Boise State University: merit scholarships by GPA
Boise State University awards automatic merit aid from a published grid keyed to GPA — the ACT is not used. Awards start at a 3.1 GPA and reach $10,000 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
Boise State does not use the ACT for merit at all — a higher score is worth nothing here, and it states that scholarships run on unweighted high school GPA for every applicant from an accredited school. Three other things matter: the award can never be upgraded on later performance, the non-resident awards are not cash and apply only against non-resident fees, and named majors including Nursing, Pre-Nursing, Construction Management and Radiological Science are excluded from the Ridgeline, Summit and WUE awards outright. The page carries no cycle year.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — a 3.60 GPA
True Blue Promise (also requires Pell eligibility)
$2,000 per year / year
About $8,000 over four years, if it renews.
Boise State 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 Boise State merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Boise 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.
Idaho residents
Renewal is published inside the grid itself — 24 credits across fall and spring, at the GPA shown per award. Unusually transparent.
$3,000 per year
Presidential
No score needed · GPA 3.90
$2,500 per year
Dean's
No score needed · GPA 3.70
$2,000 per year
True Blue Promise (also requires Pell eligibility)
No score needed · GPA 3.20
| Award | With a score | No score | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presidential | — | GPA 3.90 | $3,000 per year |
| Dean's | — | GPA 3.70 | $2,500 per year |
| True Blue Promise (also requires Pell eligibility) | — | GPA 3.20 | $2,000 per year |
Source: New to College Scholarships · verified 2026-10-21
Non-residents — discounts against the non-resident surcharge, not cash
Boise State says these 'can only be applied towards the nonresident fees' and 'are not cash awards'. The WUE row overlaps Summit entirely, so a high-GPA non-resident is choosing between tracks rather than climbing a ladder.
$10,000 per year
Summit
No score needed · GPA 3.30
$5,000 per year
Ridgeline
No score needed · GPA 3.10
WUE scholarship covers 150% of the resident tuition. This is a savings of $16,339 per year.
Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE)
No score needed · GPA 3.50
| Award | With a score | No score | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summit | — | GPA 3.30 | $10,000 per year |
| Ridgeline | — | GPA 3.10 | $5,000 per year |
| Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) | — | GPA 3.50 | WUE scholarship covers 150% of the resident tuition. This is a savings of $16,339 per year. |
Source: New to College Scholarships · verified 2026-10-21
International students
Boise State publishes slightly different GPA bands for international students than for non-residents — Ridgeline runs to 3.39 here against 3.29 on the non-resident table, so 3.30-3.39 appears in both rows.
$10,000 per year
Summit
No score needed · GPA 3.30
$5,000 per year
Ridgeline
No score needed · GPA 3.10
| Award | With a score | No score | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summit | — | GPA 3.30 | $10,000 per year |
| Ridgeline | — | GPA 3.10 | $5,000 per year |
Source: International student scholarships · verified 2026-10-21
Does Boise State superscore for scholarships?
Not applicable rather than unknown. Scores play no part in merit for applicants from accredited schools, so there is no superscore policy to have. The only adjacent wording is 'highest ACT and SAT scores' for homeschooled applicants, which reads as highest sitting rather than a cross-date superscore.
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 Boise 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.
Boise State scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Resident priority deadline (fall) | February 15 |
| Non-resident priority deadline (fall) | December 15 |
| All automatic scholarship offers must be accepted | May 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 Boise 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.
- New to College Scholarshipsverified 2026-10-21
- International student scholarshipsverified 2026-10-21
- Scholarship FAQs and Policiesverified 2026-10-21
- The award can never be upgraded: Boise State says plainly that a scholarship 'cannot be changed or upgraded based on your academic performance at Boise State'.
- Named majors are excluded from Ridgeline, Summit and WUE entirely — Construction Management, Nursing, Pre-Nursing, Radiological Science, Pre-Radiological Science, alternative-fee programmes and fully online programmes. WUE Nursing is the one carve-out.
- True Blue Promise is partly need-based: it requires Pell eligibility and a FAFSA by February 15, so it is not pure merit.
- WUE recipients cannot count time in the programme toward establishing Idaho residency, and still owe resident fees plus the uncovered part of the non-resident fees.
- Repeated courses and per-credit-fee online courses do not count toward the 24 credits needed to renew.
- Boise State's policies page still names Gem, Treasure and Foothills scholarships that no longer appear on the current grid — a stale list stranded in a live page.
- Its policies page also says scholarship selection 'is a competitive process' using GPA and test scores 'if applicable', but that sentence answers a question about the separate donor and departmental application, not the automatic admission grid, which the same page calls guaranteed.
- Boise State is silent on the Enhanced ACT, which follows from not using the ACT at all.
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 Boise State University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Boise State?
Boise State University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is Boise State test-optional?
Not used at all for applicants from accredited high schools. Admission runs on the unweighted GPA, or on Idaho's ISAT scores. Homeschooled and unaccredited-school applicants are the one exception and must submit a score. For merit aid the answer is different: not used. Boise State keys scholarships to the unweighted cumulative GPA for every applicant from an accredited high school, and submitting a score cannot raise the award. 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 Boise State?
On Boise State's published grid for the current cycle, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Idaho residents — True Blue Promise (also requires Pell eligibility) at $2,000 a year, about $8,000 over four years if it renews; International students — Summit at $10,000 a year, about $40,000 over four years if it renews.
Does in-state or out-of-state change merit aid at Boise State?
Yes. Boise State publishes separate grids: Idaho residents run $2,000 to $3,000 a year, and Non-residents — discounts against the non-resident surcharge, not cash run $5,000 to full tuition. Check which grid applies to you before planning around a figure.
Does Boise State superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not applicable rather than unknown. Scores play no part in merit for applicants from accredited schools, so there is no superscore policy to have. The only adjacent wording is 'highest ACT and SAT scores' for homeschooled applicants, which reads as highest sitting rather than a cross-date superscore.
When are Boise State scholarship deadlines?
Resident priority deadline (fall): February 15. Non-resident priority deadline (fall): December 15. All automatic scholarship offers must be accepted: May 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 Boise State scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Boise 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
Boise State awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though Boise State is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
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