Financial Aid
Merit Aid by College
What 152 colleges gave first-year students who had no financial need. 123 report merit awards, and 11 report giving none.
| College | Average merit award | Freshmen without need who got one | Average need-based grant | Need met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston University | $42,227 | 116 (6%) | $66,926 | 98% |
| Villanova | $38,439 | 119 (12%) | $51,847 | 83.5% |
| NYU | $38,420 | 126 (3%) | $60,191 | 99.8% |
| RPI | $36,385 | 520 (96%) | $9,303 | 63.5% |
| WashU | $36,250 | 44 (4%) | $75,880 | 100% |
| Davidson | $35,495 | 19 (8%) | $65,233 | 100% |
| Rice | $34,586 | 74 (11%) | $73,663 | 100% |
| Vanderbilt | $32,791 | 134 (16%) | $77,563 | 100% |
| Johns Hopkins | $32,669 | 57 (9%) | $69,291 | 100% |
| Case Western | $32,560 | 662 (95%) | $49,293 | 100% |
| Hofstra | $31,502 | 407 (91%) | $34,745 | 72% |
| Southern Methodist University | $30,239 | 501 (45%) | $56,396 | 90.4% |
| Marquette | $29,284 | 782 (97%) | $37,500 | 85.8% |
| Oberlin | $29,230 | 300 (100%) | $59,480 | 100% |
| Denver | $28,815 | 559 (90%) | $48,039 | 88.1% |
| Loyola Chicago | $27,362 | 842 (98%) | $35,854 | 83.8% |
| Syracuse University | $26,259 | 1,233 (56%) | $48,257 | 96% |
| Grinnell College | $26,154 | 102 (73%) | $64,543 | 100% |
| Texas Christian University | $24,703 | 1,044 (65%) | $50,804 | 78.6% |
| Drexel | $24,665 | 485 (99%) | $42,870 | 82% |
| Gonzaga | $24,408 | 562 (99%) | $18,094 | 86% |
| Emory | $24,314 | 93 (10%) | $66,428 | 100% |
| Miami | $23,560 | 948 (60%) | $55,665 | 100% |
| Wake Forest | $23,168 | 54 (5%) | $71,567 | 99.9% |
| Tufts | $23,157 | 52 (5%) | $64,788 | 100% |
| DePaul University | $23,084 | 721 (95%) | $32,136 | 72.6% |
| Baylor | $22,041 | 1,374 (91%) | $39,483 | 70.5% |
| George Washington | $22,037 | 722 (63%) | $44,275 | 94.7% |
| Lehigh | $21,666 | 177 (21%) | $57,846 | 97% |
| USC | $21,399 | 637 (26%) | $56,128 | 99.4% |
| Boston College | $20,795 | 34 (2%) | $60,503 | 100% |
| Tulane | $19,636 | 518 (43%) | $64,125 | 94.3% |
| Brandeis | $18,791 | 149 (43%) | $61,952 | 97.4% |
| Vermont | $18,070 | 1,359 (88%) | $24,421 | 82.7% |
| Howard | $17,588 | 422 (87%) | $9,275 | 58.6% |
| The University of Alabama | $16,895 | 3,206 (76%) | $17,406 | 62.7% |
| Notre Dame | $16,616 | 43 (4%) | $60,952 | 100% |
| University of Chicago | $16,333 | 57 (5%) | $78,651 | 100% |
| Rochester | $16,073 | 260 (54%) | $67,488 | 97% |
| UC Berkeley | $16,030 | 233 (6%) | $36,226 | 88.4% |
| UC Santa Cruz | $15,267 | 359 (16%) | $31,152 | 87.8% |
| Northeastern | $14,119 | 316 (23%) | $64,845 | 100% |
| Claremont McKenna | $13,011 | 24 (12%) | $66,407 | 100% |
| UC San Diego | $12,722 | 409 (10%) | $28,634 | 83.5% |
| University of California-Riverside | $12,152 | 176 (9%) | $28,704 | 86.6% |
| Harvey Mudd | $11,875 | 27 (21%) | $64,941 | 100% |
| UC Santa Barbara | $11,666 | 137 (5%) | $32,900 | 82.4% |
| Temple | $11,562 | 1,077 (88%) | $19,252 | 63.9% |
| Miami University-Oxford | $11,275 | 2,027 (85%) | $14,797 | 56.1% |
| UConn | $11,221 | 1,251 (57%) | $21,494 | 63.1% |
| Michigan State | $11,014 | 764 (14%) | $13,950 | 61% |
| Arizona | $10,990 | 3,783 (89%) | $17,156 | 59.9% |
| The University of Texas at Dallas | $10,636 | 976 (47%) | $15,610 | 74% |
| UC Irvine | $10,513 | 212 (6%) | $26,853 | 85.9% |
| Arizona State University Campus Immersion | $10,188 | 5,284 (84%) | $16,089 | 62% |
| CU Boulder | $10,166 | 3,348 (69%) | $17,729 | 72% |
