Azusa Pacific University: merit scholarships by GPA
Azusa Pacific University awards automatic merit aid from a published grid keyed to GPA — the ACT is not used. Awards start at a 3.0 GPA and reach $24,000 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
The grid APU publishes is keyed to GPA alone — there is no ACT threshold anywhere on the page, so there is no score to look yourself up against. That is not the same as a score being irrelevant: APU says the awards are "based on a combination of GPA and test scores at the time of admittance", that other than the Trustees' "each award is based on a sliding scale to accommodate various combinations of GPAs and test scores", and that "Each case is evaluated individually." So treat these figures as the published levels rather than as a guarantee at the hundredth, and expect a score to be able to move an offer by an amount APU has not published. APU also leaves last year's table on the same page, and three of the five 2026-27 rows are $1,000 lower.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — a 3.60 GPA
Deans' Scholarship
$21,000 / year
About $84,000 over four years, if it renews.
Azusa Pacific 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 Azusa Pacific merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Azusa Pacific University’s own pages for 2027-28 entry. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.
Freshman academic scholarships
No separate application. APU grants "the single-highest award for which they qualify" and notifies shortly after acceptance. The full-tuition Trustees' Scholarship sits above this table with no published GPA or score threshold and is not included here. The award is prorated below full-time enrolment — 75% at 9-11 units, 50% at 6-8 units.
$24,000
President's Scholarship
No score needed
$23,000
Provost's Scholarship
No score needed
$21,000
Deans' Scholarship
No score needed
$19,000
Directors' Scholarship
No score needed
$15,000
Mary Hill Award
No score needed
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| President's Scholarship | — | $24,000 |
| Provost's Scholarship | — | $23,000 |
| Deans' Scholarship | — | $21,000 |
| Directors' Scholarship | — | $19,000 |
| Mary Hill Award | — | $15,000 |
Source: Academic Scholarships — 2027-28 traditional undergraduate scholarship table · verified 2026-10-23
Does Azusa Pacific superscore for scholarships?
Not stated. The word superscore appears nowhere on APU's academic-scholarship or freshman-admission pages. APU does say which part of a score it ignores — "SAT or ACT writing section scores are not considered" — but says nothing about combining section scores across test dates, which matters here precisely because the scholarship sliding scale is unpublished.
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 Azusa Pacific’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.
Azusa Pacific scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Fall priority (regular decision) application deadline | March 1 |
| Fall final application deadline — APU does not accept materials sent after it | June 1 |
| Spring priority application deadline | October 15 |
| Spring final application deadline | December 1 |
| Nursing freshman deadline, including the one-page statement of professional goals | November 15 |
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 Azusa Pacific 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.
- Academic Scholarships — 2027-28 traditional undergraduate scholarship tableverified 2026-10-23
- Freshman Admission — preadmission tests, application deadlines and FAQverified 2026-10-23
- Undergraduate Admissions — freshman minimum standards and score-submission guidanceverified 2026-10-23
- The grid APU publishes is keyed to GPA alone, yet APU says scores are part of the award decision. The only way to find out what a score is worth is to ask an admissions representative, which APU's own pages tell you to do twice.
- Lose the scholarship and it is gone for good: "Academic scholarships cannot be re-earned if lost due to a low GPA, nor can a student qualify for a different academic scholarship while at APU." The renewal GPA is 2.8, checked every spring.
- Both the 2027-28 and 2026-27 tables sit on the same page. For 2026-27 the Provost's was $22,000, the Deans' $20,000 and the Directors' $18,000 — $1,000 lower in each case. The President's and Mary Hill figures did not change.
- The Mary Hill Award has no published GPA floor. APU states that "All new admitted students will receive some level of scholarship", so $15,000 a year is the floor of the table rather than a band a student can fall out of.
- APU does not say whether the GPA is weighted or unweighted, and the existence of a 4.25+ top band strongly implies weighted figures are accepted. A student with an unweighted 3.9 and a weighted 4.3 should ask which one APU will read.
- The full-tuition Trustees' Scholarship appears in the table with both GPA cells left blank and is restricted to incoming first-year students. No threshold and no selection process is published for it, and APU's own news pages describe it being awarded to nine students in a year, so it is not a band a student can plan around.
- The award shrinks with the course load: prorated to 75% at 9-11 units and 50% at 6-8 units a semester. Half of the scholarship is disbursed in the fall and half in the spring.
- APU does not offer early action. Its own FAQ says so and recommends the priority deadline instead.
- California's Cal Grant and the Middle Class Scholarship are state of California money, not APU's, and are awarded by the California Student Aid Commission on need and residency rather than by this table. They are excluded here on purpose and should be expected in addition to the academic scholarship, not instead of it.
- Admission needs a 3.0 GPA for regular standing and 2.5-2.99 for conditional, so the Mary Hill band and conditional admission overlap — a student below 3.0 may be admitted conditionally and still carry $15,000 a year.
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 Azusa Pacific University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Azusa Pacific?
Azusa Pacific University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is Azusa Pacific test-optional?
A stated position rather than a silence: APU no longer uses a score as a basis for admission at all. Admission turns on GPA — 3.0 for regular admission, 2.5-2.99 for conditional — with higher floors in some programmes, such as a 3.5 for the BSN. For merit aid the answer is different: considered and explicitly encouraged, which is the whole point of this entry: the same score APU has stopped using to admit you, it still uses to price you. This stays "considered" rather than "not-used" deliberately — the grid above is GPA-keyed, but APU has never said a score cannot move the money, and claiming it had would be a quotable falsehood. What APU does not publish is any threshold: no ACT number appears beside any award, so a student cannot find out in advance what a given score is worth. The writing section is excluded either way. 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 Azusa Pacific?
On Azusa Pacific's published grid for 2027-28 entry, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Deans' Scholarship at $21,000 a year, about $84,000 over four years if it renews.
Does Azusa Pacific superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated. The word superscore appears nowhere on APU's academic-scholarship or freshman-admission pages. APU does say which part of a score it ignores — "SAT or ACT writing section scores are not considered" — but says nothing about combining section scores across test dates, which matters here precisely because the scholarship sliding scale is unpublished.
When are Azusa Pacific scholarship deadlines?
Fall priority (regular decision) application deadline: March 1. Fall final application deadline — APU does not accept materials sent after it: June 1. Spring priority application deadline: October 15. Spring final application deadline: December 1. Nursing freshman deadline, including the one-page statement of professional goals: November 15. 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 Azusa Pacific scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Azusa Pacific University's own published pages and last verified on 2026-10-23. 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
Azusa Pacific awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though Azusa Pacific is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
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