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UTEP scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$20,700per year · 2026-2027 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

UTEP awards automatic merit on admission. UTEP does not publish a GPA or test chart, so you cannot self-calculate the dollars.

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
7 school sources to explore

Published rules, with the school sources close at hand. Confirm the details before you count on an award.

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The award collection

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 does your student land?

  1. UTEP Excellence Scholarship$2,000–$8,000 per yearNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    UTEP Excellence Scholarship

    $2,000–$8,000 per year

    Published rangeNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Top 25% of junior class (GPA and class rank are part of scoring; no minimum GPA floor stated beyond ranking)
    SAT
    Not required nor considered
    ACT
    Not required nor considered
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for UTEP Excellence Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Application required at utep.edu/excellence. Opens October 1 each year; deadline January 31 before high school graduation. Reviewed by committee of UTEP faculty, staff, and alumni on academic excellence, leadership, and service. State residents, international, and out-of-state students welcome.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for up to four years. To remain eligible, students must enroll full-time, maintain a 3.0 GPA, earn 30 credits each year, and participate in service activities at UTEP.

    Worth knowing

    SAT and ACT scores are explicitly not required nor considered. Award amount within the $2,000–$8,000 range is not broken into a published grid; exact amount per recipient is not stated on the page. Most scholarships require enrollment in 15 credit hours per the awards-calculated page.

  2. Presidential Scholarship (top tier of UTEP Excellence Scholarship)Full cost of attendance including on-campus housingNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Presidential Scholarship (top tier of UTEP Excellence Scholarship)

    Full cost of attendance including on-campus housing

    Published coverage or packageNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Top 25% of junior class (same as Excellence Scholarship; selection from top applicants in the cohort)
    SAT
    Not required nor considered
    ACT
    Not required nor considered
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Presidential Scholarship (top tier of UTEP Excellence Scholarship)

    Who qualifies

    Selected from the top 10 applicants within each Excellence Scholarship cohort. Application is the same as the Excellence Scholarship (utep.edu/excellence, deadline January 31). No separate application.

    How to keep it

    Same renewal terms as Excellence Scholarship (full-time enrollment, 3.0 GPA, 30 credits/year, service activities). Duration not separately stated beyond the up-to-four-years Excellence Scholarship framework.

    Worth knowing

    Up to ten recipients per cohort. Covers full COA including on-campus housing — not just tuition/fees. This is the most competitive tier within the Excellence Scholarship competition.

  3. Paydirt Promise100% of tuition and fees (TX resident, family income ≤$100,000)AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Paydirt Promise

    100% of tuition and fees (TX resident, family income ≤$100,000)

    Published coverage or packageAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    SAP required to continue (specific GPA floor not published on the Paydirt Promise page; SAP policy linked separately)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Paydirt Promise

    Who qualifies

    Be a Texas resident pursuing first bachelor's degree. Family income of $100,000 or less. Submit FAFSA or TASFA and all required documents. Enroll in minimum 9 credits each fall and spring. All eligible students who complete the FAFSA or TASFA are automatically considered — no separate scholarship application required.

    How to keep it

    Continuing students must make satisfactory academic progress (SAP) and earn 21 credits each academic year (summer enrollment is not required but counts). Minimum enrollment of 9 credits each fall and spring.

    Worth knowing

    Need-based program (income gate: ≤$100,000). Classified as automatic because any eligible student who files FAFSA/TASFA is automatically considered — no merit application. However, it is need-tested, so 'automaticOnStats' reflects the automatic consideration structure. Covers tuition and fees only (not full COA). If part of tuition is paid by exemption, military benefits, or other tuition-specific awards, UTEP only covers the difference. Paydirt Promise students with highest need who meet certain requirements may also qualify for the Miner Success Grant.

  4. Miner Success GrantAmount not publishedNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Miner Success Grant

    Amount not published

    Published award termsNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    SAP required (via Paydirt Promise eligibility)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Miner Success Grant

    Who qualifies

    Must be eligible for Paydirt Promise; receiving maximum Pell Grant; not receiving TEXAS Grant; not receiving a UTEP scholarship; attending full-time in fall and spring. Apply by submitting FAFSA or TASFA as early as possible.