| Rhode Island | $10,107 | 1,038 (93%) | $14,829 | 64% |
| Ole Miss | $10,081 | 2,111 (61%) | $13,991 | 76% |
| West Virginia | $10,050 | 1,267 (83%) | $14,123 | 62% |
| Delaware | $9,785 | 1,359 (81%) | $15,929 | 64.3% |
| George Mason | $9,376 | 850 (45%) | $12,032 | 67.4% |
| Oregon State University | $9,116 | 1,768 (86%) | $15,708 | 71.4% |
| University of Oregon | $8,854 | 1,470 (58%) | $14,857 | 54% |
| Iowa State | $8,830 | 2,537 (81%) | $13,100 | 68.6% |
| University of Maryland-College Park | $8,565 | 1,276 (33%) | $18,332 | 73.8% |
| University of Nebraska-Lincoln | $8,516 | 1,677 (79%) | $11,938 | 79% |
| Kentucky | $8,450 | 2,436 (81%) | $9,921 | 57.2% |
| Kansas | $8,333 | 2,410 (82%) | $12,980 | 78.4% |
| James Madison | $8,287 | 225 (7%) | $10,857 | 42% |
| Auburn University | $8,190 | 2,240 (59%) | $12,038 | 60% |
| UC Davis | $7,912 | 319 (11%) | $29,937 | 81.7% |
| Pitt | $7,899 | 413 (17%) | $19,110 | 58.2% |
| University of Massachusetts-Amherst | $7,757 | 1,972 (66%) | $18,559 | 86.4% |
| College of William & Mary | $7,696 | 61 (6%) | $22,933 | 82% |
| Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College | $7,583 | 1,501 (53%) | $14,981 | 57.3% |
| New Hampshire | $7,529 | 1,046 (89%) | $17,275 | 65% |
| Colorado State University-Fort Collins | $7,517 | 1,343 (57%) | $12,658 | 70.9% |
| UW-Madison | $7,397 | 650 (13%) | $34,828 | 92% |
| Ohio State | $7,336 | 2,508 (50%) | $17,907 | 73% |
| UNC Chapel Hill | $7,233 | 275 (9%) | $20,939 | 100% |
| The University of Tennessee-Knoxville | $6,872 | 3,749 (84%) | $15,874 | 58.8% |
| Utah | $6,770 | 1,918 (48%) | $10,870 | 45% |
| Mississippi State University | $6,544 | 579 (54%) | $9,855 | 52% |
| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | $6,517 | 953 (26%) | $17,637 | 69% |
| Binghamton | $6,452 | 726 (42%) | $13,511 | 79% |
| Cincinnati | $6,387 | 1,780 (62%) | $9,106 | 39% |
| Carnegie Mellon University | $6,287 | 30 (3%) | $61,136 | 100% |
| UCLA | $6,201 | 436 (11%) | $29,317 | 91% |
| UIUC | $6,027 | 1,425 (27%) | $25,878 | 82% |
| Penn State | $6,026 | 552 (10%) | $8,430 | 68.6% |
| UIC | $6,007 | 179 (18%) | $18,699 | 53% |
| Iowa | $5,880 | 2,082 (68%) | $11,938 | 53% |
| North Texas | $5,807 | 1,056 (52%) | $11,489 | 63% |
| Purdue | $5,789 | 2,358 (29%) | $13,698 | 65.3% |
| Indiana University-Bloomington | $5,668 | 3,505 (61%) | $15,719 | 65.1% |
| Virginia Commonwealth University | $5,637 | 930 (64%) | $17,205 | 28.8% |
| Florida State University | $5,459 | 1,826 (52%) | $15,326 | 75% |
| Georgia Tech | $5,332 | 358 (14%) | $18,131 | 61.2% |
| Washington State University | $5,300 | 1,312 (78%) | $16,069 | 62.4% |
| NC State | $4,921 | 299 (9%) | $14,983 | 75% |
| Texas A&M University-College Station | $4,751 | 1,565 (25%) | $14,880 | 71% |
| Michigan | $4,587 | 1,261 (28%) | $30,307 | 91% |
| Buffalo | $4,559 | 411 (26%) | $12,142 | 53% |
| Clemson | $4,509 | 1,192 (38%) | $13,966 | 49% |
| UW | $4,399 | 628 (14%) | $21,532 | 74% |
| Arkansas | $4,374 | 1,447 (34%) | $10,332 | 56% |
| University of South Carolina-Columbia | $4,353 | 2,944 (73%) | $14,693 | 61% |
| California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo | $4,121 | 624 (18%) | $21,935 | 78.9% |
| Florida | $4,033 | 633 (13%) | $17,713 | 98% |
| University of Central Florida | $3,892 | 733 (19%) | $9,235 | 72% |
| Houston | $3,779 | 494 (25%) | $12,066 | 56.9% |
| Stony Brook | $3,672 | 1,520 (95%) | $12,997 | 59% |
