Peabody is the building, Jack is the dog, and I'm Dean J (she/her, btw).

There are years of posts here. The search box works well, but please consider the age of the posts when you find them. The college admission process changes every year!

References to emailing updates to your application are from the years when we didn't have the current applicant portal. Please follow the instructions in your portal to submit all updates.

Welcome to the blog and thanks for reading!

Wednesday, November 01, 2017

Five Important Deadline Day Reminders for #UVA Applicants

Ah, deadline day. We're fielding the usual "what time is the deadline" questions. You have until 11:59 PM in your time zone to submit your application. We DO NOT recommend waiting until the last few hours to submit. The Common App team stays up all night on deadline nights, but you can't expect instant help if something goes wrong with submission since there are apt to be scores of students submitting requests for help.


I have five important reminders for Early Action applicants:

1. We don't get your application instantly.
We pull applications out of the Common App and into our system in batches. As long as you submit your application in Common App before the deadline, you are set. Don't worry about the download date.

2. There is one VERY important email addresses: undergradadmission@virginia.edu
As covered in the "After You Submit" part of the application instructions (please read them!), you will get a confirmation email with login credentials for the student system. You will monitor your status in that system.

3. Do not worry about your status page in SIS yet.
When you log into SIS, you'll see a bunch of items on your "to-do" list. They'll just be labeled as "Initiated" right now. It means the item has not been filed in our office yet. Keep in mind that we have a deluge of documents to file. Don't worry about a missing credential yet. We'll be in touch by email once everything is filed to let you know if we need something from you.

4. Do not worry about your mid-year report until February.
At some point, the mid-year report will be the only thing left on your "to do" list. We leave that on your list because we will need mid-year grades from students who are admitted and deferred. Lots of students don't revisit their status once they are marked complete. If we added the mid-year report later, lots of people probably wouldn't see the addition. 

5. Do not read into "view decision" when it appears on your account.
The Student Information System has a built-in feature that adds a box that says "view decision" at the bottom of your status page when your file is deemed complete and ready for us to read. When you click on it, you'll get a little message saying decisions aren't ready yet.

Early Action Notification = January 31st
(any change will be announced on this blog ASAP)

We release all decisions at once. We've been able to release a little early since 2011, but we won't know the release date until we're almost at it.

Back in the paper days, we knew the release date a good week in advance because the last week was used to print letters and get them into envelopes.  We were basically done with the actual reading. These days, there is no lag time between the end of the review and the release.  When we're done, we can release.  We don't have to wait for letters to be printed.



Good luck, applicants! As always, I'm happy to answer questions in the comments.

Jack is all dressed up for deadline day!