University of Arkansas at Little Rock Scholarships (2026–2027)
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Last Updated on August 15, 2026- Tuition, housing, and average family net price
- Automatic merit ranges and qualifier benchmarks
- Flagship and hidden-gem awards
- Honors and stacking strategy
📊 Admissions Snapshot
- Acceptance Rate: ~58%
- Middle 50% ACT: 18-23
- Middle 50% SAT: 890-1170
- Average GPA: 3.42
Here is the short version of UA Little Rock: this is a school that competes on price and says so out loud. The university publishes two affordability tracks on its own front page, and between them, a large share of Arkansas families end up paying little or nothing toward tuition. If your student is Pell eligible and lands the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship, the Trojan Guarantee covers whatever tuition and mandatory fees are left. If your family does not qualify for Pell, the Half-Off Scholarship cuts in-state tuition and fees in half with no GPA floor, no test score minimum, and no income cap at all.
Admission itself is not the hard part. Roughly 58 percent of applicants get in, and the published admission standards are built around a 3.0 GPA or a 2.25 GPA paired with modest test sub-scores. What trips families up here is not getting admitted. It is the paperwork, and the fact that this is one of the few remaining public universities in the country where a test score is not optional.
Comparing multiple schools? Try the Scholarship Tool to search by GPA, test scores, and state →
📌 University of Arkansas at Little Rock at a Glance
- There is no test-optional path here. None. Every UA Little Rock admission standard requires an official ACT, SAT, CLT, or Accuplacer score. And scholarships go one step further: your student will not be considered for any institutional scholarship until both a high school transcript and a test score are on file with the Office of Admissions. If your student skipped the ACT because “colleges don’t need it anymore,” that decision costs real money at this school.
- The merit grid is fenced by geography. Every tier of the automatic merit grid requires the student to be an Arkansas resident or a resident of a contiguous state, and to be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. A student from Ohio or Florida is not eligible for the grid at all. The good news for neighbors: Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas residents also get the in-state tuition rate applied automatically.
- You get one award from each of two categories. Not a pile. UA Little Rock states this plainly on its scholarship page. Category 1 is the automatic merit grid. Category 2 is the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps, the STEM Academic Scholarship, and Donaghey Scholars. One from each, and Donaghey replaces everything else.
- August 1 is the real deadline, not August 17. August 17 is when the university closes fall applications. August 1 is when your transcript and test scores must be in hand for scholarship consideration. Those are sixteen very expensive days apart.
- The November 1 thank-you letter cliff. This one is unusual and worth writing on the fridge. If your student wins a donor-funded scholarship and does not email a required thank-you letter to the scholarship office by November 1, UA Little Rock cancels the award. Any outstanding admission documents are due that same day or the money does not disburse. The award is not truly yours until that letter is sent.
FAQ
Is this college test-optional? No — University of Arkansas at Little Rock is test-required.
What is the middle 50% ACT/SAT? ACT: 18-23; SAT: 890-1170.
Average net price? About $11,225/year after aid.
Does this school use waivers/reciprocity? Yes — participates in ACM.
UA Little Rock 50% Off Freshman Tuition & Fees page: https://ualr.edu/scholarships/50scholarship/
Donaghey Scholars financial package page: https://ualr.edu/donagheyscholars/financial-package/
University scholarship page: https://ualr.edu/scholarships/trojan-guarantee/
Chancellor’s Leadership Corps program page: https://ualr.edu/clc/
UA Little Rock freshman scholarships page: https://ualr.edu/scholarships/freshmen/
Thea Foundation scholarships page: https://theafoundation.org/scholarships/
UA Little Rock SURF information page: https://ualr.edu/biology/adhe-surf-grants/
Study Abroad Office page: https://ualr.edu/studyabroad/trojantravels/
CollegeScorecard / Admissions: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
💰 Cost of Attendance at University of Arkansas at Little Rock 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.
| Category (2026–2027) | In-State | Out-of-State |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition & Mandatory Fees (2 semesters) | $10,185 | $22,870 |
| Housing & Meals (typical) | $7,606 | $7,606 |
| Total (Direct Costs) | $17,791 | $30,476 |
Average Federal Net Price: $11,225 — 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
Six neighboring states pay the in-state rate. If your student is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident living in Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, or Texas, UA Little Rock applies the in-state tuition waiver automatically at admission. There is no application and no separate form. (Bowen School of Law students are excluded.)
