What is the full cost of attendance?

For 2025-2026 (most recent published), the on-campus total is $71,482: tuition $50,574, fees $1,918, housing $8,416, meals $7,016, plus books, transportation, personal, additional meal expenses, and loan fees. 2026-2027 figures were not yet published at the time of this extract.

Randolph-Macon· Outside Scholarship Displacement

Will Randolph-Macon Reduce Your Outside Scholarship?

When you win a private scholarship, who actually keeps the money: your family, or the school?

Verified Jun 20264 days ago· COWORK

The rule at Randolph-Macon

Mixed displacement

Randolph-Macon displaces some aid categories but not others. In plain dollar terms, that means one $5,000 outside award might land against loans, work-study, or institutional grant depending on the category, so outcomes vary.

catalog.rmc.edu publishes the $71,482 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Source: https://catalog.rmc.edu/fees-financial-aid/aid-programs-not-need-based/

The math: a $5,000 outside scholarship at Randolph-Macon

Setup
Randolph-Macon treats different aid types differently. You receive institutional merit + need-based grant + a federal loan offer, then win a $5,000 outside scholarship.
What Randolph-Macon does
Some categories reduce first; others stack. Without writing to the aid office, you cannot predict whether the $5,000 cuts loans, work-study, or institutional aid.
Family takeaway
Mixed-displacement schools require a written aid-office answer for each award size. Don't assume the answer matches a peer school.

Schools with the same policy

These schools also use mixed displacement for outside scholarships. The same dollar math above applies at each.

Schools that handle this differently

If Randolph-Macon’s policy concerns you, these schools treat outside scholarships under a different rule.

When this rule bites hardest

Treating a named endowed scholarship as extra money on top of your package.
The Financial Aid Consumer Information Guide states that a named endowed scholarship 'does not change the total amount of financial aid awarded' and that endowed funds 'replace the amount of any RMC funding on a dollar-for-dollar basis.'
Not reporting outside (external) scholarships — or assuming they can't change your package.
The Consumer Information Guide requires students to notify the Financial Aid Office in writing of changes 'including the receipt of external scholarships, grants, or loans' and warns that 'Changes in these areas may reduce your financial aid award.' The exact reduction order (loan vs. grant first) is not published.
Dropping below full-time enrollment while holding a merit scholarship.
Merit awards require full-time enrollment at RMC; the Consumer Information Guide states that if your course load is fewer than 12 credit hours at the end of the add period, 'your financial aid awards may be reduced or cancelled.' Aid is also generally limited to eight semesters.

Displacement questions families ask

What is the full cost of attendance?: For 2025-2026 (most recent published), the on-campus total is $71,482: tuition $50,574, fees $1,918, housing $8,416, meals $7,016, plus books, transportation, personal, additional meal expenses, and loan fees. 2026-2027 figures were not yet published at the time of this extract.

Rules that bite at Randolph-Macon

Trip wires derived from Randolph-Macon's own published policy. These are the things a custom playbook would flag in the first pass.

renewalMerit Scholarships (first-year): renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable for up to four years, provided the recipient continues to meet academic benchmarks, Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards, and is enrolled full-time at RMC. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
displacementDifferent aid types are displaced differently
Randolph-Macon treats loans, work-study, and institutional grant under different rules. The same $5,000 outside award can land against any of them depending on category.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

The displacement rule is only binding when it's in writing. This script asks Randolph-Macon's aid office the specific question that matters for mixed displacement.

Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question, fall applicant

Dear Randolph-Macon Financial Aid Office,

I'm a fall applicant reviewing how outside scholarships interact with my institutional aid package. I've read the public policy at https://catalog.rmc.edu/fees-financial-aid/aid-programs-not-need-based/ and the $71,482 cost-of-attendance worksheet.

Which institutional aid types are protected from outside-award displacement, and which can be reduced?

Is the displacement order published anywhere internally, even if not on the public site? Families need this to compare schools.

A written answer (email is fine) is important because the outside-scholarship awarding bodies want confirmation before disbursing. Thank you for the time.

— [Student name], [Application ID if available]

How Randolph-Macon compares across our verified dataset

86 of 751 verified schools in our dataset use mixed displacement.
Randolph-Macon is in the modest minority (86 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Randolph-Macon 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.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Randolph-Macon’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.