Stony Brook University · New York

Stony Brook Merit Aid

Verified Jun 20262 months ago· HX-AUTO

Merit tiers41 automatic on stats

Last verifiedJun 2026Analyst HX-AUTO

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Checking merit aid at Stony Brook

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The merit-aid verdict at Stony Brook

Stony Brook rewards driven researchers and STEM scholars with competitive merit awards for demonstrated excellence.

Who this school is for

Students with a passion for scientific inquiry and research will find Stony Brook's merit-aid landscape particularly well-suited to their ambitions. Those with a track record in STEM competitions or undergraduate research projects are strong candidates.

Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $34,012 for 2026-2027. Source

Federal cost and outcome data

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%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not Stony Brook'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 Stony Brook'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.

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.

$3,000

Regeneron Science Talent Search National Finalists And Semifinalists

ApplicationRenewable

Source

Amount not published

Wise Women In Science And Engineering

Application

Source

Amount not published

Presidential Scholarships

AutomaticRenewable

Source

Amount not published

Stephen And Mary Leshner Endowed Scholarship

Application

Source

Lesser-known scholarships at Stony Brook

Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.

College Scholarships

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityEvery admitted Honors College student receives some level of scholarship support, most often as a Presidential or Presidential Merit Scholarship.

Source

Ureca Research Scholarship

Amount$4,000EligibilityThe URECA summer research program provides a $4,000 stipend to select Stony Brook undergraduates doing full-time research or creative activity for ten weeks in the summer.

Source

Robert S Roth Scholarship In Economics

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Robert S. Roth Scholarship in Economics is awarded by the Economics Department to promising active Economics majors at Stony Brook University.

Source

Yardi Scholar Cohort

Amount$10,000EligibilityThe Yardi Scholar Cohort is a four-year renewable $10,000 scholarship for new incoming freshmen who have applied to the College of Business at Stony Brook University.

Source

S Stem Assets Scholarship

Amount$2,000–$2,800EligibilityThe S-STEM Assets Scholarship is for full-time community college transfer students in specified STEM majors; competitive applicants should have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0, and recipients receive $2,000 for the first year and $2,800 for year two.

Source

Bliss Verdon Memorial Scholarship

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Bliss Verdon Memorial Scholarship is available annually to one or two outstanding students in recognition of strong academic performance and demonstrated commitment in African issues, and is open to full-time junior or senior students.

Source

Simons Stem Scholars Program

AmountFull cost of attendanceEligibilityThe Stony Brook Simons STEM Scholars Program provides merit-based scholarship funding, including four years of scholarship support that fully covers educational costs for each student in the program; applicants must have a high school GPA above 3.0 on a 4.0 scale or 87 on a 100-point scale.

Source

How Stony Brook compares across our verified dataset

668 of 750 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.

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