Everyone else: the New Arkansan Non-Resident Tuition Award pays roughly 90% of the non-resident tuition premium for students with a 3.0 GPA and a 20 ACT. It is open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and international students, and it applies automatically to students not already receiving another non-resident waiver.
Academic Common Market: Arkansas participates in the SREB Academic Common Market, which can provide in-state rates for approved majors not offered in a student's home state. Certification runs through the home state, not through UA Little Rock.
🗺️ Six States Pay the Arkansas Price
If you live in Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, or Texas, and your student is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, UA Little Rock applies the in-state tuition waiver automatically when they are admitted. No form, no essay, no separate deadline. Read the out-of-state column in the table above, then ignore it and use the in-state column instead.
Not from a neighboring state? The New Arkansan Non-Resident Tuition Award pays about 90 percent of the non-resident tuition premium for students with a 3.0 GPA and a 20 ACT. It is open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and international students. Between those two lanes, very few families actually pay the full non-resident rate at this school.
One exception worth knowing: students in the William H. Bowen School of Law do not qualify for the neighboring-state waiver. That is a law school rule and does not affect undergraduates.
FAQ — Cost of Attendance at UA Little Rock
Why is the out-of-state number so much smaller a deal here than at other schools?
Because UA Little Rock hands the in-state rate to six neighboring states automatically, and gives almost everyone else a 90 percent discount on the non-resident premium through the New Arkansan award. At most public universities the out-of-state column is the real price for out-of-state families. Here it is closer to a starting point that most students never actually pay.
Do I have to apply for the neighboring-state in-state rate?
No. UA Little Rock says it applies the waiver automatically once your student is admitted. The three requirements are being a U.S. citizen or permanent resident living in one of the six bordering states, being admitted, and being a degree-seeking undergraduate. That is the whole process.
Is the average net price around $11,225 believable?
That is the federal figure for students who received grant or scholarship aid, and at this school it is lower than you might expect for a reason. Roughly 56 percent of UA Little Rock students receive Pell Grants, and 96 percent receive some form of grant or scholarship aid. When you layer Pell, the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship, and either the Trojan Guarantee or the Half-Off Scholarship on top of an already low sticker price, the math works. Your family’s number depends entirely on your FAFSA result and your student’s merit awards.
What is not in that table?
Books and supplies, which UA Little Rock estimates at about $1,800 per year, plus transportation and personal spending. The university bills tuition, fees, and housing and meals directly. The rest varies too much by student to bill, so it sits outside the total. Build your own budget with those numbers added back in.
How is the housing and meals figure calculated?
UA Little Rock bases it on an East Hall double room paired with a mid-range meal plan of roughly eight meals per week. A bigger meal plan, an apartment-style room, or a single will push that number up. Living at home in central Arkansas takes most of it off the table entirely, which is a real option at a commuter-friendly campus.
Does the price climb every year?
Usually a little. UA Little Rock’s tuition history is unusually flat compared to most public universities, with several years of no increase at all. Plan for modest yearly bumps in tuition and housing, and remember that most scholarship amounts here are fixed dollar figures rather than percentages, so an increase in cost is not matched by an increase in your award.
What about the Academic Common Market?
