Maryville 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: $21,293 — 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.

Maryville is a private college, so there is no in-state or out-of-state split. A family in Blount County and a family in Oregon see the same tuition line. The college says as much on its own international admissions page: whether you are from Tennessee or the other side of the world, the price is the same. What actually moves your number is merit money and financial aid, not your zip code.

Before you compare Maryville’s housing cost to a cheap apartment or to living at home, know this: every Maryville merit scholarship pays $6,000 less per year to students who live off campus. Housing and meals run about $14,272. So moving off campus saves you that $14,272 in billed costs but costs you $6,000 in scholarship, plus rent, plus groceries, plus gas. For most families the on-campus number wins once you do the whole calculation. Run both versions before you decide.

📅 Maryville Scholarship Timeline (Simple Version)

• August 1: Application opens. No fee, ever.
• October 15: Early Action deadline. Earlier aid notification, priority housing, priority registration.
• December 1: The one that matters most. Every competitive, arts, faith, and service award closes on this date.
• February 1: FAFSA priority date, and the Tennessee state aid deadline.
• March 1: Community Partner scholarships close, and your financial aid file should be complete.
• May 1: Regular Decision admission deadline.

Parent rule of thumb: December 1 is your real deadline, not May 1. Admission stays open until spring, but the extra money does not.

🧠 Parent Strategy: The $2,000 Question

Look at the Covenant Stone row again. At a 3.5 GPA your student gets $22,000 a year with no strings. At a 3.75 they get $24,000, but they owe the college three semesters as an Academic Mentor. At a 4.0 they get $26,000 and owe four semesters.

So the honest question for a junior sitting at a 3.6 is not “how do I get the biggest scholarship.” It is: is $2,000 a year worth three semesters of a campus job? For some students yes, because Academic Mentor work is resume-worthy tutoring experience and they would have wanted a campus job anyway. For a student heading into a lab-heavy major or a varsity sport, it may not be. Talk about it now rather than in August of freshman year.

The flip side: a senior at 3.15 has a very concrete reason to finish strong. Getting to 3.25 is worth $2,000 a year, or $8,000 over four years, with no strings attached at all.

Both McGill awards replace your automatic merit scholarship. They do not add to it. So a McGill Fellowship worth $30,000 a year is worth $4,000 more than a Presidential Scholarship at $26,000, not $56,000 combined. Families see two large numbers and assume they stack. They do not.

Both also require living on campus in the McGill Community and serving as an Academic Mentor, five semesters for Scholars and four for Fellows.

❓ Flagship / Competitive Scholarship FAQs

When is the deadline for competitive scholarships?
December 1 for all of them, submitted through the MaryVille Portal after admission. This is separate from the October 15 Early Action admission deadline and separate from the March 1 Community Partner deadline. If your student applies Regular Decision in April, the competitive money is already gone.

What does it take to win a McGill?
The floor is a 28 ACT, a 1300 SAT, and a 3.6 GPA, plus demonstrated leadership. Clearing the numbers gets you into the pool. The essay, the two recommendation letters, and the January interview decide it from there. Maryville names leadership explicitly in the criteria, so students who have actually run something tend to do better than students with a long activity list.

What CLT score does McGill require?
Maryville’s own pages disagree. The first-year scholarships page lists 86 or higher, and the McGill program page lists 92 or higher. If your student is applying on a CLT score, contact admissions directly and get the current threshold in writing rather than relying on either page.

Which competitive award is most winnable?
The Scots Science Scholarship, and it is not close. Maryville gives out fifteen of them a year at a college that enrolls roughly 300 first-year students, the eligible major list is broad, and the 22 Math ACT is listed as preferred rather than required. If your student is heading into biology, chemistry, biochemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, biopharmaceutical sciences, or business analytics, this application is worth the hour it takes.

What is the Mountain Challenge Scholarship?
One award a year tied to Maryville’s outdoor adventure program, which sits about fifteen minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains. The stats are listed as preferred rather than required, so genuine interest carries most of the weight. The renewal standard is unusual in that it rises over time, from 2.75 in the first year to 2.85 in years two and three.

Are there awards for transfer students?
Yes. The McGill Transfer Fellowship gives $4,000 a year to five transfer students annually, requires a 3.25 college GPA and demonstrated leadership, and is added to other merit aid rather than replacing it. The deadline is June 1, not December 1. Do not confuse the two.

Is Maryville a Stamps or National Merit partner?
No to both. The McGill program is Maryville’s own flagship and is not tied to either national program.

🧠 Parent Strategy: The Second Application Nobody Mentions

Getting admitted to Maryville hands your student the automatic merit tier and nothing else. Everything on this page requires a second, separate application filed through the MaryVille Portal after admission, and most families never learn it exists.

