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Washington State scholarships and merit aid

Two prices: the posted one, and yours.

Posted price$36,804per year · 2025-2026 · ResidentNon-resident $53,910
Yours?depends on the rules below

The short answer

Washington State is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 6 published awards, and 5 are based on those numbers.

Where does your student land?

Verified Jul 2026
3 school sources to explore

Published rules, with the school sources close at hand. Confirm the details before you count on an award.

The award collection

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.

Where does your student land?

  1. WUE Cougar Award$12,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    WUE Cougar Award

    $12,000 per year

    Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Cumulative unweighted high school GPA between 3.0 and 3.69
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for WUE Cougar Award

    Who qualifies

    Non-resident first-year students charged non-resident tuition, enrolling at the Pullman campus. Awarded automatically with no forms required. Cannot be combined with the National Merit award.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for 3 additional years. Must maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA, enroll full-time (at least 12 credits per semester) on the Pullman campus, and continue to be charged non-resident tuition.

  2. WUE Distinguished Cougar Award$15,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    WUE Distinguished Cougar Award

    $15,000 per year

    Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Cumulative unweighted high school GPA between 3.7 and 4.0
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for WUE Distinguished Cougar Award

    Who qualifies

    Non-resident first-year students charged non-resident tuition, enrolling at the Pullman campus. Awarded automatically; notified upon offer of admission. Cannot be combined with the National Merit award.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for 3 additional years. Must maintain GPA, enroll full-time on the Pullman campus, and remain charged non-resident tuition.

  3. National Merit ScholarshipFull tuition waiverAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    National Merit Scholarship

    Full tuition waiver

    Published coverage or packageAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    Start with the award’s published eligibility.

    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for National Merit Scholarship

    Who qualifies

    Identified as a National Merit semifinalist by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and admitted to WSU Pullman; must enroll the fall immediately following high school graduation. Cannot be combined with the Regents Scholar award, University Achievement Award, Cougar Academic Award, or Visitation Award. Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, and transfer students are not eligible.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for three additional years. Must maintain a 3.0 WSU cumulative GPA, complete 24 graded credit hours per academic year, and remain enrolled full-time at WSU Pullman.

  4. Glenn Terrell Presidential Award$4,000 per yearNot automaticRenewable
    Published awardOther selection criteria

    Glenn Terrell Presidential Award

    $4,000 per year

    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 conditions
    Open award details for Glenn Terrell Presidential Award

    Who qualifies

    Competitive, selected on academic strength via the WSU General Scholarship Application. Must apply for admission and scholarships by May 1 and enter as an incoming freshman or transfer. Not automatic — requires the general scholarship application.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for 3 additional years (freshman) / 2 additional years (transfer). Must complete 24 credits per academic year and maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA.

  5. Distinguished University Achievement Award (Washington residents)$4,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    Distinguished University Achievement Award (Washington residents)

    $4,000 per year

    Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    3.8 unweighted high school GPA
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for Distinguished University Achievement Award (Washington residents)

    Who qualifies

    Washington residents only. Must enroll on the Pullman campus as a first-time incoming student with at least 12 credits per semester. Cannot be combined with the National Merit or Regents Scholarship.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for one additional year. Maintain good academic standing, enroll in 12 credits each semester, and continue enrollment on the Pullman campus.

  6. University Achievement Award (Washington residents)$2,000 per yearAutomaticRenewable
    Published awardAcademic thresholds

    University Achievement Award (Washington residents)

    $2,000 per year

    Published amountAll published eligibility conditions still apply. Confirm the policy year with the school.

    GPA
    Minimum 3.6 high school GPA
    RenewableCheck the conditions
    Open award details for University Achievement Award (Washington residents)

    Who qualifies

    Washington residents. Automatically awarded. Cannot be combined with the National Merit award.

    How to keep it

    Renewable for one additional year. See WSU Terms and Conditions for renewal criteria.

Lights up against Washington State'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.

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The fine print

Renewal ruleWUE Cougar Award: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

Renewable for 3 additional years. Must maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA, enroll full-time (at least 12 credits per semester) on the Pullman campus, and continue to be charged non-resident tuition. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

Aid capHard $53,910 cost-of-attendance ceiling

Institutional aid at Washington State cannot push the package past $53,910. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

What makes Washington State different

Washington's land-grant research university that turns its WUE non-resident discount into a fully automatic, GPA-banded scholarship: every out-of-state freshman with a 3.0+ GPA who is charged non-resident tuition gets either $12,000 or $15,000 a year, locked at admission with no application.

Merit tiers65 based on grades or scores
First-year students with school awards31%First-year students, CDS 2024-2025
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

More than one award path

Separate the two paths.

Some awards use published academic thresholds. Others have different selection criteria. A score chart does not describe every award at this school.

  1. Match the published criteria

    Use all requirements together, including residency and the entering class.

  2. Check the application dates

    Confirm the current admission and scholarship deadlines directly with the school.

  3. Know what happens next year

    Check renewal, credit requirements and how other aid affects the award.

The fine print / Three questions to carry forward

Before you count on it.

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.

Take Washington State's decision sheet

A printable research summary, source links and room for your questions.

See what could change an award

What families often miss

  1. You cannot. WSU's award terms state the WUE/Cougar awards cannot be combined with the National Merit Scholarship, and the National Merit Scholarship 'cannot be combined with the Regents Scholar award, the University Achievement Award, the Cougar Academic Award, or the Visitation Award.' National Merit semifinalists choose the full-tuition waiver instead of the WUE award, not in addition to it.

