Scholarships

Merit Scholarships for Incoming First-Year Undergraduate Students include but are not limited to:

• Community Involvement Program (CIP) Scholarships
• Conservatory Merit Scholarships
• Forensic Scholarships
• Humanities Scholarships
• Pacific Scholarships 
• President's Scholarships 
• Provost's Scholarships
• Regent's Scholarships
• Sequoia Scholarships
• Tiger Excellence Scholarships

Merit scholarships are awarded to academically exceptional high school seniors who are accepted for admission as first-year undergraduates. These scholarships range in annual value from $10,000 to $30,000.

• You are not required to submit the FAFSA to be considered for the merit scholarships listed above and there is no separate scholarship application; with exception of the CIP (FAFSA required) and Forensic Scholarships, both of which require a separate application.
• Merit scholarships are determined holistically, with factors such as high school attended, grade point average, curriculum rigor, commitment, extracurricular activities and obligations, leadership, and demonstrated interest all being factors. 

Merit Scholarship Renewal Requirements

• Retaining your scholarship requires maintaining full-time enrollment (12 or more units per semester) as an undergraduate at Pacific in a bachelor's or pre-professional program and maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) toward completion of your degree.  
• Merit scholarships can be renewed for full-time enrollment in your first bachelor's degree program at Pacific for up to a total of four years (eight fall and spring semesters) of scholarship support. 
• Scholarships can only be applied to undergraduate coursework and cannot be applied to professional coursework in pharmacy, dentistry, or law. Thus, students are no longer eligible for merit scholarships once they begin their graduate level courses in the pharmacy, dentistry and law programs.

For more information on merit scholarships, please contact a member of our financial aid counseling team at financialaid@pacific.edu or 209.946.2421.

Scholarships for Incoming Undergraduate Transfer Students

• Transfer Academic Excellence Scholarship

The university is pleased to offer merit scholarships to academically exceptional transfer (domestic and international) students who are accepted for admission as undergraduates. The Transfer Academic Excellence merit scholarship ranges in annual value from $10,000 to $22,000. Transfer students who are enrolled via the University of the Pacific International (UOPI) program can find information about scholarships by visiting the UOPI page.

• Minimum cumulative transfer GPA of 2.60
• You are not required to submit the FAFSA to be considered for a transfer merit scholarship and there is no separate scholarship application.
• Transfer merit scholarships are determined holistically, with factors such as transfer grade point average, curriculum rigor, commitment, extracurricular activities and obligations, leadership, and demonstrated interest all being factors. 

Merit Scholarship Renewal Requirements

• Retaining your merit scholarship requires maintaining full-time enrollment (12 or more units per semester) as an undergraduate at Pacific in a bachelor's or pre-professional program and maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) toward completion of your degree.  
• Transfer merit scholarships can generally be renewed for full-time enrollment in your first bachelor's degree program for up to a total of three years (six fall and spring semesters) of scholarship support. 
• Scholarships can only be applied to undergraduate coursework and cannot be applied to professional coursework in pharmacy, dentistry, or law. Thus, students are no longer eligible for merit scholarships once they begin their graduate level courses in the pharmacy, dentistry and law programs.

For more information on transfer merit scholarships, please contact a member of our financial aid counseling team at financialaid@pacific.edu. or 209.946.2421

Benerd College awards scholarships to deserving and meritorious students each year. These scholarships often represent a family or organization's wish to honor the legacy of the life of a loved one or a colleague's work, or to fulfill their wish to contribute in a meaningful way to their community.

Graduate students may be eligible for unsubsidized Federal Direct Stafford loans, Grad PLUS loans and private (alternative) loans. Graduate students must be enrolled in at least 4 units to be considered for this type of financial assistance.

Under the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, those who teach full-time for five complete and consecutive academic years in a low-income school or educational service agency and meet other qualifications may be eligible for forgiveness of up to $17,500 on their Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and Subsidized and Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans.

The Pacific Noyce Scholars Program provides scholarships and other support for STEM majors who become teachers in high-need school districts such as Stockton. During your your junior or senior year of your BA/BS program in STEM, you could be awarded up to $13,750 a year. If a fifth year is needed to obtain your teaching credential, you could be awarded up to $20,000 for the MA Education year. In exchange, you just need to teach in a high-need school district for two years following graduation.

Pacific offers scholarships to outstanding athletes who wish to play for one of our 17 NCAA Division I intercollegiate teams.

While some players are offered "full" athletic scholarships, which cover the cost of tuition and room and board (i.e. housing and food), other student-athletes receive athletics scholarships that may cover only room and board, or only tuition, or only a portion of tuition. 

It is important to realize that every not player on an athletic team is awarded an athletic scholarship and that other forms of financial aid (i.e. merit scholarships, grants and loans) may be offered in combination with athletic aid.

Receiving an Athletic Scholarship

• For more information on athletic scholarships, contact the coach of your sport. Visit the Athletics website for a list of coaches.
• Coaches have the final decision on which student-athletes receive athletic scholarships.

The Bishops Scholarship is available to incoming first year and transfer students who are active members of any United Methodist Church. Students must demonstrate academic excellence and commitment to the church.

The Community Involvement Program (CIP) was established in 1969 as a comprehensive, need-based scholarship and retention program for first-generation college students from the Stockton community, promoting the values of equity, social justice, self-knowledge, personal empowerment, collaboration, citizenship, and service as developmental paradigms. Since its inception more than 1000 students have graduated from Pacific and the Community Involvement Program. For information about the CIP Scholarship application process, please contact the program at cip@pacific.edu. 

The MESA program encourages high school or community college MESA students to enroll in engineering, mathematics and science programs at University of the Pacific. MESA students who have unmet need based on the FAFSA will be considered for an annually renewable $1,000 MESA Scholarship. 

To be eligible for this program, you must:

• Have participated in any high school or community college MESA Program for at least one year before entering University of the Pacific.
• Be admitted to the university with a minimum GPA of 3.00.
• Major in engineering, mathematics or a science-related field.
• Meet university academic requirements, and maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) toward completion of your degree.
• Not have previously received a bachelor's degree.

For more details and to apply, download the MESA Scholarship application. For more information, email MESA Director Elana Peach-Fine at epeachfine@pacific.edu, or call or text her at 530.768.7227.

The generosity and support of many donors enables the university to offer a range of endowed scholarships to eligible students.

Endowed scholarships are offered by various colleges and departments to continuing undergraduate and graduate students who meet specific criteria. Typically, students must have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher in classes completed at Pacific to be considered for any scholarship assistance. Due to the exceptional qualifications of the students who apply, consideration for many scholarship opportunities will be limited to those students who have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above by the end of their fall semester.

Students who first enroll after the fall semester are not eligible to apply for endowed scholarships until the following fall semester.

University of the Pacific is pleased to connect you with scholarships to help fund your education and achieve your goals. By completing an application on the Tiger Scholarships portal, you will be matched to available scholarship opportunities offered by the university.

The scholarship application period for the 2023-24 academic year closed on Jan. 15, 2023.  The Tiger Scholarship portal will reopen in October 2023..