Friends University: merit scholarships by GPA
Friends University awards automatic merit aid from a published grid keyed to GPA — the ACT is not used. Awards start at a 2.0 GPA and reach $15,000 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
Friends awards its five freshman scholarships on high school GPA alone — no band mentions a test score, so an ACT cannot move this money. One asterisk: Friends' admission-requirements page says test scores 'may be required for specific scholarship consideration', which covers its National Merit awards, NAIA athletic eligibility and the state scholar designation rather than the five bands here. Friends also does not label the grid with an entry year; the only year printed on the page is the 2026-27 Legacy Scholarship application, so treat these as current-cycle figures and confirm before planning on them.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — a 3.60 GPA
Davis Scholarship
$13,000 per year / year
About $52,000 over four years, if it renews.
Friends 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 Friends merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Friends 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.
Freshman academic scholarships
All institutional aid here is 'available for enrolled, full-time students new to Friends University in the fall semester in the College of Business, Arts, Sciences and Education (CBASE)', and 'Scholarships apply to tuition only.' Transfer students have their own ladder at the same five amounts, read against a transfer CGPA rather than a high school GPA.
$15,000 per year
Presidential Scholarship
No score needed
$13,000 per year
Davis Scholarship
No score needed
$12,000 per year
Tower Scholarship
No score needed
$10,000 per year
Falcon Award
No score needed
$8,000 per year
Promise Award
No score needed
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Presidential Scholarship | — | $15,000 per year |
| Davis Scholarship | — | $13,000 per year |
| Tower Scholarship | — | $12,000 per year |
| Falcon Award | — | $10,000 per year |
| Promise Award | — | $8,000 per year |
Source: Institutional Scholarships — freshman and transfer academic awards · verified 2026-10-23
Does Friends superscore for scholarships?
Not stated. The word 'superscore' appears on neither the institutional-scholarships page nor the undergraduate admission-requirements page, and with a GPA-only grid there is nothing for a superscore to move. The only score thresholds Friends publishes are admission floors (an 18 composite, with 16 as the hard denial line) and the ACT-date window on the Kansas State Scholar award.
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 Friends’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.
Friends scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Fellowship of Christian Athletes Scholarship application | May 15 of each year |
| Purcell Family Memorial Endowed Scholarship (adult undergraduate) | August 1 every year |
| Kansas Comprehensive Grant priority consideration — state money, not a Friends award | February 1 |
| Kansas Comprehensive Grant state processing deadline | April 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 Friends 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.
- Institutional Scholarships — freshman and transfer academic awardsverified 2026-10-23
- Steps to Admission — undergraduate admission criteria and test-optional policyverified 2026-10-23
- State Aid Options — Kansas Comprehensive Grant and State Scholar Scholarshipverified 2026-10-23
- Returning students do not get re-banded upward: 'Returning students will be kept at their current funding levels.' The GPA that earns the award is the one on file at entry.
- Friends matches a church award — 'Friends University will match any church scholarship to a student up to $500 per year' — renewable on continued church participation. It is additive, so it is a note rather than a second track.
- Two awards are blocked by a full-tuition offer rather than by each other: both the Church Match and the Ministerial Scholarship state that 'Students who are already receiving a full tuition offer are ineligible for this scholarship.'
- The Friends Grant is mutually exclusive with fine arts and athletics participation, and may also be blocked by other institutional aid: 'Students who receive other institutional aid in addition to their academic scholarship (such as STEM etc.) may not be eligible for Friends Grant.'
- The University Honors Academic Scholarship is a ceiling, not a figure — 'eligible to apply for a scholarship of up to $4,000' — and the Honors Program is described as selective, so it is not a band.
- The National Merit awards are the only place a test score buys Friends money directly: 'Friends will offer two full tuition scholarships and five $20,000 scholarships.' Those are capped in number and run off the National Merit process, not off this grid.
- The Kansas State Scholar award carries a score-TIMING cutoff that nothing else here does: 'The ACT assessment must be taken between April of the sophomore year and December of the senior year, and the Regents recommendation curriculum must be completed.' A score earned after December of senior year is too late for it.
- The Kansas Comprehensive Grant and the Kansas State Scholar Scholarship are state awards, not Friends awards, and are kept out of the grid. The Comprehensive Grant is also first-come: 'There are limited funds given to the institution for this grant. The grant is awarded to qualified students in the order of file completion date.'
- The Trinity Academy Scholarship is published only as a four-year total — '$90,000 over four years (combination of academic and other institutional aid sources)' — and is a combined package rather than a standalone award, so no annual figure is recorded for it.
- The adult-undergraduate Purcell scholarship cannot be combined with anything else: 'This scholarship cannot be combined with any other institutional scholarship offers.'
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 Friends University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Friends?
Friends University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is Friends test-optional?
Optional, and Friends publishes both ladders explicitly. With a score: an ACT composite of 18 or higher and a high school cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher. Without one: a cumulative GPA of 3.25. A test-optional applicant at 3.0–3.249 is admitted on academic probation; at 2.75–2.99 they may appeal; below 2.75 they are 'denied admission without right of appeal unless a test score is submitted' — so for the weakest GPAs a score is the only route in. For merit aid the answer is different: not used for the five freshman bands. Each one is defined by a GPA range and nothing else, and the page never mentions the ACT or the SAT. Friends does warn separately that a score 'may be required for specific scholarship consideration' — that reaches the National Merit awards, NAIA athletic eligibility and the Kansas state scholar designation, none of which is one of these five bands. 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 Friends?
On Friends's published grid for 2026-27 entry, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Davis Scholarship at $13,000 a year, about $52,000 over four years if it renews.
Does Friends superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated. The word 'superscore' appears on neither the institutional-scholarships page nor the undergraduate admission-requirements page, and with a GPA-only grid there is nothing for a superscore to move. The only score thresholds Friends publishes are admission floors (an 18 composite, with 16 as the hard denial line) and the ACT-date window on the Kansas State Scholar award.
When are Friends scholarship deadlines?
Fellowship of Christian Athletes Scholarship application: May 15 of each year. Purcell Family Memorial Endowed Scholarship (adult undergraduate): August 1 every year. Kansas Comprehensive Grant priority consideration — state money, not a Friends award: February 1. Kansas Comprehensive Grant state processing deadline: April 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 Friends scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Friends 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
Friends awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though Friends is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
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