The University of Southern Mississippi · Mississippi
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.
The short answer
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.
Free Merit Check
These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.
Not on this ladder: Designation Valedictorian Salutatorian, Keystone Scholar Award, National Merit Semifinalist, Designation Associate Achievement, Designation Other Awards 8yr, Discovery Scholarship, National Merit Finalist, Presidential Scholarship — application required, holistic, or scored on a different axis.
| Tier | ACT composite | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Academic Excellence Full Tuition — GPA 3.25, ACT 32 | 32 | Full tuition |
| Academic Excellence Housing | 32 | Amount not published |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.00, ACT 32 | 32 | $4,500 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 31 | 31 | $10,000 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.00, ACT 30 | 30 | $3,000 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 30 | 30 | $9,000 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 27 | 27 | $6,000 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.00, ACT 26 | 26 | $2,500 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 25 | 25 | $5,250 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 23 | 23 | $4,500 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.00, ACT 23 | 23 | $1,500 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 22 | 22 | $3,000 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 21 | 21 | $2,500 |
| Academic Excellence — GPA 3.25, ACT 20 | 20 | $1,500 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Maintain 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.
Official 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.
Official 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.
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.
Maintain 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.
Official 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.
Official 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.
Official 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.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Southern Miss's published information.
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.
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.
