Financial Aid

Westminster Advantage Scholarship

Attend Westminster Tuition-Free

Launching fall 2025, the Westminster Advantage is our first large-scale tuition-free initiative. It will allow more Pennsylvania students to receive a life-changing Westminster education without owing a single dollar for tuition.

The Advantage is unique because it is applied last. It covers any remaining tuition after other financial aid, such as academic scholarships and federal and state grants, is applied. It’s just one more way we’re making an exceptional Westminster education genuinely affordable.

And the best news? If you are a Pennsylvania resident applying for admission in fall 2025, with a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher, and a total family annual income of $75,000 or less, you will be automatically considered for this scholarship if you do three things:

No separate scholarship application or essay is required.

Apply Now

Request Information

How It Works

Westminster Advantage Scholarship Calculation

START with annual tuition.

SUBTRACT other financial aid including:

Westminster Merit Scholarships

Westminster Micro-Grants

Westminster Tuition Fee Waivers

Federal Grants and Scholarships

Pennnsylvania State Grants and Scholarships

Tuition-specific Veteran's benefits if it covers 100% of tuition

Additional grants, scholarships and any other awards from sources outside Westminster that are designated tuition-specific by the donor (For example, scholarships awarded by your high school's boosters organizations or Rotary Foundation scholarships)

CALCULATE remaining tuition balance.

AWARD Westminster Advantage Scholarship so that tuition is $0.

Example Financial Aid Offer*

Tuition

$39,540

Westminster's Blue and White Scholarship

-$22,000

Westminster Early Application Grant

-$1,500

Westminster Transcript Grant

-$500

Westminster FAFSA Filing Grant

-$1,000

Federal Pell Grant

-$7,395

PA State Grant

-$5,260

Additional Scholarship

-$1,000

SubTotal

$885

Westminster Advantage Scholarship

-$885

Tuition Balance

$0.00

*This sample financial aid offer is provided for illustrative purposes only to indicate how the Westminster Advantage scholarship works to reduce tuition to $0. Actual financial aid offers will vary based on the scholarships and grants received by the individual student. Tuition, federal grant, and PA State grant amounts are based on 2024-2025 figures.

Eligibility Criteria

U.S. Citizen or permanent resident.

Pennsylvania resident.

High school GPA of 3.0 (weighted GPA).

Enrolling as a full-time undergraduate student (minimum of 12 semester hours each semester).

Enrolling in a bachelor’s degree-granting program.

Students in the Exploratory (undecided) major are eligible.

Working toward the first bachelor’s degree.

Post-undergraduates are not eligible.

Have a total family income of $75,000 or less.

Filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2025-2026 academic year. (Eligibility for a federal Pell Grant as determined by the FAFSA is required.)

Submitted all requested financial aid documents and the FAFSA must be free of all holds and processing issues.

If a student feels the income reported on the FAFSA is no longer accurate, review the Special Circumstances process to address changes in household income, divorce, death of a parent, etc. For more information, contact the Office of Financial Aid finaid@westminster.edu.

Applied for a PA State Grant award through PHEAA for the 2025-2026 academic year. (Eligibility for the PA State Grant is required.)

How to Apply

Apply as a full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate student at Westminster College.

Apply Now!

Submit the FAFSA for the current academic year and include Westminster's school code (003392) to establish eligibility.

File Your FAFSA

Apply for a PA State Grant award through GrantUs, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency site.

Go to GrantUs

That’s it! A separate scholarship application is not required.

Notification of Eligibility

All Pennsylvania students who apply and file their FAFSA will be screened for eligibility automatically.

Eligible students will be notified via the email address provided on their application.

How Scholarship Amount is Determined

The Westminster Advantage Scholarship covers the difference between tuition and other grants and tuition-specific scholarships.

If eligibility is reduced to an amount between $1-$199 based on the aforementioned calculation, the student will receive a $200 minimum award.

NOTE: If the total of grants and tuition-specific awards exceed the cost of tuition, the student will not be eligible for a Westminster Advantage Scholarship.

The Westminster Advantage Scholarship can only be applied to tuition. It cannot be applied to other College fees or charges, which include but are not limited to:

Housing

Meal plans

Activity Fee

New Student Orientation Fee

Special Course Fees

Music Lesson Fees

Internship Fees

Study Abroad and Other Travel-Related Fees

Award may be reduced or canceled if the student changes their schedule, drops or withdraws from a course, or their tuition charges change for any other reason.

Scholarship Renewal Criteria

First-year and transfer students who enroll as new students in fall 2025 may be eligible for a maximum of 8 semesters, or 4 academic years, of the Westminster Advantage Scholarship.

This award does not renew automatically. To remain eligible, every academic year the student must:

File the FAFSA.

Apply for the PA State Grant.

Have a family annual income of $75,000 or less as reported on each year's FAFSA.

Continue to be eligible for a federal Pell grant and a PA State Grant.

Enroll in a minimum of 12 semester hours at Westminster each semester.

Meet the Financial Aid Standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress every semester.

Complete any requests for additional information from the Office of Financial Aid to establish annual eligibility.

The Advantage Scholarship is available only for the fall and spring semesters.

For questions about this program, contact finaid@westminster.edu.