UVA Class of 2017 Forum

[mylifeis24]

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but does UVA have an appeals form, or just email the FinAid office?

[EEguy5]

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but does UVA have an appeals form, or just email the FinAid office?

I think it's just email. They will forward your email to Dean Richard. If you are like me and it sounds like many others, she will ask you to call her and then politely inform you that there are no more funds to give out.

[Pneumonia]

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but does UVA have an appeals form, or just email the FinAid office?

I think it's just email. They will forward your email to Dean Richard. If you are like me and it sounds like many others, she will ask you to call her and then politely inform you that there are no more funds to give out.

Yep. She is very kind though. She said they try to spread their money out rather than concentrate it at the top, which is admirable I suppose. It's also unfortunate for those who really want to be at UVA but have better offers from their peer schools or from CCN.

I didn't make an impassioned plea on the phone, but I suspect that doing so might be worthwhile. If you're really sold on UVA and really would only go there if your offer got bumped up then I think it might be worth making a case for yourself.

[jasper09]

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but does UVA have an appeals form, or just email the FinAid office?

I think it's just email. They will forward your email to Dean Richard. If you are like me and it sounds like many others, she will ask you to call her and then politely inform you that there are no more funds to give out.

Yep. She is very kind though. She said they try to spread their money out rather than concentrate it at the top, which is admirable I suppose. It's also unfortunate for those who really want to be at UVA but have better offers from their peer schools or from CCN.

I didn't make an impassioned plea on the phone, but I suspect that doing so might be worthwhile. If you're really sold on UVA and really would only go there if your offer got bumped up then I think it might be worth making a case for yourself.

So, I wrote this in the Fin Aid forum a week or two ago and I think it might be useful info, so I'm re-posting here:

Pro tip from the UVA open house financial aid session: when UVA gives a scholarship offer, it's fully funded, whereas some schools apparently just charge you less tuition (not really sure how it works, but that's what was said). The lady from the Fin Aid office literally said that, as of right now, "the checkbook's empty" so they won't negotiate or budge until people begin declining offers and freeing up money that's currently earmarked for other admitted students. That said, she did say that if you would like to be considered for a higher award, to email Dean Richard. I think you'll probably have to wait a bit (closer to when seat deposits are due) to get an affirmative response, but there's a chance you might get more money once people decide to go elsewhere.

Essentially, I think they want to know how the class is shaping up so that they know how much available funding they have for additional scholarship funds.

[jdapplicant]

When is the deadline to accept/decline the award?

[Sojourner2]

When is the deadline to accept/decline the award?

Pretty sure it is whenever you send in your seat deposit. Which is April 21st or something. Not sure why it is so early compared to other schools.

[Pneumonia]

When is the deadline to accept/decline the award?

Pretty sure it is whenever you send in your seat deposit. Which is April 21st or something. Not sure why it is so early compared to other schools.

This is when NYUs is as well

[a.sleepyhead]

When is the deadline to accept/decline the award?

Pretty sure it is whenever you send in your seat deposit. Which is April 21st or something. Not sure why it is so early compared to other schools.

This is when NYUs is as well

NYU's deadline is May 2nd (ETA: there may be a couple different deadlines based on aid type)

[Pneumonia]

When is the deadline to accept/decline the award?

Pretty sure it is whenever you send in your seat deposit. Which is April 21st or something. Not sure why it is so early compared to other schools.

This is when NYUs is as well

NYU's deadline is May 2nd

PM'd

[smartypants2014]

Interested to know if so called merit scholarship awards are being affected by parents stated income on financial aid forms.
Have spoken to a few students with very similar stats and seems students whose parents stated income was higher got less merit award than students whose parents stated income was lower. In all cases, students are no longer parents' dependents and no parents are contributing to students' law school expenses. Anyone able to say if this is done at UVA? Not really a merit scholarship if not given on the "merits" of the students' scholastic performance and anticipated capabilities to add value to the incoming class.

[Pneumonia]

Just withdrew. Didn't get much scholarship money, but what I did get is opened up!

