<p>I am not a UVa official. If you want to officially hear from an admissions rep, you can post on the UVa admissions blog. The Jefferson Scholarships are decided upon by a separate organization.</p>
<p>If you really really want to study in the US, I believe your best odds are to apply to multiple colleges that offer substantial merit aid to international students. In some cases, that may be US colleges that have few current international students, but want to attract more. I’d spend some time on the International student part of this website to find some applicable colleges. UVa emphasizes need-based aid for US students, but has very little merit aid. There are many other colleges that primarily offer merit based aid. However, most merit aid offers cover a range of 1/4 to all of tuition. </p>
<p>If you can’t afford travel, room, board, books and personal expenses, it still may not be affordable. </p>
<p>There are some other US colleges that won’t even accept an international student unless the student can show they have financial resources to attend. </p>
<p>If a US undergrad education is not affordable, it may be in your best interests to go to undergrad in a less expensive country (and where air fare may be cheaper), and then aim towards attending a grad school in the US. Depending upon your field, there may be more opportunities to work your way through a US grad school by being a teaching assistant or research assistant. Also, at the more expensive US universities, tuition for many fields is often lower for grad school than undergrad (except for law, medicine and business). In some fields at some affluent US universities, some grad students get a full waiver of their tuition. </p>
<p>Many international exchange students also attend UVa for a semester.</p>