Long Island flagship of the SUNY system with a no-published-amount Presidential merit ladder and a real flagship: the Simons STEM Scholars Program, a four-year full-cost-of-education scholarship for students entering STEM majors.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago· CB-1
The short answer
Is Stony Brook worth a closer look?
Stony Brook may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers4See 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.
Full cost of education for four yea…Full cost of education for four years (educational costs fully covered)
Simons STEM Scholars Program
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Highly competitive program. Students entering STEM majors. Aimed at developing diverse leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Includes academic and career advising, peer/faculty mentoring, community-building, networking, stipends for program-related travel and study abroad.
How to keep it
Four-year scholarship covering full educational costs; continued participation in the cohort, mentoring, and STEM persistence required
Notes
Stony Brook's flagship full-ride. Singular path to no-loan four years at SBU.
Not publicly disclosed in a tier ta…Not publicly disclosed in a tier table
Honors College Scholarship (typically Presidential or Presidential Merit)
Apply separatelyCan continue
GPA
Successful candidates typically have a 97-99 unweighted HS GPA
SAT
1500-1560 SAT (CR+M) typical
ACT
34-35 ACT typical
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
Highly competitive admission to the Honors College. ~100 freshmen enrolled annually. Considered after admission to the University. Test scores optional for Honors College consideration.
How to keep it
Continuation contingent on meeting Honors College criteria. Award duration varies by specific scholarship — some are 4-year, some are 1-year, some are renewable on annual criteria.
Notes
Every admitted Honors College student receives some level of scholarship support, most commonly a Presidential or Presidential Merit Scholarship. The actual dollar amount is not published on the public site.
Not publicly disclosed in a tier ta…Not publicly disclosed in a tier table
Presidential Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Domestic current high school seniors with a 'meritorious unweighted high school average' automatically considered. Test scores may also be taken into account. No separate application — auto-considered through the admission application.
How to keep it
Stated as a four-year scholarship for qualifying domestic high school seniors; renewal terms in SOLAR 'Award Detail.'
Notes
Stony Brook does not publish a stat-to-dollar tier. Modeling the Presidential at a specific amount from forum sources is unreliable.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Stony Brook's published information.
capHard $57,892 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Stony Brook cannot push the package past $57,892. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
What families often miss
Per published Stony Brook policy, in most cases students receive only one institutional scholarship — the office selects the most beneficial single offer. Honors College recipients typically get Presidential or Presidential Merit support folded INTO their Honors offer, not in addition to a separate Presidential. Plan around one institutional award, plus stackable federal/state/outside aid up to the COA cap.
Stony Brook does not publish dollar amounts for the Presidential, Presidential Merit, Honors College, University Scholars, or WISE awards on the main public aid page. The only published full-cost award is the Simons STEM Scholars Program. Forum-sourced 'Presidential = $X' anchors are not reliable. Use the actual award letter (visible under 'Award Detail' in SOLAR) as the authoritative number.
Stony Brook's general scholarship application deadline for the 2026-27 academic year is March 15, 2026, unless otherwise stated. This is the catch-all date for awards requiring a separate application. Honors College, University Scholars, and WISE programs have their own selection windows reviewed alongside admission.
The Simons STEM Scholars Program is the only published Stony Brook path to a four-year full-cost-of-education award. STEM-bound applicants should explicitly pursue Simons rather than assuming an Honors College or Presidential offer will reach the same value. The Simons cohort is small and selection is highly competitive — apply early and treat it as the primary merit play.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Strong STEM applicants who can target Simons; top New York applicants (97-99 HS GPA, 1500+ SAT) who can hit Honors College/University Scholars/WISE selection; everyone else should price Stony Brook at full SUNY in-state COA and treat any merit as a bonus.
Cost of attendance$33,912–$57,892 for 2025-2026Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
Out-of-state, on-campus$57,892
$35K
$19K
In-state, on-campus$33,912
$11K
$19K
Tuition & fees
Housing & food
Books
Personal
Health insurance excluded as waivable. Personal line combines transportation + personal ($3,060) per source.
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Stony Brook, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Stony Brook, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$12,943
$30,001–$48,000
$15,432
$48,001–$75,000
$20,728
$75,001–$110,000
$23,424
$110,001+
$27,716
All income levels (average)
$18,784
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$10,931
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$32,741
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$18,784
That works out to roughly a 38% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $30,539 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Stony Brook 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
76%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
90%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$18,228 (~$193/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$74,502
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
45%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
41%
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): "Your financial aid awards cannot exceed your total cost of attendance. Your cost of attendance is based upon your direct charges (driven by your enrollment) and indirect charges." Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: Per Stony Brook Financial Aid, in most cases students will not be awarded more than one institutional scholarship — the office picks the most beneficial single offer. (per https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/finaid/undergraduate/types_of_aid/incoming_freshmen_scholarships)
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
AmountRecognition awards, often without separate cash componentEligibilityStony Brook scholars and high-achieving upper-division students; awarded post-enrollment.
Amount$1,000 per year (example: four $1,000 awards for upper-division students in Women's Studies and/or Political Science)EligibilityUpper-division undergraduates (juniors/seniors) majoring in the eligible program with demonstrated financial need.
Stony Brook awards merit through several tracks. The flagship is the Simons STEM Scholars Program — a four-year full-cost-of-education scholarship for STEM-bound students. Honors College admits receive scholarship support (typically Presidential or Presidential Merit) folded into their Honors offer. The Presidential Scholarship is auto-considered for domestic high school seniors with strong unweighted GPAs. Stony Brook does not publish a stat-to-dollar tier table for any of these except Simons (which is full cost).
Can I stack scholarships at Stony Brook?
Generally no. Stony Brook's published policy is that in most cases students receive only one institutional scholarship — the office selects the most beneficial single offer. Outside scholarships, federal aid (Pell), and state aid (TAP for NY residents) can layer on top of the institutional award up to the budgeted cost of attendance.
What stats do I need for the Honors College at Stony Brook?
Stony Brook reports that its most successful Honors College, University Scholars, and WISE candidates typically have 97-99 unweighted high school GPAs, 1500-1560 SAT critical reading + math composite, and 34-35 ACT composite. Test scores are optional for Honors College consideration. Roughly 100 freshmen enter the Honors College each year.
Is there a full ride at Stony Brook?
Yes — the Simons STEM Scholars Program covers the full cost of education for four years for selected STEM-bound students. Beyond Simons, Stony Brook does not publish another named full-cost award on its public aid pages.
When is the scholarship deadline at Stony Brook?
Stony Brook's general scholarship application deadline for the 2026-27 academic year is March 15, 2026 (unless otherwise specified on a specific application). Auto-considered awards (Presidential, Honors College) are reviewed alongside the admission application. Simons STEM Scholars has its own competitive timeline reviewed during the admission cycle.
See sources and other schools+
How Stony Brook compares
241 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Stony Brook 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.
Stony Brook 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 Stony Brook’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
