowjacket Excellence and Chancellor's Excellence pages each describe their own award without a cross-stacking statement.

The merit pages state award amounts and renewal terms but contain no outside-scholarship displacement language. Whether a student can hold both the automatic Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship and the competitive Chancellor's Excellence Award simultaneously is not stated on either official page.

Source

Other MSU Billings scholarships worth checking

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

AmountNot publishedEligibilityNew incoming freshmen who are enrolled full-time and are Montana residents.

University Honors Program award; no dollar amount, GPA, or deadline published on the honors scholarships page. Applied for via the AcademicWorks portal.

Source

AmountNot publishedEligibilityNew incoming freshmen who are enrolled full-time and are Montana residents.

University Honors Program award; no dollar amount stated on the honors scholarships page.

Source

AmountNot publishedEligibilityNew students planning a course of study through the Honors Program.

No dollar amount stated; apply via AcademicWorks. Contact honors@msubillings.edu / 406.657.2059.

Source

Amount$200 book scholarships up to FULL TUITIONEligibilityNew and current MSUB students.

Single general application unlocks 500+ awards. Application opens December 1st for the 2026-2027 academic year. Over $1.8 million in scholarships awarded annually.

Source

MSU Billings merit aid FAQ

  • Do I have to apply separately for the Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship?

    No. It is fully automatic based on your unweighted high school GPA. Just apply for admission and submit your official high school transcripts to admissions@msubillings.edu; the award is assigned by GPA tier (University Campus $1,000-$3,000; City College $500-$1,000).

  • What GPA do I need to keep my scholarship?

    For Yellowjacket Excellence renewal you must maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA, evaluated at the end of each Spring semester, plus continuous full-time enrollment (12 credits University Campus / 9 City College). Awards are renewable for two or four years.

  • What is the deadline for the Chancellor's Excellence Award?

    The Chancellor's Excellence Award has a firm deadline of February 1st. You qualify with a 3.5 cumulative GPA OR an ACT composite of 26 OR an SAT of 1240, then compete (finalists interview). The award page does not publish a specific dollar amount.

  • Is the lowest GPA tier really 2.85?

    Yes — at the University Campus, a 3.649-2.85 unweighted HS GPA earns the $1,000 Tier 3 Yellowjacket Excellence award. At City College that same tier earns N/A (no award).

See sources and other schools

How MSU Billings compares

  • 133 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.

    MSU Billings 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.

    MSU Billings 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.

    MSU Billings 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 MSU Billings’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

Keep exploring MSU Billings merit aid

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