<p>My son received an e-mail today from UCLA awarding him an "Achievement" scholarship which apparently is a relatively new program. It says that he would be awarded $10K per year, and $40K for four years (if in good standing), which would be in lieu of Student Loans and/or Work Study. Anyone familiar with this program or currently enrolled at UCLA and receiving this? Just want to make sure there aren't any "smoke and mirrors" that I am missing.....</p>
<p>My son received the same email. I have never heard of the scholarship and there is not a lot of info on the website.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fao.ucla.edu/Publications/2012-2013/UCLA_Achievement_Scholarship.pdf[/url]”>http://www.fao.ucla.edu/Publications/2012-2013/UCLA_Achievement_Scholarship.pdf</a></p>
<p>[UCLA</a> Dream Fund will provide $20 million in scholarship aid to students / UCLA Newsroom](<a href=“http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-dream-fund-will-provide-20-203671.aspx]UCLA”>Newsroom | UCLA)</p>
<p>[UCLA</a> Financial Aid Office | CAL GRANTS | LOANS | WORK STUDY | SCHOLARSHIP | PELL GRANTS](<a href=“http://www.fao.ucla.edu/uclascholarships/]UCLA”>http://www.fao.ucla.edu/uclascholarships/)</p>
<p>Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for. Congratulations to your sons!</p>
<p>The best that I can surmise from UCLA’s website is that it is given to bridge the gap between the parent’s EFC and the financial based grant awarded, thus alleviating the necessity of obtaining student loans and doing work study to cover that gap…about $10K in our case, so this was a Godsend as UCLA was on the top of my son’s list sans the two reach schools he applied to, Stanford and Columbia.</p>
<p>Just wanted to chime in as a current UCLA Achievement Scholar. It’s a legitimate scholarship that’s given to the top 1% of the applicant pool, although I’m still not sure on which criteria they base this “1%” are. We’re currently trying to increase the awareness/recognition of this scholarship since we know there’s very little online information available for it, despite the fact that it’s such a hefty and prestigious scholarship. The reason for this is because it’s a really new scholarship and the people running it haven’t made any websites or done anything to promote it, which is why the current Achievement Scholars are working on that.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son on the scholarship! I hope he’s happy wherever he decides to go.</p>
<p>EDIT: the scholarship is based on income as well as student achievements in academia and their overall application</p>
<p>Congrats to those who receive the scholarship! Would you mind share your stats? Do you see the awards in ePAL? My D was accepted, but no grant nor scholarship of any sort. Very frustrating ! She probably won’t make the 1%.</p>
<p>Dad4life, the best that I can tell is that the awards are given to those that both have some financial need and also were top candidates. I don’t believe that it was the top 1% as I don’t think my son would have qualified that high, but some have said that one of the qualifiers was an unweighted 4.0 (i.e. no B’s in HS, which my son did attain) though I can not cofirm that as a prerequisite for he award.</p>
<p>My sense is that they may give it out to those that they believe are highly likely to attend UCLA; meaning that they believe that the very top qualifiers may use UCLA as more of a safety school. Again, just a thought, since so much of this process of admittances seems random in nature.</p>
<p>As for Stats, 4.0 UW, 4.67 W, 2170 SAT, 32ACT…again, certainly not at the very top, but apparently high enough up to gain the attention of those divying out the scholarships.</p>
<p>Oh, got an e-mail about 3 hours after the admittance e-mail last Friday.</p>
<p>ExhaustedDad… thanks for the info. My D has similar stats - SAT 2190, ACT 33, UC GPA 4.25. One B+ . Annual income is slightly about $100k. She received no grant, no scholarship 
. Paying $32K each year is impossible.</p>
<p>My son’s stats are good, 4.0 UW GPA, 4.92 W GPA, 2230 SAT, 33 ACT, but I don’t think we qualify as far as financial need, which is why I was a bit confused. Don’t get me wrong…we are very glad and appreciative that he was offered the scholarship. He was invited to apply as a Regents scholar and I guess he didn’t get picked for that one. We also got an email Friday night/Saturday morning and it was in his ePAL.</p>
<p>ExhaustedDad… thanks for the PM. Called FA, nothing they or I can do. Frustrated! Sigh!</p>
<p>Got the scholarship as well. 3.95 GPA, 35 ACT, OOS student</p>
<p>statlanta, interesting you being an out of state student… Well, since it’s a pretty new scholarship not much is known about it other than a small blurb on UCLA web site.</p>
<p>got $10,000 for this scholarship. 4.67 W GPA, 31 ACT, 2080 SAT. Annual income: 100k. but i have a brother who is in college as well? </p>
<p>I also got it, admitted 2011. I was OOS, 4.4GPA weighted (4.0 unweighted), 2240 SAT, 35 ACT ~ 45k/year income, and I got $9200/year from the scholarship</p>
<p>Also, the scholarship is automatically renewed each year if the student maintains at least a 3.5 GPA at UCLA; it is definitely legitimate and I think takes the place of university work study/grants. </p>
<p>How hard is it to maintain a 3.5 GPA ? Btw, I was accepted for fall 2014 with the Achievement Scholarship.</p>