Early this semester, the University of Utah announced that it will change how it awards merit scholarships to incoming students. The transformation will be enacted in the fall of 2026 for incoming students only.
As well as lowering the Grade Point Average (GPA) requirement to 3.5, all university awards will now be consolidated under a single application system, making the process more straightforward and transparent for applicants.
Typically, a merit scholarship is awarded to students based on academic accomplishments, strong grades and extracurricular success.
Paul Kohn, Senior Vice Provost for Strategic Enrollment and Student Success, explains that new standards will broaden access to scholarships while keeping academic achievement at the center of the process. “We want to reduce student stress, anxiety about the uncertainties of keeping their scholarships,” Kohn said. “Simplification here also means that there will be less conflicting messaging or noise about what the renewal standards are.”
Previously, the GPA requirement was set at 3.8. The university also factored in the rigor of a student’s high school course selection, which, according to Kohn, has been eliminated.
Similar adjustments have been made at other public universities, like Utah State University (USU), where administrators cite rising tuition and access to opportunities as reasons to improve access to aid.
The previous structure offered several types of merit-based scholarships for different student populations, each with its own requirements. Under the new process, the U has reorganized these awards into a single grid based only on high school GPA.
“It becomes much more transparent, and we’ve aggregated a bunch of different divergent, competing scholarship programs all into a more organized single grid,” Kohn said.
In streamlining the process, the university hopes to give prospective students and families more clarity and to extend scholarships to a wider group. “In simplifying and increasing transparency, we’re trying to make it easier, empower the families to make a better decision, and for students and families also to find greater security in that simplicity,” Kohn said.
Scholarship amounts still vary depending on GPA, with higher awards tied to higher averages. The basic scholarship begins at a 3.5 GPA.
According to the university, for incoming students, the simplified system will remove some of the uncertainty around applying for aid. Instead of navigating multiple scholarship types and requirements, applicants will have a clearer picture of what financial support they might qualify for before committing to attend.
Maddy Hadwick, a senior studying financial planning and counseling and a recipient of the Presidential Merit Scholarship, said that the changes are financially beneficial, but she still worries about academics being lost in the process.
“I think that they should have maintained the course rigor requirement,” Hadwick said. “The difficulty of classes you’re taking is very telling of you as a student.”
As a high school student, Hadwick said she worked constantly and took a demanding course load to qualify for a scholarship. “I genuinely think people shouldn’t have to work as hard as I did to make college more affordable,” Hadwick said.
Ultimately, Hadwick said she supports the university becoming more accessible to students. “I’m definitely not bitter. I think it’s a cool thing to give people more money,” she said.
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