Jesuit private in downtown Seattle whose published merit aid is an automatic Merit Award starting at $8,000/year, with a two-students-per-year Sullivan Scholarship covering full tuition, room, and board for Jesuit/Catholic high school graduates.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago· CC-1
The short answer
Is Seattle U worth a closer look?
Seattle U is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 2 published awards, and one is based on those numbers.
Merit tiers21 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team
Free Merit Check
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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.
$8,000+ per year (automatic minimum)
Seattle University Merit Award
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Automatic consideration with the admission application; awarded based on the strength of the academic record. No separate scholarship application.
How to keep it
Renewable for up to four years for first-year students; renewal length is shorter for transfers based on credit count.
Notes
Seattle U does not publish a tier ladder of dollar amounts above the $8,000 floor on its public site. Larger awards exist but are communicated in the admission decision.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Seattle U's published information.
capHard $82,726 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Seattle U cannot push the package past $82,726. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
What families often miss
The Merit Award page lists $8,000 as a minimum; stronger applicants receive larger awards that are communicated in the admission decision rather than on the public scholarship page. Treating $8,000 as the cap underestimates Seattle U's real merit posture.
The Sullivan Leadership Award is explicitly restricted to graduates of Jesuit or Catholic high schools. Public-school students are eligible for general Merit Awards and need-based aid but not the school's flagship full-ride.
Seattle U's published policy says outside awards are added to the package and disbursed in thirds across quarters, but doesn't promise institutional aid stays unchanged. Get a written displacement answer from Student Financial Services before celebrating a private award.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
B+/A students from Jesuit or Catholic high schools who want a small-Catholic feel inside a major West Coast city, plus families who can absorb the gap between Seattle's $80K+ cost of attendance and the modest automatic merit floor.
Cost of attendance$82,726 for 2026-27Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
On-campus$82,726
$61K
$18K
Tuition & fees
Housing & food
Books
Travel
Personal
Loan fees
Tuition & fees combines tuition plus technology, wellness, and activity fees.
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Seattle U, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Seattle U, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$22,896
$30,001–$48,000
$24,523
$48,001–$75,000
$26,977
$75,001–$110,000
$36,967
$110,001+
$42,737
All income levels (average)
$34,662
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$56,721
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$34,662
That works out to roughly a 52% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $72,124 (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
76%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
84%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$19,883 (~$211/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$75,272
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
27%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
59%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Outside scholarships only trigger an aid adjustment if total aid would exceed the cost of attendance (or the student's aid eligibility cap); below that ceiling, awards are not displaced.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): "The university is required by law to coordinate the various resources a student may receive from all federal, state, private and institutional sources. ... Generally, the maximum amount of all resources may not exceed the cost of education established by the university."
Yes, the Seattle U Merit Award is automatic — every admitted undergraduate is considered based on their admission file, with no separate application. The Sullivan Leadership Award (full tuition + room + board for two students per year) requires a separate application and is restricted to Jesuit/Catholic high school graduates.
How much is the Seattle University Merit Award?
Seattle U publishes a $8,000 per year minimum and indicates larger awards are possible based on the strength of the academic record. Specific tier dollar amounts above the floor aren't published; they appear on the admission decision letter.
What does the Sullivan Leadership Award cover?
The Sullivan covers full tuition, room, board, and academic fees for four years — effectively a full-ride for the on-campus cost of attendance. Two awards are given per year, and only graduates of Jesuit or Catholic high schools may apply.
How does Seattle University handle outside scholarships?
Outside scholarships are reported to Student Financial Services, listed on the award letter as 'Private Outside Scholarship,' and disbursed equally across fall, winter, and spring quarters unless the donor specifies a different schedule. The school does not publicly state which institutional funds get reduced first if a revision is required.
Is the cost of attendance at Seattle University really around $82,000?
For 2026-27, Seattle U publishes a total on-campus budget of $82,726 — tuition $59,400 plus housing, food, and fees. Living with parents drops the budget to about $71,146. Most students offset this with institutional merit aid, need-based grants, and federal loans rather than paying sticker.
See sources and other schools+
How Seattle U compares
241 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Seattle U is in a recognizable cluster (241 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
667 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Seattle U 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 claim is checked against Seattle U’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
