St. Ambrose University: merit scholarships by GPA
St. Ambrose University awards automatic merit aid from a published grid keyed to GPA — the ACT is not used. Awards start at a 2.8 GPA and reach $25,000 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
St. Ambrose publishes a 2026-27 and a 2027-28 grid side by side and the 2027-28 figures are higher at every rung. The amounts here are the 2027-28 grid. Awards are capped at the cost of tuition and are for full-time on-campus study — online courses are excluded.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — a 3.60 GPA
Academic Merit Scholarship
$21,000 / year
About $84,000 over four years, if it renews.
St. Ambrose 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 St. Ambrose merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from St. Ambrose University’s own pages for 2027-28 entry. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.
First-year students, 2027-28
Keyed to cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale. Every admitted full-time student reaches a rung — the lowest one has no GPA floor.
$25,000
Academic Merit Scholarship
No score needed
$23,000
Academic Merit Scholarship
No score needed
$21,000
Academic Merit Scholarship
No score needed
$20,000
Academic Merit Scholarship
No score needed
$18,000
Academic Merit Scholarship
No score needed
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Academic Merit Scholarship | — | $25,000 |
| Academic Merit Scholarship | — | $23,000 |
| Academic Merit Scholarship | — | $21,000 |
| Academic Merit Scholarship | — | $20,000 |
| Academic Merit Scholarship | — | $18,000 |
Source: Scholarships — first-year merit grid · verified 2026-10-24
Does St. Ambrose superscore for scholarships?
Not stated, and it would not move this grid. The merit ladder uses no test score, so there is nothing for a superscore to improve.
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 St. Ambrose’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 St. Ambrose 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.
- The grid uses no test score. A 4.0 with no ACT receives the same $25,000 as a 4.0 with a 36.
- The 2026-27 grid, also on the page, is lower: $24,000 at 4.00, $22,000 at 3.75–3.99, $20,000 at 3.00–3.749 and $18,000 at 2.50–2.99.
- The bottom rung is published as "2.79 and below" with no floor, so admission rather than GPA is what gates the award.
- The combined total of institutional awards may not exceed the cost of tuition.
- Awards are for full-time study; online courses are excluded.
- SAU's admission page uses "2.5+ GPA (weighted or unweighted)" for admission but describes a Spring 2027 cohort in terms of an unweighted cumulative GPA, so a family near a rung boundary should confirm which scale is read.
- A search snippet from a separate SAU first-year page suggested test scores are needed for the top academic scholarships. Nothing on the scholarship or admission page says so, and the grid published there is GPA-only.
- Ambrose Advantage and Ambrose Pathway are need-based programmes, separate from this grid.
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 St. Ambrose University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at St. Ambrose?
St. Ambrose University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is St. Ambrose test-optional?
St. Ambrose does not require an ACT or SAT score for standard admission. A GPA below 2.50 triggers additional documents and a committee review. For merit aid the answer is different: the grid is keyed to cumulative GPA alone. No rung names a test score, so a student with no ACT reaches the same $25,000 top rung as a student with a 36. 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 St. Ambrose?
On St. Ambrose's published grid for 2027-28 entry, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Academic Merit Scholarship at $21,000 a year, about $84,000 over four years if it renews.
Does St. Ambrose superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated, and it would not move this grid. The merit ladder uses no test score, so there is nothing for a superscore to improve.
Is this St. Ambrose scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from St. Ambrose 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
St. Ambrose awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though St. Ambrose is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
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