Liberty University: merit scholarships by GPA
Liberty 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 $6,500 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 GPA ladder below uses no test score. Liberty's score bonus is ADDITIVE and sits on top of it — a 26 ACT adds a flat $1,000 a year, and a 35 instead raises the whole award to full tuition — so a score cannot move a student up this ladder, only append to it. The two bonus tiers do not combine. The GPA is cumulative UNWEIGHTED, and this page sits under Liberty's residential section.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — a 3.60 GPA
Liberty Academic Scholarship
$4,000 a year / year
About $16,000 over four years, if it renews.
Liberty 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 Liberty merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Liberty 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.
Liberty Academic Scholarship
Keyed to cumulative unweighted GPA, with no application. A test score adds a separate flat bonus on top rather than moving a student between rungs.
$6,500 a year
Liberty Academic Scholarship
No score needed
$5,600 a year
Liberty Academic Scholarship
No score needed
$4,000 a year
Liberty Academic Scholarship
No score needed
$3,500 a year
Liberty Academic Scholarship
No score needed
$3,100 a year
Liberty Academic Scholarship
No score needed
$1,750 a year
Liberty Academic Scholarship
No score needed
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Liberty Academic Scholarship | — | $6,500 a year |
| Liberty Academic Scholarship | — | $5,600 a year |
| Liberty Academic Scholarship | — | $4,000 a year |
| Liberty Academic Scholarship | — | $3,500 a year |
| Liberty Academic Scholarship | — | $3,100 a year |
| Liberty Academic Scholarship | — | $1,750 a year |
Source: Residential financial aid — Liberty Academic Scholarship and test score bonus · verified 2026-10-24
Does Liberty superscore for scholarships?
Yes. Yes, across all four ACT subtests — and Liberty is one of the only schools here to say what it does with an ENHANCED ACT result that has no Science section: it superscores from the sections it receives, so a three-section English, Math and Reading result is read on those three alone. For a student deciding whether to sit Science, that is the answer.
“2026-2027 and forward – the ACT is superscored based on the test score sections received… If only a student's English, Math, and Reading sections (without the Science section) are received, then only those three sections will be used.”
So the number that matters here is your superscore, not your best single test. Work out your superscore and look that score up in the grid above — it may sit a band higher than the one you have been planning around.
Comparing schools? See which colleges superscore for scholarships — 66 of 501 commit to it, 52 say they do not, and the rest never say.
Where these numbers came from
Every figure on this page was read from Liberty 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.
- Liberty states how it reads an Enhanced ACT with no Science section: it superscores the sections it receives, using the three it has.
- It superscores all four ACT subtests, as well as the SAT and the CLT.
- The score bonus is additive and flat: $1,000 a year from a 26, regardless of how far above 26 the score goes.
- A 35 does not add $1,000 — it raises the total award to full tuition instead, and the two bonus tiers do not combine.
- The bonus needs at least a 3.0 GPA, so a score alone reaches nothing here.
- The biggest step on the GPA ladder is 3.19 to 3.20, worth $1,350 a year — larger than any step above it.
- The GPA is cumulative unweighted on a 4.0 scale.
- Dual-enrolment students with 12 to 24 college credits are read on whichever GPA is better; above 25 credits only the college GPA is used.
- Scores cannot be updated after matriculation, and students who did not receive the award on entry are not eligible later.
- This page sits under Liberty's residential section, so it may not describe its online programmes.
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 Liberty University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Liberty?
Liberty University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is Liberty test-optional?
No official Liberty page read for this entry states the admission testing requirement, so nothing is claimed about it here. For merit aid the answer is different: a score is not needed for the GPA ladder, and Liberty says so. What it buys is a separate bonus: with at least a 3.0 GPA, a 26 ACT adds $1,000 a year on top of the GPA award, and a 35 raises the whole award to full tuition instead. So the ACT is worth a flat $1,000 from a 26, nothing more until a 35. 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 Liberty?
On Liberty's published grid for the current cycle, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Liberty Academic Scholarship at $4,000 a year, about $16,000 over four years if it renews.
Does Liberty superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Yes. Yes, across all four ACT subtests — and Liberty is one of the only schools here to say what it does with an ENHANCED ACT result that has no Science section: it superscores from the sections it receives, so a three-section English, Math and Reading result is read on those three alone. For a student deciding whether to sit Science, that is the answer. 2026-2027 and forward – the ACT is superscored based on the test score sections received… If only a student's English, Math, and Reading sections (without the Science section) are received, then only those three sections will be used.
Is this Liberty scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Liberty University's own published pages and last verified on 2026-10-24. 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
Liberty awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though Liberty is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
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