Updates (on our office and on your status pages)

It's been quiet around here for a reason. We're all tucked away in our offices so we can read files. I guess this debunks a popular myth...no one sits around waiting to read until the deadline hits. If we waiting until after January 1st to start reading, there's no way we'd be done by April 1st (the notification date). Well, wait. We could be done by then, but there's no way we'd be able to give all of the files the amount of attention they deserve. Even now, we are reading at a very fast pace. So fast that I'm thinking about the files I'm not reading because I'm writing this blog entry!

Our system is programmed to mark a file ready to read when the required components have arrived. As soon as the application (Common App + Supplement + payment) is complete, it gets sent to us by Common App. That's an important change for this year. You must submit all three components to get your application sent to us. When your school forms (your counselor's recommendation and related forms), transcript, official score report, and one teacher recommendation are checked in, your file moves to "ready to read" status. From there, it will get randomly distributed.


Now, a word about your status pages. We are now in the busy season, which means large numbers of documents are arriving in our office each day. If an item arrives electronically and the student's biographical data matches the data on their application (meaning, the same name, DOB, etc. is used), the item will be automatically matched and the status page will update fairly quickly. This isn't the norm, unfortunately. A lot of documents come in by snail mail or arrive with nick names and SSNs (instead of DOB, which is a big part of our matching protocol). Those items need to be scanned and matched to a file by hand. This can take a few weeks due to the volume of mail and the relatively small staff we have.

Please be patient. You won't see your status pages update for weeks. Do not freak out about them. We will contact you at the end of January or beginning of February if there are any problems.

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Ode to the Downtown Mall

I love it when students don't take themselves too seriously and are able to be a little goofy.

I took a quick break from reading to check CvilleNews.com and found this video. Anyone who has submitted their application and gotten their UVa computing ID will recognize the Youtube username that uploaded the video. Looks like a few students had some extra time on their hands recently. Enjoy!

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A suggestion

Those of you who are still trying to write application essays may do some googling to find inspiration or advice. Dean Parke Muth has a suggestion for you as you do this. If you're going to lift content, don't do it from our website. We'll probably recognize our own words.

The "good" example from Dean Muth's essay about essay writing:

The coughing came first, the hacking in the middle of the night. Then there were the multiple doctor visits, each one the same: the little white rooms with magazines where I tried not to stare at the bald, gaunt woman across from me. One of the white coats finally said something, steadily, forecasting an 80 percent change of rain. The list of second opinions grew too long to count, looking for someone to say the right thing. Finally, there was relief in hearing the name of a kinder killer: lymphoma.

An essay from an application Dean Muth reviewed yesterday:

Until finally, one of the white coats said something, steadily, predicting a 85 percentage of possibility. At the moment, I broke down. What the doctor said about hypothesis and suggestions sounded too long to count, there was relief in finally hearing the name of a kinder killer, breast cancer.

What happens when someone comes across an essay like that? Well, first it gets emailed around the office. Then we debate sharing this example with you. I bet you can guess what happens next.



By the way, you obviously shouldn't be lifting content from any source. These are personal statements. When you are about to hit that submit button, make sure those essays sound truly, authentically like you.

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Admission: The Musical

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These kids are good: Brown College Residents

One of the voices of reason in the chaos that sometimes happens at College Confidential is a Brown College resident. Last night, a reminder was posted that the most recent round of invitations to live at/in Brown College have been posted. I remember that I had taken a picture of CavDog next to Brown College sign on move in day this year and decided it was a good time to share it.

Brown College is one of the residential colleges at UVa. The residential college system differs from the traditional dorms a bit. In the dorms, all the first years live together. In the residential colleges, the class years are mixed and students often have a little more programming than the traditional dorms do.

When I first came to UVa, someone insisted that Brown was for "hippies". When I questioned the label, I found the words that described the Brownies were all, in my opinion, positive: open minded, smart, diverse, quirky, creative, laid back, etc. All nice things, right?

Anyway, congrats to the new Brownies!

If you'd like to know more about Brown College, check out the Office of Residential Live's Brown College Page (which includes photos of rooms), the Brown College website, and this video about Brown.

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One month until deadline!

Today is probably the deadline your counselors set for you to request transcripts and recommendations from them. I hope you'll give your teachers your requests as well. At this point, they'll probably be working on them over the holidays, so don't worry if there are outstanding school credentials on your "to do" list the first time you log into the Student Information System.

One month until deadline! Time to make a plan and get things done! Good luck with the final papers and exams that are looming, too!

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Submit early? Submit late?

There are some rumors floating around about admission being easier on students who submit their applications early, despite the fact that we have no early decision or early action at UVa.

While I think it's smart to submit in advance of the deadline, just in case there's some sort of glitch, you shouldn't feel pressured to submit your application right now if you haven't put the finishing touches on it. There IS an advantage to early submission, but it isn't related to the admit rate, it's related to your status page.

