William Carey University 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: $17,192 — 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

Carey is private, so the in-state and out-of-state columns above are identical. There is no residency premium to worry about and no reciprocity program to chase. That makes Carey unusually easy to compare against out-of-state publics, where families often discover a $10,000 to $15,000 non-resident penalty buried in the fine print.

The residency question that actually costs money here is on-campus versus off-campus, and it does not affect the bill above. It affects your scholarship amount, which is a separate conversation.

📅 The Carey Money Calendar (Simple Version)

• Junior year, spring: Take the ACT. Then take it again. Every point between 20 and 27 is worth real money on Carey’s grid, and there is no downside to a retake because Carey counts your best result.
• October, senior year: FAFSA opens. Carey’s school code is 002447. Mississippi residents should also file the MAAPP for state aid.
• Mid-January: Carey Scholar Award documents are due. The 2026 cycle closed January 16 at 11:59 p.m., so confirm the current year’s date on Carey’s page before you plan around it.
• January 1 to April 1: The endowed scholarship window, and it is for the following academic year. Read that twice. Awards are announced by June 30.
• March: Carey Bound registration event, where selected Carey Scholars lock in their spot with a $300 deposit.
• June 30: Carey’s stated FAFSA deadline for the academic year. Do not treat this as your target. File in the fall.

Parent rule of thumb: at Carey, the test date is the deadline that matters most. Everything else is paperwork.

❓ Carey Scholar Award FAQs

What is the deadline?
Mid-January. The most recent published cycle closed at 11:59 p.m. on January 16, with selections announced February 13. Carey has not yet posted the next cycle’s date, so check the Carey Scholar Program page directly rather than assuming the date repeats.

What does the application actually require?
Admission to Carey plus an official 30 ACT, 1360 SAT, or 99 CLT. Then two letters of recommendation, one academic and one personal, both from people outside the family. Then a 500 to 700 word essay in MLA format on one of three published prompts. Then a 3 to 5 minute video uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, or Loom, set to private with comments off, with the link submitted alongside everything else.

Which piece do applicants underestimate?
The video, almost every time. Families put real effort into the essay because they know how essays work, then record the video the night before on a phone. Treat it as the interview, because functionally it is. Carey asks two specific questions: why William Carey, and how will you make an impact in four years. Have real answers.

Does Carey tell you how it is scored?
Yes, and this is unusually generous. Carey publishes separate scoring rubrics for both the essay and the video as downloadable PDFs on the program page. Read both before your student writes a word. Most applicants never open them.

How many students win?
Fifteen per academic year, with waitlist placements. That is a small pool, and the committee weighs service and fit alongside scores, so a 32 or a 33 is not a guarantee. Chase this award, but do not build your college budget on it.

What is the catch on the tuition coverage?
The 30 hours are an annual pool, not a per-semester allowance. Load up on 18 hours in the fall and only 12 remain covered for spring, which means a 15-hour spring leaves your student paying for 3 hours out of pocket. Plan a balanced 15 and 15. And if a student enrolls in fewer than 30 hours in a year, the award only covers what they actually took.

What is expected of a Carey Scholar once enrolled?
An accelerated 18-hour honors curriculum, an Honors Colloquium course each of the first three years, weekly service and community service each term, and attendance at visual, musical, and dramatic arts events. A 3.50 cumulative GPA and 12 hours a semester keep the award alive. This is a genuine commitment, not a line on a transcript.

Anything else that reduces it?
Two things. A qualifying Pell Grant cuts the award by half the Pell amount. And the room waiver disappears entirely if your student is approved to live off campus. The award also does not cover summer terms without approval from financial aid.

Is Carey a Stamps, National Merit, or QuestBridge partner?
No to all three. Carey’s competitive money begins and ends with the Carey Scholar Award.

🧠 Parent Strategy: Carey’s Two Buckets

Almost everything below falls into one of two piles, and knowing which pile you are in changes what you should do.

1. Replacement awards. The ministry awards, Educator Preparation, PTK Distinction, and the top tier of the Bible Drill and Speakers Tournament awards. These take the place of your academic scholarship. Compare them against your tier before celebrating. A Trustee student would come out behind accepting a $6,800 MRV award.
2. Add-on awards. Eagle Scout and Girl Scout Gold, JROTC, Color Guard, alumni dependent, Baptist student, PTK officer, dual credit, and the service roles. These layer on top. Every one you claim is money you would not otherwise have.

Three practical moves. First, submit the Add-On Scholarship Application even if you think you only qualify for one thing, because it is a single form covering most of the second pile. Second, note that every add-on requires a floor of a 20 ACT, 1030 SAT, 66 CLT, or 2.50 transfer GPA. Clearing that floor unlocks more than the dollar difference between the bottom two academic tiers. Third, put January 1 on your calendar for the endowed scholarship application, which is the only pot at Carey that stacks with everything.

One more that almost nobody knows about: teachers who teach dual credit courses for Carey earn tuition certificates, and those certificates are transferable to another student with the teacher’s signature. If a parent, aunt, or family friend teaches dual credit for Carey, ask.

