The University of Wyoming's Cowboy Commitment (for residents) doesn't work like most of the charts in this cluster. Instead of a handful of named tiers each keyed to one GPA band and one test-score range, it's a genuine two-dimensional sliding grid -- 21 GPA rows against 16 ACT/SAT columns -- where GPA and test score trade off against each other continuously, not in fixed steps.
See all 17 real automatic scholarship charts covered this cycle for how this compares to other public universities' own tables.
How the grid actually works
Cumulative unweighted high school GPA runs down the rows in 0.05 increments, from 3.00 up to 4.00+. ACT score runs across the columns from 21 to 36 (SAT equivalents alongside). Every GPA-and-test combination lands in one of four dollar tiers -- $6,500, $4,000, $2,000, or $1,000/year -- and the boundary between tiers runs as a diagonal staircase, not a straight line: a student half a GPA point lower than another can still land in the same tier by scoring several ACT points higher, and vice versa. There's no single "GPA cutoff" or "ACT cutoff" for a given tier the way there is at a school like Alabama -- the actual threshold depends on where you sit on both axes at once.
The part that surprises people: the top tier requires a test score, period
UW reviews students who don't submit an ACT or SAT on a separate GPA-only scale -- and that test-optional scale caps at $4,000/year, two tiers below the $6,500 maximum. A student with a perfect 4.0 GPA who skips testing entirely is capped at $4,000, the same ceiling as a much lower GPA band on the test-optional scale. The $6,500 tier is only reachable by students who submit a qualifying ACT or SAT score alongside a strong GPA -- there's no GPA-alone path to the top of this chart, unlike schools where a high enough GPA can substitute for testing entirely.
Non-residents: same structure, higher dollars
Non-Wyoming residents use a separate program, the Brown and Gold Commitment, built on the identical GPA-and-test-score sliding-grid logic but with higher tiers: $12,000, $8,000, $5,000, or $3,000/year. As with the resident chart, UW's own page doesn't publish the tier logic as a simple table -- it's a grid image, and the test-optional review path is described as capping below the top tier here too.
What this means for you
- If a strong test score is realistic for you, submit it. Skipping testing caps you at $4,000/year on the resident chart (or the equivalent lower tier on the non-resident chart) regardless of GPA.
- Don't assume a fixed GPA or ACT cutoff applies to your tier. This is a genuine sliding scale -- a slightly lower GPA with a meaningfully higher test score can land you in the same dollar tier as a higher GPA with a lower score.
- Wyoming accepts either weighted or unweighted GPA for this scholarship -- check which version of your GPA the university is using, since it can move you within the grid.
- Confirm your enrollment by the May 1 (fall) or January 5 (spring) deadline to keep the awarded tier.