Scholarships and Financial Aid
Years ago, financial aid was not a major part of the landscape at Virginia. Everyone got a substantial scholarship in the form of low tuition. That was true whether students were in-state or out-of-state, wealthy or needy. It was simply a large subsidy paid for by the taxpayers of Virginia.
All that has changed. With financial self sufficiency, tuition has risen, and the Law School has lost its financial advantage over its competitors.
At about the same time the culture of legal education began to change. Our peers are aggressively trying to recruit the best students. We have to respond to their efforts to remain competitive. That means that we need to be able to include some scholarship component in a financial aid package based largely on loans. We do not try to buy students. But we do try, to the extent our resources allow, to create a level playing field. Ideally, a student would be financially indifferent and able to base his or her choice solely on the character of the institution.
This goal requires a serious increase in financial aid. Most of our competitor institutions have longer histories of high tuition, longer histories of raising money for scholarships, and longer investments in endowments that produce scholarship funds. We're playing catch up in financial aid.
"Of all the uses to which money can be put, none is more rewarding—or ultimately more beneficial to the future of the institution—than to invest in the people who come here," said John Jeffries. "These extraordinary young people borrow staggering sums for their education. At some point, that burden becomes intolerable, and we must be ready to help."
GOAL $75 Million