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NAU scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$33,707per year · 2026-2027 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

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

Where does your student land?

Verified Jun 2026
2 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. Freshman Tuition Scholarships — Arizona Residents$2,500-$11,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Freshman Tuition Scholarships — Arizona Residents

    $2,500-$11,000 per year

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

    GPA
    Unweighted HS core GPA: Lumberjack Scholars 3.75-4.0 = $11,000/yr; President's 3.5-3.74 = $9,000/yr; Dean's with Distinction 3.4-3.49 = $6,500/yr; Dean's 3.0-3.39 = $5,000/yr; Opportunity Admitted-2.99 = $2,500/yr
    SAT
    No test score required
    ACT
    No test score required
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Freshman Tuition Scholarships — Arizona Residents

    Who qualifies

    Automatically considered when you apply; first bachelor's degree; full-time (12+ credits) at Flagstaff or a statewide campus (not online); accept admission and pay enrollment fee; submit final HS transcripts. Tuition-only award.

    How to keep it

    Renews automatically for three additional years (up to 4 years / 8 semesters) as long as the student maintains at least a 2.0 cumulative NAU GPA and stays enrolled full-time (12+ credits).

    Worth knowing

    Automatic GPA grid on unweighted high-school CORE GPA. Four-year savings: $44,000 / $36,000 / $26,000 / $20,000 / $10,000.

  2. Freshman Tuition Scholarships — WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange)$4,500-$8,500 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Freshman Tuition Scholarships — WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange)

    $4,500-$8,500 per year

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

    GPA
    Unweighted HS core GPA: Excellence 3.75-4.0 = $8,500/yr; Gold 3.5-3.74 = $8,000/yr; Blue 3.0-3.49 = $7,000/yr; Opportunity Admitted-2.99 = $4,500/yr
    SAT
    No test score required
    ACT
    No test score required
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Freshman Tuition Scholarships — WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange)

    Who qualifies

    For students from a western WUE state. Tuition-only; Flagstaff or statewide campus (not online).

    How to keep it

    Renews automatically up to 4 years (8 semesters) with a 2.0+ cumulative NAU GPA and full-time enrollment.

    Worth knowing

    WUE grid stacks a reduced western-state tuition rate with the scholarship. Four-year savings: $34,000 / $32,000 / $28,000 / $18,000.

  3. Freshman Tuition Scholarships — Out-of-State (non-WUE)$10,000-$15,000 per year (Fall 2026)AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Freshman Tuition Scholarships — Out-of-State (non-WUE)

    $10,000-$15,000 per year (Fall 2026)

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

    GPA
    Unweighted HS core GPA: President's Excellence 3.5-4.0 = $15,000/yr; President's 3.0-3.49 = $12,000/yr; Opportunity Admitted-2.99 = $10,000/yr
    SAT
    No test score required
    ACT
    No test score required
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Freshman Tuition Scholarships — Out-of-State (non-WUE)

    Who qualifies

    For out-of-state students not eligible for WUE. Tuition-only; Flagstaff or statewide campus (not online). Amounts shown are for Fall 2026.

    How to keep it

    Renews automatically up to 4 years (8 semesters) with a 2.0+ cumulative NAU GPA and full-time enrollment.

    Worth knowing

    Largest dollar awards (because non-resident tuition is much higher). Four-year savings: $60,000 / $48,000 / $40,000.

  4. Access2Excellence (A2E)100% of tuitionNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Access2Excellence (A2E)

    100% of tuition

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

    Start with the award’s published eligibility.

    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Access2Excellence (A2E)

    Who qualifies

    Eligible Arizona residents with household income up to $65,000; OR any member of one of Arizona's 22 federally recognized tribes regardless of income or state of residency. Applies to Flagstaff and statewide campus students (not online).

    How to keep it

    Combination of funding including scholarships; renewal terms per A2E program (see Access2Excellence page).

    Worth knowing

    Need-based + tribal program that covers full tuition through a combination of aid. Not a stats grid.

