Large Texas public whose Assured Scholarships are genuinely guaranteed — a published test-score-or-class-rank grid pays $4,000 to $12,000 per year automatically to every qualified resident and nonresident, with a flat $40,000 award for National Merit Finalists on top.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Texas State worth a closer look?
Texas State is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 4 published awards, and 3 are based on those numbers.
Merit tiers43 based on grades or scores
First-year students with school awards18%First-year students, CDS 2025-2026 (school-estimated)
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.
Where you landAutomatic merit aid by ACT compositeEach bar marks the ACT score range that qualifies for the tier.
President's Honor Scholarship$12,000
ACT 32SAT 1420
Texas State Achievement Scholarship$6,000
ACT 24SAT 1160
Texas State Distinguished Scholarship$4,000
ACT 21SAT 1060
2024283236
Not on this ladder:National Distinction Scholarship (National Merit Finalists) — application required, holistic, or scored on a different axis.
View as table
Tier
ACT composite
Award
President's Honor Scholarship
32
$12,000 per year ($48,000 over 4 years)
Texas State Achievement Scholarship
24
$6,000–$8,000 per year ($24,000–$32,000 over 4 years)
Texas State Distinguished Scholarship
21
$4,000–$5,000 per year ($16,000–$20,000 over 4 years)
$12,000 per year…$12,000 per year ($48,000 over 4 years)
President's Honor Scholarship
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
SAT
1420
ACT
32
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
Any ONE of: 1420+ SAT, 32+ ACT, top 25% class rank, or IB diploma / AP Capstone diploma. Assured/automatic for admitted first-time freshmen; no separate scholarship application. Guaranteed to qualifying residents and nonresidents.
How to keep it
Maintain a 3.25 cumulative Texas State GPA and complete 28 passing Texas State hours per year (fall/spring).
$6,000–$8,000 per year…$6,000–$8,000 per year ($24,000–$32,000 over 4 years)
Texas State Achievement Scholarship
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
SAT
1160
ACT
24
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
$8,000/yr for 1260-1410 SAT / 27-31 ACT, or 1160-1250 SAT / 24-26 ACT (with top-5% rank), or top 5% rank. $7,000/yr for top 6-15% rank. $6,000/yr for top 16-25% rank. Assured/automatic; no application; guaranteed to qualifying residents and nonresidents.
How to keep it
Maintain a 3.25 cumulative Texas State GPA and complete 28 passing Texas State hours per year (fall/spring).
$4,000–$5,000 per year…$4,000–$5,000 per year ($16,000–$20,000 over 4 years)
Texas State Distinguished Scholarship
Based on grades or scoresCan continue
SAT
1060
ACT
21
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
$5,000/yr for 1160+ SAT / 24+ ACT or top 26-30% rank. $4,000/yr for 1060-1150 SAT / 21-23 ACT, or top 31-35% rank, or IB/AP Capstone. Assured/automatic; no application; guaranteed to qualifying residents and nonresidents.
How to keep it
Maintain a 3.25 cumulative Texas State GPA and complete 28 passing Texas State hours per year (fall/spring).
$10,000 per year…$10,000 per year ($40,000 over 4 years)
National Distinction Scholarship (National Merit Finalists)
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Be a Finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program and select Texas State as your first college of choice with NMSC on or before May 31st prior to your first semester. Guaranteed to admitted first-time freshmen who qualify.
How to keep it
Continuing eligibility per the official offer; standard assured-scholarship renewal (3.25 GPA, 28 hours/year) applies to the assured awards a Finalist also receives.
Texas State's assured awards are exactly that — assured. They are 'guaranteed to all qualified residents and nonresidents' who are admitted as first-time freshmen and meet the published cutoffs. There is no separate scholarship application and no competition; your admission file is your application.
The criteria are 'or' conditions, not 'and' conditions. A 1420 SAT or 32 ACT qualifies for the $12,000 President's Honor Scholarship on its own, even if your class rank is outside the top 25%. Likewise, a strong rank can carry a student who tests lower.
The $40,000 National Distinction Scholarship requires you to select Texas State as your first college of choice with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on or before May 31 prior to your first semester. Miss that NMSC step and the Finalist award does not attach, even if you enroll.
See award cutoffs and special programs+
President's Honor Scholarship — Texas State's top assured tier at $12,000/year
The President's Honor Scholarship is the highest rung of Texas State's Assured Scholarship ladder: $12,000 per year, $48,000 over four years. What makes it unusual is that it is guaranteed, not competitive. Texas State states the assured awards 'are guaranteed to all qualified residents and nonresidents (including international students) provided you are admitted to Texas State as a first-time incoming freshman.' To hit the President's Honor tier you need a 1420+ SAT or 32+ ACT, or top-25% class rank, or an IB diploma or AP Capstone diploma. There is no separate scholarship application — qualifying on admission is the application. The award renews each year as long as you keep a 3.25 cumulative Texas State GPA and complete 28 passing Texas State hours per year (fall/spring). Because the qualifying criteria are 'or' conditions, a strong test score alone can earn the top award even without top-of-class rank.