  2. The WUE Cougar and Distinguished Cougar awards require that you 'be charged non-resident tuition' and 'maintain non-resident status' as a renewal condition. If your residency changes to Washington, you lose the WUE discount because the award exists specifically to offset the non-resident surcharge.

  3. The WUE Cougar awards require enrollment at the Pullman campus. WSU's other locations (Vancouver, Tri-Cities, Everett, Spokane, Global) run their own separate campus-based awards. If you enroll outside Pullman, model that campus's awards, not the Pullman WUE grid.

See award cutoffs and special programs

WUE Cougar Award & WUE Distinguished Cougar Award — automatic non-resident merit

WSU's headline out-of-state offer is the WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange) award, delivered as two automatic GPA bands. A non-resident freshman with a cumulative unweighted high school GPA between 3.0 and 3.69 automatically receives the WUE Cougar Award of $12,000 per year; a GPA between 3.7 and 4.0 automatically receives the WUE Distinguished Cougar Award of $15,000 per year. WSU is explicit that 'Qualified students receive the award automatically, and are notified upon their offer of admission to WSU. No additional action or forms are required.' Both awards are renewable for three additional years (four years total) as long as the student stays enrolled full-time on the Pullman campus, is charged non-resident tuition, and maintains the GPA. Against roughly $30,994 in 2025-26 non-resident tuition and fees, a $12,000-$15,000 award is a substantial, predictable, application-free discount. The one catch: these WUE awards cannot be combined with the National Merit Scholarship.

Source

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Out-of-state students with a 3.0 or higher unweighted high school GPA who want a big public-university experience on the West Coast at a heavily discounted non-resident price. The award is automatic and stat-banded, so families know their number the moment they are admitted. National Merit semifinalists get the strongest deal of all.

Cost of attendance$36,804–$53,910 for 2025-2026Each bar is the full published cost for that scenario, sized against the highest figure so totals compare at a glance.
Out-of-state, on-campus$53,910
In-state, on-campus$36,804
  • Tuition & fees
  • Housing & food
  • Travel

Pullman campus, full-time undergraduate, on-campus. Out-of-state tuition & fees derived from published total minus identical living components (matches WSU Quick Facts nonresident $30,994). Living components ('Travel' line = books, misc. living expenses, transportation as the school itemizes them).

Washington State cost-of-attendance source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at Washington State, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family incomeAverage net price paid
$0–$30,000$7,074
$30,001–$48,000$8,971
$48,001–$75,000$11,519
$75,001–$110,000$18,426
$110,001+$24,726
All income levels (average)$14,971

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23
$13,391
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23
$29,950
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$14,971

That works out to roughly a 46% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $27,648 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

Washington State 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
61%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
78%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$19,500 (~$207/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$68,905
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
28%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
33%
See other scholarships and cost examples

If your student brings another scholarship

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): "6. Outside Financial Assistance — If our office is notified of additional outside funding or scholarships after your initial aid offer, we may have to adjust grant funding to keep your award within your calculated financial need and Cost of Attendance." Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: The bigger stacking trap is internal: the WUE Cougar awards and several in-state awards explicitly cannot be combined with the National Merit Scholarship. (per https://financialaid.wsu.edu/outside-scholarships/)

Source

More school data

From the Washington State Common Data Set 2024-2025:

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Washington State’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.
31%of admitsget merit
Average award$5,300Covers ~10% of $53,910 cost of attendance

At Washington State, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $5,300 — about 10% of total cost.

As filed in Washington State's CDS Section H2A: of 4,261 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 1,312 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $5,300. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 4,243 of 18,915, averaging $5,570. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

Receive institutional merit31%First-year students, Common Data Set 2024-2025
Average merit award$5,300Across recipients, Common Data Set 2024-2025

Source: Common Data Set 2024-2025 (verified 2026-07-23)

Washington State merit aid FAQ

  • Is the WSU out-of-state scholarship automatic?

    Yes. WSU states that for the WUE Cougar and Distinguished Cougar awards, 'Qualified students receive the award automatically, and are notified upon their offer of admission to WSU. No additional action or forms are required for consideration.' Your GPA at admission determines which of the two amounts you receive.

  • What GPA do I need, and how much will I get?

    A cumulative unweighted high school GPA between 3.0 and 3.69 gets the WUE Cougar Award of $12,000 per year. A GPA between 3.7 and 4.0 gets the WUE Distinguished Cougar Award of $15,000 per year. You must be a U.S. resident from outside Washington, be charged non-resident tuition, and enroll at the Pullman campus.

  • How long does the WUE Cougar Award last?

    Both WUE awards are renewable for three additional years (four years total). To renew you must maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA, stay enrolled full-time at the Pullman campus, and continue to be charged non-resident tuition. Losing non-resident status ends the award.

  • Can a National Merit semifinalist also take the WUE Cougar Award?

    No. WSU's terms state the WUE/Cougar awards cannot be combined with the National Merit Scholarship. National Merit semifinalists admitted to WSU Pullman receive a full tuition waiver instead, which is the more valuable award for a non-resident, so it is generally the one to take.

  • Will an outside scholarship cut my WSU award?

    WSU does not publish a specific displacement formula, but it requires you to report all outside funding each award year so it can adjust your package before disbursement and avoid an over-award that you would have to repay. Report outside awards as early as possible.

See sources and other schools

How Washington State compares

  • 235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.

    Washington State 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.

  • 665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    Washington State 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.

  • 132 of 749 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.

    Washington State 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.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Washington State’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

Keep exploring Washington State merit aid

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