University of Wyoming · Wyoming
Wyoming's merit centers on the Cowboy Commitment and Brown & Gold Commitment guarantees, the competitive Trustees' Scholars Award, the state Hathaway program for residents, and a Good Neighbor rate for nearby states.
The short answer
Wyoming is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 7 published awards, and 2 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.
Maintain 2.5 GPA
Official UW Hathaway snapshot says legislation signed Feb. 27, 2026 applies effective fall 2026; increases based on a 12-hour semester include Performance Level increasing to ,770 from ,260.
Maintain 2.5 GPA
Official UW Hathaway snapshot says legislation signed Feb. 27, 2026 applies effective fall 2026; increases based on a 12-hour semester include Honors Level increasing to ,360 from ,680.
Maintain 2.25 GPA
Official UW Hathaway snapshot says legislation signed Feb. 27, 2026 applies effective fall 2026; increases based on a 12-hour semester include Opportunity and Provisional increasing to ,180 from 40.
Official UW Brown and Gold snapshot states Fall 2026/Spring 2027, annual renewing pledge for new first-time non-resident students; merit-based by cumulative high school GPA and ACT/SAT; four annual amounts 2,000, ,000, ,000, ,000.
Official UW Cowboy Commitment snapshot states Fall 2026/Spring 2027, annual renewing financial pledge to new first-time Wyoming non-transfer students; merit-based by GPA and ACT/SAT; four annual amounts ,500, ,000, ,000, ,000.
Official UW non-resident scholarship snapshot states Good Neighbor Award is for non-resident new first-time undergraduates who reside and graduate from high schools in bordering states CO/ID/MT/NE/SD/UT, pays ,000 annually, may combine with existing non-resident Commitment/Award/alumni benefit, and is renewable up to two years.
Maintain 3.25 GPA; 24 credits/year
Official UW Trustees snapshot calls it the premier scholarship and states it works with Cowboy Commitment and Hathaway Honors to cover up to four years/eight semesters toward first bachelor's degree, including tuition up to 18 credits/semester, mandatory fees, and standard double room/meal plan when in university housing.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Wyoming's published information.
Institutional aid at Wyoming cannot push the package past $26,846. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
Wyoming residents combining Hathaway with commitment guarantees, neighboring-state students eligible for Good Neighbor pricing, and high-stat applicants targeting Trustees' Scholars.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $26,846 for 2026-2027. Source
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Wyoming, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
| Family income | Average net price paid |
|---|---|
| $0–$30,000 | $7,977 |
| $30,001–$48,000 | $7,730 |
| $48,001–$75,000 | $9,585 |
| $75,001–$110,000 | $15,205 |
| $110,001+ | $19,634 |
| All income levels (average) | $13,599 |
That works out to roughly a 45% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $24,818 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Wyoming 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): Cost of Attendance (COA): The combination of total awards cannot exceed your COA. Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: The Cowboy Commitment normally cannot be combined with any other institutional scholarship aid, including those made possible by the UW Foundation. (per https://www.uwyo.edu/sfa/scholarships/residents/cowboy-commitment.html)
From the Wyoming Common Data Set 2024-2025:
At Wyoming, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $4,917 — about 18% of total cost.
As filed in Wyoming's CDS Section H2A: of 1,415 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 497 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $4,917. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 2,082 of 6,804, averaging $4,953. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
Students selected to receive the Brown and Gold Commitment must confirm enrollment at UW by May 1, 11:59 p.m. MDT for students beginning in the fall semester.
The deadline for Wyoming high school seniors to apply for admission and submit all application materials including ACT/SAT scores for Trustees' Scholars Award consideration is December 1, 2025.
Students selected to receive the Cowboy Commitment must confirm enrollment at UW by May 1, 11:59 p.m. MDT for students beginning in the fall semester.
Wyoming 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.
Wyoming 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.
Every claim is checked against Wyoming’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
