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CFAW: Be Our Guest for an Entire Weekend

February 26, 2019

When planning a college visit, you want to make the most of your time on campus. You want to take in as much as you can so that when you return home, you have all the information you need to discuss it with family members and make a decision. The impressions of one tour guide in a few hours just aren’t enough. You want to get a real feel for campus life. After all, the decision is one of the most important decisions you can make in life.

While many schools offer a morning or afternoon presentation consisting of a tour or a Q & A session, Liberty University has a longstanding tradition of providing a whole weekend for students and their friends and families to explore the university. From Thursday to Sunday, College For A Weekend (“CFAW” for short) takes visitors through the how-to’s of college life. Students can stay overnight in a dorm, attend classes, eat in the dining hall, and participate in a variety of social activities alongside current Liberty students. And while students are getting a taste of college life, their parents or guardians can focus on the areas that matter most to them by attending sessions on everything from admissions to financial aid, residence life, and spiritual development.

The weekend kicks off with an afternoon welcome and orientation session and is followed by “Getting To Know Liberty,” an expo-style event where guests can meet with staff from the academics programs and a variety of campus services. In the evening, students are invited to “Student Connect,” where they can enjoy music, games, painting, s’mores, and more. The rest of the weekend, visitors can follow a full agenda or pick and choose which sessions best apply to them. One of the more popular sessions is Scholarship Search 101. The 45-minute session offers valuable tips and tricks for finding additional scholarships for college.

Families are free to take a break from the CFAW schedule to experience campus on their own — and keep younger siblings entertained — with a number of exciting activities, including year-round ice skating, snowboarding or snow tubing, athletics events, bowling, playing video games in the gaming lounge, or attending a concert featuring a top Christian artist. Groups also enjoy visiting Liberty’s Hydaway Outdoor Recreation Center and Equestrian Center on nearby Liberty Mountain.

Many current Liberty students will tell you that attending CFAW was the deciding factor in their college search.
CFAW is held two times each semester and is open to second-semester high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, as well as transfer students under age 25.

2019 CFAW DATES
April 4-7 | Sept. 26-29 | Nov. 7-10

Register online at Liberty.edu/CFAW, call (800) 543-5317, or email CFAW@localhost.

Can’t make these dates? Join us for ExperienceLU, a one-day event with specially designed tours, meetings with faculty and staff, and many of the same activities offered during CFAW. View a sample itinerary at Liberty.edu/ExperienceLU. Call the Visitor Center at (800) 543-5317 or email ExperienceLU@localhost to register.


All group leaders (youth, church, parent, or school leaders) who bring 10 or more students to CFAW can receive meal vouchers, hotel lodging, and athletic and concert tickets for themselves and their spouses. For deadlines and to register, visit Liberty.edu/CFAWGroups.


Help is on the way

In response to the growing financial strain that college costs are putting on today’s graduates, Liberty University announced in November that it is freezing its tuition rates. All new and returning residential students in the 2019-20 academic year will enjoy the same value in tuition and room and board costs as the previous year.

The decision is a rare action for private colleges and universities. President Jerry Falwell said Liberty will continue to offer innovative financial solutions and packages to help students receive the education they want without the extra financial burden.

“The impact of freezing tuition, combined with the new Middle America Scholarship, is a major increase in financial support for our students,” he said. “We understand how challenging it can be to pay for college. We want our students and their families to be able to focus more on education and less on making ends meet, and we’ve taken several steps to make that happen.”

The new Middle America Scholarship is helping students from middle-income families who typically earn between $35,000 and $95,000 per year. Students with an expected family contribution from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) that is 1-18,000 will receive the scholarship to bring them up to the equivalent of the full Federal Pell Grant amount each year, and when combined with the Liberty Champion scholarship, the value will be up to $5,195.

Liberty’s online undergraduate students are also seeing more financial assistance. Liberty is providing digital textbooks and instructional materials to undergraduate students in its online program free of charge. This affects more than 700 courses, saving students up to $975 per year. Additional discounts and scholarships are also being made available to members of the military and first responders. Visit LUOnline.com/Scholarships for more information.

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