Published merit grids only · Every figure sourced & dated

Find the merit money a college has already promised — in writing.

Enter a GPA and an ACT or SAT score. We match them against colleges' own published merit pages — ranked by 4-year total, with an official source and verification date on every award. Guaranteed automatic awards are shown as exact amounts. Awards a college only automatically considers students for are shown separately and labelled not guaranteed. No invented totals. No guessing.

Merit Aid Calculator

If an award publishes both SAT and ACT minimums, meeting either one counts. GPA-only awards need no test score. If an award requires a test and you enter no score, it will not be shown as qualified. Results are split: guaranteed automatic awards first, then automatically-considered awards whose amounts are not guaranteed.

Coverage, counted live from the dataset

68Class A colleges — guaranteed automatic
132Class B colleges — automatic consideration
1209colleges checked of 2,432 in the nationwide census
46states with listed colleges · 1001 verified award rows

States covered: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin. The census is still running — a college that is not listed yet has not necessarily been checked, and absence never means "no merit exists there." How the census and classes work →

One worked example, from real published data

Guaranteed — published by the college

The student: GPA 3.5, ACT 30 (or SAT 1360), applying to University of Alabama as an out-of-state student.

The published grid says: the UA Scholar Scholarship pays $24,000 per year. Renewable for 4 years, that is $96,000 over four years — the college's own arithmetic, not our estimate.

Source: the college's official scholarship page · Verified 2026-11-02. Conditions on the college page (deadlines, GPA basis, score basis) apply — see the college page for all of them.

Guaranteed vs. consideration — the distinction this site is built on

Guaranteed — published by the college

Class A — Guaranteed automatic

The college's own page explicitly promises the award when a student meets the published GPA/test thresholds. We show exact amounts, and only these awards are ever called "guaranteed" here.

Consideration — amount not guaranteed

Class B — Automatic consideration

The college automatically considers every eligible student, but does not promise an amount. We show the published figures as possible money only — in a separate section, never summed as guaranteed, never labelled guaranteed.

Sample colleges from the dataset

Lake Forest College

Consideration — amount not guaranteed

Top published award: Merit Scholarship — $40,000/yr (published figure — not guaranteed) · $160,000 over 4 years.

Lake Forest, Illinois · Verified 2026-11-02 · Official source

University of Dallas

Consideration — amount not guaranteed

Top published award: Academic Achievement Award — $36,000/yr (published figure — not guaranteed) · $144,000 over 4 years.

Irving, Texas · Verified 2026-11-02 · Official source

California Lutheran University

Consideration — amount not guaranteed

Top published award: Public Price Promise Scholarship — $34,000/yr (published figure — not guaranteed) · $136,000 over 4 years.

Thousand Oaks, California · Verified 2026-11-02 · Official source

Agnes Scott College

Guaranteed — published by the college

Top published award: Agnes Scott $100K+ Promise — $34,000/yr · $136,000 over 4 years.

Decatur, Georgia · Verified 2026-11-02 · Official source

St. John's University

Consideration — amount not guaranteed

Top published award: Johnnie's Promise Direct Admission Merit Scholarship — $34,000/yr (published figure — not guaranteed) · $136,000 over 4 years.

Queens, New York · Verified 2026-11-02 · Official source

McDaniel College

Consideration — amount not guaranteed

Top published award: McDaniel Merit Scholarship (living on campus) — $33,000/yr (published figure — not guaranteed) · $132,000 over 4 years.

Westminster, Maryland · Verified 2026-11-02 · Official source

How it works

1. Published pages only

We collect merit grids and scholarship pages colleges publish themselves. If a college does not publish one, we do not invent one — it gets an honest explainer page instead, or no page.

2. Source + date on every figure

Each award links to its official college page and shows when it was last verified. Check the source before you apply — colleges change grids.

3. Ranked by 4-year total

Results are sorted by total value over the renewable period, not by headline hype, so families can compare real outcomes.

4. Tools that keep the money

The MeritChart System adds a list builder, a test-score ROI tool, and a deadline & renewal tracker — because most merit money is lost to missed deadlines and renewal GPAs, not admissions.

Colleges in the calculator

How we verify this data →

Colleges that do not publish an automatic grid

These colleges award merit money but do not publish an automatic merit grid, so they are not in the calculator and no exact awards are shown for them. Each page explains how merit actually works there, from the college's own official text.

The MeritChart System

Beyond the free calculator: the $397 system

The calculator above is free, and stays free. The paid MeritChart System ($397) adds the working tools: a merit college list builder ranked by guaranteed value, a test-score ROI tool that prices a retest in real published dollars, a deadline & renewal tracker, and an appeal playbook with templates. Checkout is not wired up yet — joining the list below does not charge you anything.

See the system → · Pricing →

No outcome is guaranteed. Scholarship awards are made solely by colleges under their published terms.

Get launch updates & new verified colleges

Frequently asked questions

What is a guaranteed automatic merit scholarship?

An award a college grants when an admitted student meets the GPA and/or test thresholds in its published merit grid — and the college's own page explicitly says the award is automatic on meeting them. Only those awards are labelled guaranteed here. Admission, deadlines, and renewal conditions still apply.

What does "automatically considered — not guaranteed" mean?

The college automatically considers admitted students for merit money, but does not promise an amount. We show the college's published figures as possible awards in a separate, clearly labelled section — never as guaranteed money.

If a grid lists both SAT and ACT, do I need both?

No. In this calculator — and in the published grids we encode — meeting either threshold counts.

Why is a college I expected not listed?

We only put a college in the calculator when it publishes merit criteria we have verified, classed as guaranteed automatic or automatic consideration. Many excellent colleges use competitive or holistic merit instead; some Florida colleges publish no automatic grid at all and get an explainer page rather than calculator results. Absence from the calculator does not mean no merit exists there.

How to read this page: figures come only from the college's own published pages. Class A = guaranteed automatic (the college publishes the promise). Class B = automatic consideration — amount not guaranteed. Every figure links to its official source with a verification date. Full methodology →
Not affiliated with any college. Awards are determined by each college; your official award letter is final.