The tennis school. Wins that decisively and loses almost everything else.
| Sticker (tuition, fees, room, board) | $65,314 |
|---|---|
| Automatic merit at 4.0 / 1470 | ~$24,500 President's Estimated |
| Need-based aid at $300k | $0 |
| Net per year | ~$40,800 |
| Four years | ~$163k |
Biola publishes five scholarship tiers ($14,500 / $19,500 / $22,500 / $23,500 / $24,500), awarded automatically at admission on unweighted GPA and test scores with no separate application. They do not publish the GPA and SAT cutoffs for each tier, so top-tier placement is an inference rather than a confirmed grid hit.
It is a well-supported inference: their average admit has a 3.54 GPA and the middle 50 percent SAT is 1160 to 1360, both far below you. Deadline to submit updated GPA and scores is May 1. President's renews annually at a 3.2 GPA.
What this covers: tuition, mandatory fees, housing and the meal plan. It does not cover books, transportation or personal spending, which add roughly $5,000 to $8,000 a year. Full breakdown.
The Trustee Scholarship is full tuition, about $53,000 a year, with roughly 10 awarded and a separate application due mid-January (January 15 in the current cycle, confirm for fall 2027 entry). Judged on academic excellence, character, community involvement and Christian maturity.
A 4.0 with a 1470, a genuine church background, and a business you built and run is a real candidate here. Winning it would make Biola far and away your cheapest option. This is the single highest-value application on your entire list, and it is easy to miss because it sits behind its own form rather than arriving automatically.
Biola Tennis Center: 8 lighted courts on campus. Recently renovated with LED lighting and HD video cameras, plus a clubhouse. Access is free with a valid Biola ID. Eight courts on your own campus at zero cost is the single strongest tennis asset on this list.
D2 at UTR 6.7 is a stretch. Your Fit-Profile puts your realistic competitive tier at D3 or NAIA, and Biola's actual roster UTR levels have not been verified. Unverified Court access is guaranteed. A roster spot is not.
There is no ultimate frisbee club at Biola. The club sports roster is men's and women's lacrosse, volleyball, surf club and esports. Recreational clubs cover archery, spikeball and swing dancing.
Ultimate exists as an intramural only. Intramurals are described as an easy, low-friction way to get involved (grab friends from your hall, form a team, play a relaxed social league), but there is no competitive team and no travel.
You said ultimate is a for-fun club thing. Intramural pickup covers that fine, so having no club barely costs Biola anything now. It would only matter if you wanted to play ultimate competitively, and you do not.
USA Ultimate registration, college series division (D-I or D-III), and conference and region placement could not be verified for any of the three schools from public sources. Unverified USAU college series rosters are not readily searchable and none of the schools publishes it. All ultimate competitiveness language on this site is descriptive, taken from school and club sources.
Dining is run by Bon Appétit Management Company, which is a point in Biola's favor on paper: Bon Appétit is a scratch-cooking, farm-to-fork operator, not a reheat-and-serve contractor.
Café Biola is an all-you-can-eat buffet: three entrees, a large salad bar, a deli with specialty salads and meats, two beverage bars, soups, desserts, soft-serve and hard ice cream, plus pizza, pasta and stir-fry stations. Menu items carry icons for gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan, there is a gluten-free food bar and made-to-order prep stations, and Bon Appétit's site has an allergen filter tool.
From The Chimes:
Produce freshness complaints are the most directly damaging thing here, because a whole-foods eater lives off the salad bar and the fresh stations.
The Special Diet Accommodation program is probably not a way out. Biola will have the culinary team prepare meals at no extra cost, but it requires approval from the Office of Student Accessibility, medical documentation, and a personal consultation. A strong dietary preference is not a medical condition, so you most likely would not qualify. Worth asking directly rather than assuming.
Compounding factor: the under-21 residency rule below means you would be locked onto this meal plan for roughly three years.
Off campus: Sprouts Farmers Market in La Mirada, nearest Whole Foods in Brea, and Trader Joe's locations serve the area. Groceries are solvable if you have a car and somewhere to cook.
Freshman halls are Alpha, Sigma, Horton and Stewart: traditional style with twin beds, desks, closets and community bathrooms on each floor. The most basic housing of the three schools.
Residency requirement: students under 21 as of the first day of fall classes must live in university housing for the entire academic year. This is age-based rather than class-year based, so for you it covers roughly your first three-plus years. The only meaningful exemption is commuting from a parent's home, which does not apply.
Biola's official guidance says air conditioning is provided in rooms, but some older halls have historically lacked it and sources conflict. Unverified
Also unverified: whether residence halls have kitchen access for students who want to cook their own food. Given the dining complaints, that is a materially important question here.
Early Action closes November 30. Full timeline and the ordered do-this-next list live on the apply page.
Their homeschool policy calls for "a letter grade assigned for each subject studied, beginning in the ninth year of schooling, as well as the signature of the homeschooling parent or agency representative." The signature is already covered, so this is only the grades.
Owner: Holly, before anything else hereThe Trustee Scholarship, full tuition, is a separate mid-January application. It is the highest-value form on your entire list and it does not arrive automatically like the other awards do.
Take Biola if tennis is the deciding factor. Eight free courts on campus and a program with genuine current momentum are hard to beat, and the Trustee Scholarship is a real shot at making it the cheapest school on the list.
Everything else argues against it: the worst dining fit for how you eat, the most basic dorms, and a long residency requirement that locks you onto the meal plan you would like least. The missing ultimate club no longer counts for much, since casual play is the bar and intramurals cover it.