Could someone explain more about the Jefferson Scholars program. Know anyone who received this full ride? How much of decision is based on academics vs EC and leadership? Does being asked for a Jefferson Scholar interview mean you will automatically be accepted into UVA?
Three years ago an admissions rep said (to me directly)after a group session that students who are recommended by their schools to apply for the Jefferson Scholar program are admitted. This may not be true today. I do not know anyone who received the scholarship, but I know the one who was recommended from my daughterâs school.
You might just look around the UVa site to get some information, but those who are recommended fill out an involved app and some of those are invited to campus for a weekend that includes interviews. My guess is that, overall, anyone recommended for it would be a fine human being (at least to school administrators and counselors) and would be admissible. Your grades and ECs get you nominated, your application gets you invited, and your interviews get the scholarship. It is not an easy process, but it is a dandy scholarship. And several young people are rewarded each year.
I donât know the ins and outs of the studentâs qualifications, but I do know of a student who was recommended by a school, interviewed for a Jefferson, and then was not admitted. Very painful all around. The âJeffâ is a wonderful opportunity, but remember that it is geographic-area based (I believe that local alumni groups essentially finance the scholarships), and so some areas have a much deeper pool of competitive students from which to draw.
^In the situation described above, I have to wonder if there is a missing piece of information.
One thing to consider is that the U.Va. application is sent to the admissions office, while the Jefferson Scholarship application goes to the Jefferson Foundation. It is not clear to me that the two offices have access to information submitted to the other.
It is also possible that every nominee moves on to the interview stage in geographic areas where the alumni group is active but few high schools have nominated students in a particular year.
I was told by the admissions rep that a student who had been nominated as a Jeffereson scholar was rejected by the admissions office. When the admissions office was notified that the rejected student was a Jefferson nominee, the decision was reversed. I may have leapt to a conclusion and our visit was three years ago, but I had the definite impression when leaving UVa that a nominee would be admitted and that decisions are changed.
I ask some pretty snarky and pointed questions when given the opportunity, so I probably get some answers others donât.
My D. was nominated for Jeff two years ago; NMF, +2250 SATâs, 4.0, All-State athlete, etc. She did not get the Jeff and was waitlisted then accepted by UVA.
Since their financial aid was already allocated to their âfirst choiceâ students, there was no offer of financial aid, not even waiver of OOS.
D. is very happy at our own state flagship. We are confident her GREâs and MCATâs will be superior to all but a very few UVA (and other) grads.
Note, we did not need aid with in-state fees. They threw in a little merit aid which did âclinch the dealâ from my Dâs prospective.
âOnly God can make them smartâ.
Does U.Va. ever give waivers of OOS tuition absent demonstrated need?
Call UVA admisions director and ask the question point blank. The answer is probably that in nearly all cases those who do get the Jefferson are accepted. But there are exceptions.
I, too, know someone who was nominated and not accepted and did not get the Jefferson.
On another thread, Dean J from UVa sort of hinted that Jeff nominees might mention the nomination in an essay or somewhere else. Perhaps the college counselors should get in the habit of putting it in their reports.
does anyone know what tennessee school gives the most merit and need based aid.
FYI: My D just received an offer of full tuition and fees, plus 7K a year for 4 years at Univ. of Texas at Dallas. They have a number of fast track graduate programs where students can work on grad. coursework during undergrad. Also, they have brand new student housing with private bedrooms for each student. We havenât visited but have read that itâs a strong math/engineering/computer school. Second new dorm will be finished by Fall 2011 per website. Some very decent graduate ratings in some fields. Itâs in a suburb north of Dallas and close to major airports. They also give instate tuition with scholarships. Deadline hasnât passed if anyone is still looking for good aid. Also I have heard there are excellent internship opportunities for students close by. (Lots of major headquarters.) Some sports but no football team if thatâs important. Outstanding chess team.
^^ agree. For us, UTD started out as one of the financial safeties, but right now its way up on the top of our list. We continue to get impressed with this college. You are right, they are spending so much money in getting this college lots of attention. McDermott Scholars program is just too good to pass. Good luck to you all. UT system is getting better and better. They are now developing this to be another big university in the system. Great job!
