You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The University of Virginia will waive all tuition and fees for Virginia state residents whose families make less than $100,000 a year, university president Jim Ryan announced Friday.
The move, which will be funded primarily through philanthropic gifts, is an expansion of the university’s AccessUVA program, which has covered residents from families making less than $80,000 since 2004. It is meant to make the highly selective state flagship more accessible for Virginians as well as account for inflation after a tuition hike, according to the university’s announcement.
“Our mission is to welcome talented students from all walks of life, and these expanded grants and scholarships will help us do just that,” Stephen Farmer, UVA’s vice president for enrollment, said in the Friday statement.
UVA is just the latest public institution to offer tuition waivers to more middle- and lower-income in-state students. Last month, Massachusetts announced MassGrant Plus Expansion, which will cover all out-of-pocket costs for Pell-qualifying students at public institutions in the state, as well as up to 50 percent of tuition and fees for families earning between $73,000 and $100,000. In 2022 Minnesota announced the North Star Promise program, covering tuition for families making less than $80,000. Legislators in New York are currently working to expand the state’s Tuition Assistance Program and raise the income threshold from $80,000 to $110,000.
A few more selective institutions have announced similar initiatives in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action in June, potentially to help offset the impact of the decision on the diversity of incoming classes. Those include Duke University, which announced it would waive tuition for all North and South Carolina residents from families with incomes under $150,000 just a day before the ruling was handed down.
