Davidson 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: $18,127 — 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.

💡 The Number That Actually Matters Starting Fall 2027

In July 2026 Davidson announced a simplified pricing structure for new students entering in the fall of 2027. If you are filling out applications this cycle, that is your student. It works in three tiers, based on a family’s adjusted gross income, and it assumes assets are typical for that income level.

• $85,000 or less: a full scholarship covering tuition, fees, housing, and meals.
• $85,000 to $175,000: tuition-free, plus any additional aid the family qualifies for based on calculated contribution.
• Above $175,000: an aid package meeting 100 percent of calculated need, with no loans, which has been Davidson’s policy for close to twenty years.

Parent translation: a family at $140,000 who wrote Davidson off because of the $92,000 sticker price should run the numbers again. The pricing applies to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, holds for all four years as long as income and assets keep qualifying, and still requires the FAFSA and the CSS Profile.

First-year students also pay a one-time orientation fee of about $250, which is why Davidson’s published first-year billed total lands a bit above the recurring figure in the table. Health insurance runs roughly $2,800 and is only charged to students who are not covered by a family plan. Books, travel, and personal expenses are estimates Davidson builds into the aid calculation but does not bill you for.

📅 What Your Timeline Actually Looks Like

• October 1: QuestBridge National College Match deadline. Earliest date on this list. Applies to high-achieving students from lower-income households and is free to apply.
• August: Belk nomination portal opens. Talk to your counselor now, not in October.
• November 1: Belk nomination deadline. A counselor, head of school, or community-based organization has to submit it.
• November 15: Application deadline for all Belk nominees, including recommendations and supporting documents.
• December 15: Charles Scholarship nomination deadline.
• Early February: Belk semifinalist notification and interviews.
• Mid-March: Belk finalist events on campus. Terry and Duke finalist interviews also land in March.
• By April 1: Scholarship outcomes announced. Davidson completes the whole process before Regular Decision letters go out.

Parent rule of thumb: the first date on this list belongs to somebody else. If your counselor does not know the November 1 nomination deadline exists, your student never enters the competition.

❓ Flagship / Competitive Scholarship FAQs

What is the single most important date?
November 1, the Belk nomination deadline, which is not your student’s deadline. Nominees then complete the admission application and all supporting documents by November 15. Charles nominations close December 15.

Who can nominate my student?
School counselors, principals or heads of school, and college access program leadership. The Davidson admission committee can also nominate on the strength of an application. A school may put forward one or two candidates for the Belk and up to three for the Bryan or the Charles.

Which award requires no extra work?
The William Holt Terry Scholarship. There is no separate application. Two students per class are identified from the admission pool and invited to a finalist interview in March. Plenty of Terry Scholars had no idea they were under consideration.

Does submitting the Belk application lock us into Early Decision?
No. Davidson states directly that meeting the November 15 nominee deadline does not imply a commitment to Early Decision.

How big is the Belk, really?
Comprehensive cost, meaning tuition, fees, housing, and food, for four years, plus $6,000 in special opportunity stipends. Eight scholars per entering class. Scholars have used stipends for language study, research abroad, and internships. Our Essay Toolkit and Brag Sheet Builder are worth pulling out before your student writes anything for this one.

Is the Bryan just an athletic scholarship?
It is a scholar-athlete award covering full tuition and fees, one woman and one man per entering class, and it is genuinely academic as much as athletic. Football, men’s and women’s basketball, and golf are not eligible sports.

We are not from Chicago. Does the Charles matter to us?
No. The Charles is limited to graduates of Chicago public and charter high schools with demonstrated financial need. If that is not your student, skip it and focus elsewhere.

Is Davidson a National Merit or Stamps partner?
No to both. Davidson does not offer a National Merit Finalist package and is not a Stamps partner school.

Does any of this happen inside the Common App?
Almost none of it. Davidson takes the Common Application or the Coalition Application, and there is no application fee. But the Belk, Bryan, and Charles nominations are submitted by a counselor through Davidson’s own portal, not through the Common App, and Belk nominees are told plainly that no supplement is required. The James B. Duke is the one award a student applies for directly, through a separate scholarship application and supplement after the admission application goes in. The Terry requires nothing at all beyond the file itself.

When do we find out?
The scholarship process is completed in March, and all winners and alternates are notified before Regular Decision admission decisions are released. Belk outcomes are announced by April 1.

🧠 Parent Strategy: Davidson’s Money Arrives in Two Waves

Most schools front-load everything at admission. Davidson does not. The awards below are almost all funded after your student enrolls, and they pay for the experiences that make a liberal arts degree worth the price: research, service, international projects, and startups.

1. Wave one is the aid offer and any named scholarship, settled before April 1 of senior year.
2. Wave two starts the summer after admission and keeps going for four years. Bonner applications open in January for incoming students, with a priority deadline in June.
3. Research and travel funding comes through faculty mentors, so the relationship matters more than the paperwork. Encourage office hours early.
4. Keep a running file of every grant your student wins. Outside and internal funding above $5,000 in a year can affect the aid package.

Parent translation: do not read these as tuition discounts. They will not lower the bill in August. They fund the summer your student spends doing research instead of waiting tables.

❓ Hidden Gems FAQ

Can an incoming first-year student apply for any of these?
The Bonner Scholars Program, yes. It is aimed at incoming students with a service record and financial need, the application opens at the end of January, and the priority deadline is June 15. The Dean Rusk grants and the Avinger Impact Fund are open to undergraduates generally. The Davidson Research Initiative is really built for rising sophomores and juniors with a faculty mentor behind them.

Will these reduce our tuition bill?
Mostly no. The research and entrepreneurship funds are project and stipend money, paid for work done outside the academic term. Bonner is the partial exception, since it comes with school-year support and may replace a portion of institutional grant.

What is the Bonner actually worth?
Davidson lists $1,500 per semester during the school year, $3,000 in living support plus $1,500 in earnings for two summers, and a $500 senior stipend, which comes to roughly $21,500 over four years. Around 20 incoming students join each cohort.

What is the Hurt Hub?
Davidson’s innovation and entrepreneurship center, and the Avinger Impact Fund is its funding arm, awarding up to $8,000 to student ventures with real traction. The competition cycle typically runs in the fall, with a recent deadline in mid-October. This is an unusual resource for a liberal arts college of 2,000 students.

How competitive is the research money?
Competitive, but not lottery-competitive. DRI summer fellowships run about $600 per week for a full-time summer, roughly $6,000 plus limited supply funds, and a faculty committee weighs the project and the mentorship plan. A student with a good proposal and a professor in their corner has a real shot.

Do these affect financial aid?
Only if total funding pushes past the cost of attendance. Project and travel grants generally sit alongside aid rather than reducing it. Keep the financial aid office informed anyway.

• Departmental honors: roughly twenty departments run their own honors track, usually a senior thesis or independent research project. Economics, biology, history, psychology, political science, religious studies, theatre, and others each have one, and English runs the Abbott English Honors Program.
• Phi Beta Kappa: Davidson has an active chapter, elected on academic record rather than application.
• The Honor Code: the defining feature of academic life here. It governs coursework and residential life and is the reason exams can be self-scheduled.
• Office of Fellowships: Davidson staffs an office specifically to guide students toward Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, Fulbright, Watson, and similar awards. Twenty-three Rhodes Scholars have come out of a college this size.

Davidson does not offer an engineering degree. Engineering is a plan of study and a dual-degree pathway with partner universities, not a major you graduate in. Families who come in assuming a small-college engineering program exists here are usually disappointed at the wrong moment. If engineering is the goal, look closely at how the dual-degree path actually works before committing.

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