Millsaps College Scholarships (2026–2027)

📅 2027–2028 Planning Note: The costs below reflect the most recently published figures (2026–2027). Universities typically finalize the next year’s rates in the spring, and we’ll update this page once official 2027–2028 numbers are released.

Planning tip: At large public universities, tuition, fees, and housing usually increase modestly each year (often in the 2–5% range). For early budgeting, families may want to plan for roughly $1,000–$1,500 more in-state or $2,000–$3,000 more out-of-state in total direct costs once new rates are published.

Average Federal Net Price: $26,812 — this is what families actually paid after grants and scholarships (no loans), based on the most recent federal data. Your specific cost could be significantly lower or higher depending on your financial aid eligibility and merit scholarships. New to Net Price & SAI? Read our guide.

📌 Regional Tuition & Waiver Options

Millsaps includes required books and course materials in tuition and course fees through a program called Saps Supplies. Materials show up based on your student’s schedule, including lab and studio supplies. The published cost of attendance still carries a $650 books line, so if you are comparing Millsaps against another school line by line, that $650 is money you are not actually spending here. One catch worth knowing: some titles are rentals and have to come back at the end of the term, or you get billed the publisher’s replacement cost.

Millsaps builds its official housing figure from the least expensive dorm and the least expensive meal plan. Real rooms range from about $8,110 a year in Bacot or Ezelle up to roughly $11,610 for a single in John, Susanna or Charles, and meal plans run from about $6,260 to $6,760. A student who ends up in a single with the biggest plan is looking at close to $4,000 a year more than the table shows. Ask about dorm assignment before you lock in a budget.

📅 Millsaps Scholarship Timeline (Simple Version)

• August 1: Admission application opens. Premier Scholarship application opens the same day.
• November 15: Early Action deadline. Nonbinding, and the earliest clean shot at a full award review.
• December 11 at 4:00 p.m. Central: Premier Scholarship application closes. Hard stop, all materials included.
• February 1: E.H. Sumners Grant priority date for incoming students.
• February ACT / March SAT: Last test dates Millsaps will count toward a general merit re-review.
• March 1: FAFSA priority date, and the preferred Regular Decision deadline for fall.
• April ACT: Last acceptable test date for the Millsaps Advantage Scholarship only.
• May 15: Deposit deadline to claim a Millsaps Advantage Scholarship.
• June 15: General enrollment deposit deadline.

Parent rule of thumb: treat November 15 as your real deadline. Millsaps reviews on a rolling basis and starts releasing decisions in August, so an early file gets looked at when there is still room to move.

Two of the awards listed here are transfer-only. The Millsaps Transfer Scholarship and the $6,000 Transfer Residence Hall Grant do not apply to incoming freshmen, and the $6,000 grant is a housing credit, not a merit floor. If your student is coming straight from high school, the number that matters is the $18,000 to $34,000 range on the Millsaps Merit Scholarship. International applicants are reviewed on the same $18,000 to $34,000 scale with no separate application.

❓ Flagship / Competitive Scholarship FAQs

When is the Premier Scholarship deadline?
The application opens August 1, 2026 and closes December 11, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. Central, complete with all supplemental materials. Finalists hear on January 15, 2027. Scholars Weekend runs February 5 and 6, 2027. Offers must be accepted in writing with a deposit by March 12, 2027 at 4:00 p.m. Central.

How many Premier Scholarships are awarded?
Sixteen a year. At a college of roughly a thousand students, that is a real cohort, but it is still a small number against the applicant pool.

What does the Premier application actually require?
Your student finishes the Millsaps or Common Application first, then submits the separate Premier application. That includes one essay of 500 to 700 words responding to a provided prompt, and two letters of recommendation: one from a teacher, counselor or principal, and one from a coach, employer or mentor. No relatives. A portfolio of work is optional and is where a distinctive student can make a case the numbers cannot.

Should my student apply if they are right at 3.5 and 28?
Yes, but with clear eyes. Meeting the floor gets the application read; it does not make anyone a finalist. If your student has a genuinely strong outside recommendation and something real to put in the optional portfolio, the effort is worth it. If the profile is thin beyond the numbers, plan around the regular merit award and treat Premier as upside.

Does Premier cover housing?
No. It covers tuition and fees for four academic years. Housing and dining, roughly $14,370 a year, remain your family’s responsibility. A Premier Scholar still needs a housing plan and a budget.

Is Millsaps a Stamps or QuestBridge partner?
No to both. Millsaps is not a current Stamps Scholars partner and is not a QuestBridge college partner.

What should my student prepare?
The essay carries real weight here, especially since Millsaps is test-optional and evaluates holistically. Our Essay Toolkit and Brag Sheet Builder are built for exactly this kind of application.

🧠 Parent Strategy: Millsaps’ “Highest Value Only” Rule

Most of the awards below do not add to your merit package. They compete with it. Millsaps states repeatedly that when a student qualifies for multiple awards, the college pays the single one with the highest monetary value. The Scouting Scholarship is the clearest example: it promises a $15,000 minimum total package, but merit already starts at $18,000, so for practically every admitted student it never becomes the operative number.

So which ones actually put new money on the table?

1. The Phi Theta Kappa awards. Millsaps says outright these stack on top of transfer merit. Real, additive dollars.
2. The talent awards. Music, studio art and theatre are decided by audition or portfolio with no GPA or test gate.
3. The paperwork awards. Legacy, United Methodist pastors’ children. Small, but free for documentation you already have.
4. The application-required awards. PACCAR and Gulf Scholars need their own form, which means almost nobody applies.

