Florida private with a three-tier published merit ladder (Presidential up to $35k, Dean's up to $29k, Faculty-Merit up to $26k) and a written all-sources-of-funding policy that lets the University reduce institutional aid dollar-for-dollar against outside scholarships.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago· CB-1
The short answer
Is Stetson worth a closer look?
Stetson may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers5See who qualifies
First-year students with school awards19%First-year students, CDS 2024-2025 (school-estimated)
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team
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See what Stetson's published rules mean for your student. Takes 30 seconds.
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 $35,000 per year
Presidential Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Awarded by the admissions committee based on high school record, standardized test scores, and community service. No separate application; 'Merit Scholarships are not guaranteed for all students.'
How to keep it
Renewable for up to eight semesters or until graduation. Most Stetson scholarships require a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA for renewal; donor-funded components may require higher. Full-time enrollment required.
Notes
Stetson publishes the maximum amount but not a stat-to-tier table within each award.
Students devoted to creative arts (Studio Art, Digital Arts, Museum and Curatorial Studies, or Theatre Arts). Application demonstrates artistic potential and discipline. Available to first-year and transfer students.
Notes
Full-tuition arts award — the second full-ride-equivalent path at Stetson.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Stetson's published information.
renewalPresidential Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable for up to eight semesters or until graduation. Most Stetson scholarships require a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA for renewal; donor-funded components may require higher. Full-time enrollment required. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
displacementGrant-first displacement = outside wins can pay the school
Stetson reduces institutional grant before any other aid line when an outside award arrives. A $5,000 community-foundation win can leave the family bill unchanged.
What families often miss
Stetson's catalog explicitly states that institutional merit-based scholarship packages may be reduced to accommodate outside scholarships, on an 'all sources of funding' model. Total aid will not exceed actual educational costs, and most scholarship packages will not exceed the cost of tuition. Banking on a stacked plan without reading the catalog is the most expensive Stetson mistake.
Stetson's policy is explicit: 'A student receiving tuition benefits will be ineligible for additional merit scholarship.' Children of higher-education employees who plan to use Tuition Exchange should not also budget for the Presidential/Dean's/Faculty-Merit awards — they swap, they do not stack.
The Bonner Scholarship combines Stetson aid with Bonner Foundation funding for service-oriented students, but the application deadline is December 1 via the Hatter Portal — and you must apply to Stetson before you can apply to Bonner. Many strong service-leadership candidates miss this window.
Most Stetson scholarships use the 2.0 cumulative GPA renewal threshold, but donor-funded components may require higher GPAs. A student whose merit package is renamed to include a donor-funded portion (a common Stetson pattern) may face a stricter renewal bar than expected. Check the renewal terms attached to the specific donor fund.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Florida residents who want to stack Bright Futures and Stetson merit, plus out-of-state students drawn to a small private LAC; not the right fit for students who plan to win heavy outside scholarships and expect them to add to (not replace) the Stetson award.
Cost of attendance$80,381 for 2025-2026Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Stetson, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Stetson, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$15,931
$30,001–$48,000
$14,657
$48,001–$75,000
$17,327
$75,001–$110,000
$22,600
$110,001+
$26,904
All income levels (average)
$19,372
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$57,410
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$19,372
That works out to roughly a 73% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $72,533 (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
62%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
78%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$23,250 (~$246/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$51,642
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
40%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
49%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Stetson awards merit packages on an 'all sources of funding' model — institutional aid can be reduced to accommodate outside scholarships, and total aid will not exceed actual educational costs.
Per the Stetson undergraduate catalog, institutional merit-based scholarship packages and other institutional need-based funding may be reduced to accommodate outside scholarships. Total aid will not exceed actual educational costs, and most scholarships will not exceed the cost of tuition. Students receiving tuition benefits (e.g., employee tuition exchange) are ineligible for additional merit scholarship.
From the Stetson Common Data Set 2024-2025 (school-estimated figures):
Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Stetson’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
19%of admitsget merit
Average award$33,377Covers ~42% of $80,381 cost of attendance
At Stetson, roughly 1 in 5 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $33,377 — about 42% of total cost.
As filed in Stetson's CDS Section H2A: of 686 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 130 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $33,377. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 590 of 2,271, averaging $33,670. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
The 2024-2025 column is marked "estimated" in the school's own CDS filing — school-projected figures, not final audited counts.
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
AmountNot publicly disclosed (combined Stetson + Bonner Foundation funding)EligibilityDemonstrated record of social-justice involvement and leadership; commit to 8 hours/week of service. Apply to Stetson first, then submit Bonner application by December 1 via Hatter Portal.
AmountNot publicly disclosedEligibilityStrong writing skills; preference for English majors or English Creative Writing minors. Separate application required.
AmountNot publicly disclosedEligibilityBrother, sister, parent, step-parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or legal guardian is enrolled or graduated from Stetson (including graduate programs). Must be accepted by February 15; only available pre-first-semester. Athletic-aid recipients excluded.
AmountNot publicly disclosedEligibilityOutstanding performance in American Trap, American Skeet, and Sporting Clays. Renewable up to three years with 2.5 GPA and 95% practice attendance. Application deadline August 10.
AmountFlorida Academic Scholar and Florida Medallion Scholar levels — set by the State of FloridaEligibilityQualifying Florida high school graduates. Eligibility determined by the State of Florida after final transcript and test scores; notifications in July.
How much merit aid does Stetson give first-year students?
Stetson publishes three auto-awarded first-year merit tiers: Presidential up to $35,000, Dean's up to $29,000, and Faculty-Merit up to $26,000 per year. Awards are determined by the admissions committee based on high school record, test scores, and community service. Most students receive a merit scholarship — Stetson reports nearly 97% of incoming students receive merit — but it is 'not guaranteed for all students.'
Is there a full ride at Stetson?
Two named full-tuition-or-better paths exist. The J. Ollie Edmunds Distinguished Scholarship is a nationally competitive four-year package requiring exceptional academic and leadership credentials. The LaValle Creative Arts Scholarship covers full tuition for students devoted to the creative arts (Studio Art, Digital Arts, Museum and Curatorial Studies, Theatre Arts).
Can I stack outside scholarships on top of Stetson merit?
Not reliably. Stetson's published policy is that institutional merit-based scholarship packages may be reduced to accommodate outside scholarships, on an 'all sources of funding' model. Total aid will not exceed actual educational costs. Outside scholarships are most likely to displace institutional aid when they push the total package above tuition, so families banking on stacking should read the catalog terms before accepting.
Does Florida Bright Futures stack with Stetson merit?
Bright Futures is a Florida state award (Florida Academic Scholar and Florida Medallion Scholar levels) that flows separately from Stetson institutional aid. In practice it can layer with Stetson merit, but Stetson's all-sources-of-funding policy still caps total aid at educational cost. Florida residents should run the math with both awards included rather than assuming a clean stack.
What's the renewal GPA for a Stetson scholarship?
Most Stetson institutional scholarships renew with a 2.0 cumulative GPA, full-time enrollment, and up to 8 semesters or graduation, whichever comes first. Donor-funded components within a merit package may carry a higher renewal GPA. A student who falls below the renewal threshold gets one probationary semester before losing the award.
See sources and other schools+
How Stetson compares
19 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use grant-first displacement.
Stetson is in the small minority (19 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
Grant-first displacement is the rarest published policy in our dataset.
It also produces the worst family-dollar outcome on outside scholarships. Stetson sits in this small minority, so treat outside-award strategy here as conservatively as you would at a school with no published policy at all.
667 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Stetson 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 Stetson’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
