The University of Texas at San Antonio: merit scholarships by ACT score and class rank
The University of Texas at San Antonio publishes merit aid criteria as a published grid crossing ACT score with GPA. Awards start at an ACT of 24 and reach $6,000 a year. Because the bands are steps rather than a slope, one 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.
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Two things to hold onto here. UT San Antonio keys this award to high school CLASS RANK crossed with an ACT score, not to GPA, so the GPA input does not change the result on this page. And consideration is automatic while the award is not — UT San Antonio writes that "The value is awarded on a competitive basis, while funding is available" — so read these figures as what a qualifying student is considered for, not as a promise.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — an ACT 29 with a 3.60 GPA
Distinguished Presidential Scholarship
$6,000 per academic year / year
About $24,000 over four years, if it renews.
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 UT San Antonio merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from The University of Texas at San Antonio’s own pages for fall 2025 and forward entry. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.
Fall freshmen — residents, non-residents and international students
One scale for everyone. There is no separate application: admitted fall freshmen are considered automatically off the admission application. Non-residents and international students who win at least $1,000 for the year additionally receive a waiver of non-resident tuition, on top of the figure below rather than instead of it. Students in a fully online program and students in the UT Austin Coordinated Admission Program (CAP) are not eligible, and applicants to the Health Science Center schools apply for UT Health scholarships instead.
$6,000 per academic year
Distinguished Presidential Scholarship
ACT 27–36 · Top 5%+ of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1270 SAT is the equivalent route
$5,000 per academic year
Distinguished Presidential Scholarship
ACT 27–36 · Top 10% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1270 SAT is the equivalent route
$4,500 per academic year
Distinguished Presidential Scholarship
ACT 24–36 · Top 15% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1190 SAT is the equivalent route
$2,500 per academic year
Distinguished Presidential Scholarship
ACT 24–36 · Top 20% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1170 SAT is the equivalent route
$500 per academic year
Distinguished Presidential Scholarship
ACT 24–36 · Top 25% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1150 SAT is the equivalent route
| Award | With a score | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Distinguished Presidential Scholarship | ACT 27–36 · Top 5%+ of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1270 SAT is the equivalent route | $6,000 per academic year |
| Distinguished Presidential Scholarship | ACT 27–36 · Top 10% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1270 SAT is the equivalent route | $5,000 per academic year |
| Distinguished Presidential Scholarship | ACT 24–36 · Top 15% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1190 SAT is the equivalent route | $4,500 per academic year |
| Distinguished Presidential Scholarship | ACT 24–36 · Top 20% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1170 SAT is the equivalent route | $2,500 per academic year |
| Distinguished Presidential Scholarship | ACT 24–36 · Top 25% of high school class (class rank, not GPA); 1150 SAT is the equivalent route | $500 per academic year |
Source: Distinguished Presidential Scholarship — eligibility criteria, annual award amounts and renewal · verified 2026-10-23
Does UT San Antonio superscore for scholarships?
Not stated for merit, and UT San Antonio's two sentences on the subject pull against each other. The scholarship pages never use the word. The admissions page says outright that UT San Antonio does not accept superscore reports — then says that a complete report "allow[s] our admission team to consider your strongest performance across all sections and test dates", which is UT San Antonio doing the superscoring itself from the full record. What is nowhere published is which composite the 27 and 24 ACT thresholds on this grid are measured against. Do what UT San Antonio asks — have the testing agency send complete reports for every sitting, not a self-assembled best-of — and ask the Financial Aid and Scholarships office which composite they will read before you assume a retake moved you a row.
“To ensure we can review your achievements accurately and fairly, we require complete score reports and do not accept superscore reports.”
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 UT San Antonio’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.
UT San Antonio scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Admitted as a fall freshman — the hard cutoff for Distinguished Presidential Scholarship consideration | January 15 |
| Priority freshman application deadline (fall entry) | January 15 |
| Financial aid and grant priority deadline (FAFSA or TASFA on file) | January 15 |
| Final domestic freshman deadline (fall entry) — too late for the scholarship, still in time to enrol | June 1 to submit application; June 15 to submit missing documents |
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 The University of Texas at San Antonio’s own published pages, linked below with the date we last confirmed them. We do not estimate a missing band or interpolate a value.
- Distinguished Presidential Scholarship — eligibility criteria, annual award amounts and renewalverified 2026-10-23
- Freshman Admissions — test-optional policy, guaranteed admission table, score reports and deadlinesverified 2026-10-23
- Texas Scholarships — the state's Texas First Scholarship Programverified 2026-10-23
- Grants — the state TEXAS Grant and the January 15 aid priority deadlineverified 2026-10-23
- UT San Antonio Bold Promise — tuition and fees for qualifying Texas familiesverified 2026-10-23
- This is a class-rank grid, not a GPA grid. UT San Antonio pairs each rank band with a score floor and never publishes a GPA criterion for this award, so the GPA control on this page cannot move the number. Class rank is required of graduates of accredited high schools; where a transcript carries no rank, Undergraduate Admissions assigns one, and under Texas Senate Bill 1543 homeschool and GED applicants are assigned a rank "comparable to the average class rank of other applicants who have equivalent standardized testing scores".
- Automatic consideration, competitive award. The same page says qualified fall freshmen admitted by January 15 "will be given automatic consideration" and that "The value is awarded on a competitive basis, while funding is available." There is no separate application and no interview, so clearing a row puts you in the pool — it does not buy the row. The amounts carry an asterisk reading "These amounts are applicable for new admits Fall 2025 and forward."