1. Apply for admission and get accepted. The portal opens up to you at that point.
2. Log in and look at the full list of awards you are eligible to select.
3. File the arts, faith, and service applications by December 1.
4. File the Community Partner applications by March 1.
5. Save your confirmations. These are separate submissions, not one form.

Parent translation: skipping this step still gets you the merit tier, but it leaves several thousand dollars a year on the table for the exact kind of student who already qualifies.

Beyond the Isaac Anderson Fellowship listed above, Maryville runs three smaller faith awards with no test score thresholds at all. All three share the December 1 deadline and all three stack on top of merit:

• Chapel Fellowship: up to $2,500 a year for one student active in worship leadership, especially music services. Renewal is a 2.0.
• Church and College Fellowship: up to $2,000 a year for active members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) or the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in exchange for two hours a week of volunteer service at a local Presbyterian church.
• Faith Leadership Fellowship: up to $2,000 a year for active members of a Christian, non-Presbyterian church, with the same two-hour weekly service commitment.

Maryville was founded by a Presbyterian minister in 1819 and still carries that affiliation. If your family is church-involved, these are worth twenty minutes of your time.

The TN HOPE lottery scholarship runs $4,500 to $6,000 a year and is not a Maryville award at all, which is exactly why it gets overlooked on a college’s scholarship page. Your student qualifies with a 3.0 unweighted GPA or a 21 ACT or a 1060 SAT, meaning any one of the three is enough. You have to file the FAFSA, and the state deadline is February 1. Stacked on a $20,000 Maryville award, that is real money.

❓ Hidden Gems FAQ

Do these really stack with my merit award?
Yes, and Maryville says so in writing. The Special Interest section of the college’s scholarship page states that those awards are added to the Academic Merit Scholarship unless otherwise noted, and the Community Partner section states that all of them can be stacked. The one ceiling to know about: the college can reduce institutional aid if your combined awards, including outside scholarships, state aid, and VA benefits, exceed tuition and fees.

Which one should we go after first?
Look at Bonner if money is genuinely tight and your student already volunteers seriously. It is the largest hidden gem on the list, worth roughly $13,000 a year at the top end for fifteen students. But be honest about the commitment, which is about ten hours a week plus summers. If service is not who your student is, the hours will grind on them by sophomore year.

What if we do not qualify for Bonner on financial need?
That is exactly what the Brahams Scholarship exists for. It is $4,000 a year with a lighter service load, roughly six hours a week, and it runs on the same Community Engaged Scholars curriculum. Maryville now publishes its renewal terms as eight semesters at a 2.75 GPA.

Are the arts awards only for majors?
No. The Music, Art and Design, and Theatre scholarships are open on talent, not on declared major. The Theatre award explicitly names theatre technicians alongside actors, which is a genuinely underused door since backstage students rarely think to apply for talent money. You can submit in more than one discipline but will only receive one arts award, so lead with your strongest work.

Are any of these limited to local students?
Three are. The Harold and Jean Lambert Scholarship is for a student leader from Blount, Knox, or Sevier County. The Kiwanis Scholarship is for graduates of Blount County, Maryville City, or Alcoa City schools, and it carries an ongoing condition: you have to stay active in Circle K on campus. The Knowles Family Scholarship goes to one student a year with a documented learning disability and a current IEP.

What if there is no deadline listed for an award?
Work backward from December 1 and ask your enrollment counselor by name. Maryville’s Special Interest and Competitive awards all close December 1, and the Community Partner awards close March 1. When in doubt, the earlier date is the safe assumption.

Is the Global Scholar Award realistic for my student?
Only if they are an international applicant, and even then it is one award worldwide per year. It also replaces the merit scholarship rather than stacking, covers tuition only, and requires documented proof of funding for the remaining costs before Maryville will consider the application. Note that Maryville’s pages list two different deadlines for it, February 1 on the Global Scholar page and January 15 on the international costs page. Treat January 15 as your working date and confirm with the international office. Build your plan around the regular international merit scholarship, which every admitted international student receives.

The program opened first to the newest cohort of McGill Scholars and Fellows, with the college stating it will eventually expand to more students who want to challenge themselves academically. Faculty and staff were still building the curricular and co-curricular structure when the program was announced.

Practically speaking: the McGill application is currently the door into honors at Maryville. If honors participation matters to your student, that December 1 deadline matters twice over.

This is also the single best question to ask an admissions counselor on a campus visit. Ask directly: “For students entering in fall 2027, who is eligible for the Wilkinson Honors Program, and what does the four-year experience actually include?” A brand-new program changes fast, and a counselor will have a more current answer than any website.

• Maryville College Works: career preparation built into the four years starting freshman year, not a senior-year scramble at a career center.
• Mountain Challenge: an outdoor adventure program with its own scholarship attached. For an outdoorsy kid, this is a differentiator that no ranking captures.

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