Blog · Behind the data · September 22, 2026
Two friends applied to TCU with the same GPA. One sent a score.
I watched two best friends apply to TCU with the same GPA. Both got in.
One of them applied with a strong ACT score. The other applied test-optional. The student with the score came away with a large scholarship. The other was admitted at full price.
The four-year difference was well past a hundred thousand dollars.
That is one pair of students I watched, not a rule. So here is the published part, which is the part you can actually plan around.
TCU says its academic scholarships are based primarily on four things: grades, ACT or SAT score, class rank where a school reports it, and curriculum rigor. The middle 50% of its 2026 scholarship recipients carried a 3.8 to 3.98 GPA, and the ones who sent scores landed between a 30 and a 33 ACT. Meeting those ranges guarantees nothing.
Applicants who skip the ACT and SAT are still considered. Their scores play no part, and TCU says they can still earn its most attractive awards without one. A Do No Harm policy keeps a score that would hurt out of the file entirely.
So one friend was read on four things and the other on three. Neither was punished. One simply had a fourth lever and the other did not.
The awards are not small. Dean's pays $32,000 a year and Faculty $30,000, against tuition of $66,520.
This is why I push families to treat the test as a money decision rather than an admissions decision. At a school like TCU the score is not what gets you in. It is what decides the price of getting in.
Students who come to us at a 27 or below gain 5.7 ACT points on average, and 68% gain five or more. Six to twelve weeks. That is our SAT and ACT prep: prepgurus.com.
