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University of West Alabama · Alabama

UWA scholarships and merit aid

UWA offers merit awards for students showing leadership, academic strength, or specialized talents across many fields.

Verified Jul 20262 months ago

The short answer

Is UWA worth a closer look?

UWA may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.

Merit tiers13See who qualifies

Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

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Checking merit aid at UWA

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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.

$10,000

Trustee Excellence Award

Apply separately

SAT: 1390
ACT: 31

$4,000

Directors Award

Apply separately

GPA: 3.75
SAT: 1200
ACT: 25

Amount not published

International Talent Scholarship

Apply separately

GPA: 3

$2,000

Tiger Achievement Award

Apply separately

GPA: 3
SAT: 1060
ACT: 21

$5,000

Deans Award

Apply separately

SAT: 1260
ACT: 27

$7,000

Presidents Award

Apply separately

SAT: 1330
ACT: 29

$3,000

Counselors Award

Apply separately

GPA: 3.25
SAT: 1130
ACT: 23

Amount not published

Exceptional International Student Scholarship

Apply separately

$12,000

Trustee Superior Award

Apply separately

SAT: 1450
ACT: 33

Up to $2,500

Trustee Leadership Awards

Apply separately

GPA: 2.5
SAT: 990
ACT: 19

$3,000

Transfer Academic Award

Apply separately

GPA: 3

Amount not published

Black Belt Leadership Program

Apply separately

Amount not published

Out Of State Graduate Student Housing Award

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3 GPA

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

First-year students, transfer students, international applicants, and those with skills in areas like teaching, the arts, or regional leadership should explore these awards.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $33,399 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at UWA, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$12,179
$30,001–$48,000	$12,523
$48,001–$75,000	$14,606
$75,001–$110,000	$18,550
All income levels (average)	$12,684

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23: $10,990
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23: $20,090
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $12,684

That works out to roughly a 44% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $22,758 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

UWA 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: 35%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 65%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $24,944 (~$264/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $44,232
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 65%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 71%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not UWA'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 UWA'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

Other UWA scholarships worth checking

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

Uwa Boss II Scholarship

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityUWA BOSS II scholarship supports students financially and academically to complete their college degree within four years, leading to careers in biological or environmental sciences or graduate or professional schools.

Kelly Land Writing Competition

Amount$500–$1,000EligibilityKelly Land Writing Competition provides a $1,000.00 one-time scholarship to the winner and a $500.00 one-time scholarship to the second-place winner.

Jessica Hill Memorial Marine Biology Scholarship

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityJessica Hill Memorial Marine Biology Scholarship supports deserving full-time undergraduate students pursuing a degree in Marine Biology in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Darryl Hutcheson Memorial

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityDarryl Hutcheson Memorial scholarship amount varies and is available to students majoring in technology in engineering technology.

Black Belt Teacher Corps Teach For Alabama

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityBlack Belt Teacher Corps Teach for Alabama scholarship program is for addressing teacher shortages in Alabama’s Black Belt region, rural Alabama areas and Alabama high-needs public school districts.

Colquitt Language And Literature Memorial

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityColquitt Language and Literature Memorial scholarship amount varies.

Alabama Power

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityAlabama Power scholarship is available to full-time UWA junior and senior students majoring in Environmental Science who are legal residents of Alabama.

James Pate History Essay Competition Scholarship

Amount$500–$1,000EligibilityJames Pate History Essay Competition Scholarship provides a $1,000.00 one-time scholarship to the winner and a $500.00 one-time scholarship to the second-place winner.

Uwa Choir

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityUWA Choir scholarship amount varies and an audition is required.

Uwa Bands

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityUWA Bands scholarship amount varies and an audition is required.

Project Inspire 2.0

AmountUp to $15,000EligibilityProject INSPIRE 2.0 offers scholarships for UWA math and science majors pursuing K-12 teacher certification, providing up to $15,000 annually.

Uwa Cheerleading

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityUWA Cheerleading offers yearly scholarships.

Global Scholars Community Scholarship

AmountUp to $6,000EligibilityGlobal Scholars Community Scholarship is available to high school seniors up to $6,000.00 and UWA freshmen up to $3,000.00 for travel for students interested in study abroad.

UWA merit aid FAQ

What is the deadline for Academic Leadership Trustee Scholarships?
Students must be accepted to the University of West Alabama and complete the scholarship application by April 15 to be considered for academic or leadership scholarship assistance.

See sources and other schools

How UWA compares

665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
UWA 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 UWA’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Cost of attendanceUWA cost-of-attendance worksheet
Merit tiersTrustee Excellence Award

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