Arkansas participates in the SREB Academic Common Market, which lets students get in-state rates for approved majors their home state does not offer. Certification runs through your home state’s ACM coordinator, not through UA Little Rock. For families in the six bordering states this is usually beside the point, since you already have the in-state rate. It matters most for students in other SREB states pursuing a specific program.
https://ualr.edu/bursar/tuitionandfees/
https://ualr.edu/admissions/instate/
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/freshmen/
https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ (unit 106245)
📅 UA Little Rock Scholarship Timeline (Simple Version)
- Fall of senior year: Apply for admission and get the ACT or SAT taken. Nothing else can happen until a score exists.
- January 15: Donaghey Scholars priority deadline. February 15 is the hard close.
- March 1: Deadline for mentored program and general private scholarships through ScholarshipUniverse. This is where the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps lives.
- July 1: FAFSA in, for UA Little Rock Grant consideration.
- August 1: Transcript and test scores must be on file. This is the automatic merit deadline.
- November 1: Any outstanding admission documents and any required donor thank-you letters are due, or awards are canceled.
Parent rule of thumb: treat March 1 as your family’s real deadline. Everything competitive at this school has already closed by then, and August 1 is just the paperwork catching up.
Automatic Merit Scholarships — UA Little Rock
🧮 The Housing Half Nobody Reads
Look closely at the four top grid tiers and you will notice each award is actually two awards stapled together. The Chancellor’s Academic Distinction, for example, is $5,000 toward tuition and fees plus $5,000 toward on-campus housing. That second half only has value if your student actually lives on campus. A commuter student with a 4.0 collects the $5,000 tuition piece and leaves the other $5,000 on the table.
The bottom tier, the Freshman Award, is the exception. It is a flat $2,000 toward tuition and fees with no housing component at all.
Note: Students receive the single highest grid award they qualify for. Grid awards do not stack with each other, and they do not stack with the Half-Off Scholarship or Donaghey. Renewal across the board requires a 3.00 cumulative GPA and, after the first fall, 15 credit hours per semester.
Automatic Merit — FAQs (UA Little Rock)
What GPA and test score do we need to get on the grid at all?
A 3.0 GPA with either a 20 ACT or a 1030 SAT composite gets you the entry tier. From there it climbs on GPA alone: 3.25 for $4,000, 3.5 for $6,000, 3.75 for $8,000, and a 4.0 for the $10,000 top tier. The test score requirement never changes. A 20 ACT is the gate at every level, which means a student with a 4.0 and a 19 gets nothing off this grid.
Do we have to apply?
No. Get admitted, get the transcript and score to the Office of Admissions by August 1, and the financial aid office pulls eligible students onto the grid automatically. There is no scholarship form for these.
Does UA Little Rock superscore the ACT or SAT?
The university does not publish a superscore policy anywhere on its scholarship or admissions pages. Since the grid uses a single composite cutoff, this genuinely matters for a student sitting at a 19 or a 1020. Call the Office of Admissions at 501-916-3127 and ask directly before deciding whether a retake is worth it.
What is the Half-Off Scholarship and can we have it plus a grid award?
Half-Off cuts in-state tuition and fees by 50 percent, up to $5,000 a year, with no GPA requirement, no test minimum, and no income limit. But it is knocked out by institutional scholarships totaling $5,000 or more. In practice that means a student landing the Provost’s tier or higher takes the grid award instead, and a student in the lower tiers should sit down with the aid office and compare the two.
My student is a strong STEM kid. Is there anything extra?
Yes, and it is one of the better-kept secrets here. The STEM Academic Scholarship sits in a separate category, which means a STEM major can hold a grid award and the STEM award at the same time. It runs up to $6,000 per year and requires living on campus the first two years. There is no separate application. See Section 4 for how the two categories work together.
Are these renewable for all four years?
Yes, with real conditions. Recipients need a 3.00 cumulative GPA each year and must enroll in 15 credit hours per semester, completing 30 hours per academic year. First-time freshmen get a small break, allowed 12 hours their first fall and 15 after that, for a 27-hour first year. A student who drops to 12 hours in the spring of sophomore year can lose the award.
We live in Texas. Are we eligible?
