Can I stack scholarships?

Your academic scholarship can be combined with the Test Score Bonus and with Thomas More Trust scholarships. But National Merit Full Tuition, the CIS Workship Full Tuition, and the Governor's Scholars $25,000 cannot be stacked with other institutional scholarships and awards.

What's the cost of attendance?

For 2025-26, a traditional undergraduate living on campus has an estimated COA of $57,623 (tuition $41,400 + orientation fee $275 + food/housing $10,500 + indirect costs).

Thomas More (KY)· Outside Scholarship Displacement

Will Thomas More (KY) Reduce Your Outside Scholarship?

When you win a private scholarship, who actually keeps the money: your family, or the school?

Verified Jun 2026today· COWORK

The rule at Thomas More (KY)

Mixed displacement

Thomas More (KY) displaces some aid categories but not others. In plain dollar terms, that means one $5,000 outside award might land against loans, work-study, or institutional grant depending on the category, so outcomes vary.

thomasmore.edu publishes the $57,623 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Source: https://www.thomasmore.edu/admissions/scholarships-financial-aid/scholarships/

The math: a $5,000 outside scholarship at Thomas More (KY)

Setup
Thomas More (KY) treats different aid types differently. You receive institutional merit + need-based grant + a federal loan offer, then win a $5,000 outside scholarship.
What Thomas More (KY) does
Some categories reduce first; others stack. Without writing to the aid office, you cannot predict whether the $5,000 cuts loans, work-study, or institutional aid.
Family takeaway
Mixed-displacement schools require a written aid-office answer for each award size. Don't assume the answer matches a peer school.

Schools with the same policy

These schools also use mixed displacement for outside scholarships. The same dollar math above applies at each.

Schools that handle this differently

If Thomas More (KY)’s policy concerns you, these schools treat outside scholarships under a different rule.

When this rule bites hardest

Assuming the full-tuition signature awards stack with your academic scholarship
The National Merit Full Tuition, CIS Workship Full Tuition, and Governor's Scholars $25,000 each explicitly 'Cannot be stacked with other institutional scholarships and awards' — you take one of these instead of, not on top of, your academic award.
Treating 'full tuition' as a full ride
National Merit and CIS Workship guarantees cover full TUITION only; with a full-COA near $57,623 (on campus, 2025-26) and tuition at $41,400, housing, food, and fees remain.

Displacement questions families ask

Can I stack scholarships?: Your academic scholarship can be combined with the Test Score Bonus and with Thomas More Trust scholarships. But National Merit Full Tuition, the CIS Workship Full Tuition, and the Governor's Scholars $25,000 cannot be stacked with other institutional scholarships and awards.
What's the cost of attendance?: For 2025-26, a traditional undergraduate living on campus has an estimated COA of $57,623 (tuition $41,400 + orientation fee $275 + food/housing $10,500 + indirect costs).

Rules that bite at Thomas More (KY)

Trip wires derived from Thomas More (KY)'s own published policy. These are the things a custom playbook would flag in the first pass.

displacementDifferent aid types are displaced differently
Thomas More (KY) treats loans, work-study, and institutional grant under different rules. The same $5,000 outside award can land against any of them depending on category.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

The displacement rule is only binding when it's in writing. This script asks Thomas More (KY)'s aid office the specific question that matters for mixed displacement.

Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question, fall applicant

Dear Thomas More (KY) Financial Aid Office,

I'm a fall applicant reviewing how outside scholarships interact with my institutional aid package. I've read the public policy at https://www.thomasmore.edu/admissions/scholarships-financial-aid/scholarships/ and the $57,623 cost-of-attendance worksheet.

Which institutional aid types are protected from outside-award displacement, and which can be reduced?

Is the displacement order published anywhere internally, even if not on the public site? Families need this to compare schools.

A written answer (email is fine) is important because the outside-scholarship awarding bodies want confirmation before disbursing. Thank you for the time.

— [Student name], [Application ID if available]

How Thomas More (KY) compares across our verified dataset

31 of 272 verified schools in our dataset use mixed displacement.
Thomas More (KY) is in the modest minority (31 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
247 of 272 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Thomas More (KY) is one of them. The cohort minority (25 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
75 of 272 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.
Thomas More (KY) 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 Thomas More (KY)’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.