Scholarships increase

New students interested in attending Liberty University might be happy to know that the school has recently increased its scholarship offerings by nearly $9 million, according to Vice President of Financial Aid Robert Ritz.

Beginning fall of 2013, Liberty will offer a limited number of full tuition scholarships to high school valedictorians and salutatorians. The university will also increase the Academic Achievement Scholarship for new students, including full tuition for those who meet a series of criteria. Additionally, the school will increase the amount of scholarship that all Virginia residents who attend Liberty receive, Ritz said.

or higher, and either an ACT score at or above 35, or an SAT score at or above 1570, Ritz said. Other academic scholarship levels will also increase under the Academic Achievement Scholarship.

“Basically, the increases range anywhere from $250 more per year to $1,000 on top of the Academic Achievement Scholarship (students) would have already received on the old program,” Ritz said.

Liberty’s Virginia Scholarship, which is available to residents of the commonwealth who are undergraduate students, will increase from $1,000 per year to $1,500 per year, according to Ritz.

“From Liberty, every new Virginia resident student will get $1,500 per year for four years … on top of their Virginia tuition assistance grant, which comes from the commonwealth of Virginia and is currently at $2,800,” Ritz said.

Current Liberty students will not see an increase in their Academic Achievement Scholarship or their Virginia Scholarship, and they will not be able to apply for the new salutatorian and valedictorian scholarships.

“The university is continuing to try to attract more students who are academically strong,” Ritz said. “This is good for the school and good for the students.”

High school valedictorians and salutatorians must have an unweighted grade-point average of 3.5 and an ACT or SAT score of 29 or 1270, respectively, in order to be eligible to receive the full tuition scholarship now being offered, according to Ritz.

The Academic Achievement Scholarship will also offer full tuition for students who have a 3.8 GPA