<p>My son got accepted EA to UVA (his first choice). We are beyond excited for him to attend his dream school. What are the scholarship opportunities like at UVA? Upon EA acceptance to a small, private college in VA, he was offered 25,000 a yr / for 4 yrs. This sounds good, but the cost to attend there is twice that of UVA so it really only brings it down to near UVA's cost. We are a mid-to-lower income family and the financial aid / scholarship would make a huge difference for us. </p>
<p>UVa has very good need-based aid for all US students. However, they expect students who receive need based aid to do work study and to take out federal Stafford loans and often federal Perkins loans. A student can turn down or reduce the work study if they can find the money somewhere else. There is a maximum loan cap amount for total federal loans, after which a student is supposed to receive larger amounts of aid. That may kick in during a student’s last semester.</p>
<p>It is critically important to have all of your financial forms submitted by the deadline, which is fast-approaching. Also, the aid is typically only good for 8 semesters, so it is necessary to graduate on time to avoid unforeseen expenses. </p>
<p>Here is a thread posted in the past month.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/1606447-merit-scholarship-echols-scholars.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/1606447-merit-scholarship-echols-scholars.html#latest</a></p>
<p>There is a search box at the top of the page. It is always worth your time to search before posting. We also have a sticky thread with commonly asked questions.</p>
<p>It sounds like you will be eligible for UVa’s generous need-based aid. Run the Net Price Calculator through the link below to get an idea of what your family will be expected to pay, and submit all the required paperwork by March 1. The website also has a link to the very limited number of other scholarships.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admission.virginia.edu/financial_aid”>http://www.admission.virginia.edu/financial_aid</a></p>
<p>Congratulations to your son! I hope the financial package works out.</p>
<p>If your son is at all interested in the military, I highly recommend trying an ROTC program. The benefits are incredible. If accepted to the program (which he can start sophomore year), he can potentially finish college completely debt free, as ROTC pays full tuition, textbooks, fees, and he would get a monthly stipend to defray the cost of room and board. He would owe the military about 4 years of service after graduating, but as an officer you will have a management level job with really good benefits, including the ability to go to graduate school with the military covering the bill. However, ROTC is mostly interested in technical fields (engineering, meteorology, computer science) and critical foreign languages, so your son would need to be majoring in one of those fields. I hope this helped! I know the military is not for everyone, but ROTC is a really awesome way to pay for college. They treat you very well. Good luck :)</p>
<p>right on Apalapa! My husband went to a military academy and served 20yrs. Sad our children wont even consider that or ROTC. It really is great.</p>