Your scholarship is awarded as a tuition waiver.
Please note: Students may receive multiple tuition waivers from different academic units through the University of Oklahoma Norman Campus; however, if tuition waivers are stacked, the combined offers may not pay out beyond the cost of tuition. A non-resident tuition waiver may never be applied to the resident portion of tuition - please see the OU Bursar Office tuition and fees webpage for specific costs and breakdowns.
Enrollment: Scholarship recipients must enroll as a full-time (12+ credits) undergraduate student at OU each fall/spring semester.
Grade Point Average (GPA): Merit Scholarship recipients awarded during and after fall 2019 must maintain at least a 2.0 overall GPA. Students who show academic success through an OU GPA with a 2.0 or higher will also remain eligible.
Scholarship recipients must earn at least 24 institutional credits each academic year. The credits can be earned across fall, spring, and summer terms.
GPAs are checked at the end of the spring semester of the student's first year. Following this, GPAs are checked each academic year thereafter.
Please note: Your Merit Scholarship cannot be used for tuition and fees through the OU Law School, Graduate College, OU Health Sciences Center graduate studies, OU-Tulsa campus, or any other institution. Also, a student cannot receive more than one Merit-Based Scholarship.
If a recipient does not meet the required GPA or credit hours requirement, the student will be placed on probation for one academic year. Students will continue to receive funding only during the first semester of the probationary period. Students will have one full calendar year to achieve the required GPA and/or credit hours. If the overall OU GPA or credit hours is not earned by the end of the probationary year, the award will be discontinued.
If a student’s GPA increases to the minimum requirement during the probationary year, the scholarship will be taken off probation. The duration of the scholarship will be reduced by the number of semesters spent on probation. The student will not have the opportunity to recoup the unpaid semester while on probation.
Students who fail to earn the minimum 24 institutional credits must complete 12 institutional credit hours each semester during the probationary year to have their scholarship taken off probation. The duration of the scholarship will be reduced by the number of semesters spent on probation. The student will not have the opportunity to recoup the unpaid semester while on probation.
Merit Scholarship recipients may be granted exceptions to the enrollment requirements listed above on a case-by-case basis. Students may complete the form for standard leave of absence. If a Merit Scholarship recipient cannot enroll in the full-time required hours for any reason, the student must complete this special conditions form (this is not for incoming/current freshmen). Students attending another university while on a leave of absence are no longer eligible to receive their scholarship. Some examples (but not all possible examples) are listed below to assist in determining if a special conditions form is needed.
Complete a
Special Conditions Form if...
Do Not Complete
a Special Conditions Form if...
*There is no appeal process for Merit Scholarships. Please see Probation Guidelines for information related to not meeting eligibility requirements.
All National Award recipients have several components to their scholarship package as entering freshmen.
Incoming freshmen who have scholarship and aid questions need to contact their admissions counselor.
In order to ensure a timely award, Merit Scholarship recipients that transfer to the OU Health Sciences Center to finish an undergraduate degree must notify the Scholarship Office prior to the semester transferred through this HSC transfer form.
Please note: Beginning with students entering OU as freshmen in fall 2021, OU will use superscoring for admission and scholarship decisions. This policy does not retroactively apply to current students. Also, students are not eligible to have their tuition waiver awards increased in the event of future award increases. View our freshman scholarship amounts from previous years to determine your scholarship amount.
For more information on eligibility concerns or terms of the tuition waiver, please contact the Scholarship Office at scholarships@ou.edu.
