Montana State University Billings: merit scholarships by GPA
Montana State University Billings awards automatic merit aid from a published grid keyed to GPA — the ACT is not used. Awards start at a 2.85 GPA and reach $3,000 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
The award depends on which campus a student enrols at — City College pays about a third of the University Campus figure and has no bottom tier at all. MSUB has said Fall 2027 figures are coming, so these are the last published set.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
← Drag either slider to your own numbers
Example — a 3.60 GPA
Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 3
$1,000 / year
About $4,000 over four years, if it renews.
MSU Billings 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.
Free preview of the top schools · the full ranked list, with deadlines, is $19.
Want to know what one more point would change? The Merit Plan prices the next point at every school.
Email me every school that pays at a 29 and 3.60
This page is one school. We have read the published grids at 501, and the email sends the ten that pay you most — five public, five private — with what each one awards. No account.
One email with your breakdown, plus occasional ACT tips. Unsubscribe in one tap.
Free · no account, no card · the first school is on this screen
The published MSU Billings merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Montana State University Billings’s own pages for Fall 2026 entry. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.
University Campus
Open to Montana residents, out-of-state students and WUE students alike. Keyed to the unweighted GPA.
$3,000
Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 1
No score needed
$2,000
Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 2
No score needed
$1,000
Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 3
No score needed
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 1 | — | $3,000 |
| Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 2 | — | $2,000 |
| Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 3 | — | $1,000 |
Source: Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship · verified 2026-10-24
City College campus
About a third of the University Campus award, and there is no Tier 3 — a student between a 2.85 and a 3.649 receives nothing here.
$1,000
Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 1
No score needed
$500
Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 2
No score needed
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 1 | — | $1,000 |
| Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 2 | — | $500 |
Source: Yellowjacket Excellence Scholarship · verified 2026-10-24
Does MSU Billings superscore for scholarships?
Not stated, and it would not matter. The grid uses no test score 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 MSU Billings’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.
Where these numbers came from
Every figure on this page was read from Montana State University Billings’s own published pages, linked below with the date we last confirmed them. We do not estimate a missing band or interpolate a value.
- City College pays about a third of the University Campus figure, and has no third tier — a 3.0 student receives $1,000 on one campus and nothing on the other.
- Eligibility is limited to first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students pursuing a first associate or bachelor's degree.
- Montana residents, out-of-state students and WUE students are all eligible.
- MSUB's GED and HiSET equivalency table is INVERTED on the source page — it maps higher scores to lower tiers, and 95 appears in two HiSET tiers at once. It is a publishing error and is deliberately not modelled here.
- MSUB has announced that Fall 2027 figures are coming, so these are the last published set.
- The renewal bar is a 2.0 cumulative GPA, well below every entry threshold.
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 Montana State University Billings.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at MSU Billings?
Montana State University Billings publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is MSU Billings test-optional?
The scholarship page does not state the admission testing requirement, so nothing is claimed about it here. For merit aid the answer is different: the award is keyed to the unweighted high school GPA. No tier on either campus names a test score. 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 MSU Billings?
On MSU Billings's published grid for Fall 2026 entry, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for University Campus — Yellowjacket Excellence Tier 3 at $1,000 a year, about $4,000 over four years if it renews.
Does MSU Billings superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated, and it would not matter. The grid uses no test score at all.
Is this MSU Billings scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Montana State University Billings'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
MSU Billings awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though MSU Billings is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
Free · About 3 minutes · No account needed · Not affiliated with Montana State University Billings