Whittier College · California

Whittier College scholarships and merit aid

Whittier offers merit awards across the arts, civic engagement, and academic excellence for driven students.

Verified Jul 20262 months ago

The short answer

Is Whittier College worth a closer look?

Whittier College awards automatic merit on admission. Whittier College does not publish a GPA or test chart, so you cannot self-calculate the dollars.

Merit tiers31 based on grades or scores

First-year students with school awards31%First-year students, CDS 2022-2023

Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

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Checking merit aid at Whittier College

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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.

$2,000

Gateway Scholarship

Based on grades or scores

Source

$20,000–$36,000

John Greenleaf Whittier Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

Source

Amount not published

Civic Scholars Program Scholarship

Apply separately

Source

See what could change an award

Rules that could change the answer

These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Whittier College's published information.

Aid capHard $53,464 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Whittier College cannot push the package past $53,464. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

Straight from the aid office

What Whittier College's aid office says

Per the Whittier Financial Aid Office, Whittier College, August 2026. How we verify

JGW Scholarship range

What is the annual range for the John Greenleaf Whittier Scholarship?

The John Greenleaf Whittier Scholarship ranges from $22,000 to $38,000 per year for first-year students.

“The John Greenleaf Whittier Scholarship ranges from $22,000 to $38,000 per year for first-year students, determined by your Whittier Admission GPA (weighted GPA from 9th-11th grade).”

Civic Scholars Program amount

How much is the Civic Scholars Program scholarship?

The Civic Scholars Program provides an additional $5,000 annual scholarship.

“The Civic Scholars Program provides an additional $5,000 annual scholarship.”

No published GPA-to-dollar matrix

Is there a published chart mapping exact GPA values to exact JGW award amounts?

Whittier does not publish a specific matrix mapping exact GPA values to exact dollar amounts within the JGW range.

“Whittier does not publish a specific matrix mapping exact GPA values to exact dollar amounts within that range.”

How award is determined

How is the specific JGW award amount decided?

Award determinations are made during the admissions review process.

“Award determinations are made during the admissions review process.”

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students with strong creative portfolios or a commitment to civic leadership will find multiple pathways to recognition and support at Whittier.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $53,464 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at Whittier College, academic year 2021-22
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$21,718
$30,001–$48,000	$19,928
$48,001–$75,000	$24,973
$75,001–$110,000	$26,718
$110,001+	$30,599
All income levels (average)	$25,757

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23: $51,350
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $25,757

That works out to roughly a 60% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $63,664 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

Outcomes for students who enrolled here

Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort: 60%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 66%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $24,937 (~$264/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $59,492
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 36%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 61%

How to read these numbers

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

If your student brings another scholarship

Outside aid that can only be applied to tuition (e.g., Cal Grant A, Tuition Remission, Tuition Exchange, outside scholarships, Yellow Ribbon) is capped, in combination with the John Greenleaf Whittier scholarship, at the cost of tuition for the academic year — not full cost of attendance.

Verified policy language (2026-07-02): In situations where the student is awarded additional aid that may only be applied to tuition, such as Cal Grant A, Tuition Remission, Tuition Exchange, outside scholarships, or a Yellow Ribbon benefit, the total of these awards plus the John Greenleaf Whittier scholarship may not exceed the cost of tuition for any given academic year. Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: Students may apply for Creative Arts Scholarships in more than one area, but may only accept one if more than one scholarship is offered. (per https://www.whittier.edu/financialaid/scholarships)

Source

More school data

From the Whittier College Common Data Set 2022-2023:

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Whittier College’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$28,587Covers ~53% of $53,464 cost of attendance

At Whittier College, roughly 1 in 3 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $28,587 — about 53% of total cost.

As filed in Whittier College's CDS Section H2A: of 246 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 77 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $28,587. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 294 of 1,090, averaging $27,127. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

Receive institutional merit31%First-year students, Common Data Set 2022-2023

Average merit award$28,587Across recipients, Common Data Set 2022-2023

Source: Common Data Set 2022-2023 (verified 2026-07-23)

See sources and other schools

How Whittier College compares

235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Whittier College 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.
Whittier College 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 Whittier College’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Policy pageWhittier College stacking policy
Cost of attendanceWhittier College cost-of-attendance worksheet
Merit tiersJohn Greenleaf Whittier Scholarship

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Keep exploring Whittier College merit aid

Whittier College scholarship stacking. Whether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
Does Whittier College displace outside scholarships?. The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.