Let's Talk about UVA Admission Decisions: Admitted!

Admitted students can use this entry to talk and ask questions.

I imagine you might also want to join the UVA Class of 2024 Facebook group to chat with your future classmates. There will inevitably be a GroupMe that spins off from that group, but those are not administered in any way by UVA. Please be careful about joining groups that say they are for the incoming class.

RD applicants who are invited to join the Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars programs will see that status in the portal. A letter about that is also in the mail. 

You'll be getting information about our virtual Days on the Lawn events soon. Orientation registration will open around May 1st and you'll get more information about that in the future. Housing usually opens their system around that date. There's plenty of time for all that, though. For now, pat yourself on the back and consider reaching out to your counselor and the teacher who wrote your recommendation to let them know the good news, too!
 

Congratulations! We are so lucky to have you considering UVA!

Let's Talk about UVA Admission Decisions: The Waiting List

Students offered a spot on the waiting list can use this entry to talk.

This is probably the toughest decision to get from a school. At UVA, the waiting list tends to be large because there are so many different segments to the population here (VA and OOS groups for the four schools and the one program that take first-year students). At this point, we don't know where there will be openings in the class.

We won't know how large the waiting list is until you all accept or decline your waiting list offers.  Right now, you've been offered a spot on the list. You have until April 15th to reply via your portal.

You should have already seen the link to the waiting list FAQ page in your decision letter, which answers the most common questions (is the list ranked, what do I do now, what's the time line, etc.) and provides a decade of data about waiting list offers.

For now, you need to look at your other options and think about which one feels right to you. Some of you will want to hold on and see what happens with the waiting list and others will want to fully invest themselves in another school. Either way, you need to submit a deposit somewhere by May 1st to ensure yourself a spot in a freshman class. If you are offered a spot in our class and you decide to accept it, you'll have to write to that other school and withdraw your name from the class (you may lose your deposit at that school). Just remember that you can't "double deposit".

Feel free chat here.

We hope you find a peaceful place to think about your options

Let's Talk about UVA Admission Decisions: The Deny

 Denied students can use this entry to talk.

I know this is hard to handle and some of you might not have gotten a disappointing admission decision yet. I hope you all can look at your options and get excited about your other schools. If your immediate reaction is "I'll transfer", don't let that plan keep you from getting involved in campus life at the school you choose. I think many students come to think of their next choice as "home" and can't imagine leaving it after a little while. Give yourself time to explore your options.

Some students inquire about being moved to the waiting list. We do not have an appeal process. This decision will not change.

Please be polite and respectful of others when posting.

BTW, if you signed yourself up to read the blog by email and don't want the messages anymore, there's an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page. 

Regular Decision Admission Statistics #UVA25

Here are some unofficial numbers about this year's process. These numbers are up to date as of today, March 25, 2021. If you are a reporter, please contact the Office of University Communications for current, official information.

The Office of Institutional Research and Analytics is the source of all official statistics about UVA. They take a census to determine the final statistics for the class. You can see official admission data in the data digest part of their website.

Total Applications

Total applications: 48,011 (40,891 last year)

Total number of VA apps: 13,983

Total number of OOS apps: 34,028

Total Offers of Admission 

Overall offers: 9,875 (28% of offers did not submit standardized tests) 

Total VA offers:  3,937 (28% offer rate) 

Total OOS offers:  5,938 (17% offer rate) 

It's misleading to average these offer rates together because residency is a major factor in our review. If you are going to share these numbers, cite BOTH offer rates.

 

 

Total Regular Decision Applications

Total RD applications: 16,060 (13,635 last year)

Total number of VA RD apps: 4,482

Total number of OOS RD apps: 11,577

Total Regular Decision Offers of Admission 

Overall RD offers: 2,628 (2,409 last year)

Total VA RD offers:  890 (20% offer rate) 

Total OOS RD offers:  1,738 (15% offer rate)

We do not try to figure out an individual student's likelihood of enrolling (demonstrated interest), but overall yield influences the offer rate. Out-of-state residents tend to have a lower yield rate than Virginia residents. You can see yield rates on the statistics website.

