My daughter is a finalist for the Benedict scholarship @ Sewanee and was nominated by her school for the Belk scholarship @ Davidson. She was also awarded a 3 day all expenses paid visit to Washington & Lee. But U of R is her number 1 school. She has not received any notifications about being a Richmond Scholar. Are notifications still going out?
@OctGirl As far as I know, yes. Last couple years, all semfinalists had been notified by the end of the first week of february. UR Admissions tweets out every year on their twitter when all semifinalists have been notified.
What is the selection process? Is there a campus visit? Kid applied to URich at the suggestion of a good friend who thought it a good fit, but hasn’t visited yet. I was going to schedule a visit, but don’t want to go twice in a short span of time.
I’m pretty sure after you submit the additional materials once notified of your semifinalist status, and if you move on to become a finalist, you go to the school to interview? In Feb./March? Am I correct?
@Skrunch There is a campus visit for Artist scholar finalists to do a live audition. All other scholars, once awarded, have a scholars weekend where they visit campus. As for the selection process, everyone who applies by Dec 1 is considered- last year that was around 5,000 students. From that, students are selected in batches as semifinalists (last year there were 425), with all notified by beginning of Feb (note those not selected are not notified). Semifinalists can self-selected up to two designations and submit related material. Finalist decisions are made based on those materials and other factors such as mid-year grades (about 100-150 finalists) and are released by beginning of march. Finalists then have to participate in an interview on phone or skype, or in person for artist scholars as part of the live audition. From the finalists, approx 45-60 are awarded, at the end of march.
@britbratg interviews are mid March. They are done by phone or skype, or in person for artist scholars finalists (since there is a live audition/portfolio review). They used to have all finalists come in person, but stopped quite a few years back because it was too expensive, since U of R pays for your travel.
@guineagirl96 Thanks for answering everyone’s questions! Are Presidential scholarships chosen from this same pool that don’t get into the Richmond Scholars?
Thank you Guinea Girl.
@OctGirl so your daughter received the Johnson Scholarship to Washington and Lee? You are the only person I have heard of getting a 3 day all expense paid trip to W&L.
@britbratg No problem! All Richmond Scholars finalists who don’t receive the scholarship automatically receive the Presidential scholarship, which is 1/3 tuition. The other presidential scholarships are selected from the rest of the application pool, whether that be a scholar semi-finalists or an applicant who was not selected/didn’t apply by the deadline for scholars. Im sorry I don’t have the numbers on presidential scholars as far as how many they give out. I believe its around 100, iirc, but don’t quote me on that. So subtracting out the 50-75 scholar finalists that don’t receive the scholarship, that leaves 25-50 non-scholar finalists spots.
@mxl2015 Washington and Lee invites students to all-expense-paid overnight visits throughout the fall and winter. I went to one back in November and it was solely for multicultural students. I’m pretty sure it is unrelated to the Johnson Scholarship program though but it was nice to stay with a host, tour the campus, and sit-in on classes!
No - the Johnson Scholarships have not been awarded yet. She was offered her visit as a “top applicant”. We were told ~ 15 visits get awarded. Hers is not a “multicultural” visit.
@octgirl how did you hear about the Benedict scholarship? I was hoping for some aid from sewanee
I am still freaking out about Richmond Scholars… I don’t think I got it.
When did she find out about being a finalist for the Benedict scholarship at Sewanee?
Same, I don’t think I’ll be one either. February 1st is becoming too close.
Maybe they just want to surprise us at the end of January? 
trying to keep my hopes up…
Does anyone know if there has been a batch of notifications sent out since the one on the 9th or so this month?
I think the last ones were sent out the 13th. I really hope those weren’t the last batch. 
I was still hopeful…
@Zoezaz All semi-finalist notifications are out - 1/19 was the last batch.
@phoenixmomof2 I don’t believe that is necessarily the case (although I don’t want to give students false hope either). UR Admissions tweets when all semi-finalists have been notified. Last year, that date was Feb 3 and UR Admissions has yet to tweet on the topic this year. In fact, 4 days ago on the UR Admissions blog, one of the admissions employees commented that “Most Richmond Scholars semi-finalists have been selected already. All will be selected by the end of January”. This implies that they may not have finished yet.