DRAFT: Villa Maria publishes a clean three-tier freshman merit grid keyed to high school average (90+ = up to $12,000; 85–89 = up to $10,000; 80–84 = up to $8,000) plus a parallel three-tier transfer grid keyed to transfer GPA ($12,000/$10,000/$8,000 at 3.0/2.5/2.0).
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Villa Maria worth a closer look?
Villa Maria may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers7See who qualifies
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team
Free Merit Check
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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.
Up to $12,000
Villa Honors Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
GPA
High school average of 90 and above (100-point scale)
See who qualifies and how to keep it+
Who qualifies
Full-time enrollment; earned an NYS Regents diploma or equivalent; pursuing a bachelor's degree
How to keep it
A GPA of 3.0 is required to maintain this award in subsequent years.
Notes
Stat-keyed award, but the page does not state it is granted automatically with no application, so automaticOnStats is left false pending confirmation. 'Up to' language means $12,000 is a maximum, not a guarantee. The Regents-diploma requirement has an 'or equivalent' clause for non-NYS students.
Students in the Say Yes Buffalo program from the Buffalo Public School system and all city charter schools
Notes
LAST-DOLLAR award: pays only what's left of TUITION after state, federal, and/or institutional grants and scholarships are applied. Explicitly excludes room and board, books, and other fees. Hosted/portable program award, so it gets its own tier rather than a footnote.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Villa Maria's published information.
Outside awardsNo published displacement order
Villa Maria's policy doesn't specify whether outside scholarships hit loans, grants, or only the COA ceiling. Get a written aid-office answer before chasing private awards.
Straight from the aid office
What Villa Maria's aid office says
Per the Financial Aid Office, Villa Maria College, August 2026. How we verify
How merit aid is awarded
Is merit aid automatic with admission, or is a separate application required?
Merit aid is automatically applied after an Admissions review of high school or transfer grades.
“Merit aid is automatically applied after an Admissions review of high school or transfer grades.”
Factors used for need-based aid
Is there a published need-grant formula or dollar grid?
Need-based aid is determined using a combination of the Student Aid Index (SAI) from the FAFSA, state grant eligibility, merit, and other factors, rather than a stated formula or grid.
“Villa offers need based aid using a combination of the Student's Student Aid Index (SAI) as determined by the FAFSA, state grant eligibility, merit, and other factors.”
What families often miss
All three freshman merit tiers use 'up to' language (up to $12,000 / $10,000 / $8,000). The page does not publish what determines where in the range a student lands, so the headline number is a ceiling, not a promise. Ask admissions what your specific average earns.
It is a last-dollar award: it 'will cover the remaining balance of a student's tuition AFTER state, federal, and/or institutional grants and scholarships have been applied' — and it 'covers tuition only and excludes room and board costs, books, and other fees.' If your other aid already covers tuition, Say Yes adds nothing.
The top award requires 'A GPA of 3.0... to maintain this award in subsequent years.' Renewal criteria for the Presidential and Villa Merit tiers are NOT published — families should ask whether the same 3.0 applies before assuming an easier threshold.
Every published merit tier (freshman and transfer) is explicitly for 'full-time' students. Part-time tuition is also billed differently ($915/credit hour vs. $13,765/semester full-time).
The transfer grid jumps $2,000/yr at each cutoff: 2.0 GPA = $8,000 (Founders), 2.5 = $10,000 (Franciscan), 3.0 = $12,000 (Felician). A transfer GPA of 2.9 vs 3.0 is a $2,000-per-year difference.
'Applications for the esports scholarship must be submitted before starting classes' — unlike the merit awards, this one closes once you enroll.
The requirement is 'an NYS Regents diploma or equivalent' — out-of-state applicants should ask what counts as equivalent rather than self-selecting down to a lower tier.
