Southern Miss is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 22 published awards, and 14 are based on those numbers.
Published rules, with the school sources close at hand. Confirm the details before you count on an award.
The award collection
These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.
$10,000
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 31/SAT 1390-1410, annual scholarship amount $10,000.
Full tuition
Published coverage or packageAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 32-36/SAT 1420-1600, annual scholarship amount Full Tuition.
$1,500
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 20/SAT 1030-1050, annual scholarship amount $1,500.
$3,000
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 22/SAT 1100-1120, annual scholarship amount $3,000.
Amount not published
Published award termsAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot says housing award requires high school cumulative GPA 3.6+ and ACT 32/SAT 1420+, covers full value of double-occupancy room only, must live on campus first year, first-year only and nonrenewable.
$2,500
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 21/SAT 1060-1090, annual scholarship amount $2,500.
$4,500
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 23-24/SAT 1130-1190, annual scholarship amount $4,500.
$6,000
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 27-29/SAT 1260-1350, annual scholarship amount $6,000.
$1,500
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.0-3.24 GPA, ACT 23-25/SAT 1130-1220, annual scholarship amount $1,500.
$2,500
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.0-3.24 GPA, ACT 26-29/SAT 1230-1350, annual scholarship amount $2,500.
$3,000
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.0-3.24 GPA, ACT 30-31/SAT 1360-1410, annual scholarship amount $3,000.
$4,500
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.0-3.24 GPA, ACT 32-36/SAT 1420-1600, annual scholarship amount $4,500.
$5,250
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 25-26/SAT 1200-1250, annual scholarship amount $5,250.
$9,000
Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Academic Excellence snapshot lists 3.25-4.0+ GPA, ACT 30/SAT 1360-1380, annual scholarship amount $9,000.
$2,000
Published amountNot 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 conditionsMaintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Freshman Designation-based snapshot says Valedictorian/Salutatorian award is domestic-students-only and paid across 2 consecutive fall/spring semesters at $2,000 annually/$1,000 per semester for total $2,000.
$1,000
Published amountNot 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 conditionsOfficial USM Honors snapshot says all rising juniors admitted to Honors Keystone will automatically be awarded the Honors Keystone Scholar Award when beginning Keystone curriculum, consisting of $1,000 annual scholarship for 2 years.
Full tuition
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 conditionsOfficial USM National Merit snapshot says Semifinalist package includes full tuition for four years plus campus housing, meal plan, and one-time $500 educational allowance for freshman year only; semifinalists do not apply but must be admitted by March 1 priority deadline.
$3,000
Published amountNot recorded as automatic on grades and scores. Read the selection rules. Confirm the policy year with the school.
Maintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Freshman Designation-based snapshot says Associate Achievement is for high school seniors obtaining associate degree while dual enrolled before attending USM, requires transfer cumulative GPA 3.0+, and pays $3,000 annually/$1,500 per semester for 4 consecutive fall/spring semesters, total $6,000.
$2,000
Published amountNot 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 conditionsMaintain 2.5 GPA; 15 credits/year
Official USM Freshman Designation-based snapshot lists the named other designation awards and residency limits, pays them across 8 consecutive fall/spring semesters at $2,000 annually/$1,000 per semester, total $8,000; same page states renewal requires 2.5 USM cumulative GPA and 15 USM credit hours each fall/spring semester.
Full tuition
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 conditionsOfficial USM Honors snapshot says Discovery Scholarship is competitive/select group and consists of full tuition for four years, freshman-year fall/spring campus housing and meal plan, and one-time $5,000 USM study-abroad scholarship usable beginning sophomore year.
Full tuition
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 conditionsOfficial USM National Merit snapshot says Finalist package includes full tuition for four years; campus housing, meal plan, and $1,000 educational allowance for four years; one-time $4,000 study abroad; finalists must apply/submit documentation by May 1 in GO and list Southern Miss first choice with National Merit Corporation.
Full tuition
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 conditionsOfficial USM Honors snapshot says Presidential Scholarship is competitive/select group and equivalent to tuition, campus housing, and meal plan for four years plus $500 per semester educational allowance; recipients must live on campus freshman/sophomore years, and juniors/seniors moving off campus retain tuition and book stipends only.
Lights up against Southern Miss'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
The free Merit Check shows which Southern Miss award your student's numbers reach, and the rules that could change it. About 30 seconds.
This page covers one school.
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“it told me what to ask and what the renewal GPA looked like, which I was not going to find on my own”Melissa
Institutional aid at Southern Miss cannot push the package past $28,786. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
Southern Miss centers merit on an automatic Academic Excellence grid (GPA plus ACT), topped by Honors College awards (Presidential, Keystone, Discovery) and National Merit recognition.
More than one award path
Some awards use published academic thresholds. Others have different selection criteria. A score chart does not describe every award at this school.
Use all requirements together, including residency and the entering class.
Confirm the current admission and scholarship deadlines directly with the school.
Check renewal, credit requirements and how other aid affects the award.
The fine print / Three questions to carry forward
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.
A printable research summary, source links and room for your questions.
In-state and out-of-state applicants who qualify on the GPA/ACT grid, Honors College candidates, and National Merit semifinalists and finalists comparing the full-tuition tiers.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $28,786 for 2026-2027. Source
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Southern Miss, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
| Family income | Average net price paid |
|---|---|
| $0–$30,000 | $19,867 |
| $30,001–$48,000 | $20,432 |
| $48,001–$75,000 | $22,756 |
| $75,001–$110,000 | $25,812 |
| $110,001+ | $26,542 |
| All income levels (average) | $21,708 |
That works out to roughly a 18% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $26,566 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Southern Miss 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.
Outside scholarships only trigger an aid adjustment if total aid would exceed the cost of attendance (or the student's aid eligibility cap); below that ceiling, awards are not displaced.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): A scholarship will affect your other student aid because all your student aid added together can’t be more than your cost of attendance at your college. So, you’ll need to let your school know if you’ve been awarded a scholarship so that the financial aid office can subtract that amount from your cost of attendance (and from certain other aid, such as loans, that you might have been offered). Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: USM Honors College students may only receive one scholarship package (Honors Scholar Award, Discovery, or Presidential); they are mutually exclusive. Official USM Honors snapshot says all admitted Honors College students receive some financial support and students may only receive one scholarship package, supporting mutual exclusivity among Honors Scholar, Discovery, and Presidential packages listed on the page. (per https://www.usm.edu/honors/scholarships.php)
Students must be fully admitted to USM with final test scores by March 1 to be automatically considered for the freshman Academic Excellence Scholarship.
Students must accept Freshman Academic Scholarships in the SOAR system by May 1.
USM Freshman Designation-Based Scholarship applications must be submitted through the GO System by August 1. Students receive notification by August 10 and must accept by August 15.
Southern Miss is in a recognizable cluster (235 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
Southern Miss 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.
Southern Miss 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.
Every claim is checked against Southern Miss’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
