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USF (San Francisco)· Renewal Rules

Keeping USF (San Francisco)’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 Jun 20264 days ago· COWORK

At a glance

Renewable tiers
3 of 3
One-time tiers
0
Tiers with published renewal terms
3
Renewal risk profile
low

Renewal risk profile

USF (San Francisco)'s published renewal rules cluster around a 3.0 floor with no major-GPA gating, which is survivable for the typical freshman with steady study habits. The risk is non-renewal due to enrollment status (dropping below full-time), not GPA.

  • Fall 2026 First-Year Merit Scholarships (University / Presidential / Provost / Hilltop / Ignatius / Dons / St. Francis): See notes
  • Araoz Nursing Scholarship (Hilltop first-year nursing program): See notes
  • Charles E. Cross Award for Catholic High School Students: See notes

Renewal terms by tier

  • Fall 2026 First-Year Merit Scholarships (University / Presidential / Provost / Hilltop / Ignatius / Dons / St. Francis)

    $17,000-$37,000

    Entry requirements: Awarded based on your USF-calculated GPA in core academic subjects (no public GPA-to-tier mapping) GPA

    To keep it: Renewable each year for up to four years, as long as you maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress toward your degree.

    Source: https://www.usfca.edu/financial-aid/scholarships

  • Araoz Nursing Scholarship (Hilltop first-year nursing program)

    $25,000

    To keep it: Renewal terms stated for merit scholarships generally: renewable up to four years with Satisfactory Academic Progress.

    Source: https://www.usfca.edu/financial-aid/scholarships

  • Charles E. Cross Award for Catholic High School Students

    $5,000

    To keep it: Renewable for up to four years (three years for transfer students), provided you maintain satisfactory academic progress each semester.

    Source: https://www.usfca.edu/financial-aid/scholarships

How families lose this aid

  • Assuming your high school's GPA equals the scholarship GPA.

    Tiers are set by 'your USF-calculated GPA in core academic subjects' — USF recalculates GPA on core courses, which may differ from the transcript GPA, and no public cutoff table maps GPA to tier.

  • Catholic/Jesuit high school grads failing to flag their school.

    The Charles E. Cross Award adds $5,000/yr toward tuition for up to four years (three for transfers) — make sure the high school is correctly identified on the application; renewal requires SAP each semester.

  • Budgeting from this year's price for four years.

    USF states 'tuition, fees, housing, and food costs increase slightly each year. Over the last few years, annual increases have ranged from 2.8% to 4.9%' — and merit awards are flat dollar amounts, so the gap grows annually.

Renewal questions families ask

How much are the Fall 2026 merit scholarships?
Seven tiers: University $37,000, Presidential $35,000, Provost $33,000, Hilltop $31,000, Ignatius $29,000, Dons $27,000, St. Francis $17,000 — based on your USF-calculated core GPA, tuition-only, renewable four years with SAP.
What keeps the scholarship each year?
Maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress toward your degree; the merit award renews annually for up to four years. The Cross Award requires SAP 'each semester.'

How USF (San Francisco) compares across our verified dataset

  • 669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    USF (San Francisco) 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.

Sources used on this page

Every renewal claim is checked against USF (San Francisco)’s own published materials.

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