    How to keep it

    Must remain eligible for Paydirt Promise; must receive maximum Pell Grant; must not receive a TEXAS Grant or a UTEP scholarship; must attend full-time in fall and spring. Funding is limited.

    Worth knowing

    Covers costs beyond tuition/fees (books, food, housing, transportation). Explicitly states that receiving a UTEP scholarship makes a student ineligible — this is a critical anti-stacking rule. Amount per award not published on the page.

  5. Texas Transfer Grant (state-portable, documented at UTEP)Up to $5,394 per semesterNot automatic
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Texas Transfer Grant (state-portable, documented at UTEP)

    Up to $5,394 per semester

    Variable or qualified amountNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Minimum 2.5 GPA
    Open award details for Texas Transfer Grant (state-portable, documented at UTEP)

    Who qualifies

    Texas resident. Transfer to UTEP within 12 months of earning associate degree from a public junior college, state college, or technical institute. Must complete core curriculum. Demonstrate financial need. Register full-time. Registered with Selective Service or exempt.

    Renewal terms

    Duration not specified on the UTEP page. Need-based and subject to continued eligibility requirements. Not an institutionally-funded award.

    Worth knowing

    This is a Texas state grant (not UTEP institutional funds) but is documented on UTEP's official financial aid page for transfer students. Listed here because UTEP's own page documents it for transfer students.

  6. Houston Endowment Honors Program Scholarship$2,000 per year (up to 4 years)Not automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Houston Endowment Honors Program Scholarship

    $2,000 per year (up to 4 years)

    Variable or qualified amountNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    3.5+ cumulative GPA required to be in UHP (Honors Program entry requirement)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Houston Endowment Honors Program Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Must be an active University Honors Program member. One student per college (7 colleges), remaining three selected competitively. Contact: Monica Martinez, UHP Program Manager.

    How to keep it

    Students receiving funds may reapply for up to 4 cycles with an included student-written report each year on how the fund was spent. Up to 10 scholars per year.

    Worth knowing

    Distributed as one student per each of the 7 colleges, plus 3 competitive selections = 10 scholars total per year. Part of the broader UHP scholarship ecosystem. Donor-funded via Houston Endowment.

Lights up against UTEP's published cutoffs. Not an award offer; confirm with the financial aid office.

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The fine print

Renewal ruleUTEP Excellence Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

Renewable for up to four years. To remain eligible, students must enroll full-time, maintain a 3.0 GPA, earn 30 credits each year, and participate in service activities at UTEP. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

Aid capHard $20,700 cost-of-attendance ceiling

Institutional aid at UTEP cannot push the package past $20,700. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

What makes UTEP different

UTEP's flagship merit award—the UTEP Excellence Scholarship—provides $2,000–$8,000/year to top-25%-class high school seniors via a competitive application; up to 10 students per cohort can win the Presidential Scholarship, which covers full cost of attendance including on-campus housing.

Merit tiers61 based on grades or scores
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

More than one award path

Separate the two paths.

Some awards use published academic thresholds. Others have different selection criteria. A score chart does not describe every award at this school.

  1. Match the published criteria

    Use all requirements together, including residency and the entering class.

  2. Check the application dates

    Confirm the current admission and scholarship deadlines directly with the school.

  3. Know what happens next year

    Check renewal, credit requirements and how other aid affects the award.

The fine print / Three questions to carry forward

Before you count on it.

Does it apply to us? Confirm the entering year, residency and every eligibility condition.

Can we keep it? Check renewal GPA, credits and how long the award lasts.

Can we combine it? Ask how outside scholarships and other school awards change the offer.

Take UTEP's decision sheet

A printable research summary, source links and room for your questions.

See what could change an award

What families often miss

  1. The Paydirt Promise covers 100% of tuition and fees only — not housing, food, books, transportation, or other living costs. The full 2026-27 COA for a TX-resident student living with family is $20,700, of which only the $8,800 tuition-and-fees component is covered.

  2. The Excellence Scholarship requires a separate competitive application (utep.edu/excellence), essay responses, and committee review. It is not awarded automatically. SAT/ACT scores are neither required nor considered — but the application still requires submission and is scored on leadership, service, essays, GPA, and class rank.

