What is the deadline for Deadline Freshman Priority Fall2026?

Priority Admission Deadline and Freshman Scholarship Application deadline for Fall 2026 is February 15, 2026. Students must be admitted by this date to be considered for USA Freshman Admission Scholarships.

What is the deadline for Deadline Honors Book Scholarship Application?

Honors Book Scholarship consideration deadline: Students must apply to South and the Honors College by December 15 to qualify for consideration.

University of South Alabama · Alabama

South Alabama scholarships and merit aid

South Alabama runs a transparent automatic merit grid keyed to ACT and GPA, layered with competitive awards (Mitchell Business Scholars, Board of Trustees, Flagship Leaders, Whiddon Honors) and an out-of-state in-state-tuition path.

Verified Jul 20261 month ago

The short answer

Is South Alabama worth a closer look?

South Alabama is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 28 published awards, and 20 are based on those numbers.

Merit tiers2820 based on grades or scores

First-year students with school awards29%First-year students, CDS 2024-2025

Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

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Checking merit aid at South Alabama

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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.

$3,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 23–24, GPA 3.00–3.49

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3
SAT: 1130

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$4,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 25–26, GPA 3.50–3.74

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.5
SAT: 1200

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$2,000+

Jaguar Achievement Test Optional

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3

Source

Amount not published

Whiddon Honors Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

Source

$3,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 21–22, GPA 3.75+

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.75
SAT: 1060

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$2,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 21–22, GPA 3.00–3.49

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3
SAT: 1060

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

Amount not published

Oos Freshman Admission Instate Tuition

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$5,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 25–26, GPA 3.75+

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.75
SAT: 1200

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$5,500

Freshman Admission — ACT 27–29, GPA 3.50–3.74

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.5
SAT: 1260

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$6,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 27–29, GPA 3.75+

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.75
SAT: 1260

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$7,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 30–31, GPA 3.50–3.74

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.5
SAT: 1360

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$8,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 30–31, GPA 3.75+

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.75
SAT: 1360

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

Full tuition

Freshman Admission — ACT 32+, GPA 3.75+

Based on grades or scores

GPA: 3.75
SAT: 1420

Source

Full tuition

Board Of Trustees Endowed

Apply separatelyCan continue

Source

$1,000

Boys Girls State

Apply separately

Source

$2,000

Summit Valedictorian

Apply separately

Source

$4,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 23–24, GPA 3.75+

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.75
SAT: 1130

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$3,500

Freshman Admission — ACT 25–26, GPA 3.00–3.49

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3
SAT: 1200

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$4,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 27–29, GPA 3.00–3.49

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3
SAT: 1260

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$4,500

Freshman Admission — ACT 30–31, GPA 3.00–3.49

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3
SAT: 1360

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$5,000

Freshman Admission — ACT 32+, GPA 3.00–3.49

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3
SAT: 1420

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$1,000+

Flagship Leaders

Apply separatelyCan continue

GPA: 3

Source

$400

Honors Book Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

Amount not published

Abraham Mitchell Business Scholars

Apply separatelyCan continue

GPA: 3.5
ACT: 29

See who qualifies and how to keep it

Who qualifies

business

Source

$2,500

Freshman Admission — ACT 21–22, GPA 3.50–3.74

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.5
SAT: 1060

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

$3,500

Freshman Admission — ACT 23–24, GPA 3.50–3.74

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.5
SAT: 1130

See who qualifies and how to keep it

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

Source

Full tuition

Freshman Admission — ACT 32+, GPA 3.50–3.74

Based on grades or scores

GPA: 3.5
SAT: 1420

Source

$2,000

South Alabama Merit Nmsc

Apply separatelyCan continue

Source

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

In-state and out-of-state applicants who can read their award straight off the ACT/GPA grid, honors and business candidates, and nonresidents seeking the in-state-tuition rate.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $30,986 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at South Alabama, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$12,657
$30,001–$48,000	$13,265
$48,001–$75,000	$16,277
$75,001–$110,000	$23,252
$110,001+	$25,322
All income levels (average)	$17,648

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23: $10,116
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23: $19,092
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $17,648

That works out to roughly a 31% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $25,476 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

South Alabama 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: 53%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 76%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $24,929 (~$264/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $49,379
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 44%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 50%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not South Alabama's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not South Alabama's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

Once scholarship opportunities have met 100 percent of demonstrated need, an outside scholarship may require adjusting one or more financial aid sources; loan assistance is adjusted first, wherever possible. The order beyond loans is not published — confirm the full reduction sequence with the Office of Financial Aid.

Source

More school data

From the South Alabama Common Data Set 2024-2025:

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From South Alabama’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.

29%of admitsget merit

Average award$5,755Covers ~19% of $30,986 cost of attendance

At South Alabama, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $5,755 — about 19% of total cost.

As filed in South Alabama's CDS Section H2A: of 2,116 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 622 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $5,755. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 1,911 of 8,101, averaging $5,694. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

Receive institutional merit29%First-year students, Common Data Set 2024-2025

Average merit award$5,755Across recipients, Common Data Set 2024-2025

Source: Common Data Set 2024-2025 (verified 2026-07-23)

South Alabama merit aid FAQ

What is the deadline for Deadline Freshman Priority Fall2026?
Priority Admission Deadline and Freshman Scholarship Application deadline for Fall 2026 is February 15, 2026. Students must be admitted by this date to be considered for USA Freshman Admission Scholarships.
What is the deadline for Deadline Honors Book Scholarship Application?
Honors Book Scholarship consideration deadline: Students must apply to South and the Honors College by December 15 to qualify for consideration.

See sources and other schools

How South Alabama compares

145 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
South Alabama is in a recognizable cluster (145 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.
South Alabama 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 South Alabama’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Policy pageSouth Alabama stacking policy
Cost of attendanceSouth Alabama cost-of-attendance worksheet
Merit tiersFreshman Admission Act23 24 Gpa 300 349

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Auburn at Montgomery (AUM) merit aid. Alabama public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.

Keep exploring South Alabama merit aid

South Alabama scholarship stacking. Whether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
Does South Alabama displace outside scholarships?. The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.
South Alabama four-year renewal rules. GPA floors, credit-hour pace, and the renewal cliffs that knock awards out by sophomore year.