Mercer University: merit scholarships and what the school publishes
Mercer University awards automatic merit aid from published criteria. 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 score and a GPA below to see which band it actually lands in, what that band pays, and exactly how many points the next one needs.
Read this first
Mercer publishes one range, $18,000 to $27,000 per year, and no GPA or score threshold inside it, so no transcript can be mapped to a figure — even though a score is now required to apply. Third-party pages quote a Dean's Scholarship of $7,500 to $12,000 and a Merit Award of $3,000 to $7,500; those are not on Mercer's own pages and are not carried. The Stamps, Tift and Fabian awards are by invitation, interview or audition, and the Tift awards are limited to Georgia residents, so none is a band.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — an ACT 29 with a 3.60 GPA
First-year merit scholarship
$18,000 to $27,000 per year
There is no higher band to reach at this GPA — more points would not change the award here. They may still matter for admission, for honours programmes, or at other schools on the list.
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The published Mercer merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Mercer 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.
First-year merit scholarships
Assessed automatically at admission. One published range, no tiers.
$18,000 to $27,000 per year
First-year merit scholarship
No score needed
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| First-year merit scholarship | — | $18,000 to $27,000 per year |
Source: Scholarships and aid · verified 2026-10-25
Does Mercer superscore for scholarships?
Yes. A required test that is also superscored rewards repeat sittings more than almost any arrangement in this dataset: the score cannot be withheld, so raising it is the only lever.
“we use the highest scores out of all submitted tests”
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.
Mercer scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Early Action I — priority scholarship consideration | November 1 |
| Early Action II | December 1 |
| Regular Decision | February 1 |
| Enrollment deposit | 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 Mercer 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.
- Scholarships and aidverified 2026-10-25
- First-year admissionsverified 2026-10-25
- Test-required policyverified 2026-10-25
- Mercer returned to a test-required admissions policy with the Fall 2026 cycle.
- That makes the ACT a condition of applying rather than an optional boost.
- Mercer superscores, using the highest scores across all submitted tests.
- Self-reported scores are accepted on the application; official scores are due before enrolling.
- First-year merit is a single published range, $18,000 to $27,000 a year.
- No GPA or score threshold is published inside that range.
- Early Action by November 1 brings priority consideration for awards up to full tuition and beyond.
- Renewal needs only a 2.0 each year across eight semesters.
- The Stamps, Tift and Fabian awards are by invitation, interview or audition.
- Two of the Tift awards are limited to Georgia residents.
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 Mercer University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Mercer?
Mercer University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is Mercer test-optional?
Mercer is moving back to requiring a score, against the direction most schools have taken. Self-reported scores are accepted on the application; official scores are due before enrolling. For merit aid the answer is different: no Mercer page links the score to the award, so its effect on the amount is unstated — while the score itself is mandatory to apply. Being admitted without a score and qualifying for money without a score are two separate questions.
Does Mercer superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Yes. A required test that is also superscored rewards repeat sittings more than almost any arrangement in this dataset: the score cannot be withheld, so raising it is the only lever. we use the highest scores out of all submitted tests
When are Mercer scholarship deadlines?
Early Action I — priority scholarship consideration: November 1. Early Action II: December 1. Regular Decision: February 1. Enrollment deposit: 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 Mercer scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Mercer University's own published pages and last verified on 2026-10-25. 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
You know what a score is worth at Mercer. The question is whether you can move it.
A grid tells you the target. It does not tell you which questions are costing the points between here and there. That takes about three minutes to find out.
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