My D was admitted EA out of state. We had never visited the school, so we decided to take a trip during this vacation week. We sat through the admissions presentation and participated in the hour and a half student lead tour. Overall, we were very impressed. It’s a really nice school in a really nice town. Our tour guide was a first year from our area and seemed to truly love the place. We also met with another first year and a fourth year from our area. They all seem really happy there and recommended the school wholeheartedly. We were surprised by the schools they turned down to attend UVA…Vanderbilt, UNC, Emory, UPenn and WashU. They are all out of state, but I don’t know what kind of financial packages, if any, they received. They expressed their love for the school and the city. They chose UVA over the others because they felt that UVA was most conducive to their happiness and success.
UVA is now up towards the top of our list even though we are waiting to hear from many more schools.
Bottom line is that we were very impressed and my daughter would be privileged to attend.
@quadaces, I wouldn’t be surprised by those students other choices as UVA is a peer of those schools except Upenn. However UVA is OOS unless your daughter applied for and gets the Jefferson scholarship than you’ll be almost full-freight.
@quadaces UVA is a special place! My 4th Year chose it and we are full pay OOS. He turned down Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Michigan, UNC and a few others. He has had no regrets. Good luck with your decision. My D18 was deferred from EA…if she gets accepted she will be attending.
A substantial percentage of US UVa OOS students receive need-based aid. Only two major public universities in the US meet 100% of the proven need of US OOS students - UVa and UNC-CH.
The privately funded Jefferson Scholarship is extremely competitive and has been the only large merit aid available for incoming first years. There was talk of UVa providing some limited merit aid, but I don’t know if that has started yet.
The Ivy-level universities mainly offer need-based aid, but the next tier of private universities typically offer some merit aid.
She was offered 23k a year merit from Miami. The other schools we are waiting for are Ivy and right below. We don’t qualify for aid but money is definetly a factor. If UVA gave her some merit money, it would certainly help with our decision. I guess we will have to wait a bit and see what happens.
Congrats to your daughter. If you don’t qualify for aid, then count on full pay. IMO (and I am sure many others), UVA is way above Miami! There is no comparison
Our FinAid package at UVA came to just under 26,000- Half of it in the AccessVA grant and the other half comprising of subsidized student loans (9,000) and work/study (4,000). Still leaves us with a 40,000~ price tag, OOS. Not an easy call, UNC being in-state, we’d be out the showroom in under 30,000, and there’s not that much to choose. UVA is such an easy place to fall in love with, though, and not easy to get in, makes it that much harder to pass!
Like someone else said, UVA doesn’t give many merit scholarships besides the Jefferson which the process has already begun. This is a link to scholarships you may apply for if you qualify: http://sfs.virginia.edu/self-identify This is a link to scholarships that you are automatically considered for : http://sfs.virginia.edu/sfsidentify .These scholarships are VERY specific so you may not qualify.
One thing to keep in mind: with need based aid, it will vary with changing circumstances. For example, if a family later has a second child starting college at another institution, the UVa aid will probably increase for the family. Need based aid also typically increases as tuition costs increase over the years.
In comparison, at colleges that primarily offer merit aid. the merit aid offers are typically a flat amount that does not increase, and which can be lost if a minimum GPA is not maintained.
