What GPA do I need to keep my merit scholarship?

Stamps, Dean's Honor, Paul Tulane, Global, and Louisiana Excellence require a 3.000 cumulative GPA. Most other Tulane merit awards require a 2.700 GPA unless the initial offer specifies otherwise. Mayoral, Louisiana Legislative, Posse Award, and College Track Award require a 2.300 GPA. Merit amounts are fixed at admission and never increase.

Are Louisiana residents eligible for special scholarships?

Yes. Louisiana residents have access to the Louisiana Excellence Award (full tuition), Louisiana Legislative Scholars Scholarship (one year of tuition, valued at $67,592 for 2025-2026, awarded by Louisiana legislative district), Mayoral Scholars Scholarship (four years of tuition, valued at $67,592/yr for 2025-2026, 10 awards per year, one per New Orleans city council district, for Orleans Parish residents and graduates of Orleans Parish high schools), and the Louisiana Promise No Loan Assistance Scholarship (LPNOLA) for qualifying Louisiana families. These programs are not available to out-of-state applicants. The LPNOLA AGI threshold should be confirmed directly with Tulane Financial Aid before relying on it for net-cost modeling.

Tulane· Renewal Rules

Keeping Tulane’s Merit Aid for Four Years

What the financial-aid office actually requires after freshman year: minimum GPA, credit-hour pace, and the cliffs that quietly downgrade families mid-degree.

Verified May 20262 months ago· PT

At a glance

Renewable tiers: 8 of 8
One-time tiers: 0
Tiers with published renewal terms: 8
Renewal risk profile: moderate

Renewal risk profile

Tulane's renewal bar is achievable for steady students but isn't generous. Most awards require a cumulative GPA in the 3.0–3.4 band plus full-time enrollment. Audit the strictest tier on this school's list before assuming the four-year value is locked in.

Stamps Scholarship: See notes
Dean's Honor Scholarship: See notes
Paul Tulane Award: See notes
Louisiana Excellence Award: See notes
Community Service Fellowship: See notes
Admission-Based Merit Scholarship (partial, automatic): See notes
FIRST Scholarship: See notes
National Merit Scholarship: See notes

Renewal terms by tier

Stamps Scholarship
Total cost of attendance (tuition, fees, housing, and meals) plus enrichment funds for experiential learning
To keep it: 3.000 cumulative GPA; renewable for 4 years (5 for Architecture).
Source: https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/merit-scholarships
Dean's Honor Scholarship
Full tuition
Entry requirements: Typical recipients rank in the top 5% of the class GPA · Typical recipients have SAT of 1500+ SAT · Typical recipients have ACT of 33+ ACT
To keep it: 3.000 cumulative GPA; renewable for 4 years (5 for Architecture). Fixed amount that never changes during undergraduate career. Students found guilty of Code of Student Conduct or Academic Conduct violations forfeit all remaining portions.
Source: https://financialaid.tulane.edu/types-of-aid/gifts/undergraduate/dhs
Paul Tulane Award
Full tuition
Entry requirements: Typical recipients rank in the top 5% of the class GPA
To keep it: 3.000 cumulative GPA and continuous primary undergraduate enrollment; renewable for 4 years (5 for Architecture). Fixed amount.
Source: https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/merit-scholarships
Louisiana Excellence Award
Full tuition
To keep it: 3.000 cumulative GPA; four-year renewable.
Source: https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/merit-scholarships
Community Service Fellowship
Up to full tuition
To keep it: Subject to merit scholarship renewal criteria; must complete an average of 100 service & leadership hours per year at Tulane.
Source: https://financialaid.tulane.edu/types-of-aid/gifts/undergraduate/community-service-scholarships
Admission-Based Merit Scholarship (partial, automatic)
Up to $32,000 per year
To keep it: 2.700 cumulative GPA for most Tulane merit awards unless specified otherwise in the initial offer. Fixed amount that never changes. Renewable for 4 years.
Source: https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/merit-scholarships
FIRST Scholarship
$15,000 to $30,000 per year, dependent upon academic background
To keep it: Four years, contingent on good academic standing.
Source: https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/merit-scholarships
National Merit Scholarship
At least $2,000 per year
To keep it: Must meet NMSC renewal requirements. After one-year NMSC awards expire, Tulane applies $2,000 per academic year for subsequent years.
Source: https://financialaid.tulane.edu/types-of-aid/gifts/undergraduate/national-merit-scholarship