  3. Receiving any UTEP scholarship explicitly disqualifies a student from the Miner Success Grant. Students choosing the Excellence Scholarship or a donor scholarship through ScholarMine lose Miner Success Grant eligibility.

  4. The Excellence Scholarship application opens October 1 and closes January 31 before high school graduation. Late applications are not accepted. The Presidential Scholarship (full COA) is selected from within this same pool — there is no separate application.

  5. UTEP's financial aid page for transfer students describes only the Texas Transfer Grant (a state grant, up to $5,394/semester, need-based, requires associate degree within 12 months). No separate UTEP-funded transfer merit scholarship is documented on the UTEP website.

  6. Renewal requires three conditions simultaneously: full-time enrollment, a 3.0 GPA, earning 30 credits each year, and participating in service activities at UTEP. Failing any one condition can result in losing the scholarship.

  7. Most UTEP scholarships require enrollment in 15 credit hours. The Paydirt Promise and TEXAS Grant require at least 9 credits. The Miner Success Grant requires 12 credits. Enrolling part-time can reduce or eliminate these awards.

  8. Outside scholarships reduce calculated financial need and can trigger displacement of grants or loans. UTEP's policy page references financial aid displacement and links to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board displacement advisory. The exact displacement order (loan-first vs. grant-first) is not spelled out on publicly accessible pages.

  9. The Paydirt Promise is need-based (income ≤$100,000) and residency-gated (Texas residents only). It is not contingent on GPA or test scores beyond satisfactory academic progress for renewal.

  10. Honors Program membership provides access to exclusive UHP scholarships (like the Houston Endowment awards) but membership itself does not come with a guaranteed scholarship. There is also an income-needs filter — Miner Success Grant requires NOT receiving a UTEP scholarship, so some Honors-linked scholarship recipients lose MSG eligibility.

  11. UTEP's flagship Excellence Scholarship is a competitive, committee-reviewed award open to out-of-state and international applicants, and that matters beyond the cash. Under Texas law, a non-resident who wins a competitive UTEP scholarship of $1,000 or more per year (one competed for against Texas residents and verified by the Office of Scholarships) can be charged the resident tuition rate for each semester the scholarship covers. For a non-resident, that resident-rate flip is often worth more than the scholarship dollars themselves. Confirm your specific award qualifies with the UTEP Office of Scholarships.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

High school seniors in the top 25% of their junior class who can submit a competitive application by January 31; Texas-resident students with family income ≤$100,000 seeking tuition/fee coverage through the Paydirt Promise; transfer students with a 2.5+ GPA from Texas public colleges; and continuing undergraduates with 3.5+ GPA seeking Honors Program scholarship access.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $20,700 for 2026-2027. TX resident, living with family, full-time undergraduate. Other 2026-27 COA profiles: TX resident living on own $30,700; TX resident on campus $26,400; non-resident living with family $33,900; non-resident living on own $43,900; non-resident on campus $39,600. Tuition and fees component alone (TX resident full-time) = $8,800. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at UTEP, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$7,863
$30,001–$48,000$8,136
$48,001–$75,000$10,120
$75,001–$110,000$14,093
$110,001+$18,282
All income levels (average)$9,403

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$9,744
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$25,502
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$9,403

That works out to roughly a 53% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $19,836 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

UTEP 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
50%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
79%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$18,000 (~$191/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$50,923
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
70%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
17%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

UTEP uses a COA-cap displacement model. Scholarships and other gift aid reduce a student's calculated financial need. Receiving a UTEP scholarship explicitly disqualifies a student from the Miner Success Grant. The Paydirt Promise covers only the portion of tuition not already covered by exemptions, military benefits, or other tuition-specific awards. Total aid cannot exceed cost of attendance.

Per the 'How Are My Awards Calculated' page: 'Financial aid displacement is a reduction to your financial aid, most often to "make room" for a new scholarship or other type of gift aid. When you receive these awards, they cover part of your financial need and your cost of attendance, which can result in such a reduction.' The Miner Success Grant eligibility explicitly excludes students 'receiving a UTEP scholarship.' The Paydirt Promise page states: 'If part of your tuition is paid by an exemption, military benefits, or other tuition-specific awards, UTEP will only cover the difference.' Specific outside-scholarship displacement order (loan-first vs. grant-first) is not spelled out on publicly accessible pages — the advisory links to an external THECB policy document.

