For many students, the college search does not end with the discovery of one top-choice school (this was the case for me; see my post from last year on “the perfect college”). But for some the search does end this way. Some students visit a particular campus, meet a tour guide or current student, or sit in on a class, and things just click – and they know they’ve found their top-choice school.
Well, we had another highly competitive year for admission and, as is always the case, we had many more qualified applicants than we have space for in our class. Those of you who have been offered a spot on the wait list are students whom we believe are fully qualified and would contribute greatly to our campus but for whom we don’t, given our size limitations, have space at present. Selective admission is a difficult process for us, as we try to select a class from among many strong, similarly-qualified applicants.
Our average GPA is a 22.96.
Seriously.
We’re asked that question so frequently – “What’s your average GPA?” – that we thought we’d actually go ahead and calculate it. So we took all of the enrolled students in our current first-year class and averaged together all of the GPAs that their high schools reported to us last year. And the golden number came out to be 22.96.
Okay, now that it’s January 15 and our application deadline has arrived, all seniors applying to college (and their parents) should begin thinking about the next step – applying for financial aid. This means a few things: (1) consider getting your taxes done as soon as possible to make sure everything goes smoothly; (2) start work as soon as possible filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA; and (3) check whether the schools where you’ve applied require any sort of supplemental financial aid application (you can find ours here).
Before I get into the meat of this post, I want to say a brief word about financial aid at the University of Richmond. Richmond has been consistently recognized for its strong financial aid programs, and we remain committed to making a Richmond education affordable to every student we admit. Our president, Ed Ayers, has emphasized this commitment, particularly in light of the current financial climate – we are lucky not to have taken nearly as large a hit as some have, and our generous financial aid policies will continue uninterrupted. This year, in fact, students are receiving more than $49 million in financial aid.