A few days after you submit your application, you'll get an email instructing you to log into our Student Information System (SIS). When you log into your SIS account, you'll see a to-do list for your application (and later, one from the financial aid folks). If you and your school officials submit items early and the chances are that your supporting credentials will be checked in more quickly and you'll see changes in your to-do list. By mid-December, the amount of items arriving in our office on a daily basis skyrockets and we can't check everything in on the day it arrives. So, you might wait weeks to see updates on your to-do list.

Now, there's no reason to worry about your to-do list until the end of January, but if you're the type to stare at your to-do list and worry, see if you can get some things in early.


Please don't call our office freaking out the first time your log into the SIS and see your status page. Give us until the end of January to get everything checked in. You won't be in trouble if school forms aren't checked until a few weeks after deadline. Your part of the application is what must be submitted by the January 1st deadline.

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Q&A for Dean J

This message has two purposes. First, to give you a few words of encouragement and second, to provide a place for asking questions about your applications.

This weekend is the last weekend before the excitement of the holidays starts to hit. Next weekend, you'll either be in a turkey coma or frantically shopping to snap up some gifts during the big sales. After that, you'll be decorating, baking, and trying to get end-of-semester projects or assignments done. This weekend is a good time to get some work done on your applications! It's not so late in the game that you'll feel rushed (I hope) and it's not so early that you won't be motivated to get things done. So, log into the Common App and take care of some of those to-do list items.

Now, in the comments, feel free to ask some questions. I'll do my best to reply to them. Please don't use the anonymous button. Select "Name/URL" and enter a name, real or fake. I'll reply in the comments and bold the name of the person who asked the question, so check back periodically for answers.

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Arts supplements

We used the Common App's neat features to send out a reminder email to students who had started working on their applications. The point first was about the video tutorial Common App made to help students assign recommendation writers to their applications. The second was about arts supplements. It said that those interested in major or minoring in the arts should submit arts supplements by December 1st for faculty review. The reaction of a student on College Confidential was interesting.

I just received an email from UVA saying that their Arts Supplements are due December 1st for students planning on being Music Majors/minors. Does this mean that I can send my supplement in later since I am technically not intending to major in music?

So, the assumption was that the deadline only applied to those who will be majoring or minoring in the arts and that other people who want to submit arts supplements don't have to abide by that deadline.

There is a small team of faculty who review arts supplements. They are looking at them with the idea that these are submitted by students who intend to be seriously involved in their departments. If your talent isn't at the level where you could major or minor in the arts or be significantly involved in arts groups when you get here, you might not want to submit an arts supplement. For example, if your arts supplement would look more like this than this, you probably don't want a professor of dance to review your work. Don't get my wrong...I think both videos are awesome, but we all know whose video will have the professor sending back notes that will add to the application file.

Remember: admission officers at UVa aren't reviewing the arts supplements. The faculty from the arts departments are reviewing the arts supplements.

By the way, the videos I used are just from Youtube. They aren't from UVa applications.

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SAT freak out?

This is far better than any Thriller dance. The faculty at a high school in Brooklyn put this SAT video together for their students.

I've written a lot about standardized testing already. To read some of those past posts, just click on the "standardized testing" tag at the bottom of this entry.

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There's an app for that, UVa edition

Hooray! While the City of Charlottesville has a website where you can look up a bus stop number and see when the next bus will arrive, it's a little cumbersome to use on a smart phone. Enter Yaogang Lian who, according to the UVa Today Blog, created the HoosBus app.

I have already downloaded the app and it works beautifully!

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Let's have a chat

Tonight!

7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Eastern

Admission chat

Go here to join in!

*It can take a few minutes for the chat rooms to open, please be patient!*

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Fall Fling 2009

The Outreach Office's annual Fall Fling open house was this past weekend. My favorite part of the event is the very beginning. A few members from the UVa gospel choir, Black Voices usually open the program nice and early at 8 AM with some very loud and very upbeat music. This year, they sang a cappella.

To give you a sense of how large the choir is normally and the power with which they sing, here's someone else's video of a performance from last year.



That'll wake any crowd up!

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International student chat this morning

Remember...

International Student Chat

Today

9 AM - 12 PM Eastern

We are five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. :)

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International student chat this morning

Remember...

International Student Chat

Today

11 AM - 1 PM Eastern

We are five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. :)

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Application crunch time approaching

This is such a bummer

If you're a senior, it's kind of a lame time of the year. Applications deadlines are dotting the calendar, essays need editing (or writing!), friends are talking about college admission incessantly, and you're still getting adjusted to the toughest course load of your academic career. A lot of what you have to do is being dictated by other people - your parents, teachers, coaches, counselors, the colleges you want to attend, etc. Keep your eye on the prize, though. Doing all this stuff is going to pay off immensely when your college search comes to an end and you're making plans to head off to a great college.

