Vermont Academy offers merit scholarships to local students

Dr. Jennifer Zaccara, Vermont Academy’s Head of School,  has announced a new merit scholarship program for students who live in Vermont. The Vermont Scholars Program’s goal is to increase the number of Vermont students who attend the elite private school located in Saxtons River.

Zaccara says that Dorothy Hall Leavitt, the wife of one of the school’s most important heads of school, wrote that “Vermont Academy is a place ‘where Vermont boys and girls can go further than the little red schoolhouse.’ While we enroll students from across the country and around the world, the number of students coming from Vermont has declined. We want to reverse that trend. We want Vermont scholars to come here.”

The program features a significant merit scholarship and an expedited application process.

The merit scholarship will be awarded for up to four years. The amount will be pegged to the average announced tuition of union 7^th through 12^th grade school students published by the State of Vermont. “We’re going to give students the state’s average funding and in return they’ll have the chance to receive a superior education,” explains Zaccara.

The merit scholarship amount for 2019-2020 is $15,933. This merit scholarship reduces the 2020-2021 tuition for day students to $16,717 (the full rate is $33,650). And it reduces tuition for boarding students to $44,657 (the full rate is $64,200).

Families living in sending/tuitioning towns can further reduce the tuition by the amount of their town’s contribution, which could cover most if not all of the remaining day-student tuition and a large portion of the remaining boarding tuition. Need-based financial aid is also available.

The expedited, four-step application process is comprised of a written application, a financial aid application (only required for those looking for additional aid), teacher recommendations and a school transcript.  The priority application deadline is Thursday, Feb. 15, 2020. Priority applications benefit from a waived application fee.

The program is supported by the Vermont Academy Board of Trustees and will provide funding for up to 14 Vermont scholars.