University at Albany · New York

UAlbany scholarships and merit aid

Albany offers competitive awards across specialized colleges plus talent-based scholarships for band, esports, and academic focus areas.

Verified Jun 20263 months ago

The short answer

Is UAlbany worth a closer look?

UAlbany is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 10 published awards, and 6 are based on those numbers.

Merit tiers106 based on grades or scores

Research checkedJun 2026By our research team

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.

$2,500

Room Grant For Out Of State First Year Students

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

Source

$1,000

Ualbany In The High School Competitive Awards

Apply separatelyCan continue

Source

$1,500

Ualbany Scholarship For New York State Transfer Students

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 2.5

Source

$10,000

Ualbany Scholarship For Out Of State First Year Students

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

Source

$1,000

Marching And Spirit Bands Scholarships

Apply separately

Source

$1,000

Esports Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

Source

Amount not published

Ualbany In The High School Award

Based on grades or scores

Source

$1,000

Ualbany Scholarship For New York State First Year Students

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

Source

$4,500

Ualbany Scholarship For Out Of State Transfer Students

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 2.5

Source

$5,000

Capital District Leadership Awards

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students with defined academic interests in fields like cybersecurity, nanotechnology, public health, or business will find the most competitive options. Talented musicians and esports competitors have dedicated scholarship pathways as well.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $34,844 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at UAlbany, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$11,112
$30,001–$48,000	$14,062
$48,001–$75,000	$17,923
$75,001–$110,000	$20,037
$110,001+	$24,085
All income levels (average)	$17,167

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23: $10,866
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23: $31,256
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $17,167

That works out to roughly a 40% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $28,802 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

UAlbany 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: 61%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 83%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $19,500 (~$207/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $67,979
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 49%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 59%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not UAlbany's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not UAlbany's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

See other scholarships and cost examples

Other UAlbany scholarships worth checking

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

College Of Arts And Sciences Competitive Awards

Amount$2,000EligibilityCollege of Arts and Sciences Competitive Awards are $2,000 competitive awards for incoming first-year students pursuing any major in The College of Arts and Sciences and are renewable for up to three consecutive academic years.

Source

College Of Integrated Health Sciences Competitive Awards

Amount$2,000EligibilityCollege of Integrated Health Sciences Competitive Awards are $2,000 competitive awards for incoming first-year students pursuing Public Health or Social Welfare and are renewable for up to three consecutive academic years.

Source

Great Dane Teacher Competitive Awards

Amount$2,000EligibilityGreat Dane Teacher Competitive Awards are $2,000 competitive awards for incoming first-year students interested in pursuing the Great Dane Teacher Pathway for listed education-related majors and are renewable for up to three consecutive academic years.

Source

Rockefeller College Of Public Affairs And Policy Competitive Awards

Amount$2,000EligibilityRockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy Competitive Awards are $2,000 competitive awards for incoming first-year students pursuing Political Science, Public Administration and Policy, or Criminal Justice, and are renewable for up to three consecutive academic years.

Source

College Of Emergency Preparedness Homeland Security And Cybersecurity Competitive Awards

Amount$2,000EligibilityCollege of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Competitive Awards are $2,000 competitive awards for incoming first-year students pursuing Cybersecurity; Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity; or Informatics, and are renewable for up to three consecutive academic years.

Source

Massry School Of Business Competitive Awards

Amount$2,000EligibilityMassry School of Business Competitive Awards are $2,000 competitive awards for incoming first-year students pursuing Accounting, Business Administration, Digital Forensics, or Financial Market Regulation (Informatics), and are renewable for up to three consecutive academic years.

Source

College Of Nanotechnology Science And Engineering Competitive Awards

Amount$2,000EligibilityCollege of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering Competitive Awards are $2,000 competitive awards for incoming first-year students pursuing listed CNSE majors and are renewable for up to three consecutive academic years.

Source

See sources and other schools

How UAlbany compares

665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
UAlbany 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 UAlbany’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Cost of attendanceUAlbany cost-of-attendance worksheet
Merit tiersRoom Grant For Out Of State First Year Students

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