Skip to content

University of Idaho · Idaho

University of Idaho scholarships and merit aid

UI rewards academic achievement and lets students with outside aid or regional residency stack multiple scholarships.

Verified Jul 20261 month ago

The short answer

Is University of Idaho worth a closer look?

University of Idaho 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 awards40%First-year students, CDS 2022-2023
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

Free Merit Check

See what University of Idaho's published rules mean for your student. Takes 30 seconds.

Checking merit aid at University of Idaho

We’ll email you this result and a few short merit-aid pointers. We store score ranges only, never your student’s name. Unsubscribe anytime. See our privacy policy.

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 cost of attendance

National Merit Scholarship

Apply separately

Source

Amount not published

Invitation To Idaho

Based on grades or scores

Source

Amount not published

Go Idaho Program

Based on grades or scores

Source

Amount not published

Western Undergraduate Exchange Wue

Based on grades or scores

Source

See what could change an award

Straight from the aid office

What University of Idaho's aid office says

Per the Student Financial Aid Services, University of Idaho, August 2026. How we verify

Contact requirements for WUE questions

How should I contact the office to get answers about my WUE questions?

The email requests the student email from their Vandal email account and include their Vandal number along with all WUE questions so the office can review the account and provide appropriate information.

“In order to assist you, please email us from your Vandal email and include your Vandal number along with all of your questions regarding WUE.”
Out-of-state scholarships link

Where can I find information about out-of-state scholarships?

The office provided a link to the out-of-state scholarships page.

“Here is the link to our out-of-state scholarships: https://www.uidaho.edu/financial-aid/scholarships/out-of-state-scholarship.”
Non-admitted students without Vandal email

What if I haven't been admitted yet and don't have a Vandal email or V-number?

If the student has not yet been admitted and lacks a Vandal email or V-number, the office asks them to clarify their previous email and specify what WUE information they are seeking.

“If you have not yet been admitted and do not have a Vandal email or V-number, could you please clarify your previous email and let us know what specific information you are seeking regarding WUE?”
See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students from western states should check WUE eligibility, and those bringing National Merit recognition or external scholarships will find their awards stack generously.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $30,758 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at University of Idaho, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$11,270
$30,001–$48,000$11,193
$48,001–$75,000$13,374
$75,001–$110,000$17,130
$110,001+$18,791
All income levels (average)$14,831

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$9,084
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$28,320
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$14,831

That works out to roughly a 38% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $23,738 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

University of Idaho 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
57%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
76%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$21,982 (~$233/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$54,670
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
30%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
50%
See other scholarships and cost examples

More school data

From the University of Idaho Common Data Set 2022-2023:

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From University of Idaho’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
40%of admitsget merit
Average award$10,886Covers ~35% of $30,758 cost of attendance

At University of Idaho, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $10,886about 35% of total cost.

As filed in University of Idaho's CDS Section H2A: of 2,065 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 821 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $10,886. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 2,390 of 7,080, averaging $8,484. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

Receive institutional merit40%First-year students, Common Data Set 2022-2023
Average merit award$10,886Across recipients, Common Data Set 2022-2023

Source: Common Data Set 2022-2023 (verified 2026-07-23)

See sources and other schools

How University of Idaho compares

  • 132 of 749 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.

    University of Idaho 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 University of Idaho’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools