Merit Scholarships and Scores: Does Test Prep Pay Off?
Smart parents stop obsessing over the SAT or ACT score itself. They obsess over what each point unlocks: tens of thousands of dollars in merit scholarships at the schools their kids actually want to attend.
“Families who tutor with MJ Prep see 550% to 2,500% ROI on test prep. Every other investment for college pales by comparison.”
Sure beats the 1% your savings account pays, right?
TL;DR — WHY TEST PREP PAYS FOR ITSELF
- Merit scholarships scale with ACT/SAT scores at most colleges (even test-optional ones).
- A few extra points = $30,000–$60,000 saved over four years.
- Texas Tech rewards in-state Texans directly; OU has generous out-of-state automatic merit awards.
- Many schools allow retests AFTER acceptance — even on-campus residual tests — purely for scholarship money.
- Plan early: scholarship deadlines often hit before admission deadlines.
Types of Scholarships
Every university has financial aid programs to allow students in need to be able to attend. There are two general types of financial aid programs: need-based and merit-based. Need-based financial aid is determined by the college tuition amount minus a family’s expected financial contribution (calculated via the FAFSA). Merit scholarships are awarded based on academic achievements. The qualifications for scholarships typically consist of at least two things – high school GPA and test scores. While GPA is important in regards to financial aid, a high SAT or ACT test score can also help you earn merit scholarships. The two reinforce each other: strong classroom academics raise ACT and SAT scores at the same time.
Merit Scholarships
According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) State of College Admission Report, a substantial majority of colleges use standardized test scores to determine merit scholarship distribution. Even at test-optional schools, submitting strong scores often unlocks scholarship tiers that are unavailable to non-submitting applicants. Many universities offer academic merit scholarships that require minimum SAT or ACT scores to even be considered. Additionally, students who score in the top ten percent of test-takers (on either the SAT or ACT) can count on being offered merit scholarships upwards of $20,000/year at many great colleges.
Payoff of Merit Scholarships
Improvement in a student’s ACT and SAT scores can mean HUGE dollars for families. Here are some examples:
A student ranked in the top 20% of her class might get into Baylor University with a 24 on the ACT and pay about $60,000 per year in tuition and fees (Baylor 2026 base tuition).
The same student could pay around $50,000/year with a 27 ACT (mid-tier merit), $40,000/year with a 30 ACT (substantial merit), or as little as $28,000/year with a 34 ACT (top-tier merit).
A few ACT points can unlock $30,000+ over four years.
A Texas resident with a 3.0 GPA and a 22 on the ACT earns Texas Tech’s Presidential Merit Scholarship of $1,000/year, dropping in-state tuition (~$13,000/year) to about $12,000/year.
Higher ACT scores unlock more — up to $9,000/year with a 28+ ACT, dropping that same Texan’s tuition to around $4,000/year. Bonus: out-of-state students with a $1,000+ Tech scholarship qualify to pay in-state tuition rates ($13K vs $25K), so non-Texans can save even more.
A few ACT points can unlock $30,000+ over four years.
A Texan with a 3.25 GPA and a 25 on the ACT might attend The University of Oklahoma at out-of-state tuition of about $48,000/year.
With OU’s automatic non-resident merit scholarships (which scale with ACT score and GPA), the same student could see costs drop to roughly $32,000/year with a 26 ACT, $25,000/year with a 28 ACT, or as low as $15,000/year with a 31+ ACT and strong GPA — comparable to Texas in-state tuition at out-of-state OU.
A few ACT points can unlock $30,000-$60,000 over four years at OU.
Planning Testing for Merit Scholarships
Some schools have the same application deadline and scholarship deadline, which means students have to have scores in place for automatic scholarships before they apply. However, many students allow students to retake the ACT or SAT even after acceptance to the school. Even better, many schools allow students to take unofficial tests (called residual tests) on the campus itself to earn more merit scholarships! This can serve as a huge benefit to Seniors since they can plan to test only for $$ after they’ve already graduated from High School!
While SAT and ACT scores alone won’t necessarily be enough to get you into college or guarantee a big scholarship, college admissions tests do matter. Many colleges believe that students with higher SAT/ACT test scores will likely be stronger students who will go on to perform well in college and reflect well on their alma mater after graduation.
Don’t forget that you can still search for external scholarships!
The summer before junior year is the perfect time to start thinking about test prep — picking a target test date, scheduling a diagnostic, mapping out which scholarships your student is targeting. Active prep typically kicks in 2-3 months before the chosen test date. We work with students at every stage: SAT and ACT juniors trying to nail admission and scholarship numbers in one shot, and seniors already admitted who want to unlock additional scholarship money before they enroll.
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