• Scout Leadership, $2,100 a year. Carey’s largest add-on, worth $8,400 across four years, for an Eagle Scout rank or a Girl Scout Gold Award. If your junior has an unfinished Eagle project, that is a concrete dollar reason to finish it.
• Resident Assistant. Covers the full cost of housing plus $275 a semester, and it stacks with your academic award, which almost nothing else does. For a student in Futral or Davis, that is worth more than every add-on on this page combined.
• Speakers Tournament, first place, $9,000 a year. More than the Trustee Scholarship. It runs through the Mississippi Baptist Convention for students in grades 10 through 12, and the field is small enough that preparation genuinely wins it. If you have a Mississippi Baptist sophomore, this is the highest-value item on this entire page.

Carey competes in archery, baseball, basketball, cheerleading, competitive cheer, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Amounts are set by each coach with the athletic department and are never published, so there is no grid to plan against. Two things to ask a coach directly and in writing: what the award is worth, and whether it stacks with academic aid. Carey specifically notes that cheerleading scholarships stack, which suggests the others may not, and that distinction can be worth thousands.

❓ Hidden Gems FAQ

How do I know whether an award adds to my scholarship or replaces it?
Carey’s default is replacement. Assume an award replaces unless the university explicitly calls it an add-on or a stackable service award. The reliably stackable ones are the add-on scholarships, the endowed scholarships, the RA scholarship, the talent awards other than Music, and the service roles like Carey Connection and SGA.

Which awards should transfer students look at first?
The PTK Distinction Award, without question. It pays $9,800 on campus versus $9,100 for the standard transfer Presidential award, for the exact same 3.50 GPA. The only difference is one proof-of-membership form. If your student was ever inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, dig up the certificate. There is also a path here for students who earned 12 or more dual credit hours in high school with a 3.5 and hold PTK membership.

My student is going into ministry. Which award applies?
It depends entirely on your church. The Church-Related Vocation award pays $9,800 on campus but requires a Southern Baptist Convention church. The Ministry-Related Vocation award pays $6,800 with no denominational requirement. Both need only a 20 ACT and a 2.00 GPA to earn and keep, which is a remarkably low academic bar for that much money. Do not confuse either with the CRV Dependent Scholarship, which is $600 and is about your parent’s job rather than your student’s calling.

What if a parent works for a mission board?
This changes everything. Full-time IMB and NAMB employees have dependents eligible for what amounts to a full ride covering tuition, fees, a full meal plan, housing, and required textbooks. NAMB and 242 Network endorsed church planters and chaplains are a step down but still cap tuition at $4,500 with everything else covered. The word employed versus endorsed is the whole ballgame, so make sure the supervisor’s letter uses the right one.

Are there deadlines on these?
Mostly no, which is why they get missed. Add-on scholarships, ministry awards, and missionary dependent awards run on a form rather than a calendar. The one hard deadline is the endowed scholarship window, January 1 to April 1, for the following academic year, with awards announced by June 30. An incoming freshman will realistically miss the first cycle entirely, so plan to apply during freshman year for sophomore year money. Past recipients get priority, so getting in once matters more than the first year’s amount.

Which of these are open to students already enrolled?
Quite a few, and this is where families stop looking too early. Resident Assistant, Resident Director, Carey Connection ambassador, SGA president, Music Ensemble, the talent awards, endowed scholarships, and the Graduate Assistant award are all current-student opportunities. Sophomore year is the right time to revisit this page.

Are there awards for adults going back to school?
Yes, and they are among the most practical things Carey offers. The 2nd Degree Nursing Scholarship cuts tuition 25 to 65 percent depending on GPA for career changers who already hold a bachelor’s degree. The Teacher Assistant Scholarship pays $9,000 a year to paraprofessionals employed in accredited Mississippi public schools. The Alternate Route Waiver cuts graduate tuition in half for those with adequate Praxis scores. None of these have online application forms, so you have to call the School of Nursing or the School of Education directly.

My student plays an instrument but is not a music major. Is there anything?
Yes, and it is filed somewhere nobody looks. The Music Ensemble Scholarship sits under Service Scholarships rather than Talent, it is specifically for non-music majors who participate in a Carey ensemble, and it stacks with your academic award. The amount is set by the School of Music and is not published, so you have to ask. Music majors take the separate Music Scholarship, which does not stack, so compare it against your academic tier before accepting.

• An accelerated 18-hour honors curriculum replacing standard general education courses. First year brings Honors Old Testament and Honors Research and Composition and Honors World Literature. Second year brings Honors New Testament and two Honors World History courses.
• Honors Colloquium every term for the first three years, built around visiting speakers. Complete all three years and it converts to three hours of credit that substitute for a general elective.
• Weekly service plus a community service commitment each term. This is a real requirement, not a suggestion.
• Cultural enrichment through required attendance at visual, musical, and dramatic arts events.

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