Yes. Texas borders Arkansas, so a Texas resident who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident is eligible for the grid, and gets the in-state tuition rate automatically on top of it. Same for Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Students from anywhere else are not eligible for the grid but should look hard at the New Arkansan award.
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/freshmen/
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/50scholarship/
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/deadlines/
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/new-scholarship-renewal-page/
🏆 Flagship Scholarships (Competitive Scholarships)
✅ The Two-Category Rule (This Is the Whole Game)
UA Little Rock states it in one line: only one award from each of the two categories may be combined. Here is what that actually looks like at your kitchen table.
| Aid Type | Category | Parent Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic merit grid Chancellor’s, Provost’s, Deans’, Achievement, Freshman |
Category 1 | Pick one. Your student automatically gets the highest tier they qualify for. |
| Chancellor’s Leadership Corps | Category 2 | Combines with a Category 1 award. This pairing is where most of the bigger packages at this school come from. |
| STEM Academic Scholarship | Category 2 | Also combines with a Category 1 award. But it is an either/or with CLC. You take one Category 2 award, not both. |
| Donaghey Scholars | Category 2 (special case) | Replaces everything. UA Little Rock lists it as not stackable with any other institutional scholarship, because the package already covers full tuition and fees plus a stipend. |
| Half-Off Scholarship | Outside both | Cancelled by $5,000 or more in institutional scholarships. It is the safety net for students who do not land a big grid award. |
| Arkansas Academic Challenge + Pell | State and federal | Stack with all of the above. These are not institutional aid, so the category rule does not touch them. |
So the honest strategy at UA Little Rock is: raise the GPA to move up the Category 1 grid, then go win one Category 2 award. For a leadership or service kid that is CLC. For a STEM kid it is the STEM Academic Scholarship. For a truly exceptional student it is Donaghey, which sits in its own universe and is covered in Section 6.
❓ Competitive Scholarship FAQs
When is the deadline for the competitive awards?
March 1 for mentored program and general private scholarships, submitted through ScholarshipUniverse. That is the CLC deadline. Donaghey runs on its own calendar with a January 15 priority date and a February 15 close.
What does the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps actually require?
Admission to UA Little Rock as a first-time freshman, a 3.0 high school GPA, and either a 19+ ACT or Next-Gen Accuplacer scores of 246 or better in Writing, Reading, and Math. Then submit the scholarship application through ScholarshipUniverse. The award is $3,000 toward tuition and fees plus $3,000 toward on-campus housing, and scholars live on campus their first year and commit to ongoing service and leadership programming.
Is CLC open to international students?
Yes, which is unusual. Most institutional scholarships at UA Little Rock are limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. CLC explicitly opens to international residents as well, and so does the New Arkansan tuition award. If you have an international student comparing schools on price, those two are worth a hard look.
Do we apply separately for the STEM Academic Scholarship?
No. Apply for admission, declare a STEM major, and get the transcript and test scores in by August 1. UA Little Rock reviews STEM applicants competitively on academics, leadership, and STEM-related activities. The catch is the residency requirement: recipients live on campus for their first two years.
Can a student win both CLC and Donaghey?
They might be offered both, but they can only take one. UA Little Rock states that a student may receive multiple mentored program offers and must choose. If Donaghey is on the table, it is not a close call.
What if we miss March 1?
You lose the Category 2 options for that cycle. The automatic grid is still available through August 1, and so is the Half-Off Scholarship, so a late family is not shut out of money entirely. But the CLC and Donaghey doors are closed until the next year.
Is UA Little Rock a National Merit or Stamps partner?
No to both. There is no National Merit Finalist package here and the university is not a Stamps partner institution. If your student is chasing those specific programs, this is not the campus for it.
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/freshmen/
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/deadlines/
https://ualr.edu/clc/
https://ualr.edu/clc/admissions-apply/
The Donaghey Scholars Honors Program
A quick note on terminology, because it matters when you are searching: UA Little Rock does not have an “Honors College.” It has the Donaghey Scholars Honors Program, which is the campus-wide honors program and has been since 1987. Do not go looking for a separate honors college application. This is it.
