Skip to content

North Dakota scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$24,204per year · 2026-2027 · cost of attendance
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

North Dakota is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 6 published awards, and 5 are based on those numbers.

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
3 school sources to explore

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

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. UND Freshman Scholarship — Top Tier$14,000 ($3,500/year for a maximum of 4 years)AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    UND Freshman Scholarship — Top Tier

    $14,000 ($3,500/year for a maximum of 4 years)

    Published award termsAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    3.90+ unweighted cumulative HS GPA, OR a 3.00+ GPA combined with a 30+ ACT (1370+ SAT)
    SAT
    1370 (only required for the 3.00 GPA + test pathway)
    ACT
    30 (only required for the 3.00 GPA + test pathway)
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for UND Freshman Scholarship — Top Tier

    Who qualifies

    Awarded automatically; submit application, transcripts, and (for the test pathway) official ACT/SAT scores by the Feb. 1 priority deadline

    How to keep it

    Paid as $3,500 per year for a maximum of four years; the page states 'Renewal criteria apply' but does not publish the specific renewal GPA.

    Worth knowing

    Automatic on stats — no separate scholarship application for the base academic award. The $14,000 is the four-year total ($3,500/yr). Test scores are only needed for students using the 3.00 GPA + 30 ACT pathway.

  2. UND Freshman Scholarship — Mid Tier$11,000 ($2,750/year for a maximum of 4 years)AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    UND Freshman Scholarship — Mid Tier

    $11,000 ($2,750/year for a maximum of 4 years)

    Published award termsAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    3.70 - 3.89 unweighted cumulative HS GPA
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for UND Freshman Scholarship — Mid Tier

    Who qualifies

    Awarded automatically; submit application and transcripts by the Feb. 1 priority deadline

    How to keep it

    Paid as $2,750 per year for a maximum of four years; 'Renewal criteria apply,' specific renewal GPA not published.

    Worth knowing

    Automatic on GPA alone; no test score required for this tier. The $11,000 is the four-year total ($2,750/yr).

  3. UND Freshman Scholarship — Entry Tier$1,500 (non-renewable, one-time)Automatic
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    UND Freshman Scholarship — Entry Tier

    $1,500 (non-renewable, one-time)

    Published award termsAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    3.50 - 3.69 unweighted cumulative HS GPA
    Open award details for UND Freshman Scholarship — Entry Tier

    Who qualifies

    Awarded automatically; submit application and transcripts by the Feb. 1 priority deadline

    Renewal terms

    Explicitly labeled non-renewable — this is a one-time award, not a per-year amount.

    Worth knowing

    Automatic on GPA. Critically this $1,500 is NON-RENEWABLE / one-time, unlike the two higher tiers which pay out over four years.

  4. National Merit Scholar AwardEquivalent to full tuition and mandatory student feesNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    National Merit Scholar Award

    Equivalent to full tuition and mandatory student fees

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

    Start with the award’s published eligibility.

    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for National Merit Scholar Award

    Who qualifies

    National Merit Finalist; ND/MN finalists who name UND first choice are eligible, other states reviewed case-by-case

    How to keep it

    Renewable for up to 3 additional years if renewal criteria are met.

    Worth knowing

    Stacks on top of the automatic academic scholarship and other UND awards up to the full cost of attendance. No specific dollar figure is published — value equals full tuition + mandatory fees.

  5. UND Transfer Scholarship — Top Tier$2,000 ($1,000/semester)AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    UND Transfer Scholarship — Top Tier

    $2,000 ($1,000/semester)

    Published award termsAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    3.90 - 4.00 cumulative college GPA
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for UND Transfer Scholarship — Top Tier

    Who qualifies

    For transfer students; awarded on cumulative college (not high-school) GPA

    How to keep it

    Paid as $1,000 per semester; renewal criteria apply.

    Worth knowing

    Transfer award, automatic on cumulative college GPA. The $2,000 is paid out as $1,000 per semester.

  6. UND Transfer Scholarship — Mid Tier$1,000 ($500/semester)AutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    UND Transfer Scholarship — Mid Tier

    $1,000 ($500/semester)

    Published award termsAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    3.50 - 3.89 cumulative college GPA
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for UND Transfer Scholarship — Mid Tier

    Who qualifies

    For transfer students; awarded on cumulative college (not high-school) GPA

    How to keep it

    Paid as $500 per semester; renewal criteria apply.

    Worth knowing

    Transfer award, automatic on cumulative college GPA. The $1,000 is paid out as $500 per semester.

Lights up against North Dakota's published cutoffs. Not an award offer; confirm with the financial aid office. Award terms and residency rules change; some awards differ for in-state and out-of-state students. Always confirm at the school’s source page.

Free Merit Check

Check the rules that could cut this.

The free Merit Check shows which North Dakota award your student's numbers reach, and the rules that could change it. About 30 seconds.

Checking merit aid at North Dakota

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.

This page covers one school.

Your playbook does this for every school on your list, sorted by what you’d pay.

Ready in under 10 minutes. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Get my playbook$79
  • Secure payment through Stripe
  • “it told me what to ask and what the renewal GPA looked like, which I was not going to find on my own”Melissa

What makes North Dakota different

UND awards an automatic, GPA-based freshman scholarship worth $14,000, $11,000, or $1,500 over four years (3.50+ GPA, no separate application), with the top tier requiring only a 3.90 GPA or a 30 ACT/1370 SAT plus a 3.00 GPA.

Merit tiers65 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 North Dakota's decision sheet

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

See what could change an award

Straight from the aid office

What North Dakota's aid office says

Per the One Stop Advisor, University of North Dakota, August 2026. How we verify

Freshman scholarship offer

When does a student receive their initial merit scholarship offer?

