Freed-Hardeman University: merit scholarships by ACT score

Reproduced in full from Freed-Hardeman University’s own pages for 2026-27 entry. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.

Not stated. The word "superscore" appears nowhere on FHU's scholarship page, its PDF, its how-to-apply page or its financial-aid pages. The nearest thing to an answer points the other way: the transfer paragraph awards merit on "a student's cumulative high school GPA and highest ACT/SAT composite score", which reads as the best single sitting rather than a composite assembled across dates. FHU does require a national test date — "National ACT or SAT test score (No residual score)" — so a residual exam taken on campus will not count at all.

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 Freed-Hardeman’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.

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.

Every figure on this page was read from Freed-Hardeman 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.

• Grants, Scholarships & Discounts — merit, Trustees', FHU Promise, discounts and the church matchverified 2026-10-23
• Scholarships and Discounts (2026 PDF) — the same Trustees' figure and thresholdsverified 2026-10-23
• How to Apply — admission minimums, test-optional admittance and score codesverified 2026-10-23
• FHU Promise — the last-dollar guarantee and its ACT, GPA and Pell conditionsverified 2026-10-23
• Financial Aid — the month-by-month timeline for a senior yearverified 2026-10-23
• Tuition & Fees — the 2026-27 comprehensive chargeverified 2026-10-23

• The Tennessee HOPE Scholarship and Tennessee Promise are STATE money, not FHU's, and HOPE is the single most-confused line on this page because FHU prints its dollar figures right beside its own awards: "$4500 a year for freshman and sophomores and $5700 a year for juniors and seniors at 4-year institutions". HOPE is ACT-keyed — "an entering freshman with at least a 21 ACT (1060 SAT; Critical Reading and Math only) taken on a national or state test date OR have an overall weighted 3.0 grade point average" — which is exactly why families read it as institutional merit. It is administered by the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation, requires a year's Tennessee residency by September 1 and graduation from an eligible Tennessee high school, and travels to any eligible Tennessee college. Tennessee Promise is the state's separate last-dollar community-college program. Neither is in the grid above.
• There is a hard cap above the grid: "scholarships and discounts are subject to an institutional cap of $15,000 per year on total unfunded institutional aid per student." The $18,000 Trustees' award is published above that cap and the page does not explain the interaction, so confirm the net figure in writing before counting on it.
• The $4,000-$12,000 merit range is the band this dataset cannot represent, and it is where most applicants land: "All applicants with a minimum national ACT composite score of 19 (990 SAT: Reading/Writing and Math) and at least a 3.00 high school GPA are automatically considered for this scholarship." Automatic consideration, a real floor, and no published figure between the floor and the ceiling.
• The scholarship clock starts on a three-year transcript. FHU says "Initial academic scholarships will be based on a three-year transcript, but a completed four-year transcript must be submitted at the conclusion of your senior year" — so a senior-year grade improvement is not what sets the initial award, and a senior-year slide can be seen later.
• A score must come from a national test date: "National ACT or SAT test score (No residual score)". A residual ACT taken on a campus does not count toward either the merit range or the Trustees' threshold, and Tennessee HOPE carries the same restriction in different words ("taken on a national or state test date").
• National Merit Finalists get there without the 30: "National Merit Finalists will receive the Trustees' Scholarship", and the same housing and 3.4 GPA conditions then apply.
• The Honors Scholarship is the only award that stacks on top of the Trustees' — "stackable on top of the Trustees' Scholarship up to the total cost of FHU's Comprehensive charge ($27,050 for the 2026-2027 school year)" — but it is won in a competition held each Fall, requires already qualifying for the Trustees' (3.80 GPA and a 30 ACT), publishes no dollar amount, and demands a 3.5 cumulative GPA and active participation in the Freshman Honors program. It is not in the grid because no figure exists to put there.
• Church and denominational money is real and additive, with its own ceiling: the FHU Church Scholarship Match Program "will match any scholarship awarded by a church to a first-time student ... up to a total of $2,500 a year", and it is the one award allowed to stack above the $15,000 institutional cap, up to the comprehensive charge. It renews only while the church keeps paying, and requires 12 hours a semester plus a 2.75 GPA in year one and 3.0 thereafter. A separate Children of Minister's Discount of up to $5,000 requires a Church of Christ pulpit or youth minister parent employed full-time for at least five years, a form signed by two elders, and on-campus residence with a meal plan.
• Endowed and nursing scholarships do not add to merit money — "Endowed Scholarships' purpose is to support merit awards and do not stack on top of merit awards" — so an endowed award a student is matched to may simply substitute for part of what they already had. All students are considered automatically, but the FAFSA must be filed.
• The FHU Promise is a guarantee, not an amount, which is why it is not a band: it "guarantees that qualified, first-time freshman and transfer students will not have to pay or owe more than $9,500 their freshman year after all other scholarships, discounts, and grants have been applied", at a 21 ACT, a 3.0 GPA and a Pell award. The dedicated Promise page states the same guarantee differently again, as "at most $6,250 per semester for tuition, food and housing" and "up to 90% of the comprehensive charge", so three framings of one promise are in circulation.
• The FHU Promise deadline conflicts across FHU's own pages. The 2026 PDF says the student must "be admitted before April 15 for first time freshmen and June 15 for transfers"; the scholarship page says "be admitted before May 15"; and the financial-aid timeline files the May 15 discount deadline under a heading labelled July. Treat April 15 as the safe date and confirm.
• Several awards are mutually exclusive with athletics rather than merely capped: the merit range, the Trustees', the FHU Promise, the discounts and the departmental awards each say they cannot be combined with an athletic scholarship. An athlete therefore has to choose, not add.

• MaryvilleAlso in TN
• CBUAlso in TN
• TennesseeAlso in TN
• UnionAlso in TN
• Concordia NebraskaAwards start at an ACT of 31
• LeTourneauAwards start at an ACT of 32
• AuburnAwards start at an ACT of 28
• Grand Valley StateAwards start at an ACT of 32

• Compare merit aid across schools — the same data, side by side.
• ACT scholarship calculator — run the numbers for a school not listed here.
• Test-optional doesn’t mean scholarship-optional — what skipping the ACT costs.
• How merit aid grids work — why the bands are steps.
• ACT superscore calculator — and whether it counts here.