Southwestern awards holistic general merit up to $36,000/yr automatically from the admission application, plus interview-gated competitive awards (the $45,000 Brown) and audition-based fine-arts scholarships. (DRAFT)
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Southwestern worth a closer look?
Southwestern may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers7See who qualifies
Research checkedJul 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.
Up to $36,000
General Merit Scholarships
Apply separately
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Holistic review of admission application (academic performance, rigor, essay, leadership, extracurricular/volunteer activities; visit, legacy, United Methodist membership, national recognition also considered)
Notes
Awarded automatically via the admission application — no separate form. The published award grid on the page is an image (ADM_ScholarshipGrid_2025); no machine-readable GPA/test grid is provided, so no stat grid is reproduced here.
Rank in top 10% of HS class; interview required by first Tuesday in February; finalists attend March event. Stipends fund high-impact experiences (study abroad, internship, research, civic engagement)
Notes
Not an annual tuition discount — two $5,000 stipends for up to two high-impact experiences during the student's Southwestern career.
Audition or portfolio submission required; major in fine arts (music vocal/instrumental, theatre acting/design, or studio art). Interview/audition deadlines vary by program
Notes
Awarded by April 1. Requirements/deadlines on the Sarofim School of Fine Arts site.
Although the admission application also serves as the competitive-scholarship application, an interview is REQUIRED to advance (Brown/Garey candidates must interview by the first Tuesday in February and finalists attend a March event). Miss the interview window and you are out of the competition.
The Garey is two $5,000 experiential stipends (up to $10,000 total) for high-impact experiences over your Southwestern career — not a recurring reduction in tuition like the general merit award.
General merit (up to $36,000) is decided by holistic review; Southwestern publishes the grid only as an image and emphasizes essay, rigor, leadership and service, so the exact award is not guaranteed by stats alone.
The Beneficiary Grant requires being the dependent child of an ordained United Methodist minister, and the Pre-Ministerial award requires planning full-time ministry and joining the Pre-Ministry Connection — these are gated, not open to all students.
Sarofim Fine Arts scholarships and the Music Performance Awards both require an audition or portfolio submission; without it you cannot receive those awards regardless of academic merit.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Strong all-around applicants who present well holistically (academics, essay, leadership, service); top-5%/3.8-GPA students willing to interview compete for the Brown, and fine-arts students who audition can stack Sarofim awards. (DRAFT)
Published yearly cost: Approximately $75,933 for 2025-2026. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Southwestern, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Southwestern, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$22,478
$30,001–$48,000
$19,096
$48,001–$75,000
$28,175
$75,001–$110,000
$30,387
$110,001+
$36,332
All income levels (average)
$29,224
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$53,813
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$29,224
That works out to roughly a 57% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $67,493 (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
73%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
81%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$25,000 (~$265/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$56,878
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
30%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
49%
Southwestern merit aid FAQ
What is the general merit scholarship deadline?
The General Merit Scholarship deadline is the first Tuesday in February (or until funds remain available). The application for admission is the application for general merit scholarships.
What is the competitive scholarship deadline?
The Competitive Scholarship application deadline is the first Tuesday in December, with an interview deadline of the first Tuesday in February. Finalists participate in a scholarship event in March.
How large is the largest merit award?
The Brown Scholarship, valued at $45,000 per year, is Southwestern's most prestigious competitive award (top 5% of class or 3.8 unweighted GPA, interview required). General merit awards go up to $36,000 annually.
See sources and other schools+
How Southwestern compares
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Southwestern 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 Southwestern’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
