Mid-size private research university in central New York with a flagship full-tuition Coronat Scholarship for Arts & Sciences/Maxwell applicants and a loan-first outside-scholarship displacement policy that protects institutional grant aid.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago· CB-1
The short answer
Is Syracuse worth a closer look?
Syracuse may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers2See 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 tuition for four years…Full tuition for four years (or five years for approved five-year programs)
Coronat Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
GPA
Average admit: 4.15 high school GPA
SAT
Average admit: 1500 SAT super score
ACT
Average admit: 34 ACT super score
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
All first-year applicants to the College of Arts and Sciences | Maxwell School are automatically considered through the Common App/Coalition App. ~200 invited to apply, ~40 invited to Zoom interview, ~20 selected. Home college must remain A&S or Maxwell.
How to keep it
Renewable annually with cumulative 3.0 GPA and full-time enrollment in the College of Arts and Sciences | Maxwell School (Fall 2026 and later starters). Pre-Fall 2026 cohorts: 2.75 cumulative GPA. Transferring out of A&S/Maxwell forfeits the scholarship.
Notes
Combines with Renée Crown University Honors program admission, extra study-abroad funding, and one summer of competitive research/service/volunteer funding. Coronat + other tuition-specific aid (including outside) cannot exceed cost of tuition.
Not publicly disclosed in a tier ta…Not publicly disclosed in a tier table
Syracuse University Merit Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Awarded by the Admissions Committee based on academic credentials, standardized tests, class rank, portfolio/audition (if relevant), community engagement, and character. No separate application; awards determined at the time of admission. Notification of amount appears in the aid offer on MySlice.
How to keep it
Renewable for up to 8 semesters of undergraduate enrollment (10 for approved 5-year programs). 3.0 cumulative GPA + 12 credits/semester for Fall 2026+; pre-Fall 2026 cohorts use 2.75 GPA. Three semesters of grace if GPA falls short.
Notes
Syracuse does not publish a stat-to-amount table. Award size is not knowable from the public site — only the offer letter is authoritative.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Syracuse's published information.
renewalCoronat Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable annually with cumulative 3.0 GPA and full-time enrollment in the College of Arts and Sciences | Maxwell School (Fall 2026 and later starters). Pre-Fall 2026 cohorts: 2.75 cumulative GPA. Transferring out of A&S/Maxwell forfeits the scholarship. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
What families often miss
Coronat is restricted to students whose home college is the College of Arts and Sciences | Maxwell School. Students admitted to Newhouse (communications), Whitman (business), Engineering, Architecture, or other Syracuse schools are not Coronat-eligible. Students may add majors across colleges, but switching home college out of A&S/Maxwell after admission forfeits the scholarship.
Syracuse distinguishes between general outside scholarships (which reduce work-study and loans first, grant last) and tuition-specific outside awards like parent employer tuition benefits, state tuition grants, or veteran benefits — those reduce the need-based SU Grant dollar-for-dollar. Read which bucket your outside award lives in before assuming the loan-first policy applies.
Syracuse's policy: 'If you receive 100 percent tuition benefit from the SU DTB program, or receive a Tuition Exchange award, you will receive a merit-based scholarship in name only.' Tuition Exchange replaces merit; it does not stack. Children of higher-education employees who plan to use Tuition Exchange should not budget for additional merit dollars on top.
Syracuse raised the scholarship-renewal GPA floor from 2.75 to 3.0 for students enrolling Fall 2026 and later. The 2.75 minimum applies only to students enrolled before Fall 2026. New first-years need a 3.0 cumulative GPA and 12 credits per semester to keep institutional aid, with a three-semester grace window to recover.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Strong students drawn to a large private with Division I athletics and a top-rated public-policy track (Maxwell School); especially attractive to A&S/Maxwell applicants targeting Coronat and to outside-scholarship winners who want a school that reduces loans before grant aid.
Cost of attendance$92,128 for 2025-2026Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
On-campus$92,128
$68K
$20K
Tuition & fees
Housing & food
Books
Travel
Personal
Loan fees
On-campus scenario. Health insurance ($2,664) excluded as waivable.
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Syracuse, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Syracuse, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$15,817
$30,001–$48,000
$15,845
$48,001–$75,000
$21,132
$75,001–$110,000
$28,780
$110,001+
$55,401
All income levels (average)
$38,793
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$65,528
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$38,793
That works out to roughly a 54% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $84,517 (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
84%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
90%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$26,000 (~$276/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$79,164
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
17%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
38%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Syracuse's published policy is loan-first displacement: self-help (Federal Work-Study and educational loans) is reduced before the SU Grant when outside scholarships arrive. Tuition-specific outside awards, however, directly reduce the need-based SU Grant dollar-for-dollar.
Per Syracuse's Financial Aid Policies, outside scholarships reduce Federal Work-Study first, then other self-help (educational loans), then the SU Grant as a last resort. Tuition-specific outside awards (employer tuition benefit, state tuition grant, veteran benefits) are treated differently and reduce the need-based SU Grant by the amount of the tuition benefit. SU merit scholarships are tuition-specific and capped so that combined tuition-specific aid does not exceed tuition cost.
The Coronat Scholarship is Syracuse's flagship merit award — full tuition for four years (or five years for approved five-year programs), restricted to first-year applicants whose home college is the College of Arts and Sciences | Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. All A&S/Maxwell applicants are automatically considered through the Common App or Coalition App. Approximately 200 invited to apply, ~40 to interview. Past Coronats have won Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, and Fulbright awards.
Are Syracuse merit scholarships renewable?
Yes. Coronat and other SU merit scholarships renew annually for up to 8 semesters (10 for approved 5-year programs) with full-time enrollment (12 credits/semester) and a 3.0 cumulative GPA (2.75 for students enrolled before Fall 2026). Students have three semesters to meet the GPA requirement before forfeiture.
Will outside scholarships reduce my Syracuse aid?
Syracuse's published policy is loan-first displacement: outside scholarships reduce Federal Work-Study, then educational loans, with the SU Grant reduced only as a last resort. The exception is tuition-specific outside awards (parent employer tuition benefit, state tuition grant, veteran benefits) — those reduce the need-based SU Grant by the amount of the tuition benefit.
Does Syracuse publish merit scholarship amounts?
Only for Coronat (full tuition). The Syracuse University Merit Scholarship does not have a public stat-to-amount tier table. Award size is decided by the Admissions Committee and notified in the aid offer on MySlice. Plan the family budget conservatively until the offer arrives.
Do I need to apply separately for Syracuse merit scholarships?
No. All first-year applicants who submit the Common App or Coalition App are automatically considered for merit scholarships, regardless of citizenship or country of birth. Coronat invitation, if extended, comes by email in January with a separate written application and an early-spring Zoom interview.
See sources and other schools+
How Syracuse compares
147 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
Syracuse is in a recognizable cluster (147 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.
Syracuse 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 Syracuse’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