Vanderbilt gives lots of $$ IF your student has high stats. At Sâs HS the top student was offered full tuition plus additional $$. Another UR minority student with financial need got full ride. She had great ECs, SAT and 4+ GPA at a competitive HS. So the bottom line is if you are great they will shower the $$ but not much for students who are upper middle class or are not in the top 1% of the applicant pool.
jimmy - If this helps at all - these are the colleges that say they meet full need, according to USNews. In theory, they cover the costs over and above your familyâs EFC (which you can calculate to see how much need-based aid you would still need to pay at schools that meet full need). I hope I have this right. I only see Vanderbilt on the list for Tennessee. If you are looking for other Tennessee schools with good need based aid, you might also want to post over on the financial aid section of the forum. Someone there might have ideas for schools with good need based aid or a good combination of merit/need aid (schools that give increasing need-based amounts of aid to students with exceptional merit).
Adrian College Adrian MI
Amherst College Amherst MA
Barnard College New York NY
Bates College Lewiston ME
Boston College Chestnut Hill MA
Bowdoin College Brunswick ME
Brown University Providence RI
Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr PA
California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA
Carleton College Northfield MN
Chapman University Orange CA
Claremont McKenna College Claremont CA
Colby College Waterville ME
Colgate University Hamilton NY
College of the Holy Cross Worcester MA
Columbia University New York NY
Connecticut College New London CT
Cornell University Ithaca NY
Dartmouth College Hanover NH
Davidson College Davidson NC
Duke University Durham NC
Emory University Atlanta GA
Georgetown University Washington DC
Gettysburg College Gettysburg PA
Grinnell College Grinnell IA
Hamilton College Clinton NY
Harvard University Cambridge MA
Harvey Mudd College Claremont CA
Haverford College Haverford PA
Lafayette College Easton PA
Macalester College St. Paul MN
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA
Middlebury College Middlebury VT
Mount Holyoke College South Hadley MA
Northwestern University Evanston IL
Oberlin College Oberlin OH
Occidental College Los Angeles CA
Pitzer College Claremont CA
Pomona College Claremont CA
Princeton University Princeton NJ
Reed College Portland OR
Rice University Houston TX
Salem College Winston-Salem NC
Scripps College Claremont CA
Smith College Northampton MA
St. Olaf College Northfield MN
Stanford University Stanford CA
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse NY
Swarthmore College Swarthmore PA
Thomas Aquinas College Santa Paula CA
Trinity College Hartford CT
Tufts University Medford MA
University of Chicago Chicago IL
University of North CarolinaâChapel Hill Chapel Hill NC
University of Notre Dame Notre Dame IN
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia PA
University of Richmond Univ. of Richmond VA
University of Virginia Charlottesville VA
Vanderbilt University Nashville TN
Vassar College Poughkeepsie NY
Wabash College Crawfordsville IN
Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis MO
Wellesley College Wellesley MA
Wesleyan University Middletown CT
Williams College Williamstown MA
Yale University New Haven CT
MWM2Kids:Is this a list of schools that meet need or schools that meet need without loans? That is a very big difference. I would be great to see the latter list, Iâm guessing this isnât it.
One more thingâyour idea of âneedâ and the schoolâs may be quite different. Iâve never seen a list of schools that meet need w/o loans. As has already been posted, schools have considerable discretion about whom they offer merit grants & scholarships (often to court the students they are most interested in) vs. loans. Sometimes schools will consider other offers by schools they consider âcomparable,â in deciding whether to adjust an offer, so it is worthwhile to apply broadly to schools known for generous merit and need based aid, especially if your kiddo is in the upper tier of those attending that U.
^Project on Student Debt lists almost all of the schools that have made no-loans financial aid commitments. I think it is complete except for the curious omission of Scripps.
Olin automatically awards $18k scholarship (half tuition) to all accepted students. It used to be a full scholarship, but the endowment took a big hit two years ago. Still, itâs a great scholarship at a fantastic school. Itâs highly competitive to get in.
There are schools who promise NO LOANS.
The URL below updates those colleges who pledged no loans prior to the financial meltdown. They are mostly the outrageous ones but some are surprising. Good luck.
[Colleges</a> hold firm on no-loan financial aid - Apr. 9, 2010](<a href=âhttp://money.cnn.com/2010/04/09/pf/college/no-loan_financial_aid/index.htm]Collegesâ>http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/09/pf/college/no-loan_financial_aid/index.htm)
Does ED automatically mean no merit aid or scholarships?
BTW, we do not qualify for need based financial aid.
TY!