Villa publishes Fall 2026 & Spring 2027 tuition of $13,765/semester ($27,530/yr) plus fees (registration $285, orientation $50, student activity $260 full-time), but no total cost-of-attendance figure including housing and food on the tuition page. Costs are marked 'subject to change.' Use the net price calculator and ask for the official COA.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
DRAFT: Arts-focused students (animation, design, music, film) with at least an 80 high school average — the merit grid reaches well below the cutoffs of most colleges — and Western New York students who can layer TAP/ETA state grants and (for Buffalo public/charter graduates) the last-dollar Say Yes tuition guarantee on top.
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Villa Maria, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Villa Maria, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$13,049
$30,001–$48,000
$13,265
$48,001–$75,000
$12,274
$75,001–$110,000
$12,775
$110,001+
$25,069
All income levels (average)
$13,494
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Total cost of attendance (sticker), AY 2021-22
$36,335
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$28,670
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$13,494
That works out to an average 63% discount off the sticker price above — both figures come from the same federal AY 2021-22 Scorecard report, not a number the school itself published.
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
31%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
76%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$21,250 (~$225/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$38,857
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
79%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
37%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Villa Maria publishes no general policy on how its merit awards combine with each other or whether private outside scholarships displace institutional aid. The only published interaction rule is for the Say Yes Buffalo Scholarship, which is last-dollar: it pays only the tuition balance remaining AFTER state, federal, and institutional grants/scholarships are applied, and covers tuition only. The NYS Enhanced Tuition Award ($6,000) is described as a combination of TAP + ETA + a match from the college.
Say Yes: 'Say Yes scholarships will cover the remaining balance of a student's tuition after state, federal, and/or institutional grants and scholarships have been applied. The award covers tuition only and excludes room and board costs, books, and other fees.' ETA: 'Recipients will receive $6,000 through a combination of their TAP award, ETA award, and a match from their private college.' Nothing on the opened pages addresses private outside-scholarship displacement.
AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityDemonstrated commitment to community service and spiritual development; supports the College's Felician mission and core values
Application linked as a PDF from the scholarships page.
No deadline is published for the merit-based scholarships on the scholarships page. The exception: esports scholarship applications must be submitted before starting classes. For federal/state aid (Pell, FSEOG, TAP, ETA) you must file the FAFSA, and FSEOG requires Pell eligibility and at least 6 credit hours.
What high school average do I need for merit money?
90+ average (with NYS Regents diploma or equivalent, bachelor's-degree track) = Villa Honors Scholarship, up to $12,000/yr; 85–89 = Presidential Scholarship, up to $10,000/yr; 80–84 = Villa Merit Scholarship, up to $8,000/yr. All require full-time enrollment.
Is there transfer merit aid?
Yes — a published three-tier grid by transfer GPA: 3.0 = Felician Grant ($12,000/yr), 2.5 = Franciscan Grant ($10,000/yr), 2.0 = Founders Grant ($8,000/yr), all for full-time transfer students.
What does Villa Maria cost?
Fall 2026 & Spring 2027 full-time tuition is $13,765 per semester ($27,530/yr); part-time is $915/credit hour. Full-time fees include registration ($285), orientation ($50), and student activity ($260). The College does not publish a single all-in cost-of-attendance total on its tuition page; 99% of students receive some form of aid and 96% receive Villa-funded grants and scholarships.
I'm a Buffalo public/charter school graduate — what about Say Yes?
Say Yes Buffalo participants may receive a scholarship covering the remaining tuition balance after state, federal, and institutional aid is applied. It is tuition-only — room and board, books, and other fees are excluded.
What state aid can New York residents add?
TAP (up to $5,165/yr, up to four years for full-time study) and the Enhanced Tuition Award, under which recipients receive $6,000 through a combination of TAP, the ETA award, and a match from the college.
See sources and other schools+
How Villa Maria compares
133 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
Villa Maria is in a recognizable cluster (133 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
133 of 749 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.
Villa Maria is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Villa Maria 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 Villa Maria’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
