North Carolina Central University · North Carolina
NCCU scholarships and merit aid
An HBCU whose flagship Cheatham-White Scholarship is a fully funded, four-year, full-cost-of-attendance award (open to non-residents), backed by fixed-amount Chancellor's Cycle of Success scholarships awarded on GPA with no test scores required. DRAFT.
Verified Jun 20263 months ago
The short answer
Is NCCU worth a closer look?
NCCU may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers4See who qualifies
Research checkedJun 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.
Full ride…Full ride (full cost of attendance: full tuition and fees, housing, meals, textbooks, a laptop, travel, and personal expenses) plus four funded summers
Cheatham-White Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
GPA
Minimum weighted or unweighted cumulative GPA of 4.0 or higher
SAT
Optional: minimum SAT 1280 (test scores OPTIONAL for 2026-2027; superscores accepted)
ACT
Optional: minimum ACT 28 (test scores OPTIONAL for the Cheatham-White for 2026-2027; superscores accepted)
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
Admitted as a freshman in the fall into a baccalaureate program; U.S. citizen or permanent resident; on course to graduate HS the spring prior; exceptional character/leadership; significant extracurricular involvement; strong commitment to service. Requires nomination (by a HS administrator or self-nomination) then an application. Applicants do NOT have to be NC residents.
How to keep it
Renewed annually contingent on: minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 annually; enroll full time each semester and earn a minimum of 30 credit hours each academic year; maintain membership and active participation in the University Honors Program.
Notes
Fully funded four-year award covering full cost of attendance (not merely full tuition). Scholar performance averages cited on the program page (4.42 GPA, 28.8 ACT, 1322 SAT) are AVERAGES of selected scholars, not minimum cutoffs.
Chancellor's Cycle of Success Scholarship — Soaring Eagle
Apply separatelyCan continue
GPA
Awarded based on entering students' cumulative GPA (specific GPA band for each level not published)
SAT
Test scores are not required
ACT
Test scores are not required
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
New first-time entering undergraduate students who have exemplified academic excellence.
How to keep it
Renewal terms not stated on the award-levels page.
Notes
Highest of three GPA-based levels. The page states awards are based on cumulative GPA with test scores not required; whether placement is fully automatic or requires a separate application is not fully clear from the pages opened (a 'how to apply / selection guidelines' page was not opened).
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from NCCU's published information.
Renewal ruleCheatham-White Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewed annually contingent on: minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 annually; enroll full time each semester and earn a minimum of 30 credit hours each academic year; maintain membership and active participation in the University Honors Program. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
Aid capHard $29,776 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at NCCU cannot push the package past $29,776. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
What families often miss
A student cannot complete a Cheatham-White application until the nomination process is complete (nominated by a HS administrator or self-nomination via the Eagle Promise Portal), and must be fully admitted to NCCU by the deadline.
For 2026-2027: nomination forms due November 1, 2025; application materials due November 26, 2025 (extended); finalist notification January 15, 2026; Eagle Scholars Day/interviews February 21, 2026; final notification March 23, 2026.
The Cheatham-White minimum is a 4.0 weighted or unweighted GPA (test scores optional for 2026-2027, min SAT 1280/ACT 28 if submitted). The published 4.42 GPA / 28.8 ACT / 1322 SAT are averages of selected scholars, not requirements.
It renews only if you keep a 3.5 cumulative GPA, earn at least 30 credit hours each year (full-time each semester), AND maintain active membership in the University Honors Program — failing any one ends the scholarship.
The Chancellor's Cycle of Success amounts are fixed at $7,500 (Soaring Eagle), $3,500 (Rising Eagle), or $2,500 (Eagle-In-Flight) — not full tuition or full cost of attendance.
COA is the maximum total of grants, scholarships, work assistance, and loans a student may receive for the enrollment period, so additional awards can be reduced once total aid reaches COA.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Exceptional scholars (4.0+ GPA, leadership and service) chasing the full-ride Cheatham-White, and strong-GPA freshmen who want an automatic-style GPA-based Chancellor's award without test scores. DRAFT.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $29,776 for 2026-2027. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at NCCU, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at NCCU, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$13,032
$30,001–$48,000
$13,882
$48,001–$75,000
$17,527
$75,001–$110,000
$22,401
$110,001+
$23,658
All income levels (average)
$15,359
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$6,699
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$19,735
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$15,359
That works out to roughly a 42% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $26,556 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
NCCU 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
42%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
73%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$28,250 (~$299/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$42,968
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
74%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
72%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Cost of attendance reflects the maximum total of grants, scholarships, work assistance, and loans a student may receive for the enrollment period; need is COA − SAI − Other Financial Assistance.
The Applying for Aid page defines COA as the maximum amount of financial assistance a student may receive and uses COA − SAI − OFA = Need. No specific policy on how private/outside scholarships displace institutional merit awards was found on the pages opened.
For 2026-2027: nominations due November 1, 2025; application materials due November 26, 2025 (deadline extended); finalists notified January 15, 2026; Eagle Scholars Day February 21, 2026; final decisions March 23, 2026. You must be fully admitted to NCCU and nominated to apply.
Do I have to be a North Carolina resident for the Cheatham-White?
No. Applicants do not have to be residents of North Carolina.
Are test scores required?
For the Cheatham-White, test scores are optional for 2026-2027 (min SAT 1280/ACT 28 if submitted; superscores accepted) with a 4.0 GPA minimum. The Chancellor's Cycle of Success scholarships are awarded on cumulative GPA with test scores not required.
How much does NCCU cost?
For the Fall 2026-Spring 2027 estimated cost of attendance, an N.C.-resident on-campus undergraduate total is $29,776 (tuition & fees $6,932); a non-resident on-campus total is $43,212 (tuition & fees $20,360).
See sources and other schools+
How NCCU compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
NCCU is in a recognizable cluster (235 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.
NCCU 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 NCCU’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
