Occidental College · California

Occidental College Merit Aid

Verified Jul 20264 days ago· HX-AUTO

Merit tiers9See requirements

Last verifiedJul 2026Analyst HX-AUTO

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Checking merit aid at Occidental College

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The merit-aid verdict at Occidental College

Oxy offers multiple merit tiers, from community-focused awards to top-tier presidential and trustee scholarships for high-achieving students.

Who this school is for

Strong applicants with compelling personal stories or exceptional academic records will find the most opportunity here. First-generation students and those with demonstrated community involvement are particularly encouraged to apply.

Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $95,365 for 2026-2027. Source

Federal cost and outcome data

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

Average annual net price by family income at Occidental College, academic year 2021-22
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$20,705
$30,001–$48,000	$17,655
$48,001–$75,000	$21,468
$75,001–$110,000	$28,033
$110,001+	$54,959
All income levels (average)	$38,263

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23: $66,274
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $38,263

That works out to roughly a 55% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $84,800 (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: 81%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 90%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $23,000 (~$244/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $75,951
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 16%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 36%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not Occidental College's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not Occidental College's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

Institutional merit aid tiers

Every tier below is sourced to the school’s own published financial aid pages. Renewal terms apply only if the student maintains the stated GPA.

$20,000

Presidents Scholarships

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Renewal terms

Maintain 2 GPA

Source

$20,000

Community Impact Scholarships

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Renewal terms

Maintain 2 GPA

Source

$50,000

Edgerton Occidental Merit Scholarship

ApplicationRenewable

Source

Amount not published

Centennial Scholarships

ApplicationRenewable

Source

$10,000

Upward Bound Achievement Award

ApplicationRenewable

Source

$2,000

National Merit Scholarships

ApplicationRenewable

Source

$30,000

Trustee Scholarships

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Renewal terms

Maintain 2 GPA

Source

Up to $40,000

Margaret Bundy Scott Scholarships

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Renewal terms

Maintain 2 GPA

Source

$25,000

Deans Scholarships

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Renewal terms

Maintain 2 GPA

Source

Outside scholarship stacking policy

Outside scholarships first reduce need-based loans, then the work award. Institutional grant funding is adjusted only if total grants and scholarships exceed total financial need; outside awards generally do not replace the calculated family contribution.

Source

Lesser-known scholarships at Occidental College

Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.

Scholarships

AmountUp to $15,000EligibilityHonors Scholarships are awarded for up to $15,000 per year and are renewable for three additional years if the student maintains a cumulative GPA of 2.0.

Source

How Occidental College compares across our verified dataset

147 of 750 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
Occidental College is in a recognizable cluster (147 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
668 of 750 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Occidental College is one of them. The cohort minority (82 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
132 of 750 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.
Occidental College is one of them. NMF packages typically carry their own stacking and renewal carve-outs separate from the standard automatic merit ladder; confirm those before assuming the headline NMF value is final.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Occidental College’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

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Keep exploring Occidental College merit aid

Occidental College scholarship stacking — Whether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
Does Occidental College displace outside scholarships? — The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.
Occidental College four-year renewal rules — GPA floors, credit-hour pace, and the renewal cliffs that knock awards out by sophomore year.