Forgive me if there has been a thread on this somewhere, but does UVA post what their available merit-based scholarships are for non-resident students? I’ve looked all over their website and the scholarships page mentions that they have merit based scholarships, but doesn’t have any criteria for eligibility or yearly amounts. Many schools will have clear guidelines on what test scores, GPA’s, class rank, etc. make you eligible for their various levels of scholarships. Am I just missing it, or does UVA not make that publicly available? Thanks in advance for any help.
UVA is a meets-need based school. There are no Merit scholarships for OOS students. Most of the students admitted to UVA are bright students (somewhere around 90% are in the top 10% of their HS class). Some people on this site will mention that UVA does have the Jefferson Scholarship…bear in mind that #1. you have to be the 1 (or maybe 2) students nominated from your HS to apply…and if you are you go through a rigorous application/interview process. #2 it is a program run by the Jefferson Foundation and not by UVA and #3. There are about 30 or so Jeff Scholars a year…so when people mention that as “Merit at UVA” I don’t consider the Jeff Scholarship “Merit money”. UVA is a great school…my son had a great 4 years there…but we were full pay OOS tuition. His fourth year he applied for and received a small scholarship from the Comm School but that was it. Good luck!
If you mean merit money as tuition discounting, we do not do that.
We do have scholarships that don’t take need into account. Those are listed on our website (along with scholarships that do use need as a factor):
http://sfs.virginia.edu/self-identify
http://sfs.virginia.edu/sfsidentify
https://alumni.virginia.edu/scholarships/
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Was there ever tuition discounting? I may be remembering incorrectly, but I thought my D was offered in-state tuition a few years ago even though she was OOS.
Admission has not had the power to discount tuition at UVA. I’ve been here for 13 years.
Thanks for the responses!
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Just a comment on the Jefferson Scholars program. It is completely run by it’s foundation and not affiliated with the school. They make a point of telling you that results are separate from admissions. We lived through that as S (OOS with a very strong resume) was his school’s nominee. Did very well in the interview process. Wrote a great essay - some of the trustees even discussed it with him at an event the night before his interview. Sometime before they announced the regional finalists, he was actually declined admission (not even waitlisted).
- OOS admission to UVA is very tough - more like an Ivy
- Jefferson Scholars is a VERY competitive scholarship. Rightfully so. It provides far more than a full ride to a great school. Clearly they are picking off those that would otherwise attend HYPS.
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Wait a second! UVA admission is NOT as selective as the schools in the Ivy League. Our offer rates are public and they are not even close to the single-digits (okay, one admits double digits) you see at those other schools.
For a good number of years, the VA offer rate has been around 40-45%. The OOS offer rate has been 22-24%.
You can see the date by clicking on the “Detailed Admission Table” tab here: http://ias.virginia.edu/university-stats-facts/undergraduate-admissions
^ OK . But if you go RD, non legacy, not a recruited athlete, not URM, no hooks, it’s lower than 20% (I concede, not as low as the ivies) but still very competitive when you consider the state requires approx 2/3 to be VA residents. So, OOS kids are competing for a fairly low number of spaces (not as bad as UNC which requires roughly 80% to be NC residents.)
Bottom line, especially for OOS kids, it is VERY selective. Lots of high stat kids with great ECs that don’t get in. Just not enough room.
It isn’t helpful to student to toss out numbers without linking to the data that backs them up.
I appreciate that you are trying to direct potential students to possible sources of merit scholarships at UVA. I called the College of Engineering as suggested in the link provided. I asked if there were any merit scholarships available for out-of-state incoming freshman in the top 1% of their graduating class. I was told by two different people that there was no merit based scholarships for incoming students from the school and the few private scholarships available were for specific high schools or other obscure criteria. We are OOS and while not eligible for financial aid, the cost is very difficult to justify vs. other merit offers. Please advise?
@“Dean J” apologize, I forgot to tag you
@Mom1st23, I’m sorry, but this really isn’t a the best place to get in touch with me during the reading season due to my workload. If you need to get in touch with an admission officer, we have staff on call every day during business hours for phone calls and emails. I’m also available via my social media accounts.
I shared above, but what when most people talk about merit money, they are actually [url=<a href=“https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/09/26/why-tuition-discounting-has-created-more-problems-solutions-essay%5Dtuition”>https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/09/26/why-tuition-discounting-has-created-more-problems-solutions-essay]tuition discounting/url. We don’t practice tuition discounting here, but there are scholarships for which students can apply. The links to the lists are above.
That is an interesting article @“Dean J” . I watched our middle class friends with no real hope of need-based aid going through the college application process struggle with ED vs RD decisions knowing that an ED application is a commitment to pay full price. That usually, and rightly so, has them choose to hold out for the best financial offer in RD. It argues for the tuition reset, doing away with merit all together and using the need-based aid system to its fullest.
The Reset…
I think your post strikes at a very difficult reality the middle class like your friend faces all too often.
The EFC…
So the game goes like this…
“meet ones demonstrated need”.
Fully, Partially & Blind
So we the middle class who have hidden, less than obvious needs to get our kids in top choice schools are squeezed by those receiving significant strict need based aid & those that can just write the check as full pay.
So yes the high need based kid and the rich kid get in and the middle class kid often has to decide to mortgage their future to get the same education. Far from fair.
ED is only a consideration for the poor and the very rich. It’s not an option for most in the middle class. As schools move away from EA to ED based modules the middle class will continue to be squeezed out of the equation of viable options to pursue in the application process.
I’ve never heard were the EFC ( FAFSA number ) varied much at all from one school to the next. How they meet it does of course. Especially noticeably between private and public schools. In state or OOS. I thought UVA met 100% of demonstrated need which should be the Difference between the EFC and costs.
Something appears to be wrong. Unless your CSS report revealed something significant that a school that doesn’t look at the CSS see.
Can anyone verify why there would be any variance with this as I have found almost all schools to use similar numbers.
I did find that some schools significantly increase the amount of loans and work-study to meet the determined need of a student. Which IMO is simply wrong if the school claims to fully meet the need and is need blind. I think offering loans is not truly Meeting needs it’s just facilitating more debt as compared to other institutions that meet ones need exclusively through grants.
What does colleges like UVA consider from one applicant to the next with the same EFC if they still play with the overall ratio of grants and loans + work study.
Curious?
Does UVA offer two different individuals with the same EFC different packages?
$20,000 ( $10,000 in Grants and $10,000 in
Loans and Work Study )
Vrs
$20,000 ( 100% Grant )
If so what do they take into consideration when doing this? Merit? Anything else?
Dean J?
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