Tulane University Merit Scholarships 2027 In The Usa: Full-tuition And Full-cost Awards For First-year International Students

Tulane University Merit Scholarships 2027 in the USA: Full-Tuition and Full-Cost Awards for First-Year International Students

Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, offers some of the most generous merit scholarships in the United States — and for 2027 entry, the route to its biggest awards is simpler than many older guides suggest. Beginning with the high school class of 2026, Tulane no longer requires a separate application to be considered for its full-tuition merit scholarships. If you apply for first-year admission and complete the financial aid steps by the deadline for your admission plan, you are in the pool — including international students, who are explicitly eligible for merit awards of varying amounts, up to full tuition, as well as for the other merit scholarships listed by Tulane.

Tulane is a private research university in New Orleans. Its merit scholarships range from $1,000 a year to awards covering full tuition or even the full cost of attendance, and most are renewable for four years. That range matters: even students who do not win a full-tuition award can still receive a substantial partial scholarship simply by applying for admission.

What Tulane's merit scholarships offer

Tulane's partial tuition scholarships range up to $32,000 per year. They require no special application and are awarded by the admission office based on the strength of the admission application within that year's applicant pool.

The full-tuition and full-cost awards are the headline prizes:

• Dean's Honor Scholarship — a full-tuition scholarship. Students who complete the steps below are all considered, and may upload a supplement to their Green Wave Portal to be reviewed as part of the selection process. Winners are notified at the same time they are offered admission. Tulane notes that typical recipients over the last three years have had an ACT of 33 or higher, an SAT score of 1500 or higher, and/or a core, unweighted GPA of 3.7 or higher, in addition to well-crafted applications. Test scores are not required, but they are preferred for consideration for this award.
• Stamps Scholarship — covers the total cost of attendance, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meals, and provides an enrichment fund for endeavours such as study abroad, undergraduate research, academic or co-curricular conferences and unpaid internships. Approximately 10 Stamps Scholarships are awarded each year. Semifinalists are invited to submit supplements by 5 January, and finalists are invited to interview in the spring.
• Grossman & Cohen Scholarship — Tulane's newest top award, covering tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meals. It is renewable for up to eight semesters (four years) and is expected to have a total value of roughly $400,000. No additional application is required, and recipients are selected on academic record, standardised test scores and impact outside the classroom. Finalists may be invited to interview in late winter or early spring.
• Other merit awards — including service, leadership and artistic scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, some of which require an audition or portfolio, and a FIRST Scholarship of $15,000 to $30,000 for students who participated on a FIRST Robotics or FIRST Tech Challenge team.

Who can apply

• You must be applying as a first-year undergraduate student to Tulane University. Transfer students follow a separate process and are not the focus of these first-year merit awards.
• International students are considered for merit scholarships if they complete the Common Application for admission, complete the CSS Profile by Tulane's financial aid deadlines, complete Tulane's Declaration & Certification of Finances, and review Tulane's testing policy and submit standardised test scores if applicable. Tulane states that international students are additionally eligible for all other merit scholarships listed on its merit page.
• Standardised test scores are not required for admission or scholarship consideration, but submitting them is preferred and may strengthen your candidacy — particularly for the Dean's Honor Scholarship.
• Tulane looks for superior academic performance and test scores where available, exceptional community and secondary school involvement, potential for leadership and extraordinary intellectual promise. There is no single published cut-off, but the Dean's Honor profile above gives a realistic sense of the competition.

How to apply — no separate application for the full-tuition awards

This is the change that catches many older guides out. You do not submit a separate Dean's Honor or full-tuition scholarship form at the first stage. Instead, complete these steps:

1. Complete the Common Application for admission to Tulane. All applicants are considered for a partial merit scholarship by completing the Common Application.
2. Complete the CSS Profile by Tulane's financial aid deadlines for your admission plan (see below). International students who are non-U.S. citizens should also complete Tulane's Declaration & Certification of Finances.
3. If you are a U.S. citizen or eligible resident, complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by the same financial aid deadlines. International students who are not U.S. citizens are not eligible for U.S. federal financial aid, and Tulane directs them to the CSS Profile and the Declaration & Certification of Finances instead.
4. Submit supporting documentation when requested by Tulane's Office of Financial Aid.
5. Review Tulane's testing policy and, if applicable, submit your standardised test scores.
6. Optionally, upload supporting documents or a creative supplement to your Green Wave Portal to be reviewed as part of the scholarship selection process. Submissions may be in any format listed on the upload screen, and video and audio submissions must not exceed three minutes.

Tulane states that it expects students to submit the FAFSA and CSS Profile to be considered for merit scholarships, up to full tuition, because many awards are made on the basis of both need and merit. Do not skip the financial aid paperwork even if you are only chasing a merit award.

Important deadlines — read this carefully

Tulane's scholarship consideration follows the financial aid deadline for your admission plan, so the date that matters depends on how you apply:

• Early Decision I: application due 1 November 2026 — this deadline has now passed.
• Early Action: application due 10 November 2026, with the Secondary School Report and Certification of Finances for international applicants also due then. Need-based financial aid applications, including the CSS Profile, are due 15 December 2026. Early Action decisions are released by 10 January.
• Early Decision II: application due 15 January 2027, with the financial aid applications (CSS Profile and, where applicable, FAFSA) also due 15 January 2027. Early Decision II is a binding agreement.
• Regular Decision: application due 15 January 2027, with financial aid applications due 15 February 2027. Regular Decision decisions are released by 1 April.
• Stamps Scholarship: semifinalists are invited to submit supplements by 5 January, with finalist interviews in the spring.

If you have not yet applied, Early Action on 10 November 2026 is imminent — do not leave the Common Application, school report and Certification of Finances to the last day. If you miss Early Action, Early Decision II and Regular Decision on 15 January 2027 remain open, but note the different financial aid dates: 15 January for Early Decision II and 15 February for Regular Decision.

Why this scholarship stands out

Many of America's best-known full scholarships require a school nomination, a separate essay set at the outset, or an early-November deadline that has already gone. Tulane removes the separate-application barrier for its full-tuition awards: apply for admission, complete the CSS Profile and Declaration & Certification of Finances on time, and you are considered — for awards up to full tuition, and for the full-cost Stamps and Grossman & Cohen scholarships. For an outstanding first-year student, international or domestic, who wants a research university in New Orleans with a strong service and community culture, it is one of the strongest opportunities still open for 2027 entry.

Official links

• Tulane University — Merit Scholarships (no separate application for full-tuition awards; Dean's Honor, Stamps and Grossman & Cohen details; international eligibility): https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/merit-scholarships
• Tulane University — Important Dates, Deadlines & Forms (Early Action 10 November 2026 and financial aid 15 December 2026; Early Decision II and Regular Decision 15 January 2027; Regular Decision financial aid 15 February 2027): https://admission.tulane.edu/apply/deadlines-forms

Apply for admission and complete the CSS Profile and Declaration & Certification of Finances by the financial aid deadline for your plan, and good luck!