State University of New York at Fredonia · New York
SUNY Fredonia Merit Aid
SUNY Fredonia awards a published, fully automatic high-school-average merit grid — $2,000-$5,000/year (President's Award of Excellence, Fredonia Scholar, True Blue Scholar) — but every award is residency-tied and targets non-tuition costs, not the already-low $7,070 NY-resident tuition.
Verified Jun 20264 days ago· CC
Merit tiers94 automatic on stats
Last verifiedJun 2026Analyst CC
Rules that bite at SUNY Fredonia
The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from SUNY Fredonia's own published policy, not generic advice.
renewalYunghans-Mirabelli Science Achievement Award: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable up to three additional years for a full-time student maintaining a 3.25 GPA. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
displacementNo published displacement order
SUNY Fredonia'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.
Common merit-aid mistakes at SUNY Fredonia
Fredonia's awards are explicitly 'targeted to support non-tuition related expenses' — fees, room and board, books, personal and travel. NY-resident tuition is already only $7,070; the scholarship money is aimed at the room-and-board side, not tuition.
Every tier of the merit grid (President's, Fredonia Scholar, True Blue) and the Transfer Scholar Award carries a 'Campus Residency Requirement: Yes.' Moving off campus can cost you the scholarship.
Renewal GPAs differ by award: President's Award needs a 3.0, Fredonia Scholar and True Blue need a 2.8, the science awards (Yunghans-Mirabelli, Kelly, Kaminski) need a 3.25, and the Hefner needs a 3.0. The grid is automatic at entry on your high-school average, but renewal is on your college GPA.
The merit grid is automatic on your high-school average, but the Honors Scholarship requires a separate Honors application with a multimedia response, with a suggested deadline of Feb 17, 2026 — and it's a one-time $1,500 spread over four semesters, not an annual award.
The Dennis and Jan Hefner Presidential Scholarship requires high financial need (Pell eligible) in addition to high achievement — a strong record alone won't qualify you.
Who this school is for
In-state (and price-sensitive out-of-state) students with an 80+ high-school average who plan to live on campus all four years; the merit grid is automatic on GPA, so it rewards solid-but-not-elite records, and biology/chemistry majors can stack a large departmental science award on top.
Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $24,825 for 2025-2026. Source
Institutional merit aid tiers
Every tier below is sourced to the school’s own published financial aid pages. Renewal terms apply only if the student maintains the stated GPA.
$5,000/year
President's Award of Excellence
AutomaticRenewable
GPA
95+ high school average
Requirements & details+
Eligibility
Must live on campus (campus residency requirement = Yes); targeted to non-tuition expenses
Renewal terms
Renewable for up to 4 years; requires a 3.0 GPA for renewal and continued campus residency.
Notes
Automatic — students do not apply separately; recipients are notified on a rolling basis from time of acceptance until May 1. The award supports 'non-tuition' costs (fees, room and board, books, personal, travel), not tuition itself. Deposit deadline: May 1 for Fall, Dec 1 for Spring.
Must live on campus (campus residency requirement = Yes); targeted to non-tuition expenses
Renewal terms
Renewable for up to 4 years; requires a 2.8 GPA for renewal and continued campus residency.
Notes
Automatic on the high-school-average grid — no separate application. Lowest tier of the three-tier merit grid. Deposit deadline: May 1 for Fall, Dec 1 for Spring.
High-achieving student majoring in biology; entering as a first-year student in the Fall
Renewal terms
Renewable up to three additional years for a full-time student maintaining a 3.25 GPA.
Notes
Largest single named award found. Biology majors only; awarded to a high-achieving incoming first-year student (selective — page says 'for a high achieving student'). Considered automatically through the admission application; no separate scholarship application referenced.
$1,500 one-time…$1,500 one-time ($375 over four semesters)
Honors Program Scholarship
Application
GPA
92+ high school average (first-year invitation threshold); 3.3 cumulative GPA to maintain Honors
Requirements & details+
Eligibility
Requires completing the Honors application including a multimedia response to a prompt; new first-year and new transfer applicants only
Notes
NOT automatic — an application/essay is required. First-year applicants with a 92+ HS average are invited to apply. Honors also gives priority course registration. Suggested deadline: Tuesday, February 17, 2026 (by 11:59 p.m.).
No published institutional policy was found describing how outside (third-party) scholarships displace Fredonia's own merit awards. The one displacement rule that IS published concerns the NY Excelsior Scholarship: it is a 'last dollar' award, so all federal, state, and institutional grants/scholarships reduce the Excelsior amount. Treat outside-award displacement of the Fredonia merit grid as unconfirmed.
Fredonia's merit awards are explicitly targeted at NON-tuition costs (fees, room and board, books, personal, travel). Because they are aimed at non-tuition expenses rather than tuition, they may sit alongside need-based and tuition-focused aid, but the financial-aid pages do not state an outside-scholarship displacement rule for the institutional merit awards. The Excelsior 'last dollar' interaction is the only published displacement mechanic, and it reduces Excelsior (a tuition award), not the merit grid.
Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.
AmountVariesEligibilityReturning and continuing students; matched by major, department, and donor criteria through the FREDscholar / Scholarship Universe matching system.
Foundation-funded named scholarships are largely for returning students and require matching/applying through FREDscholar; amounts and criteria vary by fund.
AmountUp to the cost of tuition ($7,070)EligibilityEligible NY State residents meeting income and academic-progress requirements.
State 'last dollar' tuition award — NOT a Fredonia merit award. All other federal/state/institutional grants and scholarships reduce the Excelsior amount.
Do I have to apply for the main Fredonia merit scholarships?
No. The President's Award of Excellence, Fredonia Scholar Award, and True Blue Scholar Award are awarded automatically based on your high-school average through the admission application; recipients are notified on a rolling basis from acceptance until May 1. The Honors Scholarship is the exception — it requires a separate Honors application and essay.
What high-school average do I need for each award?
95+ average earns the $5,000/year President's Award of Excellence, 90-94 earns the $4,000/year Fredonia Scholar Award, and 80-89 earns the $2,000/year True Blue Scholar Award. A 92+ average gets you an invitation to apply to the Honors Program.
What's the deadline?
First-year merit recipients are notified from acceptance until May 1; the enrollment-deposit deadline is May 1 for Fall (Dec 1 for Spring). Transfers: June 1 for Fall, Dec 1 for Spring. The Honors application has a suggested deadline of Tuesday, February 17, 2026.
Will an outside scholarship reduce my Fredonia award?
Fredonia does not publish a clear outside-scholarship displacement policy for its institutional merit awards. The one published rule is that the NY Excelsior Scholarship is a 'last dollar' award, so other grants and scholarships reduce Excelsior. Confirm displacement of your specific merit award with the financial-aid office before counting on stacking.
How SUNY Fredonia compares across our verified dataset
199 of 751 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
SUNY Fredonia is in a recognizable cluster (199 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
199 of 751 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.
SUNY Fredonia is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.
669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
SUNY Fredonia 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 SUNY Fredonia’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