Students receive an initial freshman scholarship offer when they originally apply.

“Students will get an initial offer for a freshman scholarship when they originally apply.”
GPA increase and scholarship tier

Can a student move up to a better scholarship tier if their GPA improves?

If a student increases their GPA by graduation, they will get the next scholarship tier.

“Once they graduate if they have increased their GPA, they will get the next scholarship.”
Scholarship tier protection

Can the scholarship drop to a lower tier if grades decline?

The scholarship will not drop below the tier originally offered, regardless of the final transcript.

“The scholarship will not drop tiers from what was originally offered to what the final transcript says.”
External scholarships

If the student wins an outside scholarship, does it reduce loans or UND's award?

External scholarships are applied toward the student's bill.

“If he receives external scholarships, those will go to towards his bill.”
FAFSA and loan offer

Will the student automatically be offered a loan if they complete the FAFSA?

Completing the FAFSA results in an automatic offer of a $5,500 unsubsidized loan.

“If you guys do fafsa, he will automatically be offered a $5500 unsubsidized loan.”

What families often miss

  1. The 3.50-3.69 GPA award is explicitly 'non-renewable' — a one-time $1,500, not $1,500/year. Only the $14,000 (3.90+) and $11,000 (3.70-3.89) tiers pay out over four years.

  2. Those are four-year totals: $3,500/year and $2,750/year respectively, for a maximum of four years. Budget the per-year figure, not the headline total.

  3. The automatic academic scholarship requires the application, transcripts, and (for the test pathway) official ACT/SAT scores by the Feb. 1 priority deadline. Feb. 1 is also the Scholarship Central deadline for new students.

  4. That figure is the ND-resident direct cost (base tuition, fees, room/meal plan, and books/supplies). It excludes indirect costs UND lists separately — transportation ($1,200) and miscellaneous/personal ($2,200) — and is based on 2025-26 rates, subject to change for 2026-27. Non-residents pay more (150% of the ND rate for contiguous/WUE states; flat $31,948 + fees for SD/MT residents).

  5. Only the top tier's alternate pathway (3.00 GPA + 30 ACT/1370 SAT) requires test scores. The GPA-only routes (3.90+, 3.70-3.89, 3.50-3.69) do not require ACT/SAT.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students with a 3.50+ unweighted high-school GPA (or a 30 ACT/1370 SAT with a 3.00 GPA) who want a no-application, automatic merit award at a public research university; National Merit Finalists from ND/MN can reach full tuition and fees.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $24,204 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at North Dakota, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$13,126
$30,001–$48,000$12,251
$48,001–$75,000$15,206
$75,001–$110,000$18,981
$110,001+$20,730
All income levels (average)$18,551

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$10,951
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$15,570
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$18,551

That works out to roughly a 28% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $25,605 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

North Dakota 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
60%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
84%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$22,057 (~$234/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$63,552
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
16%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
58%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

UND lets you keep your institutional scholarships when you win an outside award — 'You may accept non-UND scholarships without affecting your UND scholarships' — but external awards still have to be reported and are accounted for in the federal financial-aid package. National Merit and other UND awards stack up to the full cost of attendance.

The One-Stop financial-aid scholarships page states outside scholarships do not reduce UND scholarships, while also noting they 'must be accounted for in your financial aid package' (the standard federal requirement that total aid not exceed cost of attendance). The page does not specify whether an over-award is absorbed loan-first or grant-first, so the precise mechanics of how an outside award interacts with need-based/self-help aid are not published.

Source

Other North Dakota scholarships worth checking

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

AmountVariesEligibilityAfter admission, students apply annually for departmental, donor, and college-specific scholarships through one application.

Opens Oct. 1; deadlines Feb. 1 for new/incoming students and March 1 for current/returning students. Separate from the automatic academic scholarship.

Source

North Dakota merit aid FAQ

  • What is the scholarship deadline at UND?

    February 1 is the priority deadline for the automatic freshman academic scholarship (application, transcripts, and any required test scores) and the Scholarship Central deadline for new/incoming students. Returning students have a March 1 Scholarship Central deadline.

  • Is the UND freshman scholarship automatic?

    Yes. If you meet the GPA criteria (or the 3.00 GPA + 30 ACT/1370 SAT pathway) and submit your application, transcripts, and any required test scores by Feb. 1, the academic scholarship is awarded automatically — no separate application for the base award.

  • Does an outside scholarship reduce my UND award?

    UND states you may accept non-UND scholarships without affecting your UND scholarships, but external awards must be reported and accounted for in your financial-aid package (so total aid cannot exceed the cost of attendance). Ask the aid office how an over-award is absorbed.

  • Does the $1,500 scholarship renew?

    No. The 3.50-3.69 GPA award is a one-time, non-renewable $1,500. Only the $14,000 and $11,000 tiers are paid over four years.

See sources and other schools

How North Dakota compares

  • 14 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use no-displacement displacement.

    North Dakota is in the small minority (14 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.

    North Dakota 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.

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

Compare with similar schools

Keep exploring North Dakota merit aid

The next chapter

Where does North Dakota fit in your plan?

You have the school’s rules. Now put them in the context of your student and the rest of your list.

  1. Check your student’s numbers, free
  2. Explore another school
  3. See how the research becomes a plan

Ready to work through your whole list? Get my playbook

Inside the sample

Jordan’s playbook

Same student.
Four schools.
Four very different bills.

An illustrative student profile, with a school order, scholarship research and a to-do list. Open the sample to see how it works.

Open the sample playbook