And this is not a small thing bolted onto the side of the university. Donaghey is the most valuable award UA Little Rock offers by a wide margin, and it is genuinely selective. Twenty-five students join each year. For the 2026-27 cohort, those twenty-five were chosen from 115 applicants and came in with an average high school GPA of 4.29.
- Package value: roughly $92,000 to $100,000 over four years
- What it covers: full tuition and fees for up to 18 hours a semester across eight semesters, an annual stipend, an on-campus housing subsidy, study abroad funding, and a new laptop
- Priority deadline: January 15. Final deadline: February 15
- Open to: all majors, with no published GPA or test score cutoff
Honors Scholarships & Fellowships
*The stipend figure is listed as $8,000 or $10,000 per year on the Donaghey program’s own financial package page, depending on qualifications. The university’s freshman scholarship table lists a slightly wider range of $7,000 to $10,000. Confirm the current figure with the program office at 501-916-3389.*
This is the most writing-heavy application at UA Little Rock by a distance. Your student writes three essays: one on a core program value, one on what they would spend a summer learning if money were no object, and one that defends a position on a contentious issue in up to 800 words with citations. That third one is a college-level argumentative paper, not a personal statement.
Materials go through ScholarshipUniverse after admission. Interviews begin in late January and run about 45 minutes with three people: the program director, a faculty or alumni member of the Policy Council, and a current student. Decisions come in late March.
One practical warning from the program’s own page: they will ask the student to elaborate on those essays in the interview. Do not write about anything your student would be uncomfortable discussing out loud with three strangers.
- A replaced core: Donaghey substitutes the university’s general education requirements with an interdisciplinary curriculum built on primary texts, writing, and discussion.
- Required study abroad: The international experience is not optional, and it is funded.
- A final project: Scholars complete a capstone on their own timeline with faculty support.
- Outcomes: More than 70 percent of Donaghey alumni go on to earn graduate or professional degrees, roughly double the national rate. About 15 percent earn doctorates, 10 percent become physicians, and 10 percent earn law degrees.
Donaghey Scholars — FAQs
Is admission automatic for high stats?
No. Admission to UA Little Rock does not put your student in the running. There is a separate application with essays, recommendations, and an interview, and the review is holistic. There is no published GPA or test score that guarantees anything.
What are the real odds?
For the most recent cohort, 25 offers out of 115 applicants. That is a little over one in five, which is far better odds than a national scholarship competition and far worse than most people assume for a regional public university. It is worth applying if your student is genuinely strong. It is not something to build a college plan around.
If there is no test cutoff, what actually decides it?
The program lists academic record, test scores, leadership, community service, desire to study abroad, recommendation letters, essays, and the interview. In practice, when there is no published cutoff, the essays and the interview carry enormous weight. A student with a 3.7 who writes brilliantly and interviews well can beat a 4.0 who phoned it in.
Can we stack Donaghey with merit awards?
No. UA Little Rock states clearly that Donaghey is not stackable with any other institutional scholarship. It does not need to be, since it already covers full tuition and fees. It does layer with state and federal aid like the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship and Pell, and with outside private scholarships.
What if the student does not get in?
Nothing is lost. The automatic merit grid still applies, the March 1 mentored program deadline for CLC is still ahead, and the Half-Off and Trojan Guarantee paths are untouched. Apply to Donaghey by February 15 and keep the March 1 CLC application moving in parallel.
Are Donaghey courses harder?
