These kids are good: CMB Colorguard

This is the time of year when Grounds start getting taken over by campers of all sorts. Between the American Physics Society (on Grounds currently...what a rowdy bunch those physicists are), sports camps, academic camps, orientation, and UVa students here for the summer jobs or coursework, there's actually a bit more activity on Grounds during the summer than you'd expect.

One of my favorite times during the summer comes when the different groups associated with the marching band are on Grounds. I've mentioned the band and my admiration for them in the past, but I didn't really touch on the CMC Colorguard, which is one of a few specialty groups within the marching band (I think the others would be the drum line and the twirlers). Anyway, Colorguard has a nice little website, a Youtube channel, and their own summer camp before the larger band camp. One of their alumnae also maintains a Flickr page with photos from the past few years.

I know absolutely nothing about being in colorguard, twirling things, or being in a marching band, but between the websites to which I linked above and this fantastic video hosted on the CMC Colorguard's website (some of the best parts are towards the end!), I find myself trying to figure out a way to be part of this group...or at least sit with them at games. Their section looks like a lot more fun than where I sit at Scott Stadium.

Perhaps CavDog could beat a drum with his wagging tail...


*Incoming first years: if you're interested in being part of the colorguard or the band, you might want get in touch with those groups now so you can come to camp.

Simplified deadlines for 2010

The first-year application deadline has always been on the first business day after the New Year holiday. The reasoning was that the deadline had to be on a day when students could get to the post office to mail their applications. As a result, the deadline date has shifted every year.

Now that we are paperless and want all students to submit their applications online, we don't see a need to have an inconsistent deadline. From now on, the first year deadline will be January 1st. Transfer deadlines will not change. They have always been November 1st and March 1st.

End of the year photos

I walk home on The Lawn each afternoon and snapped a few photos on my way over the last few weeks. Grounds has gone from full of students to full of work crews preparing for Final Exercises (our term for graduation or commencement) this weekend.

Waitlist movement

The Dean has started to make some decisions about the waitlist. I don't have numbers for you. I believe there will be more offers for out-of-state students than Virginians, but again, I don't have numbers for you at this time.

We are going back through waitlist files right now to reread them and consider new information that has been sent it. We want to move quickly, but we also want to be thorough. Please be patient...this is not a fast process.

As I wrote the other day, if you are no longer interested in UVa, please go into the SIS and decline your waitlist spot. It will make this process move a little more quickly.

Get ready, waitlisters!

The inevitable is going to happen. We're going to go to the waitlist. I don't know exactly when or how many we'll take (so please, don't ask me about either in the comments), but there's something those of you on the waitlist need to do now to be in a position to accept an offer if it comes your way.

You need to make sure your Financial Aid application is complete. Student Financial Services will create aid packages for waitlist applicants who are offered admission, but if you have an incomplete application right now, they probably won't be able to give you a package by the time we'll be asking you to commit. We usually give students offered off the waitlist one week to commit to UVa.

So, log into the SIS and check the finance section. If you are on the waitlist and there are items left on the SFS checklist, get them done NOW. It's amazing how many students never looked at the instructions for applying for aid and didn't file the UVa specific form.

This is...Kadeem Cooper on Jeopardy!

It's going to take a few days for the numbers to settle, so I won't have any first-year waitlist news for a little while. As always, I'll post news as soon as I hear it.

For now, mark your calendars because one of the Office of Admission's favorite students, Kadeem Cooper, will be on Jeopardy tomorrow night! If the sweatshirt doesn't give it away, Kadeem is the second student in the front row in the picture below:

Click to enlarge

This is it!

This is the biggest day of the admission year. Many of us think of the year as "before May 1st" and "after May 1st". It's the National Candidate Reply Date. It's also notification day for transfer students.

First years with offers of admission, you have until 11:59 PM to log into the SIS, hit the accept button, and pay your deposit if you want to be part of next year's incoming class. Obviously, you can also hit the decline button and then answer a few questions about your application experience at UVa. First years on the waitlist, your "decline" buttons will still work after today. You can remove yourself from the waitlist at any point.

I just took at look at the transfer blog and one of the recent posts has over 200 comments on it! To think that I thought the first years were chatty! I'm kind of jealous. :)

Oh, by the way, The Washington Post did a nice article about Chinese students studying in the US and it features UVa pretty heavily. The slide show is especially nice.