Four-year academic, merit scholarships extended, increased for incoming students

Incoming resident students can now get up to 80% of their Utah State University tuition covered by academic and merit scholarships for four years of college.  

Traditionally, scholarships automatically awarded to incoming students — the Trustee, Land Grand, Merit, Scholar, and Deans scholarships — were only applicable for one to two years. These scholarships, based primarily on an incoming student’s GPA and standardized test scores, have also increased by $500 for the 2025 fall semester.  

Craig Whyte is the executive director of Student Financial Support.  

“A decision was made to increase those scholarships to reflect changes in inflation and in the cost of attendance in general,” Whyte said. “We’ve seen an increase in costs in general, between housing, transportation and food — not even to mention the cost of tuition.” 

Katie North is the executive director of new student enrollment. She said this change represents an effort to invest in the students of USU.  

“We don’t want them to just come to Utah State, we want them to graduate from Utah State,” North said.  

Affordability has long been one of the biggest barriers for students wanting a college education. An annual report from the Gallup and Lumina Foundation cites that 85% of adults who either dropped out of or never enrolled in higher education did so because of the cost of tuition.  

The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce predicts that 72% of jobs will require some degree of higher education by 2031, placing further stress on colleges across the country to address this barrier.  

“We know that finances are the number one reason students can’t go to college,” North said. “We’re doing our best to help those students that have financial need.”  

According to North, these millions of dollars of financial investments are only made possible through several funding inlets.  

“Some of it was funded through the university and through academic colleges,” North said. “A lot of individuals donate to the university, whether it be companies or endowments. Then we reallocated some scholarship funds to support that as well.”  

Whyte said the primary goal of the financial aid office is to get students all the money they could possibly qualify for. 

“We have limited funding when it comes to scholarships — we can’t just write a check for any amount,” Whyte said. “We’re hyper-focused on helping students access any funding that’s available.” 

For students awarded these same scholarships prior to Fall 2024, these changes do not apply. North suggested accessing USU’s scholarship portal Scholarship Universe to students who need continued financial support after their scholarships expire.  

This platform matches students to scholarships they may qualify for by asking questions relating to major, background and future career goals.   

“All of our academic scholarships, departmental, our endowments — they’re all housed in that so there’s just one spot for students to look for scholarships,” North said. 

Scholarship Universe encompasses over 1,000 scholarships and represents $4 million worth of funding.  

“It’s such a great platform because students aren’t out searching for scholarships, we’re matching it to them,” North said. “That’s the best way for students to know what they qualify for.”  

Whyte said the scholarship portal is a good place to secure state funding and access third-party scholarships. Companies like Google and McDonald’s offer thousands of dollars in scholarship funding each year. 

For students seeking more information about their tuition and alleviating the cost of enrollment, Whyte urged students to make an appointment at the financial aid office. 

“Utah State is trying to invest in students,” North said. “We know finances are the number one concern, so we’re trying to help with that with both academic and need based programs.”