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Scholarships
The Need
In our global community, it is easy to see how the importance of higher education will continue to increase in the coming years. For students attending WVU, achieving this level of education means an ever increasing reliance on scholarships.
As states continue to trim the budgets of public higher education institutions, tuition and fees grow to make up the difference. An increasing burden of financing college is shifting to the students themselves and their families. This reality is clearly seen at WVU as 70% of the University's undergraduate students receive some kind of financial aid. Additionally, the average undergraduate student graduates from WVU with an indebtedness of over $19,000, and this number increases yearly.
Couple these figures with the fact that 12% of the students on the Morgantown campus are first generation college students, the first in their families to seek a higher education, and it is easy to see that an investment in the students at WVU is an investment in our future.
Privately funded merit, talent - including those for student-athletes - and need-based scholarships are crucial to providing students with the financial resources they so very much need to attend and be successful at WVU. It is in their successes that a legacy of quality education is created defining WVU as a great American university.
Scholarship Options
Endowed Scholarships
Establishing an endowed scholarship is an ideal vehicle to permanently link a donor's name, or the name of someone the donor wishes to honor, with the traditions and future of WVU. Just as the name attached to an endowed scholarship will be held in perpetuity at the University, so also will a service be rendered to future students, and through them, to West Virginia and the nation.
The WVU Foundation staff works with each donor, on an individual basis, to tailor both the type of asset used and in preparing the donor's preferred selection criteria for the administration of each endowed scholarship. The parameters of the scholarship are defined in an agreement document signed by both the donor and the WVU Foundation. Working with a WVU Foundation staff member is the best way to ensure that your endowed scholarship helps the kind of student you want to impact at the University.
Recognizing the importance of private scholarship support for students, WVU and the WVU Foundation honor each endowed scholarship in a visible and permanent way. The name of each endowed scholarship is engraved on a paving brick and installed in the Ernest L. Hogan Scholars Walk located directly in front of the University's Downtown Library Complex.
Endowed scholarship donors receive two reports on the status of their scholarships each year. The first is a financial report of the endowed scholarship that is mailed in early fall. The second report provides the name(s) of the student recipient(s) of the scholarship. The WVU Foundation also contacts each student recipient and requests that they write a thank you letter to the donor of the scholarship they are receiving. The letters received from the student recipients are forwarded to the scholarship donor by the WVU Foundation.
Other donor recognition may apply for establishing an endowed scholarship. See the "Donor Recognition" section of this Web site for a full explanation of the WVU Foundation's recognition groups.
Additional information about the WVU Foundation's endowment program can be found
in the "Ways to Give" section of this Web site.
Annual Scholarships
Donors can also establish an annual scholarship to help students attend WVU. The scholarship is awarded to qualifying students each year that the donor contributes the dollar value of the scholarship. A minimum pledge of $2,000 a year for five years is required to start a new annual scholarship. As with an endowed scholarship, WVU Foundation staff work with the donor to define the awarding parameters of the scholarship.
Augusta Scholarship Fund
The Augusta Scholarship endowment enables family, friends, and organizations to honor or memorialize a loved one while helping a deserving student attend WVU.
In memory of/in honor of gifts, unless otherwise directed by the donor, become part of the Augusta Scholarship fund’s endowment principal to assist undergraduate students with financial need.