Icing on the Cake – William & Mary Scholars are Richly Rewarded

Admit It!  Financing a college education isn’t easy.  More and more these days, we as admission officers are asked about merit aid opportunities because students and families are trying their best to figure out how to cover the costs of a four-year university.  One merit award we offer at W&M that includes tuition monies is the William & Mary Scholar Award.

Approximately 40 students each year enroll with the William & Mary Scholar Award.  This scholarship reflects W&M’s commitment to academically distinguished students from under-represented backgrounds, first-generation students and students from challenging backgrounds.  The awards are offered to students who lend diversity to our campus or who have overcome extreme adversity (the type of adversity which would generally prohibit students from being competitive for admission).  Recipients of the William & Mary Scholar Award receive the amount of in-state tuition and fees each year.

In 2011, a programmatic element was added to the scholarship – William & Mary Scholars Undergraduate Research Program (WMSURE) – previously, the William & Mary Scholar Award was simply monetary.  WMSURE is designed to provide support to W&M Scholars for undergraduate research with the hope that scholars will continue their research work in graduate school.  Students who participate in WMSURE attend several academic workshops each semester (these workshops are open to all W&M students) and participate in research led by SURE faculty mentors.  William & Mary Scholars are encouraged to participate in WMSURE but are not required to.

All students who apply to W&M are considered for the William & Mary Scholar Award (and by extension WMSURE).  The award is provided selectively; we award approximately 120 William & Mary Scholarships to enroll 40 students in each incoming class (students are notified of receipt of the scholarship when they receive their decision letter).  Consideration for the award is equally open to in-state and out-of-state students (the same amount of money – approximately $13,000 for 2010-2011 – is awarded to in-state and out-of-state students and the amount adjusts each year as in-state tuition and fees adjust) as well as to Early Decision and Regular Decision students.  Like the Monroe Scholarship, the William & Mary Scholarship notifications go out in the spring; those admitted during Early Decision are reviewed for the William & Mary Scholar Award during regular decision review.  Those who receive the scholarship are notified by mail in the spring.

If admitted to W&M, the William & Mary Scholarship is definitely icing on the cake…that’s for SURE.

Wendy Livingston, ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Senior Assistant Dean of Admission