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UVA award rules

Will the scholarship last four years at UVA?

We pulled the school’s grade, credit, and time limits into one place so you can see what it takes to keep the award.

Verified May 20263 months ago· PT

The short answer

4 of 4 published awards are listed as renewable.

The exact rule can change by award. Check the award your student may receive before you count on the same amount every year.

What to do

Find the award name in the full research below. Save its grade, credit, and deadline rules with your college plan.

See every award rule, common mistake, and source

At a glance

Renewable tiers
4 of 4
One-time tiers
0
Tiers with published renewal terms
3
Renewal risk profile
low

Renewal risk profile

UVA's published renewal rules cluster around a 3.0 floor with no major-GPA gating, which is survivable for the typical freshman with steady study habits. The risk is non-renewal due to enrollment status (dropping below full-time), not GPA.

  • AccessUVa — In-State Income < $50K: See notes
  • AccessUVa — In-State Income $50K–$100K: See notes
  • AccessUVa — In-State Income $100K–$150K: See notes

Renewal terms by tier

Renewal questions families ask

Does UVA give merit scholarships?
Effectively no. Student Financial Services explicitly does not administer merit scholarships. The Jefferson Scholarship (run by the independent Jefferson Scholars Foundation) is the closest thing UVA has to a non-need merit award, and it is by nomination only. UVA also lists 'a limited number of special scholarships' that are not need-based, but these are narrow exceptions, not a published ladder.
When are the financial aid deadlines?
March 1 for all need-based aid (Regular Decision). Early Decision and Early Action applicants should complete the CSS Profile by November 15 and the FAFSA as soon as it opens December 1. Late applicants forfeit state and University need-based aid; only federal aid remains available.

Rules that bite at UVA

The renewal trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook, derived from UVA's own tier rules and not generic advice.

  • cliffOne ACT point can move the award by From $2,000/yr to full cost of tuition and fees

    UVA publishes a tier ladder where crossing VA resident · income drops from $100K–$150K to under $100K changes the marginal value by From $2,000/yr to full cost of tuition and fees. Largest published in-state step. The numeric delta = (full in-state tuition + fees) − $2,000, but UVA's in-state tuition figure is not in this dataset, so the exact dollar amount cannot be computed here.

How UVA compares across our verified dataset

  • 667 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    UVA is one of them. The cohort minority (82 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

  • 63 of 749 verified schools publish a marginal-value cliff table we can quantify.

    UVA is one of them. Most schools won't tell families what one ACT point is actually worth. At the schools that do, a strategic retake is sometimes mathematically more valuable than test-optional positioning.

Sources used on this page

Every renewal claim is checked against UVA’s own published materials.

More on UVA merit aid