Jefferson Scholarship 2027 - Full Ride to UVA

It covers the full cost of attendance at the University of Virginia for four years. For Virginia residents that is more than $42,000 a year, roughly $230,000 across a degree. For non-Virginia and international students it is more than $83,000 a year, roughly $405,000 in total. The award pays tuition, housing, meals, books and other educational costs, and adds travel abroad, career development and access to the Foundation's network of Scholars, Fellows and alumni. In the 2025-26 cycle the Foundation awarded $14.5 million.

Your school nominates you. The Foundation invites secondary schools inside its nominating regions to put forward the senior who best exemplifies leadership, scholarship and citizenship, and a participating school may nominate one student a year for the Jefferson award. The portal opens in August, so the conversation to have is with your counselor in the first weeks of senior year. If your school sits outside a nominating region there is no alternative route in.

No. The Foundation is blunt about it: no one may apply for a Jefferson or Walentas Scholarship directly, and nominations must come through a school counselor. There is no self-nomination form, no open application and no appeal for students at non-participating schools. Accepting a nomination is voluntary, and it does not oblige you to accept the scholarship if you are selected.

Very. In the 2025-26 cycle 7,697 schools were invited to nominate and 3,289 students were actually put forward, each already the strongest candidate their school could find. Recent Jefferson and Walentas classes have run to 46 and 57 Scholars in total, so a nomination converts to a scholarship somewhere around one time in sixty. Being nominated is itself the achievement most students should measure themselves against.

Counselor and nominee materials are due 1 December 2026 for most regions. The At-Large and International At-Large regions run two weeks earlier, on 15 November 2026. Both the school official's materials and the student's materials must be in by the relevant date. Regional review and interviews follow from mid-December through January, and final interviews are held virtually in late February 2027.

The funding is the same: both are full four-year awards covering tuition, room, board, books and expenses at UVA, selected through the same nomination process. The Walentas Scholarship is for first-generation, college-bound students, whose nominees must be first or among the first in their families to earn a bachelor's degree, and it runs across 20 nominating regions rather than the 65-plus the Jefferson uses. Walentas Scholars also receive first-generation support, including a Scholar Summit before freshman year.

Not for the 2026-27 selection cycle. The Foundation follows UVA's test-optional policy, so standardised test scores are not required and a file without them is not incomplete. Send scores if they genuinely strengthen your case, but the committees are reading transcripts, activity summaries, essays and recommendations rather than looking for a number.

Yes. The Foundation says it has Scholars from all over the globe, and international nominees are funded at the same non-Virginia rate, more than $83,000 a year. Two practical points: the International At-Large region has the earlier 15 November deadline, and you still have to gain admission to UVA through the University's own admissions process, which the Foundation does not control.

No, and that is written into the process. Both financial need and any prior interest in the University are excluded from consideration, so the award goes on leadership, scholarship and citizenship alone. Practically, that means a family with means is not penalised and a family without one is not helped, and any need-based aid you want at UVA runs through the University's financial aid office as a separate matter.