Alabama State University: merit scholarships by ACT score
Alabama State University publishes merit aid criteria as a published grid crossing ACT score with GPA. Awards start at an ACT of 18 and reach $4,000 a year. Because the bands are steps rather than a slope, one point is worth nothing inside a band and the whole step at the edge of one.
Enter a score and a GPA below to see which band it actually lands in, what that band pays, and exactly how many points the next one needs.
Read this first
These are Alabama State's Competitive Merit awards, which print exact thresholds and require an application — so clearing one starts a process rather than producing an award. Its separate Marion 9 awards are marked automatic and run from $1,000 to $12,000 but publish no GPA or ACT criterion for any tier, so nothing about them can be looked up. The Promise award for out-of-state students at a 2.75 is worded as what a student "can be considered for" and applies only to the out-of-state portion of tuition.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
← Drag either slider to your own numbers
Example — an ACT 29 with a 3.60 GPA
Academic Excellence Scholarship
Tuition, fees and books
There is no higher band to reach at this GPA — more points would not change the award here. They may still matter for admission, for honours programmes, or at other schools on the list.
Knowing where a score sits is the easy part. Moving it starts with knowing exactly which questions they're being missed, and why.
Free preview of the top schools · the full ranked list, with deadlines, is $19.
Want to know what one more point would change? The Merit Plan prices the next point at every school.
Email me every school that pays at a 29 and 3.60
This page is one school. We have read the published grids at 501, and the email sends the ten that pay you most — five public, five private — with what each one awards. No account.
One email with your breakdown, plus occasional ACT tips. Unsubscribe in one tap.
Free · no account, no card · the first school is on this screen
Is Alabama State test-optional?
For admission, largely yes. Optional for admission, and required for every award that publishes a threshold.
For money, no. All four competitive tiers name an ACT floor, so a student without a score reaches none of them. Eight ACT points — an 18 to a 26 — separate $4,000 a year from full tuition, books, fees, room and board. A family that reads “test-optional” and skips the ACT can be admitted and still walk away from every dollar on the grid below.
“As a test-optional institution, you can decide whether to submit ACT/SAT scores with your college application.”
The published Alabama State merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Alabama State University’s own pages for the current cycle. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.
Competitive merit scholarships
Exact thresholds, and an application. Renewal needs a 3.0 cumulative GPA, or 2.75 for the Black and Gold award.
Full tuition, books, fees, room and board
Presidential Scholarship
ACT 26–36 · 3.76+ with a 26 or better
Tuition, fees and books
Academic Excellence Scholarship
ACT 22–36 · 3.51–3.75 with a 22 or better
Tuition plus $500 toward books
Academic Incentive Scholarship
ACT 20–36 · 3.00–3.50 with a 20 or better
$4,000 a year
Black and Gold Scholarship
ACT 18–36 · 2.75+ with an 18 or better
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Presidential Scholarship | ACT 26–36 · 3.76+ with a 26 or better | Full tuition, books, fees, room and board |
| Academic Excellence Scholarship | ACT 22–36 · 3.51–3.75 with a 22 or better | Tuition, fees and books |
| Academic Incentive Scholarship | ACT 20–36 · 3.00–3.50 with a 20 or better | Tuition plus $500 toward books |
| Black and Gold Scholarship | ACT 18–36 · 2.75+ with an 18 or better | $4,000 a year |
Source: Competitive merit scholarships · verified 2026-10-25
Does Alabama State superscore for scholarships?
Not stated. With thresholds at 26, 22, 20 and 18, a student near any of them should ask directly.
With nothing published, plan for the stricter reading: look up your best single sitting in the grid above, work out your superscore as well, and ask Alabama State’s financial aid office which one they read before you count on the higher band.
Comparing schools? See which colleges superscore for scholarships — 66 of 501 commit to it, 52 say they do not, and the rest never say.
Alabama State scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Fall admission | July 30 |
| Scholarship application opens | October 1 |
Scores take roughly two to four weeks to arrive, and official reports sent to schools can take longer, so the last useful test date is several weeks before the printed deadline. Check which test dates still make it.
Where these numbers came from
Every figure on this page was read from Alabama State University’s own published pages, linked below with the date we last confirmed them. We do not estimate a missing band or interpolate a value.
- Competitive merit scholarshipsverified 2026-10-25
- Marion 9 automatic scholarships — amounts with no published criteriaverified 2026-10-25
- Undergraduate admissionsverified 2026-10-25
- The awards with published ACT thresholds are the competitive ones; the automatic Marion 9 awards publish no criteria at all.
- So at Alabama State the knowable awards require an application and the automatic ones cannot be looked up.
- An 18 with a 2.75 reaches $4,000 a year.
- A 26 with a 3.76 reaches full tuition, books, fees, room and board.
- Eight ACT points separate those two outcomes.
- A score is required for every published threshold, even though admission is test-optional.
- The Marion 9 awards run from $1,000 to $12,000 with no criteria printed.
- The Promise award for out-of-state students at a 2.75 pays $8,328 toward the out-of-state portion of tuition, and is worded as consideration rather than a guarantee.
- International students are excluded from The Promise.
Check before you rely on it. Grids change by entry year and schools update them without notice. This page is a reproduction with a date on it, not a guarantee, and it is not financial aid advice. ClutchACT is not affiliated with Alabama State University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Alabama State?
Automatic merit aid at Alabama State University starts at an ACT composite of 18, alongside the published GPA minimum, and reaches $4,000 a year at the top. The bands are steps rather than a slope, so the only score that matters is the next threshold above where you are now.
Is Alabama State test-optional?
Optional for admission, and required for every award that publishes a threshold. For merit aid the answer is different: all four competitive tiers name an ACT floor, so a student without a score reaches none of them. Eight ACT points — an 18 to a 26 — separate $4,000 a year from full tuition, books, fees, room and board. Being admitted without a score and qualifying for money without a score are two separate questions.
Does Alabama State superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated. With thresholds at 26, 22, 20 and 18, a student near any of them should ask directly.
When are Alabama State scholarship deadlines?
Fall admission: July 30. Scholarship application opens: October 1. The application and the official score report are both due by that date, and ACT scores take roughly two to four weeks to arrive — so the last useful test date is several weeks earlier than the deadline suggests.
Is this Alabama State scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Alabama State University's own published pages and last verified on 2026-10-25. The sources are linked at the bottom of the page with that date. Grids change by entry year, so check the source before relying on a figure for a decision.
Other schools to check
What to do next
You know what a score is worth at Alabama State. The question is whether you can move it.
A grid tells you the target. It does not tell you which questions are costing the points between here and there. That takes about three minutes to find out.
Free · About 3 minutes · No account needed · Not affiliated with Alabama State University