Solid B-plus to A students and top-quartile-rank applicants who want merit they can count on before they apply — the awards are contractually assured to anyone who hits the published cutoffs, so there's no competition or guesswork. Especially strong for National Merit Finalists and out-of-state students, since the assured tiers apply to nonresidents too.
Cost of attendance$30,410–$42,710 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$42,710
$25K
$13K
In-state, on-campus$30,410
$12K
$13K
Tuition & fees
Housing & food
Books
Personal
Travel
Full-time undergraduate (15 hrs/semester), on-campus, 9-month. Components sum exactly to published totals.
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Texas State, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Texas State, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$12,715
$30,001–$48,000
$13,557
$48,001–$75,000
$13,804
$75,001–$110,000
$20,028
$110,001+
$24,713
All income levels (average)
$16,805
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$11,450
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$22,930
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$16,805
That works out to roughly a 40% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $28,073 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Texas State 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
55%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
80%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$21,000 (~$223/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$56,906
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
45%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
46%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Texas State caps total aid at your cost of attendance and financial need. If an outside scholarship creates an over-award, the school reduces loans first, then work-study — it does not reach into your assured merit scholarship first. That makes Texas State friendlier to stacking outside money than schools that cut institutional aid first.
Per Texas State's University Scholarship Policy (UPPS 02.05.01), total institutional scholarships and other aid may not exceed the student's financial need and cost of attendance. When an over-award must be resolved, Financial Aid and Scholarships reduces loans first and then work-study before touching other awards, and notifies the student by email. Practically, an outside scholarship is most likely to push out borrowed money, not your guaranteed merit.
From the Texas State Common Data Set 2025-2026 (school-estimated figures):
Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Texas State’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
18%of admitsget merit
Average award$6,550Covers ~15% of $42,710 cost of attendance
At Texas State, roughly 1 in 6 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $6,550 — about 15% of total cost.
As filed in Texas State's CDS Section H2A: of 8,963 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 1,591 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $6,550. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 5,131 of 33,905, averaging $5,991. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
The 2025-2026 column is marked "estimated" in the school's own CDS filing — school-projected figures, not final audited counts.
Receive institutional merit18%First-year students, Common Data Set 2025-2026 (school-estimated)
Average merit award$6,550Across recipients, Common Data Set 2025-2026 (school-estimated)
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
Amount$40,000 total ($10,000/year)EligibilityNational Merit Finalists who select Texas State as their first college choice with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on or before May 31st prior to their first semester. Guaranteed to admitted first-time freshmen who qualify.
Are Texas State's merit scholarships actually guaranteed?
Yes. Texas State says the Assured Scholarships 'are guaranteed to all qualified residents and nonresidents (including international students) provided you are admitted to Texas State as a first-time incoming freshman' and meet the published cutoffs. There is no separate application — qualifying on admission is what earns the award.
How much can I get and what do I need?
Assured awards range from $4,000 to $12,000 per year. The top $12,000 President's Honor Scholarship needs a 1420+ SAT, 32+ ACT, top-25% class rank, or an IB/AP Capstone diploma (any one). Mid tiers ($6,000-$8,000) map to roughly 1160-1410 SAT / 24-31 ACT or top-25% rank, and $4,000-$5,000 tiers reach down to 1060 SAT / 21 ACT or top-35% rank.
What does Texas State offer National Merit Finalists?
A $40,000 National Distinction Scholarship, paid $10,000 per year. To get it you must be a National Merit Finalist and name Texas State as your first college choice with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on or before May 31 prior to your first semester.
How do I keep my scholarship each year?
Maintain a 3.25 cumulative Texas State GPA and complete 28 passing Texas State hours per year across fall and spring. Both conditions apply to the assured tiers; fall short and the award is at risk.
Will an outside scholarship reduce my Texas State merit award?
Most likely not your merit. Texas State caps total aid at your cost of attendance and need, and when it must resolve an over-award it 'will first attempt to resolve the over-award by reducing any loans and then work-study.' So an outside scholarship typically displaces borrowed money before it touches your guaranteed scholarship. The school notifies you by email if any reduction is made.
See sources and other schools+
How Texas State compares
145 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
Texas State is in a recognizable cluster (145 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Texas State 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.
132 of 749 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.
Texas State is one of them. NMF packages typically carry their own stacking and renewal carve-outs separate from the standard automatic merit ladder; confirm those before assuming the headline NMF value is final.
Sources used on this page
Every claim is checked against Texas State’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