Different rather than heavier. The curriculum leans on reading primary texts, writing, and seminar discussion instead of large lectures. Students who love to talk through ideas thrive. Students who prefer to keep their head down and take multiple-choice exams sometimes find it uncomfortable.
https://ualr.edu/donagheyscholars/
https://ualr.edu/donagheyscholars/financial-package/
https://ualr.edu/donagheyscholars/admission-process/
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/deadlines/
⭐ College Specialty
UA Little Rock is a metropolitan research university sitting in the middle of Arkansas’s capital city, and it is classified as an R2 high research activity institution. That combination is the whole point of the place. Students are ten minutes from the state capitol, the state’s largest law firms, the federal courts, and most of the major employers in central Arkansas. The internship story here is not a brochure line. It is geography.
Cybersecurity — UA Little Rock only launched this program in 2021 and it has grown fast enough that the university opened a dedicated Cyberspace Operations Research and Education center in 2026. Students work real digital forensics cases alongside law enforcement, including phone extractions and evidence processing, which is hands-on experience most undergraduates never get near. The center is also open to high school and college students from across the state.
- Nanotechnology and materials research: The Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences collaborates with UAMS, the University of Arkansas, and the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research. In 2026 the university secured $6 million in federal appropriations for nanotechnology, including bone regeneration research using nanomaterials. For a student who wants lab time as an undergraduate, this is a real advantage over larger schools where the equipment is reserved for graduate students.
- Computer science, data, and analytics: The Emerging Analytics Center handles visual data work for institutions across the region, and faculty research runs heavily toward data science and social network analysis. This is the strongest cluster on campus.
- William H. Bowen School of Law: The only law school in Little Rock and a serious draw for pre-law students. Its legal clinics let students work real cases in family law, tax, mediation, business, and a veterans legal services clinic that received $750,000 in federal funding in 2026. Undergraduates cannot enroll in the law school, but being on a campus with one changes what pre-law advising looks like.
- Art and design: The Windgate Center of Art + Design opened in 2018 and gives the creative programs real studio space. Worth knowing if your student is chasing the Thea Foundation arts scholarship, since the two fit together naturally.
- Business, nursing, and psychology: The largest undergraduate pathways by enrollment, with clear career pipelines into central Arkansas employers. More than 60 undergraduate programs overall.
One more thing worth mentioning that has nothing to do with rankings: UA Little Rock says it is the only institution in Arkansas that runs a campus work-study program on top of federal work-study. For a student who needs to work while enrolled, that is a practical, unglamorous advantage that shows up in the bank account every month.
https://ualr.edu/about/
https://ualr.edu/scholarships/
https://ualr.edu/research/
🔗 Official UA Little Rock Links
Use UA Little Rock’s own pages below to verify deadlines, award terms, and costs before you make any decisions. Scholarship amounts and dates change year to year, and the university’s pages are the only place that is guaranteed current.
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Undergraduate Admissions:
Undergraduate Admissions
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Freshman Admission Standards:
Admission for First-Time Freshmen Students
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Admission Deadlines by Term:
Undergraduate Admission Deadlines
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In-State Tuition for Neighboring States:
In-State Tuition for Neighboring States
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Scholarships Home (Trojan Guarantee & Half-Off overview):
Affordable for All
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Scholarships for Incoming Freshmen (the merit grid):
Scholarships for New Incoming Freshmen
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Scholarship Deadlines:
Scholarship Deadlines
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Trojan Guarantee (zero-tuition pathway):
Trojan Guarantee
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Half-Off Freshman Tuition & Fees Scholarship:
Fall 2026 Scholarship: 50% off Freshman Tuition & Fees
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Donaghey Scholars Honors Program:
Fostering Intellectual Growth
Financial package: https://ualr.edu/donagheyscholars/financial-package/
How to apply: https://ualr.edu/donagheyscholars/admission-process/ -
Chancellor’s Leadership Corps:
Admission Standards and How to Apply
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Tuition, Fees & Cost of Attendance:
Tuition and Fees
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Net Price Calculator:
Net Price Calculator
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Financial Aid FAQ:
Frequently Asked Questions for Financial Aid
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Common Data Set (institutional data):
Common Data Set
Note: the most recent Common Data Set posted here is 2022-2023. For newer admissions and cost figures, use IPEDS or College Scorecard.