Whitworth University · Washington
Whitworth centers merit on automatic Academic Achievement awards scaled by GPA, topped by the full-tuition Honors Colloquium Scholarship, with National Merit, talent, and military service awards.
The short answer
Whitworth is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 10 published awards, and 3 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.
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot states Academic Achievement Scholarships are based on high-school GPA at admission, renewable up to four years with SAP, and lists 3.9 GPA and above = ,000/year (6,000 over four years).
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot states Academic Achievement Scholarships are based on high-school GPA at admission, renewable up to four years with SAP, and lists 3.6-3.89 GPA = ,000/year (4,000 over four years).
Official Honors Scholarship Weekends snapshot says the event is invitation-only for high-achieving prospective first-year students admitted with honors for fall 2026, and that from each event three students receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship.
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot states Academic Achievement Scholarships are based on high-school GPA at admission, renewable up to four years with SAP, and lists 3.3-3.59 GPA = ,000/year (2,000 over four years).
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot lists Talent-Based & Participation Scholarships up to ,000 (up to ,000 over four years), offered based on audition/application to students participating in art & design, forensics, media, music, theatre, or Young Life.
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot lists Whitworth Bound Scholarship: ,000 annually (,000 over four years), offered and renewed to Washington residents eligible for College Bound Scholarship with a 3.6 weighted cumulative GPA.
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot lists National Merit Semifinalists: ,000; semifinalists who advance to finalist standing and enroll at Whitworth are eligible for the ,000 Academic Achievement Scholarship, renewable up to four years.
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot lists Visit Scholarship: ,000 one-time, offered to students enrolling in 2026 who complete a qualifying 2025-26 Whitworth admissions visit event.
Official Honors Scholarship Weekends snapshot says from each event three students receive a four-year full-tuition scholarship and about 10 students receive a semifinalist scholarship; event is invitation-only for high-achieving admitted-with-honors first-year students.
Official Whitworth first-year scholarships snapshot lists Military Service Scholarship up to 00 (up to ,200 over four years), offered to veterans including dependents, active-duty members including dependents, and ROTC cadets whose tuition is not fully covered by veterans benefits.
Straight from the aid office
Per the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Whitworth University, August 2026. How we verify
Does Whitworth use weighted or unweighted GPA — and on what scale?
Weighted, on a 4.5 scale. That detail matters more than it sounds: a 4.5-scale recalculation moves the band a student lands in, and it is not the 4.0 scale most award grids imply. The office described the model as expected to hold for the upcoming cycle rather than guaranteed.
“We anticipate keeping our scholarship model very similar, with awards based on a weighted cumulative GPA calculated on a 4.5 scale.”
What does the highest Academic Achievement band award?
For students entering in Fall 2026, the top GPA band carried $9,000 per year — $36,000 across four years. The office gave the figures for that entering class and said it expects the model to stay very similar, so treat them as the shape of the award rather than a locked quote for a later cycle.
“$9,000 per year ($36,000 total over four years)”
What GPA keeps the award each year?
A 2.0 Whitworth GPA, which the office equated with satisfactory academic progress, renewable for up to four years.
“These scholarships are renewable for up to four years as long as the student maintains satisfactory academic progress, which means maintaining at least a 2.0 Whitworth GPA.”
Will an outside scholarship reduce Whitworth aid?
Rarely, and loans go first. The office said outside scholarships stack on top of Whitworth aid and that reducing its own scholarships because of them is very rare — and when a large outside award or several together exceed cost of attendance, loans and work-study are cut before any Whitworth-specific aid.
“If a student receives a large outside scholarship, or multiple scholarships that exceed the cost of attendance, we typically reduce loans and work study before reducing any Whitworth specific aid.”
Strong applicants to this private Christian liberal-arts university, honors candidates competitive for the full-tuition Colloquium award, and students adding talent or military awards to academic merit.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $43,685 for 2026-2027. Source
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Whitworth, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
| Family income | Average net price paid |
|---|---|
| $0–$30,000 | $16,788 |
| $30,001–$48,000 | $18,242 |
| $48,001–$75,000 | $20,358 |
| $75,001–$110,000 | $26,525 |
| $110,001+ | $34,641 |
| All income levels (average) | $26,534 |
That works out to roughly a 61% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $68,516 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Whitworth states that scholarships from local, regional, or national organizations can usually be stacked on top of Whitworth scholarships and grants; the rare exceptions are not specified, so confirm your case with the aid office.
Verified policy language (2026-07-02): Scholarships from local, regional or national organizations can usually be stacked on top of Whitworth scholarships and grants.
Whitworth is in the small minority (14 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
Whitworth 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.
Whitworth 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.
Every claim is checked against Whitworth’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