Parent translation: before you count any award below into your budget, ask the financial aid office one question in writing. “Does this add to my merit award, or replace it?”

🏫 Jackson Public Schools Families, Read This

In May 2026, Millsaps and Jackson Public Schools signed a five-year agreement covering at least 50% of tuition for JPS graduates who meet Millsaps’ standard admission requirements, renewable for up to four years. Dependents of full-time JPS faculty and staff qualify too. Separately, full-time JPS employees, parents of current JPS scholars and JPS alumni can get a 10% discount on select graduate programs through the Else School of Management.

Here is the math nobody is showing you. Half of 2026–2027 tuition is about $21,820. Millsaps merit runs $18,000 to $34,000. Millsaps has confirmed the JPS discount is not stackable with merit and that admitted students get repackaged based on whichever is worth more. So the JPS agreement functions as a floor. If your student’s merit award lands at $18,000, the JPS deal is better. If it lands above roughly $22,000, merit wins and the 50% figure never comes into play.

Parent translation: a JPS student now has a guaranteed baseline at Millsaps. Ask admissions to show you both numbers side by side before you decide.

❓ Hidden Gems FAQ

Which of these actually stack with my merit award?
The Phi Theta Kappa awards, clearly and in writing. Millsaps says PTK members add $5,000, officers $6,000 and chapter presidents $7,000 on top of the transfer scholarship, with the $6,000 residence hall grant separate again. The Scouting Scholarship and E.H. Sumners Grant explicitly do not stack. For most of the rest, Millsaps has not published a policy, so ask.

My student is at a Mississippi community college. What is the single highest-return move?
Run for a Phi Theta Kappa office. Going from member to officer is worth $1,000 more a year at Millsaps; going to chapter president is worth $2,000 more a year. That is a one-semester commitment against four years of money. Add top-of-range transfer merit, the presidency award and the housing grant, and a chapter president can be looking at a package in the high thirties before need-based aid enters the picture.

Millsaps does not publish an amount for the music and arts awards. Now what?
You audition anyway, and you insist on a number in writing before you compare offers. The Jonathan Sweat Performance Scholarship is the one families miss most: it is aimed at students who are not music majors and is open to students already enrolled. If your student played trumpet for ten years and is coming to Millsaps for biology, there is money in that. Ask the music department which specific awards your student is being considered for, by name.

Why are the audition and interview dates out of date on the Millsaps site?
Because they are. The fine arts and music pages still say 2025–2026 dates will be announced later. Do not wait for the website to catch up. Call admissions or the department directly and ask for the current window.

What is the Millsaps Advantage Scholarship and who is it really for?
Full tuition and fees for Mississippi students who are Pell-eligible, with a 3.5 GPA and a 25 ACT. There is no application; getting admitted is applying. The binding constraint is almost always Pell eligibility, not the test score, because a 25 sits inside Millsaps’ own middle range. If you are a Mississippi family who wrote off a $46,000 private college on sight, file the FAFSA before you rule this out. Two conditions matter: your student must live on campus, and renewal requires staying Pell-eligible, keeping the FAFSA current, maintaining Mississippi residency and enrolling without a break. Transfers do not qualify.

What if my student’s family is United Methodist clergy?
That is $2,000 a year, renewable up to four years, for documentation you already have. The rule that trips people is timing: the confirmation of appointment must be submitted at the point of application for admission, not after the acceptance arrives. Email your admission counselor before you submit anything and ask exactly what form they want.

Is there anything for students from small Mississippi counties?
Yes. The E.H. Sumners Grant serves residents of Attala, Carroll, Choctaw, Montgomery and Webster counties, and it covers high school seniors, some transfers and returning undergraduates. Priority is February 1 for incoming students and March 1 for returning. Two conditions to plan around: the award drops by 35% if your student lives off campus, and it caps at eight semesters with continuous enrollment required.

How will we know if we won one?
Most of these arrive built into the financial aid award letter rather than as a separate announcement. That is exactly why the letter deserves a line-by-line read. If something you documented is not reflected, call financial aid at 601-974-1220 and ask them to walk the packaging with you.

If your student wants an honors-style cohort experience from day one, this is it. Sixteen scholars a year take a shared honors-level course track spanning three years, live together in a first-year living and learning community, work with a faculty mentor, and get guaranteed funding for a major experience. It is competitive and it closes December 11. Full details are in the Flagship Scholarships section above.

This one is not something you apply to from high school. It is an eight-credit experience spread across three semesters beginning in the spring of junior year, when a student registers for Honors I with a thesis advisor. Summer is for research and a first draft. The finished thesis is written under a committee: an advisor, a second reader and a member of the Honors Committee.

What makes it unusual is how loosely “thesis” is defined. It can be a theoretical analysis, an empirical study, a musical composition, a body of artwork or a business plan. Millsaps describes it as similar to a master’s project scaled to an undergraduate. For a student aiming at graduate school or a national fellowship, this is the credential that matters.

The Kaxil Kiuic Biocultural Reserve is a 4,500-acre tropical forest in the Puuc region of Yucatán, Mexico, developed and supported by Millsaps, containing the ancient Maya center of Kiuic along with two research and learning facilities. The Bolonchén Regional Archaeological Project has been excavating there since 1999, and the site was featured in a 2012 National Geographic documentary. Undergraduates do real fieldwork there in archaeology, biology, geology and anthropology. A student at a college this size having access to that is not something you find in a college guide.

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