University of Nevada, Reno: merit scholarships by ACT score

For admission, largely yes. A score is not required to get in — admission runs on a 3.0 WEIGHTED academic-core GPA. Note the mismatch: admission weights the GPA, the scholarship matrix does not, so a student admitted on honours and AP weighting can still land below the matrix's 3.0 unweighted floor.

“No. Undergraduate applications do not require standardized test scores (e.g., ACT/SAT) for admission to the University of Nevada, Reno. However, the University recommends submitting ACT and SAT scores to be considered for first-year scholarships and class placement in first-year courses.”

Reproduced in full from University of Nevada, Reno’s own pages for Fall 2027 entry. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.

Not stated for the matrices. The only place UNR uses the word is a footnote on the WUE eligibility page, where a superscore can be requested by email against the WUE entry threshold. Nothing on either scholarship matrix says whether the score it reads may be a superscore, so do not assume it is — ask before planning a retake around it.

“Students may request a superscore to be used by emailing WUE@unr.edu”

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 Nevada Reno’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.

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.

Every figure on this page was read from University of Nevada, Reno’s own published pages, linked below with the date we last confirmed them. We do not estimate a missing band or interpolate a value.

• Freshman Scholarships for Nevada Students — Nevada freshman scholarship matrixverified 2026-10-23
• 4-year merit scholarships for freshman WUE recipients — scholarship matrixverified 2026-10-23
• Stackable non-resident scholarship awards — Tahoe and Honors Awardsverified 2026-10-23
• Western Undergraduate Exchange — eligibility requirements and merit tiersverified 2026-10-23
• Freshman Admissions — requirements and test-score FAQverified 2026-10-23

• Each 0.1 of GPA is worth exactly one ACT point. Every tier's score window shifts up one point for each tenth the GPA drops, in both matrices and with no exceptions — so at UNR a point of ACT and a tenth of GPA are genuinely interchangeable.
• The matrix GPA is UNWEIGHTED; admission uses a 3.0 WEIGHTED academic-core GPA. A student admitted on weighted honours and AP credit can still sit below the matrix's unweighted 3.0 floor and be priced at nothing.
• 15 credits a semester, not 12 — and enrolled AND earned. Dropping below 15 before the 100% refund date cancels the scholarship permanently, with no appeal, unless a 15 to Finish exception is on file first.
• The WUE merit matrix is gated behind WUE itself, which is an OR: a 3.0 weighted academic GPA OR a 22 ACT OR an 1120 SAT. The matrix on top of it is an AND. Transfers get WUE but not the stackable merit.
• Non-WICHE out-of-state students are on neither matrix. Their route is the Tahoe Award at $10,000 a year from a 3.0 unweighted GPA with scores on file but no minimum score, plus a $2,000 Honors Award only if the Honors College nominates them. Neither combines with National Merit.
• The Governor Guinn Millennium Scholarship is Nevada state money administered by the Treasurer's Office, not UNR's award, and is not in any grid here. UNR says outright it does not accept appeals for it.
• Awards are posted on a rolling basis from November through March (April for the non-resident stackables), so a February 15 file date does not mean a February answer.
• National Merit pays up to $20,000 a year but does not stack with any of these freshman awards — it replaces them.

• Nevada StateAlso in NV
• UNLVAlso in NV
• UDallasAwards start at an ACT of 20
• CarrollAwards start at an ACT of 20
• QuincyAwards start at an ACT of 20
• DruryAwards start at an ACT of 19
• Florida PolyAwards start at an ACT of 19
• CBUAwards start at an ACT of 18

• Compare merit aid across schools — the same data, side by side.
• ACT scholarship calculator — run the numbers for a school not listed here.
• Test-optional doesn’t mean scholarship-optional — what skipping the ACT costs.
• How merit aid grids work — why the bands are steps.
• ACT superscore calculator — and whether it counts here.