Your season of stress and anxiety is quite a bit longer than the time it takes the woman at the dog wash to clip CavDog's nails, but I thought you'd enjoy seeing him enduring his own difficult moment. Hang in there! On the other side of this is an exciting time!

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International student chats

The Global Student Council here has set up two chat sessions to answer questions about life at UVa for international students. They have picked times that are a bit different from our normal chat times to accommodate those of you who are in other time zones. The dates: Friday, November 6th from 11 AM to 1 PM Eastern and Sunday, November 8th from 9 AM until 12 PM Eastern.

I'll post an update on the morning of each chat, but mark your calendars if you're interested so you don't forget. You can also check out their event listing on Facebook.

All chats take place on the Office of Admission chat page.

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Don't forget the supplement!

The Common App people give us some general stats about applications in progress. Right now, there is a big difference between the number of Common App "basic" applications that have been started and the number of Common App UVa Supplements that have been started. There are 10,000 people out there who are working on the basic section, but who haven't touched the supplement yet.

Just a reminder that the supplement is a required part of the application. We don't even get your Common App "basic" until your supplement is complete.

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Another week on the road

My favorite trip of the year is around the corner. I'm headed to northern Virginia.

I've heard that some schools send rookie admission officers to NOVA as an initiation because of the notorious traffic and the advanced questions that get asked "up there". I personally love my time in northern Virginia. I enjoy being asked questions about topics that are far more interesting than SAT scores and deadlines. Hearing the current rumors that are getting passed around is interesting, too.

I'm going to post my schedule. Please understand that this year is a bit of a logistical challenge. Two of us used to split northern Virginia and each spend a week visiting schools. This year, I am trying to cover the entire region in one week. There is no way I can get to even half of the schools in Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington, and the cities. The schools I'm visiting are just the ones I was able to fit into my schedule. I wish I could get to every school.

These appointments are for students who attend each of the schools below. Follow the procedure established by your Career Center if I'm visiting your school to make sure you have permission to attend.

Monday, October 26
8:30 AM Washington-Lee High School
10:05 AM Wakefield High School
11:45 AM TJHSST
1:30 PM Edison High School

Tuesday, October 27
7:25 AM WT Woodson High School
8:54 AM Fairfax High School
11:00 AM Robinson Secondary
12:45 PM Lake Braddock High School

Wednesday, October 28
9:00 AM South Lakes High School
11:00 AM Langley High School
12:00 PM Yorktown High School
1:15 PM McLean High School
7:00 PM STEM Program @ Langley High School

Thursday, October 29
8:45 AM Herndon High School
10:30 AM Park View High School
12:30 PM Briar Woods High School
2:15 PM Potomac Falls High School
3:15 PM Dominion High School

Friday, October 30
9:30 AM Freedom High School
11:00 AM Loudoun County High School
12:00 PM Heritage High School
3:15 PM Loudoun Valley High School

Unfortunately, the timing of my trip means I'm missing a huge tradition here on Grounds: the trick-or-treat on The Lawn. Each year, residents living on The Lawn host a trick-or-treat event for area children. CavDog turned into CavBee when he was still a puppy to take part in the festivities. Last year, he dressed up as a lion to prowl The Lawn for kissable children (a favorite past time of his). He has a costume lined up, too.

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More UVa blog goodness!

While I was at the national conference for those of us who are in the admission world, I heard a speaker talk about students' expectations. He basically said that if other schools do something, students will expect it of you. If you manage to do that something, you aren't necessarily distinguishing yourself, but keeping current with others in the field.

It was an interesting idea and I started thinking about our student blogs during the discussion that followed. Most school have fairly formal student blogger programs. The students are usually given a schedule or goal with some sort of incentive to stay on task.

Between our small staff and the prominence of students self-governance here, we don't really keep tabs on our student bloggers. We don't enforce a schedule or establish goals for them. Our students started their blogs on their own and maintain them on their own. I think it makes them write authentically and with enthusiasm. I wouldn't want blogging to become a chore for them!

Anyway, when you're looking for a break from admission talk, go read the student blogs and ask some questions over there. They're writing some wonderful posts and I'm sure they'd enjoy interacting with you.

Hoo Stories
A team blog written by eleven students with a range of class years

AccessUVa
A team blog written by thirteen students, an activity of Hoos for Open Access, a student group that promotes awareness of financial resources available for UVa students


UVa Life
One student's life at UVa, including ups and downs, frustrations and celebrations


Transferring to Uva
Hints and updates from Transfermer, an admission dean who works with transfer students

UVa Today
The source for news and updates from around Grounds


There's a pretty comprehensive list of UVa blogs on the UVa Today website.

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