| University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus | $3,642 | 547 (23%) | $10,768 | 64.5% |
| University of South Florida | $3,422 | 1,070 (30%) | $14,244 | 70% |
| Texas Tech | $3,387 | 2,840 (81%) | $12,406 | 59% |
| San Jose State University | $2,879 | 72 (3%) | $11,159 | 93% |
| San Diego State | $2,390 | 413 (11%) | $12,330 | 73% |
| University at Albany | $2,226 | 534 (75%) | $12,175 | 62% |
| UGA | $2,191 | 419 (10%) | $13,971 | 77.9% |
| Florida International University | $2,149 | 1,130 (83%) | $10,270 | 48.9% |
| Carleton | $2,000 | 16 (7%) | $66,762 | 100% |
| Florida Atlantic University | $1,682 | 474 (30%) | $11,592 | 57.5% |
| Bowdoin | $1,000 | 17 (7%) | $70,186 | 100% |
| Amherst | $22,017 | 1 (0%) | $76,445 | 100% |
| Bates | $59,701 | 100% | ||
| Brown | $22,364 | 3 (0%) | $68,640 | |
| Columbia | $78,198 | 100% | ||
| Cornell | $63,023 | 100% | ||
| Dartmouth | $71,873 | 100% | ||
| Duke | $91,953 | 9 (1%) | $76,455 | 100% |
| Georgetown University | $57,490 | 100% | ||
| Hamilton | $66,176 | 100% | ||
| Harvard University | $4,728 | 4 (1%) | $72,749 | 100% |
| Middlebury | $2,700 | 3 (1%) | $62,768 | 100% |
| Northwestern | $23,571 | 7 (1%) | $65,946 | 100% |
| Penn | $70,867 | 100% | ||
| Princeton | $79,320 | 100% | ||
| Stanford University | $11,890 | 3 (0%) | $72,166 | 100% |
| Swarthmore | 1 (1%) | $74,043 | 100% | |
| Wellesley | $55,716 | 4 (2%) | $71,018 | 100% |
| Wesleyan | $21,454 | 3 (1%) | $71,740 | 100% |
| Barnard College | None given | $72,461 | 100% | |
| California Institute of Technology | None given | $66,645 | 100% | |
| California State University-Long Beach | None given | $12,067 | 65% | |
| Colgate | None given | $72,605 | 100% | |
| Haverford | None given | $70,214 | 100% | |
| MIT | None given | $73,398 | 100% | |
| Pomona | None given | $69,920 | 100% | |
| UT Austin | None given | $20,052 | 71.3% | |
| Vassar | None given | $67,214 | 100% | |
| Williams | None given | $80,302 | 100% | |
| Yale University | None given | $73,273 | 100% |
Ranked by average merit award. Colleges that gave merit aid to under 1% of the class, or left the line blank, follow the ranking. The percentage is the share of freshmen without financial need who received merit aid.
Frequently asked questions
Which colleges give the most merit aid?
Among the 152 colleges here, Boston University reports the largest average merit award for freshmen without need: $42,227. The table ranks every college that reports one. An average says nothing about how many students get an award, so check the share column too.
Which colleges give no merit aid?
11 of the 152 colleges report giving no merit aid to freshmen without financial need: Barnard College, California Institute of Technology, California State University-Long Beach, Colgate, Haverford, MIT, Pomona, UT Austin, Vassar, Williams, Yale University.
What is the difference between merit aid and need-based aid?
Merit aid is awarded for grades, test scores, or talent, whatever the family earns. Need-based aid is awarded for family finances. Many colleges offer both, and some offer only need-based aid.
Each college's own Common Data Set, Section H (first-time, full-time freshmen). Last checked 2026-10-08. Figures are averages for one entering class, copied as each college printed them. Some colleges report the prior year’s class in this section. A blank cell means the college left that line blank.
