Wilmington College: merit scholarships by ACT score
Wilmington College awards automatic merit aid from a published grid crossing ACT score with GPA. Awards start at an ACT of 25 and reach $25,000 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.
Read this first
The middle award is published as a $18,000–$21,000 range with no GPA sub-tiers, so the figure here is its assured low end — Wilmington does not say what decides where inside the range a student lands. The $25,000 Dean's Scholarship is not labelled per year on the page, though the surrounding awards are. Awards are for full-time main-campus students.
Unweighted, as the school asks for it.
← Drag either slider to your own numbers
Example — an ACT 29 with a 3.60 GPA
Dean's Scholarship
$25,000 / year
About $100,000 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.
Knowing where a score sits is the easy part. Moving it starts with knowing exactly which questions they're being missed, and why.
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
Can you get merit aid at Wilmington without an ACT score?
Yes. A score is needed for one award and irrelevant to the other two. The $25,000 Dean's Scholarship requires a 25 ACT alongside a 3.50 GPA with no score-free route, so at a 3.50 the step from a 24 to a 25 is worth at least $4,000 a year — and without a score the ceiling is the $18,000-to-$21,000 Achievement Award.
Read the two columns in the grid below as a trade. The same award is reachable either way — with a score at a lower GPA, or with no score at a higher one. A score is worth real money to a student whose GPA sits under the test-optional line, and worth little to one comfortably above it.
“There is not a separate application process for these awards unless otherwise noted. All students are considered at the time they are accepted for admission to the College.”
The published Wilmington merit aid grid
Reproduced in full from Wilmington College’s own pages for Fall 2027 – Spring 2028 entry. Nothing here is estimated: where the school states a benefit rather than a figure, that is what the table says.
First-year academic awards
Considered automatically at admission. Only the top award reads a test score, and it has no score-free alternative.
$25,000
Dean's Scholarship
ACT 25–36 · 3.50+
Without a score: not available
$18,000–$21,000 a year
Academic Achievement Award
No score needed · GPA 3.00
$16,000
Recognition Award
No score needed
| Award | With a score | No score | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dean's Scholarship | ACT 25–36 · 3.50+ | not available | $25,000 |
| Academic Achievement Award | — | GPA 3.00 | $18,000–$21,000 a year |
| Recognition Award | — | not available | $16,000 |
Source: Scholarships and awards — first-year academic awards · verified 2026-10-24
Does Wilmington superscore for scholarships?
Not stated. Wilmington names a single 25 ACT threshold for its largest award and never addresses superscoring, which matters precisely because that one point is worth $4,000 a year.
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 Wilmington’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.
Wilmington scholarship deadlines
| Entry term | Due |
|---|---|
| Visit Experience Award — visit before | May 1, 2027 for fall entry |
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 Wilmington College’s own published pages, linked below with the date we last confirmed them. We do not estimate a missing band or interpolate a value.
- At a 3.50 GPA, moving from a 24 to a 25 is worth at least $4,000 a year — the Dean's Scholarship has no score-free route.
- Without a score the ceiling is the Academic Achievement Award at $18,000 to $21,000.
- That middle award covers every GPA from a 3.00 up with no sub-tiers, so a 3.1 and a 3.9 are both inside one range Wilmington does not break down.
- The figure used here is the range's low end, the part a qualifying student is assured of.
- Below a 2.50 the page publishes no award.
- The SAT equivalent for the Dean's Scholarship is 1200.
- Awards are for full-time students on the main campus.
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 Wilmington College.
Frequently asked questions
What ACT score do you need for a scholarship at Wilmington?
Automatic merit aid at Wilmington College starts at an ACT composite of 25, alongside the published GPA minimum, and reaches $25,000 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 Wilmington test-optional?
No official Wilmington page read for this entry states the admission testing requirement, so nothing is claimed about it here. For merit aid the answer is different: a score is needed for one award and irrelevant to the other two. The $25,000 Dean's Scholarship requires a 25 ACT alongside a 3.50 GPA with no score-free route, so at a 3.50 the step from a 24 to a 25 is worth at least $4,000 a year — and without a score the ceiling is the $18,000-to-$21,000 Achievement Award. 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 Wilmington?
On Wilmington's published grid for Fall 2027 – Spring 2028 entry, an ACT of 30 with a 3.6 GPA qualifies for Dean's Scholarship at $25,000 a year, about $100,000 over four years if it renews.
How much is one more ACT point worth at Wilmington?
The most valuable single point on Wilmington's published grid is 24 to 25, at a 3.5 GPA: it moves the award by $7,000 a year, or $28,000 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 Wilmington superscore the ACT for scholarships?
Not stated. Wilmington names a single 25 ACT threshold for its largest award and never addresses superscoring, which matters precisely because that one point is worth $4,000 a year.
When are Wilmington scholarship deadlines?
Visit Experience Award — visit before: May 1, 2027 for fall entry. 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 Wilmington scholarship data current?
Every figure on this page was read from Wilmington College'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
You know what a score is worth at Wilmington. The question is whether you can move it.
A grid tells you the target. It does not tell you which questions are costing the points between here and there. That takes about three minutes to find out.
Free · About 3 minutes · No account needed · Not affiliated with Wilmington College