Harvard vs Stanford vs Jefferson Scholarship at UVA

elk1819
Wed, 20 Apr 2016 02:25:04 +0000

I know a handful of Echols/Rodman scholars at UVA and the benefits of that program alone are compelling. Consider the possibility of waiving all distribution requirements, priority access to classes, special scholars housing freshman year, etc. And the Jefferson obviously adds plenty on top of that, especially in general prestige on campus (or Grounds, I suppose!) and in the strictly monetary sense, with the scholarship itself and other research/travel grants.

To echo what some other posters have said, it comes down to this: do you want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? At UVA, you’d be part of a small, elite group of students who receive special benefits and privileges and are essentially put on a pedestal by the university (which is not Harvard or Stanford but still a very reputable one, I might add) – and all this without any cost to you. At Harvard or Stanford, you’d be receiving a world-class education from world-class professors and be surrounded by the smartest kids in the world everywhere you look. But I don’t know if the difference in the education you’d receive is great enough to justify your graduating with crippling student loan debt. In terms of graduate school admissions and employability, a Jefferson Scholarship is regarded in the US just about as highly as the Ivies (since most people do choose it over HYPSM, etc.) - and you’d probably have a higher GPA at UVA, too.

Still, go with your gut. Think about how you’d feel a few days after turning down Stanford and Harvard for the Jefferson, or Harvard and the Jefferson for Stanford, etc. I’m stuck in a similarly difficult decision, and that’s how I’ve recently been thinking about it.