April 20, 2018
Dear UT Community,
In recent years, The University of Texas at Austin, the state of Texas, and our donors and supporters have invested substantially in student financial aid. Our goal is for a high-quality UT education to be affordable and accessible to qualified students with financial need from across the state.
In 2016, I announced a two-year, $15 million increase in financial aid that benefited thousands of current UT students. This year, we will make that funding permanent and expand our investment in our students by introducing the Texas Advance Commitment, beginning in the 2018-19 academic year.
The Texas Advance Commitment ensures that Texas students with family incomes of up to $100,000 (Adjusted Gross Income), who have financial need, will receive guaranteed gift aid. Eligible students with family incomes up to $30,000 will receive, at a minimum, enough aid to completely cover their full tuition costs.
These four-year financial aid awards will begin in the fall and be distributed to new UT students to help them graduate on time and with less debt. The program will benefit nearly 3,000 additional UT students per year, in addition to the thousands of students already being served by our current financial aid programs.
The Texas Advance Commitment is a long-term investment in our students, their families and the people of Texas. Improving affordability through this important new initiative is another way that we are working to unlock our students’ potential and drive upward mobility for our great state, and we’re just getting started.
Sincerely,
Gregory L. Fenves
President