How families lose this aid

Assuming Tulane publishes fixed GPA, SAT, or ACT cutoffs for merit tiers.
Tulane uses holistic review for all merit awards and does not publish minimum thresholds. The typical-recipient profiles (ACT 33+, SAT 1500+, top 5% for DHS) are descriptive, not prescriptive. Roughly 60% of enrolled students submitted no test scores at all. Families who expect a published merit grid will not find one.

Renewal questions families ask

What GPA do I need to keep my merit scholarship?: Stamps, Dean's Honor, Paul Tulane, Global, and Louisiana Excellence require a 3.000 cumulative GPA. Most other Tulane merit awards require a 2.700 GPA unless the initial offer specifies otherwise. Mayoral, Louisiana Legislative, Posse Award, and College Track Award require a 2.300 GPA. Merit amounts are fixed at admission and never increase.
Are Louisiana residents eligible for special scholarships?: Yes. Louisiana residents have access to the Louisiana Excellence Award (full tuition), Louisiana Legislative Scholars Scholarship (one year of tuition, valued at $67,592 for 2025-2026, awarded by Louisiana legislative district), Mayoral Scholars Scholarship (four years of tuition, valued at $67,592/yr for 2025-2026, 10 awards per year, one per New Orleans city council district, for Orleans Parish residents and graduates of Orleans Parish high schools), and the Louisiana Promise No Loan Assistance Scholarship (LPNOLA) for qualifying Louisiana families. These programs are not available to out-of-state applicants. The LPNOLA AGI threshold should be confirmed directly with Tulane Financial Aid before relying on it for net-cost modeling.

Rules that bite at Tulane

The renewal trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook, derived from Tulane's own tier rules and not generic advice.

cliffOne ACT point can move the award by +$62,707/yr ($94,707 full cost of attendance − $32,000 automatic max)
Tulane publishes a tier ladder where crossing Automatic merit ceiling → Stamps Scholarship changes the marginal value by +$62,707/yr ($94,707 full cost of attendance − $32,000 automatic max). The largest computable step, and the only one that can be computed here. It understates the true Stamps premium because Stamps also adds enrichment funds beyond full COA, which carry no published dollar value. The jump from the automatic ceiling to a full-tuition award (Dean's Honor / Paul Tulane / Louisiana Excellence) is real but not computable, since this data gives no tuition-only figure.
renewalDean's Honor Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
3.000 cumulative GPA; renewable for 4 years (5 for Architecture). Fixed amount that never changes during undergraduate career. Students found guilty of Code of Student Conduct or Academic Conduct violations forfeit all remaining portions. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

How Tulane compares across our verified dataset

669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Tulane 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.
63 of 751 verified schools publish a marginal-value cliff table we can quantify.
Tulane is one of them. Most schools won't tell families what one ACT point is actually worth. At the schools that do, a strategic retake is sometimes mathematically more valuable than test-optional positioning.
133 of 751 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.
Tulane 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 renewal claim is checked against Tulane’s own published materials.

policyTulane stacking policy
cdsTulane Common Data Set
coaTulane cost-of-attendance worksheet
tierStamps Scholarship
tierDean's Honor Scholarship
tierCommunity Service Fellowship
tierNational Merit Scholarship
scholarshipBoudreaux Scholarship (School of Architecture, graduate program)
scholarshipTulane Research and Innovation Award (TRIA)
scholarshipFran and Mark Berg Public Service Scholarship