[Mack.Hambleton]

Interested to know if so called merit scholarship awards are being affected by parents stated income on financial aid forms.
Have spoken to a few students with very similar stats and seems students whose parents stated income was higher got less merit award than students whose parents stated income was lower. In all cases, students are no longer parents' dependents and no parents are contributing to students' law school expenses. Anyone able to say if this is done at UVA? Not really a merit scholarship if not given on the "merits" of the students' scholastic performance and anticipated capabilities to add value to the incoming class.

my scholly was given on the acceptance phone call and I didn't submit the FAFSA/any financial aid info. So seemed pretty meritocratic

[rachellen]

Interested to know if so called merit scholarship awards are being affected by parents stated income on financial aid forms.
Have spoken to a few students with very similar stats and seems students whose parents stated income was higher got less merit award than students whose parents stated income was lower. In all cases, students are no longer parents' dependents and no parents are contributing to students' law school expenses. Anyone able to say if this is done at UVA? Not really a merit scholarship if not given on the "merits" of the students' scholastic performance and anticipated capabilities to add value to the incoming class.

my scholly was given on the acceptance phone call and I didn't submit the FAFSA/any financial aid info. So seemed pretty meritocratic

I actually got a scholarship estimate during my interview, but ended up not getting an actual offer until after all my fafsa etc was in. It was about what they said in the interview though, so who knows.

[alinor]

How long did it take people to hear back about scholarship appeals?

[smartypants2014]

Not sure if anyone has heard anything but no as a reply so far?

[Sojourner2]

Interested to know if so called merit scholarship awards are being affected by parents stated income on financial aid forms.
Have spoken to a few students with very similar stats and seems students whose parents stated income was higher got less merit award than students whose parents stated income was lower. In all cases, students are no longer parents' dependents and no parents are contributing to students' law school expenses. Anyone able to say if this is done at UVA? Not really a merit scholarship if not given on the "merits" of the students' scholastic performance and anticipated capabilities to add value to the incoming class.

I did talk to them on the phone and they said that they did try to take people's need into consideration this year when handing out the awards.

That does not necessarily mean that the aid is not "merit" though. It just means that the award you get as one big chuck is probably partially a grant based on need and part a scholarship based on merit. This explains why some people can be offered money over the phone before their forms are in (because they're getting merit), and also why some people with similar numbers to you might have appeared to get more (their merit is the same as yours, but their need is greater).

[Otunga]

Thoughts on waiting to a couple days before the deposit deadline to negotiate? Do you (anybody) think we have to make the deposit and negotiate after to have an opportunity at an increase? Or are there just no increases to have?

[Sojourner2]

There might be. But I think they probably have a pretty good idea of what their yield rate is, and they probably give out money with that in mind. So just because people are turning down money doesn't mean there will be more for everyone else--UVA expects this to happen. Only if more people who have scholarships turn down UVA than usual/they expect will there be more money.

That is what I think, at least. I suppose they could save a little pool of money to negotiate right at the end, just as you are thinking you might do. But that strikes me as a risky strategy on their part because by then many students they might want will already have chosen to go elsewhere and might have been tempted to come to UVA if they had gotten a little more money.

[SteelPenguin]

So it sounds like everyone that has tried to appeal has been told they are out of funds? Is there anyone that sent an e-mail and is still waiting for a response?

[alinor]

So it sounds like everyone that has tried to appeal has been told they are out of funds? Is there anyone that sent an e-mail and is still waiting for a response?

I'm still waiting. It's been ~2 weeks.

[Mack.Hambleton]

So is that April 21 deposit deadline a strict deadline?

I'm still waiting on decisions from most of the T14 (and scholarship $ at a few).....

[SplitMyPants]

Withdrew. Good luck, y'all

[Sojourner2]

So is that April 21 deposit deadline a strict deadline?

I'm still waiting on decisions from most of the T14 (and scholarship $ at a few).....

I'd love to know if anyone has been told anything about this as well.

[OliveBC]

Withdrew today, didn't get much $$ but hopefully it gets redistributed to some of you guys

[albs18]

Has anyone had success in negotiation scholarships?