Source

Other UTEP scholarships worth checking

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

AmountAmount not published (supports professional development and leadership experiences)EligibilityJunior or senior active University Honors Program students. Each of the seven college-based honors programs determines specific support types aligned with career pathways.

Examples of eligible uses: certifications, conference presentations, leadership/mentoring programs, internship stipend supplements, professional texts, study abroad costs.

Source

Amount$10,000 per scholarship (two awards)EligibilityUndergraduate UTEP student intending to attend graduate school the following fall. Age 17–22 (not yet 23 by October 1 in year of application). Minimum 3.7 GPA. Any nationality. Must complete undergraduate degree at UTEP no later than July of application year.

Established by the President of UTEP. Two awards per cycle. October deadline. See utep.edu/hawkinsscholars. Deadline and program details shown on the page reflect 2022 cycle — verify current-year parameters with the honors office.

Source

AmountVaries by individual donor scholarshipEligibilityAdmitted UTEP students. Single application matches students with 300+ donor scholarships based on college, field of study, GPA, and other criteria. Apply October 1 each year at utep.edu/scholarmine.

Not a single award — it is a platform that surfaces many individual scholarships with varying eligibility criteria. Award amounts and specific requirements are not published in a searchable list on the financial aid website.

Source

AmountPortion of $100,000 total pool; 18 awards for UTEP and EPCC students combinedEligibilityGraduating high school seniors with financial need, 2.7+ high school GPA, entering UTEP or EPCC Fall 2026.

Funded by McDonald's El Paso (external/foundation, not UTEP institutional funds). Documented on UTEP's financial aid scholarships page for the 2026 cycle. Application linked from UTEP's page.

Source

UTEP merit aid FAQ

  • What is the deadline to apply for the UTEP Excellence Scholarship?

    January 31 before your high school graduation. The application opens October 1 each year at utep.edu/excellence.

  • Are SAT or ACT scores required for the UTEP Excellence Scholarship?

    No. Per the UTEP scholarships page: 'SAT and ACT scores are not required nor considered.'

  • How much does the Presidential Scholarship cover?

    The Presidential Scholarship covers the student's full cost of attendance, including on-campus housing. For 2026-27 the TX-resident on-campus COA is $26,400. Up to 10 students per cohort receive it.

  • Does the Paydirt Promise cover housing and food?

    No. The Paydirt Promise covers 100% of tuition and fees only. It does not cover housing, food, books, transportation, or personal expenses.

  • Can I receive both a UTEP scholarship (e.g., Excellence Scholarship) and the Miner Success Grant?

    No. The Miner Success Grant eligibility requires that the student is 'Not receiving a UTEP scholarship.' Accepting a UTEP scholarship eliminates Miner Success Grant eligibility.

  • Is there a separate transfer merit scholarship at UTEP?

    No UTEP-funded transfer merit scholarship is documented on the financial aid website. Transfer students may qualify for the Texas Transfer Grant (a state grant, up to $5,394/semester) if they transfer within 12 months of an associate degree with a 2.5 GPA and financial need.

  • What GPA do I need to renew the UTEP Excellence Scholarship?

    A 3.0 GPA, plus full-time enrollment, 30 credits earned per year, and participation in service activities at UTEP — all conditions must be met simultaneously.

  • What is the 2026-27 cost of attendance for a Texas-resident undergraduate?

    It depends on living situation: $20,700 living with family, $30,700 living on your own, $26,400 living on campus. Tuition and fees alone are $8,800 for full-time enrollment.

  • Can out-of-state students get in-state tuition at UTEP?

    Often, yes, through Texas's competitive scholarship tuition waiver: a non-resident who receives a competitive UTEP scholarship of $1,000 or more per year (one competed for against Texas residents and verified by the Office of Scholarships) can pay the resident tuition rate for the covered semesters. The Excellence Scholarship ($2,000-$8,000/yr) is a competitive, committee-reviewed award open to out-of-state applicants, so it is a realistic path. Verify your specific award qualifies with the Office of Scholarships.

See sources and other schools

How UTEP compares

  • 235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.

    UTEP is in a recognizable cluster (235 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.

    UTEP 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 UTEP’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

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