Austin Peay State University: merit scholarships by GPA
Austin Peay State University publishes merit aid criteria as a published grid keyed to GPA — the ACT is not used. Awards start at a 3.0 GPA and reach $6,000 a year. Because the bands are steps rather than a slope, a hundredth of a GPA point is worth nothing inside a band and the whole step at the edge of one.
Enter a GPA below to see which band it actually lands in, what that band pays, and what the next band needs.
Read this first
Austin Peay REQUIRES an ACT score for admission and placement, then barely uses it for money: five of its eight freshman awards are pure GPA. The two ACT-keyed awards are both labelled 'Limited Awards Available'. The $6,000 Presidential also carries 75 campus service hours every semester, a condition published only on a separate retention page. And APSU's own pages disagree on whether these awards are automatic. The grid itself carries no cycle year.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — a 3.60 GPA
Governor's Merit
$1,500 / year
About $6,000 over four years, if it renews.
Austin Peay awards this on GPA alone, so an ACT score does not change it. A higher score can still matter for admission, for honours programmes, and at other schools on the list — but not for this award.
The ACT doesn't move the money here — but it still decides admission, honours eligibility, and what they is worth at the other schools on the list, where most awards are score-keyed.
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The published Austin Peay merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Austin Peay 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.
Freshman scholarships
The GPA ladder is mutually exclusive — the Governor's Excellence award is 'Not combined with Presidential, Dean's, Academic Achievement, or Governor's Merit Scholarships'.
$6,000
Presidential (75 service hours per semester)
No score needed · GPA 4.00
$3,500
Dean's
No score needed · GPA 3.85
$2,000
Academic Achievement
No score needed · GPA 3.70
$1,500
Governor's Merit
No score needed · GPA 3.50
$1,000
Governor's Excellence
No score needed · GPA 3.00
| Award | With a score | No score | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presidential (75 service hours per semester) | — | GPA 4.00 | $6,000 |
| Dean's | — | GPA 3.85 | $3,500 |
| Academic Achievement | — | GPA 3.70 | $2,000 |
| Governor's Merit | — | GPA 3.50 | $1,500 |
| Governor's Excellence | — | GPA 3.00 | $1,000 |
Competitive awards — not automatic
Meeting these makes you eligible to be reviewed, not to receive the award, so they are kept out of the calculator above.
- Presidents Emerging Leaders Program (20 places, application and interview) — ACT 23+ with 3.6 GPA and 23 ACT: $3,000
- Kimbrough (Limited Awards Available, in-state) — ACT 25+ with 3.0 GPA and 25 ACT, in-state resident: $1,000
Source: Freshman Scholarship Opportunities · verified 2026-10-21
Out-of-state freshmen
Keyed to GPA alone with no score component, and it does not combine with other out-of-state tuition waivers or scholarships.
$5,760 per year
Governors Out-of-State Scholarship
No score needed · GPA 3.50
| Award | With a score | No score | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governors Out-of-State Scholarship | — | GPA 3.50 | $5,760 per year |
Source: Out-of-State Scholarship Opportunities · verified 2026-10-21
Does Austin Peay superscore for scholarships?
Not stated. The word does not appear on APSU's scholarship or admission pages, and with the main ladder keyed to GPA there would be little for it to govern.
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 Austin Peay’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.
Austin Peay scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Presidents Emerging Leaders Program application | December 31 |
| Online scholarship application closes | February 1, 2027 |
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 Austin Peay 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.
- Freshman Scholarship Opportunitiesverified 2026-10-21
- Out-of-State Scholarship Opportunitiesverified 2026-10-21
- Academic Scholarship Retention Information — renewal and service hoursverified 2026-10-21
- Admission requirements — test policyverified 2026-10-21
- The headline oddity: a score is required to get in and nearly irrelevant to the money. A 34 with a 3.6 GPA receives $1,500; a 24 with a 4.0 receives $6,000.
- The $6,000 Presidential is really $6,000 minus 150 hours of campus work a year, and the obligation is enforced — an unsatisfactory work evaluation can cancel the award.
- The Emerging Leaders Program takes twenty freshmen a year, selected on an application, essay responses, a letter of recommendation and an interview, with 40 community service hours a year on top.
- The Howell C. Smith award is published as 'Award Amount Varies' with no figure and no criteria beyond 'high-achieving students', so it is not modelled.
- The GPA ladder is mutually exclusive — a student receives one of it, not several.
- Austin Peay keeps Tennessee lottery programmes on separate pages rather than folding HOPE into its own totals.
- Austin Peay is silent on the Enhanced ACT.
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 Austin Peay State University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Austin Peay?
Austin Peay State University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is Austin Peay test-optional?
Required, and unusually so for this dataset. APSU needs scores taken within five years, uses them for placement in maths, reading and English, and offers a GPA alternative only inside its admission tiers. For merit aid the answer is different: not used on the main ladder. Austin Peay publishes no merit test policy sentence at all — the evidence is the grid's own criteria column, which reads GPA for five of the eight awards and names an ACT only on the two limited-number ones. Being admitted without a score and qualifying for money without a score are two separate questions.
How much is a 30 on the ACT worth at Austin Peay?
On Austin Peay's published grid for the current cycle, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Freshman scholarships — Governor's Merit at $1,500 a year, about $6,000 over four years if it renews; Out-of-state freshmen — Governors Out-of-State Scholarship at $5,760 a year, about $23,040 over four years if it renews.
Does Austin Peay superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated. The word does not appear on APSU's scholarship or admission pages, and with the main ladder keyed to GPA there would be little for it to govern.
When are Austin Peay scholarship deadlines?
Presidents Emerging Leaders Program application: December 31. Online scholarship application closes: February 1, 2027. 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 Austin Peay scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Austin Peay State University's own published pages and last verified on 2026-10-21. 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
Austin Peay awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though Austin Peay is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
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