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OBU Offers Guaranteed $5,000 Scholarship to All Incoming Freshmen

October 10, 2016

OBU will offer a guaranteed minimum $5,000 scholarship per year to all new incoming freshman students, beginning fall 2017. The University is raising the guaranteed minimum from $2,000 to $5,000.

The scholarship is renewable every year for four years as long as the student maintains a 2.0 GPA. This means the total minimum guaranteed scholarship for all incoming freshman is $20,000 for a four-year degree. Larger scholarships up to $12,000 annually and a limited number of full tuition scholarships on a competitive basis are available, with many students qualifying for an amount greater than the $5,000 guaranteed minimum.

OBU is also changing one of the criteria involved in earning larger scholarships than the $20,000 guarantee. The University will now weigh high school GPA as 60% of the criteria with the ACT or SAT score accounting for 40%. The previous criteria weighed GPA and ACT/SAT scores equally. This gives more weight to what students accomplish every day for four years of high school as opposed to what they achieve on one ACT or SAT exam.

OBU welcomed 566 freshmen to campus this fall, the second largest total in school history, but would love to see that number grow.

“We are so excited to have the second largest freshman class in school history on campus with us this fall,” said Bruce Perkins, associate vice president for enrollment management. “By raising the guaranteed minimum yearly scholarship to $5,000 for every new freshman, we hope to make an already affordable OBU degree even more affordable for our next incoming class and beyond.”

The most important next step for interested college-bound students is to complete their online OBU application now, and then to also fill out their FAFSA as soon as possible.

“In the past, the FAFSA wasn’t available for completion until January,” said Jonna Raney, director of student financial services. “However, the federal government changed the timeline this year and FAFSA applications opened on Oct. 1. So, students can apply to OBU, fill out their FAFSA now, and see their financial aid package and total cost much, much earlier than in years past.”

This will be a tremendous benefit to students and families, as they will know the actual cost of attendance and how much aid in the form of grants and scholarships will be coming their way from OBU much earlier in the year.

Apply to OBU.

For more information on the guaranteed $5,000 per year scholarship, visit the scholarships and grants web page. To see if you qualify for more, use the scholarship estimator on the same page.

OBU recently ranked number 23 on a list of the Most Affordable Christian Colleges and Universities in the United States for 2017. The list was published by Christian Universities Online, an independent online resource for prospective students and their families researching Christian higher education. OBU has also been ranked as one of only three colleges or universities in Oklahoma on the Great Value College’s 50 Great Affordable Colleges in the Midwest, a list based on the net price families actually pay after factoring in scholarships and other forms of aid.