A Note about Financing UR

By Jonathan Burdick, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid

Greetings, and congratulations again to those who have been admitted.

As I reported to the Wall Street Journal on February 18, it’s not clear whether UR will remain “need-blind” for the entire entering Class this year. We know at least 97% of admitted, eligible students are coming “need-blind,” but if we make any offers to wait-listed students, we may have to act with greater caution. We just don’t know yet, so those on the wait-list who need aid should not worry that their odds are already tougher. For everyone, admitted and wait-listed alike, we will continue to meet full demonstrated need using the information from your CSS PROFILE, FAFSA, and tax returns via IDOC.

The University of Rochester reviews all applicants for potential merit scholarship awards and notifies winners after offering admission. Since we admit students one at a time as “their own best selves,” many of our admitted students are scholarship-worthy, and we offer many different kinds of scholarships from many different donors. So, although academic excellence matters, there’s no easy way to correlate your grades and test scores with our scholarship offer. As with our admission decisions, scholarships require multiple levels of review, and a few scholarship reviews are still in progress.

Many of our scholarship winners also have admission offers from other competitive U.S. institutions and/or scholarship offers from other great colleges, and we want to help them choose their college destination based on their preferred program and environment, rather than price. So, for students admitted and funded to comparable U.S. private institutions under regular decision plans, we will also review and compare financial offers you’ve received (at your request), intending to ensure you can make a level choice.

My colleagues and I appreciate your interest in Rochester. Meliora!