- One ACT number stands in for three SAT numbers. UT San Antonio's grid lists 1190, 1170 and 1150 SAT against the Top 15%, Top 20% and Top 25% rows, but writes "24 ACT" beside all three. So a 24 satisfies the score half of every one of those rows and your class rank alone decides whether the award is $4,500, $2,500 or $500. On the ACT side, the real step changes are at 24 (any award at all) and 27 ($5,000 or $6,000, for the top 10% and top 5%).
- For a non-resident, the waiver is worth more than the scholarship. "Non-resident and international students awarded the Distinguished Presidential Scholarship for a minimum of $1,000.00 for the academic year will be granted a waiver for non-resident tuition if scholarship eligibility is maintained." That is additive — you get the cash and the waiver — but the $500 top-25% row does not reach the $1,000 floor, so a 24 in the top 25% is the one row on this grid that leaves a non-resident paying non-resident tuition. A 24 in the top 20% ($2,500) clears it.
- Applying test-optional does not disqualify you, it de-prices you: a fall freshman admitted by January 15 without a score goes to "a scholarship committee review process" for which UT San Antonio publishes no figure and no threshold. UT San Antonio's FAQ confirms test-optional students "may also be considered through committee review" — considered, with nothing you can look up.
- The renewal credit-hour count is harder than it looks, because most of the credits students assume will count do not: Consortium Agreement courses, transfer credits, correspondence courses, repeated courses, incompletes, audited courses, AP credit, dual credit, CLEP and non-UT San Antonio study abroad are all excluded from the 30 hours. UT San Antonio recommends 15 hours a semester for that reason. Enrolling in fewer than 12 hours forfeits that semester's money and still burns one of your eight terms of eligibility.
- Score timing is the quiet trap. Everything — application, fee, transcripts and test scores — must be "received by UT San Antonio no later than 5:00 p.m. CT" on the deadline, and UT San Antonio counts the date it receives a document, not the date you requested it. Scores sent by the testing agency can take days or weeks, so a December sitting aimed at the January 15 scholarship cutoff is tight and a late-December or January sitting is a gamble.
- State money is not in this grid. The TEXAS Grant is Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board money, need-based, with THECB setting eligibility, and is "offered to students until funds are exhausted". The Texas First Scholarship Program is also THECB's: it pays one or two semesters to students who graduate high school early with a Texas First Diploma, your high school counsellor decides eligibility, and "UT San Antonio does not determine eligibility for this scholarship." UT San Antonio Bold Promise IS the university's own — 100% of tuition and mandatory fees for up to four years for qualifying low- and middle-income Texas families, automatic with no separate application — but it is keyed to family income and a FAFSA, not to an ACT score, so it is not in the grid either. The Distinguished Transfer Scholarship is a separate award for transfer students.
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 The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at UT San Antonio?
Automatic merit aid at The University of Texas at San Antonio starts at an ACT composite of 24, alongside the published GPA minimum, and reaches $6,000 a year at the top. The bands are steps rather than a slope, so the only score that matters is the next threshold above where you are now.
Is UT San Antonio test-optional?
Test-optional to get in, and a score is one of two routes to GUARANTEED admission rather than a requirement. A top-25% class rank is guaranteed admission with "no minimum" score; the second 25% is guaranteed admission with a 24 ACT or 1170 SAT. Everyone else is read through holistic review, where UT San Antonio strongly suggests an essay and two letters of recommendation. Scores must come from the testing agency; UT San Antonio's ACT code is 4239. For merit aid the answer is different: a score is not demanded, but it is the only way into the published grid. Every row of the Distinguished Presidential Scholarship table pairs a class-rank band with an ACT or SAT floor, and a fall freshman admitted without a score is instead sent to a scholarship committee review for which UT San Antonio publishes no amount, no threshold and no guarantee. So submitting a 24 is the difference between a figure you can look up and a decision you cannot plan around — and moving a 24 to a 27 is the difference between the $4,500 row and the $6,000 row for a student in the top 5%. 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 UT San Antonio?
On UT San Antonio's published grid for fall 2025 and forward entry, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Distinguished Presidential Scholarship at $6,000 a year, about $24,000 over four years if it renews.
How much is one more ACT point worth at UT San Antonio?
The most valuable single point on UT San Antonio's published grid is 26 to 27, at a GPA of top 5%+ of high school class (class rank, not gpa); 1270 sat is the equivalent route: it moves the award by $1,500 a year, or $6,000 across a four-year degree. The same point is worth less at other GPAs, and most points move nothing at all — the grid steps rather than slopes, which is why the only score worth aiming at is the next threshold.
Does UT San Antonio superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated for merit, and UT San Antonio's two sentences on the subject pull against each other. The scholarship pages never use the word. The admissions page says outright that UT San Antonio does not accept superscore reports — then says that a complete report "allow[s] our admission team to consider your strongest performance across all sections and test dates", which is UT San Antonio doing the superscoring itself from the full record. What is nowhere published is which composite the 27 and 24 ACT thresholds on this grid are measured against. Do what UT San Antonio asks — have the testing agency send complete reports for every sitting, not a self-assembled best-of — and ask the Financial Aid and Scholarships office which composite they will read before you assume a retake moved you a row. To ensure we can review your achievements accurately and fairly, we require complete score reports and do not accept superscore reports.
When are UT San Antonio scholarship deadlines?
Admitted as a fall freshman — the hard cutoff for Distinguished Presidential Scholarship consideration: January 15. Priority freshman application deadline (fall entry): January 15. Financial aid and grant priority deadline (FAFSA or TASFA on file): January 15. Final domestic freshman deadline (fall entry) — too late for the scholarship, still in time to enrol: June 1 to submit application; June 15 to submit missing documents. 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 UT San Antonio scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from The University of Texas at San Antonio's own published pages and last verified on 2026-10-23. 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.
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What to do next
You know what a score is worth at UT San Antonio. The question is whether you can move it.
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