Defers and Waiting List 

Deferred students offered admission: 4% (8% last year) 

Waiting list offers: 18% (17% last year)
The waiting list forms as students opt into it via the portal and we have seen up to HALF decline putting themselves on the list. The waiting list can be thought of as having ten different segments (in-state and OOS for each of the five academic areas that take first-year students).

A few notes:

1. I can not fulfill requests for more statistics. You can see official admission data, including admission data by residency and school of entry from last year, on the website. The current year's data often goes up in the fall semester.

2. Admitted students will get a hard copy of their letter in their offer packet. I can't predict when USPS will put that in your mailbox.

3. The Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars program invitations will be visible to Regular Decision applicants in their portals. Echols and Rodman also allow self-nomination after your first semester. Miller Arts Scholars apply after the first semester.

#UVA Regular Decision Notification Update!

 If you're a regular reader of the blog, participate in my live q&a sessions on Instagram, or see me reply to questions on Twitter/reddit/etc, you've inevitably noticed that we release admission decisions early whenever possible.We are ready.

Regular Decision notification will be

Thursday, March 25, 2021

This is official. Please do not call our office to confirm it. The decision will get posted on your portal after office hours so there are fewer people on the system. I do not control the exact time of the release. There's a technical team that has to go through several processes to get the portals updated.

If you want to chat with some other students, here's a link to a students-only Facebook group for the Class of 2025. I'm not in that group (it's for students only), but I'll be watching the comments here on the blog and checking in on Instagram, Twitter, and reddit to answer questions. There will be statistics post tomorrow. I will also add a blog entry for discussion of each decision type tomorrow afternoon. If you are offered a spot on the waiting list, you will have a link to FAQs in your letter on the portal. Please click through and read through those.

This is a difficult time for all of us, but I hope that having these decisions posted will take one uncertainty off the long list of them.

Observations about the #UVA Admission Process this Year

Some students on reddit asked the few admission officers who are in the Applying to College subforum to share some observations from this year. The number of up-votes my reply got made me think I should post some of what I wrote here.

• More students are reaching out with very basic questions, which could be because many don't have as much access to their school counselors this year.
  
  
• Some people obviously thought that test-optional would make selective admission less selective. This also might be due to less access to school counselors. Colleges were always more concerned with transcripts than test scores (we've always said this). Getting admitted didn't get easier at the selective schools. Applying got easier.
  
  
• Regarding the app increase: We always pulled ridiculous hours during the reading season (November-March), but this year is definitely different. Some people ask why we don't just hire more people to help us read the files. It takes weeks to get new positions approved/posted, weeks to interview candidates, weeks to get them formally hired, and then weeks to train new readers. Diverting staff from reading to conduct a hiring and training process would put us even more behind. We just couldn't add to the team after a surprise increase in applications.
  
  

• Those of us who are working from home do gain time back from not having to get ready for work and commute to an office. Our office also has a tradition of every available staff member greeting the tours as they return to the office. No visitors means more time for file review.
  
  

• Yield season (when we have admitted student events) used to be the reward for all this cloistered work. I always looked forward to it. Moving to a virtual format last year was a novelty. The 50 or so programs we held online were exhausting, but exciting and different.
  

Now, the prospect of all those events being virtual again is tough. Everyone has spent hours on Zoom this year. This field tends to attract social people who love working with students. Many of us haven't visited a high school since Fall 2019 (I live for school visits and group travel), haven't given an in-person info session in a 11 months, and haven't gone to any industry events since the October 2019 NACAC Conference or our spring/summer 2019 regional events. It's a strange existence.

• I'm reading more COVID statements than I thought I would. The majority cover things of which we're already aware - virtual classes, cancelled activities, etc. I haven't come across any student who got sick, but I have read about family members getting seriously ill and passing away. Those are obviously heartbreaking.
  

 

There are my personal thoughts about this application season, not based on any data. As always, I will post statistics about the application process around decision release days. Regular Decision results will be ready by April 1st.