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SFA scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$30,576per year · 2026-2027 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

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

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
4 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. Academic Excellence Scholarship$2,500-$6,000/yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Academic Excellence Scholarship

    $2,500-$6,000/year

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

    GPA
    Cumulative, unweighted HS GPA on a 4.0 scale (3.00-4.00 range); award also depends on class rank percentile
    SAT
    Not required for this award (GPA + class rank based)
    ACT
    Not required for this award (GPA + class rank based)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Academic Excellence Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Any incoming first-time, first-year student admitted to SFA by June 30 for the upcoming fall term who meets all requirements is automatically considered — no application. Number of scholarships depends on availability of funds.

    How to keep it

    Renewable up to four years. For first offers fall 2025+: must maintain continuous full-time fall/spring enrollment, complete 24 cumulative hours per year (excluding remedial/repeated), and maintain at least the GPA on file at the time of the first award. Renewal grid: first offer $6,000 → keep 3.50+; $5,000 → 3.25; $3,500 → 3.25; $2,500 → 3.00. A GPA increase does NOT raise the award; a GPA decrease means no renewal.

    Worth knowing

    Automatic, no application. Awards set by a published GPA × class-rank chart (see verbatim grid). Some GPA/rank combinations yield 'No Award' (e.g., a top-25% student needs a 3.75+ GPA to receive anything).

  2. University Regents Scholarship$3,000/year (two $1,500 allocations)Not automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    University Regents Scholarship

    $3,000/year (two $1,500 allocations)

    Published award termsNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Transfer students must have maintained a 3.25 GPA in all college work
    SAT
    SAT combined verbal+quantitative of at least 1220 (with writing) — one qualifying path
    ACT
    ACT composite of at least 27 (with writing) — one qualifying path
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for University Regents Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    First-time incoming students at first-year, sophomore, or junior level. Qualify via ONE of: top 15% of HS class; SAT 1220; or ACT 27. Each academic department selects two academically gifted undergraduates. Must be admitted to SFA.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for continuous fall/spring terms — up to eight terms (first-year), six terms (sophomore), or four terms (junior) — if you complete at least 24 semester credit hours each academic year with an earned GPA of at least 3.25, make appropriate degree progress in a major from the selecting department, and receive continuing approval from the department chair/faculty.

    Worth knowing

    Departmental award (two students per department). Intended to help cover the cost of a room in an SFA residence hall; commuter students can apply the money toward tuition and fees.

Lights up against SFA'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.

Free Merit Check

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Checking merit aid at SFA

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The fine print

Renewal ruleAcademic Excellence Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

Renewable up to four years. For first offers fall 2025+: must maintain continuous full-time fall/spring enrollment, complete 24 cumulative hours per year (excluding remedial/repeated), and maintain at least the GPA on file at the time of the first award. Renewal grid: first offer $6,000 → keep 3.50+; $5,000 → 3.25; $3,500 → 3.25; $2,500 → 3.00. A GPA increase does NOT raise the award; a GPA decrease means no renewal. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

Outside awardsNo published displacement order

SFA's policy doesn't specify whether outside scholarships hit loans, grants, or only the COA ceiling. Get a written aid-office answer before chasing private awards.

What makes SFA different

SFA automatically awards a published GPA-by-class-rank Academic Excellence grid ($2,500-$6,000/year, no application, admit by June 30), and a key perk: any SFA committee scholarship of $1,000+ qualifies a non-resident for in-state tuition.

Merit tiers21 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 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 SFA'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. The award is automatic (no application) but only for students officially admitted to SFA by June 30 who meet all requirements by that date.

  2. If your GPA increases you are still only eligible for the amount that correlates with the GPA on file at the time of your first award year — and if your GPA decreases you are not eligible for renewal at all (GPAs and amounts are not transferable).

  3. Renewal requires continuous full-time fall/spring enrollment and completion of 24 cumulative course hours each academic year (excluding remedial/repeated courses); a drop in GPA or hours stops the scholarship.

  4. The award depends on BOTH unweighted GPA and class rank — some combinations are 'No Award' (e.g., a top-25% student needs at least a 3.75 GPA; a 3.00 GPA needs top 15% or better to receive anything).

  5. Holding any SFA committee scholarship of $1,000 or more makes a non-resident eligible for in-state tuition for the duration of that scholarship — a large savings well beyond the scholarship amount itself.

  6. It is a departmental award — each department selects only two students — and renewal requires a 3.25 GPA, 24 hours/year, degree progress in that department's major, and ongoing department-chair approval.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Texas (and out-of-state) freshmen with a 3.0+ unweighted GPA and solid class rank who want a no-application automatic award, plus non-residents who can leverage a $1,000+ SFA scholarship into in-state tuition.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $30,576 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at SFA, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$10,318
$30,001–$48,000$11,023
$48,001–$75,000$13,100
$75,001–$110,000$17,609
$110,001+$22,959
All income levels (average)$14,260

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$11,128
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$23,426
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$14,260

That works out to roughly a 45% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $25,791 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

SFA 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
53%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
72%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$23,409 (~$248/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$49,634
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
47%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
45%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

The school does not publish a specific outside-scholarship displacement policy; confirm treatment with the aid office before counting on stacking.

Verified policy language (2026-07-02): The priority deadline is June 1 for fall tuition. View more information on outside scholarships to ensure proper processing.

Source

Other SFA scholarships worth checking

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

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilitySFA tuition/affordability program (linked from the financial-aid scholarship navigation; dedicated page not opened for this extract).

Likely a tuition-coverage promise program; confirm details.

Source

SFA merit aid FAQ

  • What is the scholarship deadline?

    Be officially admitted to SFA by June 30 for the upcoming fall term to be automatically considered for the Academic Excellence Scholarship (no separate application). The University Regents Scholarship requires admission and meeting its criteria.

  • How is the Academic Excellence Scholarship amount determined?

    By a published chart combining your cumulative unweighted high school GPA (3.00-4.00) and your class-rank percentile — awards range from $2,500 to $6,000 per year, with some lower GPA/rank combinations receiving no award.

  • I'm not a Texas resident — can I get in-state tuition?

    Yes, if you hold a scholarship of $1,000 or more offered by an SFA scholarship committee, you are eligible for in-state tuition for the duration of that scholarship.

  • How much does SFA cost?

    For 2026-27 (12 hours/term, living on campus), the estimated total cost of attendance is $30,576 for Texas residents, $31,472 for border-state residents, and $43,412 for out-of-state residents.

See sources and other schools

How SFA compares

  • 133 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.

    SFA is in a recognizable cluster (133 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.

  • 133 of 749 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.

    SFA is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.

  • 665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

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

Compare with similar schools

Keep exploring SFA merit aid

The next chapter

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