One of the most frequent topics college admissions counselors discuss when chatting with prospective students and their parents is financial aid 鈥� specifically the scholarship process and how much aid first-year students should expect to receive.
Between academic scholarships, departmental funds and talent-based awards, it may be tricky for parents and students to understand the full scholarship picture.
At 蘑菇TV, the enrollment management team has strived to simplify the language around scholarships.
鈥淲e want prospective students and their parents to have a clear picture concerning scholarships and costs,鈥� said Kevin Windholz, vice president for Enrollment Management at OCU. 鈥淥nce you understand the types of awards offered, it becomes easier to envision your path forward.鈥�
At OCU, scholarships for first-year students typically fall into one of three categories:
- Automatic merit scholarships
- Competitive scholarships
- Major-related scholarships
Automatic merit scholarships are awards that almost all incoming OCU students will qualify for and receive. In fact, any student with a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher will receive some kind of automatic award.
For students studying in the Arts & Sciences, Business or Nursing, these awards range from $8,000 to $13,000 a year, and will automatically renew each year as long as a student maintains a 3.0 GPA. That means a high-performing student may receive up to $52,000 off their tuition over four years at OCU. Meanwhile, students arriving at OCU from Oklahoma City Public Schools are eligible for even more scholarship support, thanks to the special 蘑菇TVPS Scholarship that OCU launched for the 2026-27 school year.
For first-year students enrolled in Dance, Music or Theatre programs, the automatic merit scholarship awards range from $3,000 to $6,000 a year, with the same renewal and GPA criteria applying.
Another way to look at it: Automatic merit scholarships are essentially the bare-minimum scholarship amount for first-year OCU students.
From there, incoming students may receive even more scholarship funding. Competitive scholarships include some of the most generous awards offered at the university 鈥� some cover full tuition, housing and meals. These scholarships are generally not contingent on a student鈥檚 major or field of study. As the name 鈥渃ompetitive鈥� suggests, some of these scholarships may require an essay, interview or additional application requirements.
So how can students know which competitive award they may qualify for? Fortunately, the OCU application doubles as the scholarship application. As long as prospective students complete all application steps by the annual Dec. 15 competitive scholarship deadline, they will automatically be considered for competitive awards.
Once the application is submitted, OCU Admissions counselors work behind the scenes to identify all possible awards that a prospective student may be eligible for. The objective is to maximize the amount of aid an incoming student can receive.
From there, the OCU enrollment management team distributes offer letters to inform applicants which scholarships they can receive. These letters are typically sent out no later than March 1.
The letters also let prospective students know if they qualify for any of OCU鈥檚 third type of financial awards 鈥� major-related scholarships.
As the name implies, these awards are contingent on a student鈥檚 area of study. They include talent awards based on auditions or portfolios in dance, film, music, theatre or visual arts, and scholarships for particular majors like biology, computer science, game design and animation, or supply chain management, to name a few.
Several of the scholarships can be stacked with other awards, with many OCU students paying out of pocket for only a relatively small portion of tuition during any given semester.
Taken together, all three of the university鈥檚 overarching scholarship categories ensure that most all students are supported financially, with many supported generously.
鈥淲e know affordability is one of the top considerations during the college search,鈥� Windholz said. 鈥淲e try to make that conversation more transparent and let our students and parents know that they don鈥檛 have to go it alone when it comes to paying for school.鈥�
