Valparaiso University: merit scholarships by GPA
Valparaiso 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 $35,000 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
Valpo's freshman scholarship table has one axis — high school GPA — and an ACT score appears nowhere on it. Two things to read carefully. First, the 3.40-to-4.19 Presidential band is published as a RANGE, "$31,000-$33000" (Valpo's own typo), so no single figure is promised there and none is invented here; the other three bands are exact. Second, Valpo stacks four entry years of grids on the same page and the amounts differ by thousands, so check that you are reading the 2027-28 table and not the 2024-25 one.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
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Example — a 3.60 GPA
Presidential Scholarship
Presidential Scholarship, published as $31,000 to $33,000
Valparaiso 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 Valparaiso merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Valparaiso 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.
Freshman merit scholarships, 2027-28 entry
Considered automatically at the time of application — Valpo publishes no separate scholarship process and no scholarship deadline. International freshmen receive the same amounts as domestic students. The Lutheran and other Christian-affiliated awards, the Back to Valpo award and departmental awards are separate pots on top of whichever row you land on, not alternatives to it.
$35,000
Board of Directors Scholarship
No score needed · GPA 4.20
Presidential Scholarship, published as $31,000 to $33,000
Presidential Scholarship
No score needed · GPA 3.40
$30,000
Beacon Scholarship
No score needed · GPA 3.00
$25,000
Leadership Award
No score needed · GPA 2.80
| Award | With a score | No score | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board of Directors Scholarship | — | GPA 4.20 | $35,000 |
| Presidential Scholarship | — | GPA 3.40 | Presidential Scholarship, published as $31,000 to $33,000 |
| Beacon Scholarship | — | GPA 3.00 | $30,000 |
| Leadership Award | — | GPA 2.80 | $25,000 |
Source: Freshman Scholarships — 2027-2028 GPA table · verified 2026-10-23
Does Valparaiso superscore for scholarships?
Not stated, and largely irrelevant here. The word superscore appears on neither Valpo's scholarship pages nor its admission process page, and because the merit table reads only GPA, a combined composite would have nothing to attach to. It could still matter for admission, where Valpo reads scores if you ask it to.
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 Valparaiso’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.
Valparaiso scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Scholarship application — Valpo publishes none | No separate process or deadline; considered at the time of application for admission |
| Recommended date for freshman applicants, fall term | March 1 |
| Recommended date for all applicants, spring term | November 1 |
| Admission decisions | Rolling — there is no fixed application deadline |
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 Valparaiso 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.
- Freshman Scholarships — 2027-2028 GPA tableverified 2026-10-23
- Undergraduate admission process — test-optional policyverified 2026-10-23
- How to Apply — rolling admission and recommended datesverified 2026-10-23
- The Presidential band is the only one published as a range, and Valpo's own text has a typo in it — "$31,000-$33000". No figure is assumed for that row; a student in it should get the exact amount in writing from Student Financial Services.
- Valpo leaves three prior cycles of the same table on the page. The Board of Directors Scholarship was $31,000 for 2024-25, $33,000 for 2025-26 and 2026-27, and $35,000 for 2027-28, so a figure found on that page is not automatically this year's figure.
- The 2027-28 table adds a fourth rung the earlier ones do not have: a $25,000 Leadership Award at a 2.8 to 2.99 GPA. For 2026-27 and earlier, Valpo's table stopped at a 3.0.
- Valpo says the money is considered at application with no separate process and no scholarship deadline — one of the few schools here that states both halves outright.
- Denominational money is a separate pot: Valpo publishes a "Lutheran and Other Christian Affiliated Scholarships" category alongside the GPA grid. It is additive, not an alternative track, and its amounts are not on the freshman table.
- Valpo's Net Price Calculator page carries its own disclaimer — "These estimates are not guarantees of aid, and students must still complete all admissions and financial aid requirements by the appropriate deadlines" — so a calculator output is not an award and is not used here.
- Indiana's state money sits outside this grid entirely. Valpo lists a 21st Century Scholar scholarship among its own awards, but the 21st Century Scholars and Frank O'Bannon Grant programs are administered by the state of Indiana and are not part of the GPA table.
- robots.txt at valpo.edu names ClaudeBot and disallows it only from /events/ and /event/. The scholarship and admission pages cited here are outside that, and the file sets a 10-second crawl delay for all agents.
- Valpo is silent on the Enhanced ACT.
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 Valparaiso University.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Valparaiso?
Valparaiso University publishes a merit aid grid keyed to ACT score and GPA. See the tables on this page for the current bands.
Is Valparaiso test-optional?
Optional, and Valpo makes it a choice the applicant declares: scores are only read if you ask for them to be. It also asks separately for AP, IB and other college-level test results, which are used for credit rather than for money. For merit aid the answer is different: not used. Valpo's freshman scholarship table is keyed to high school GPA and nothing else — the words ACT and SAT do not appear on the scholarship page at all. Worth being precise about the limit of that claim: Valpo never prints a sentence saying a score cannot affect a merit award, so this reads the grid's single axis plus the test-optional admission policy. What Valpo does say is that the money needs no separate application. Being admitted without a score and qualifying for money without a score are two separate questions.
Does Valparaiso superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated, and largely irrelevant here. The word superscore appears on neither Valpo's scholarship pages nor its admission process page, and because the merit table reads only GPA, a combined composite would have nothing to attach to. It could still matter for admission, where Valpo reads scores if you ask it to.
When are Valparaiso scholarship deadlines?
Scholarship application — Valpo publishes none: No separate process or deadline; considered at the time of application for admission. Recommended date for freshman applicants, fall term: March 1. Recommended date for all applicants, spring term: November 1. Admission decisions: Rolling — there is no fixed application deadline. 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 Valparaiso scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Valparaiso University'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.
Other schools to check
What to do next
Valparaiso awards on GPA — but the ACT still decides what you're worth elsewhere.
Most schools in this comparison are score-keyed even though Valparaiso is not, so the same test still moves the money everywhere else on the list.
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