According to data gathered by the Education Data Initiative, there are more than 1.7 million scholarships handed out to college students every year. But, surprisingly, only 7% of college students receive some form of scholarship.
If you want to be among that 7%, you can greatly increase your chances of earning scholarships by raising your standardized test scores. Many colleges and national programs offer students guaranteed scholarships if their SAT or ACT scores reach a certain threshold.
In this guide, I will lay out everything you need to know about guaranteed scholarships including how high your scores should be and how you can find scholarships that match your scores.
Guaranteed or automatic scholarships award students a set amount of scholarship money based on their SAT or ACT scores alongside other qualifiers like GPA or class rank. As long as you meet the designated requirements for all the qualifiers, you will be guaranteed to receive that scholarship as long as you choose to attend the school that offers it.
Some guaranteed scholarships are housed through national programs and may be used at different schools depending on the school’s criteria. Let’s go over a few examples of these types of guaranteed scholarships.
The National Merit Scholarship program is probably the most popular example of a guaranteed scholarship. If your junior year PSAT score ranks in the top 1% of test takers in your state, you may qualify to apply for a National Merit Scholarship.
After submitting your application, you may be chosen to become a Semifinalist, then a Finalist. Some schools offer guaranteed scholarships to National Merit Finalists even if those students don’t end up becoming National Merit Scholars. National Merit Finalists can receive 3 different types of scholarships:
The amount of money National Merit Finalists receive depends on both the type of scholarship they receive and the corporation or college that sponsors them. You can find the complete list of 2024 Merit Sponsors here.
The Engebretson Foundation Scholarship awards $10,000 per semester to one qualifying student for one year of college. To apply for the scholarship, students must meet the following criteria:
As you can see, earning a high enough score on a standardized test (in this case a 28 on the ACT or a 1240 on the SAT) as well as a high GPA can automatically qualify certain students to apply for this scholarship. The only additional requirements to apply center around financial need rather than other academic or extracurricular requirements.
The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force all offer ROTC scholarship programs that can help students pay for college in exchange for service. Each branch may have slightly different requirements for joining the program, but many offer guaranteed support as long as you meet certain criteria. The U.S. Air Force ROTC program, for example, has the following criteria for students:
It’s important to note that, if you choose to accept an ROTC scholarship, you will be expected to complete the required amount of service. In the case of the Air Force program, students must serve at least 4 years on active duty.
Most colleges also offer some form of guaranteed scholarship based on academic qualifiers. For many, the scholarships are based on a combination of qualifiers, including SAT or ACT scores, GPA, and class rank. However, some may center only 1 or 2 of these qualifiers.
To find out what types of guaranteed scholarships your favorite schools offer, you can simply check out their websites. Most guaranteed scholarships will be listed as merit-based scholarships. Look at the qualifiers for the different types of merit-based scholarships at each school to determine the scores you need to achieve on the SAT or ACT.
Let’s go over Alabama State University’s merit-based scholarship offerings as an example. ASU gives out 4 different academic scholarships based on both ACT scores and high school GPA.
The Presidential Academic Scholarship pays full tuition, books, required fees, and on-campus room and board for 8 semesters. To qualify, students must meet the following criteria:
The Academic Excellence Scholarship pays full tuition, required fees, and books for 8 semesters. To qualify, students must meet the following criteria:
The Academic Incentive Scholarship pays full tuition and a $500 book award for 8 semesters. To qualify, students must meet the following criteria:
The Black and Gold Scholarship pays $4,000 yearly toward tuition, required fees, and on-campus room and board for 8 semesters. To qualify, students must meet the following criteria:
As you can see, schools often have a wide range of scholarships that cover everything from average to above average test scores and grades. So, the better your scores are, the more scholarship money you can earn at a given school. In fact, in the case of ASU, just 2 ACT points could make the difference between earning $4,000 towards tuition each year and earning full tuition coverage for all 8 semesters. See how much studying can truly pay off!
If you’ve already taken the SAT or ACT, you’re probably interested in finding out how much scholarship money you can receive for your scores. Obviously, you can go site by site at the schools on your list to see how you fare at each one. However, you can also broaden your search to find other schools that could give you better offers for your scores.
There are tons of scholarship search sites that can help you find scholarship opportunities that match your scores. For example, the ACT has compiled a list of more than 80 scholarships that require ACT scores that you can use to narrow down your search. You can also visit dedicated scholarship search engines that allow you to filter your results based on a specific score range. These sites can connect you to both merit scholarships offered by schools and local or national scholarships set up by independent organizations.
Are you still studying for the SAT or ACT? Or, have you already taken your standardized tests but feel dissatisfied with your scores? Either way, Prep Expert can help you get your scores exactly where you want them!
After seeing how much of a positive impact my perfect SAT score had on my life, I wanted to help as many students as possible reach their academic goals and set themselves up for success in life. Now, as the founder and CEO of Prep Expert, I’ve had the honor of watching more than 100,000 of our students improve their SAT and ACT scores, receive admission into top universities, and win over $100 million in college scholarships. And you can do it too!
Prep Expert offers a variety of SAT and ACT courses designed to fit the needs of any student. Whether you prefer self-paced classes, weekly review sessions, or full-fledged courses taught by expert instructors, there’s something for everyone at Prep Expert.
For those of you currently gearing up to take the new digital SAT, I’ve also put together a book of tips and strategies based on the knowledge I’ve developed over the past decade spent creating the most effective test preparation content for students. The Digital SAT Playbook addresses every aspect of the new exam, including:
Pick up your copy or check out Prep Expert’s extensive catalog of online test prep courses to start raising your scores today!