PLU· Renewal Rules
Keeping PLU’s Merit Aid for Four Years
What the financial-aid office actually requires after freshman year: minimum GPA, credit-hour pace, and the cliffs that quietly downgrade families mid-degree.
At a glance
- Renewable tiers
- 5 of 5
- One-time tiers
- 0
- Tiers with published renewal terms
- 5
- Renewal risk profile
- low
Renewal risk profile
PLU's published renewal rules cluster around a 3.0 floor with no major-GPA gating, which is survivable for the typical freshman with steady study habits. The risk is non-renewal due to enrollment status (dropping below full-time), not GPA.
- PLU Academic Scholarships: See notes
- Presidential Scholarships: See notes
- 253 PLU Bound Scholarship: See notes
- Artistic Achievement Awards: See notes
- Housing Grant: See notes
Renewal terms by tier
PLU Academic Scholarships
$8,000-$32,000Entry requirements: Awarded on the basis of academic merit, primarily high school GPA (no published GPA grid) GPA
To keep it: Renewable for an additional three years of undergraduate study; renewal conditions not stated on the page.
Source: https://www.plu.edu/admission-first-year/financial-aid/scholarships/
Presidential Scholarships
Amount not publishedEntry requirements: 3.8 cumulative (weighted) GPA
To keep it: Renewal terms not stated on the page.
Source: https://www.plu.edu/admission-first-year/financial-aid/scholarships/
253 PLU Bound Scholarship
Full tuitionEntry requirements: 3.0 or higher weighted cumulative GPA GPA
To keep it: Renewable for up to an additional three years as long as the student remains College Bound eligible and maintains satisfactory academic progress.
Source: https://www.plu.edu/admission-first-year/financial-aid/scholarships/
Artistic Achievement Awards
$1,000-$7,500To keep it: Renewable for up to an additional three years of undergraduate study.
Source: https://www.plu.edu/admission-first-year/financial-aid/scholarships/
Housing Grant
$2,500To keep it: Renewable for every year while living on campus (up to an additional three years).
Source: https://www.plu.edu/admission-first-year/financial-aid/scholarships/
How families lose this aid
- Missing the December 1 deadline for Presidential Scholarship consideration.
Presidential Scholarships require applying for admission 'by the December 1 Early Action II deadline' — applying later forfeits PLU's top stackable leadership award even with a 3.8+ GPA.
- Losing 253 PLU Bound renewal by dropping College Bound eligibility or satisfactory academic progress.
Renewal requires the student 'remains College Bound eligible and maintains satisfactory academic progress while at PLU.'
- Moving off campus and expecting to keep the Housing Grant.
The grant is 'renewable for every year while living on campus' — it ends when the student moves off campus.
How PLU compares across our verified dataset
- 669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
PLU 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.
Sources used on this page
Every renewal claim is checked against PLU’s own published materials.
More on PLU merit aid
- PLU merit aid overviewFull tier ladder, named scholarships, departmental awards, and how families decide.
- PLU scholarship stackingWhether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
- Does PLU displace outside scholarships?The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.