Lights up against NAU'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 ruleFreshman Tuition Scholarships — Arizona Residents: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

Renews automatically for three additional years (up to 4 years / 8 semesters) as long as the student maintains at least a 2.0 cumulative NAU GPA and stays enrolled full-time (12+ credits). A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

Aid capHard $33,707 cost-of-attendance ceiling

Institutional aid at NAU cannot push the package past $33,707. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

What makes NAU different

NAU automatically awards large, renewable tuition scholarships on three separate unweighted-core-GPA grids — Arizona resident ($2,500-$11,000/yr), WUE ($4,500-$8,500/yr), and out-of-state non-WUE ($10,000-$15,000/yr) — plus Access2Excellence, which covers 100% of tuition for lower-income Arizonans and all members of Arizona's 22 tribes.

Merit tiers43 based on grades or scores
First-year students with school awards34%First-year students, CDS 2023-2024
Research checkedJun 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 NAU'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. These awards 'apply to tuition only' — they don't cover fees, housing, food, or other costs, and they can't be combined with other NAU tuition awards.

  2. Outside scholarships are allowed only 'as long as the total doesn't exceed tuition,' so a large private award can crowd out part of your NAU tuition scholarship.

  3. Award tiers are based on the unweighted high school CORE GPA (a specific subset of courses), not your weighted or overall GPA.

  4. Because non-resident tuition is much higher, the out-of-state (non-WUE) grid pays the most in dollars ($10,000-$15,000/yr for Fall 2026) — but it offsets a much larger tuition bill than the AZ-resident or WUE grids.

  5. You must attend Flagstaff or a statewide campus (not online), enroll full-time (12+ credits), accept admission and pay the enrollment fee, and submit final HS transcripts; renewal requires a 2.0 cumulative NAU GPA and continued full-time enrollment.

  6. A2E covers 100% of tuition for Arizona residents with household income up to $65,000 and for any member of Arizona's 22 federally recognized tribes regardless of income or residency — but not for online students.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students who qualify automatically on unweighted high-school core GPA — Arizona residents and WUE-state students get strong tuition support, out-of-state students get the largest dollar awards, and lower-income Arizonans (and tribal members) can have tuition fully covered through A2E.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $33,707 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at NAU, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$9,709
$30,001–$48,000$10,398
$48,001–$75,000$13,330
$75,001–$110,000$18,050
$110,001+$20,686
All income levels (average)$14,158

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$13,009
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$29,881
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$14,158

That works out to roughly a 53% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $29,933 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

NAU 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
61%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
75%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$19,000 (~$201/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$54,384
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
37%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
39%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

The freshman tuition scholarships apply to tuition only and cannot be combined with other NAU tuition awards. Outside scholarships are allowed as long as the total does not exceed tuition.

The eligibility section states: 'These scholarships apply to tuition only and can't be combined with other NAU tuition awards (outside scholarships are okay as long as the total doesn't exceed tuition).' So multiple NAU tuition awards don't stack, and outside/private scholarships are capped at the tuition amount (a tuition-level cap rather than a full-COA cap).

Source

More school data

From the NAU Common Data Set 2023-2024:

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From NAU’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
34%of admitsget merit
Average award$8,037Covers ~24% of $33,707 cost of attendance

At NAU, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $8,037 — about 24% of total cost.

As filed in NAU's CDS Section H2A: of 5,362 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 1,798 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $8,037. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 6,429 of 20,092, averaging $8,197. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

Receive institutional merit34%First-year students, Common Data Set 2023-2024
Average merit award$8,037Across recipients, Common Data Set 2023-2024

Source: Common Data Set 2023-2024 (verified 2026-07-23)

Other NAU scholarships worth checking

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

AmountAmount not published (varies by college/program)EligibilityUndergraduate students in specific NAU colleges; search via ScholarshipUniverse

Offered across all eight NAU colleges.

Source

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityIB students (additional award listed)

Listed under 'Additional awards.'

Source

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityArizona Academic Decathlon participants (additional award listed)

Listed under 'Additional awards.'

Source

NAU merit aid FAQ

  • Do I need a separate application for the freshman tuition scholarships?

    No. When you apply to NAU as a first-year student, you're automatically considered — just complete the FAFSA early. (Out-of-state and private scholarships may have their own applications.)

  • What GPA is used?

    The unweighted high school core GPA. Award tiers range from 'Admitted-2.99' up to '3.75-4.0' depending on residency grid.

  • How do I keep my scholarship?

    It's renewable for up to 4 years (8 semesters) as long as you maintain at least a 2.0 cumulative NAU GPA and stay enrolled full-time (12+ credits per semester).

See sources and other schools

How NAU compares

  • 235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.

    NAU 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.

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

Compare with similar schools

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