jjjam

I wanted to know what my chances of getting the Jefferson Scholarship. I'm a black male who has a 2350 SAT and a 3.5 gpa (which is kind of low). I'm out of state. What do you think my chances are?

sv3a

You have to be nominated from your school to be a Jeff Schol, and it has to do a lot with your activities outside your academic numbers, particularly ones that demonstrate leadership skills, and after a certain point they start interviews, etc so it depends on your performance there. Regardless, UVA has numerous financial aid options for black students so you aren't missing too much if you don't get it.

funkydesi

everyone's chances of getting a jefferson scholarship are pretty low, because they only select around 30 people to get it out of all the hundreds of students who are nominated by their schools for it. It is primarily based upon the leadership skills that you possess, and you have to show that thru several steps to get it.

ehiunno

probably not very good. You may have a shot but with a 3.5 gpa i doubt you will get your schools nomination. You should talk to you councilor about it.

mintymojito

The Jefferson Scholarship is extremely difficult to get, and depends on much more than just grades. You need very good leadership skills, and, probably most importantly, extremely polished interview skills. The interviews they do for the Jefferson Scholarship are very tough and they get a lot of information about the kind of student you are from those interviews.

In addition, a lot of it is luck as you have to be nominated several times as the most qualified candidate at each level, from school on up. An excellent SAT score such as yours won't hurt at all, but it's not going to help too much when applying for the Jefferson Scholarship.

mono172000

Sorry, I don't want to jack this thread, but I'm curious what sv3a was referring to when they said that there were numerous scholarships for African American's at UVA. Can you be a little more specific?

Globalist

Mono172000,

UVA has The Ridley Scholarship Program created and funded by UVA's black alumni.

Besides its own scholarships, Ridley also acts as an umbrella for a host of other African-American scholarships at UVA such as the following, which were also created and funded by UVA alums and other outside scholarship organizations.

The Annetta Thompson Scholarship
The Gregory Ledford Endowed Scholarship
The Gregory R. Batipps Memorial Scholarship
The Guinee Family Endowed Scholarship
The Lois E. Kirby Scholarship
The Maryland Ridley Scholarship
The Meikel Andrade Memorial Scholarship
The New York Ridley Scholarship
The Ravenell "Ricky" Keller, III Memorial Scholarship
The Richmond Ridley Endowed Scholarship
The Ridley Graves Memorial Scholarship
The Ridley Reid Endowed Scholarship
The Ridley Ernst & Young Scholarship
The Riversville Foundation Scholarship

floridastudent

Globalist do you have to apply to all those "umbrella" scholarships?

Globalist

Actually, I don't know. You should contact the Ridley Scholarship directly. Here you go:

Jenny DeGraff
Assistant Director of Ridley and AIGs
RidleyFunds@virginia.edu

mono172000

thank you, thats very helpful.