Back from hiatus

I'm back from a short hiatus! I wasn't really on vacation all this time, though did sneak over to the beach for a short time. The new student system project has been getting the bulk of my time for the last few weeks. In that time, the Common Application has successfully launched their new and improved 2009 application and the UVa specific supplement went live at the time time. Now seems like the perfect time to create an application account on the Common App website to take a look around. Close to 4,000 students have already begun their UVa applications on the Common App site!

Of course, there have been lots of developments right here in Peabody Hall as well...

We're one week away from going live with our new, paperless application review system. At a time when every industry is making efforts to be more environmentally conscious, admission offices can make a huge impact by going paperless. With close to 20,000 first year and transfer applications last year and with students sending more supplemental materials than ever before, the amount of paper being used in our office was huge. I feel good about our move to using less paper. The graduate schools at UVa are moving in the same direction, so paper consumption at UVa will probably decrease dramatically in the near future.

I'll be touching on some of the particulars about the new UVa admission process in the coming weeks.

It's good to be back!

CavDog enjoyed his first trip to the beach during the blog break

Vacation time for Dean J

I'll be away from the blog for a little while. For now, you can look at this picture of an alpaca.

Hello!

For some fun, you can try to answer a trivia question: On which high school's campus were the following pictures were taken? I'll post an answer when I return in about a week.

A very special announcement

CavDog celebrated his very first birthday on Tuesday!

Pardon the silly break from my usual posts, but I thought I'd share some pictures from CavDog's birthday party since he's been so popular here. When I posted a picture of CavDog in the snow last winter, I had no idea that he would become a fixture on the blog and a minor celebrity among students. It's been a wonderful year!

The birthday boy...after stealing another dog's ice cream (dog safe, of course)

Notes for visitors

I've been scurrying around Grounds for meetings this week and have noticed how many visitors don't seem to know where to park or where to go for the day's information sessions. I thought I'd put a little note up to remind you of the resources available on our website.

On the "Plan a Visit" page, you can read about the formal visit options available to prospective students and their families: info sessions, tours, day visits, overnights, and a virtual tour. You'll also find a link to directions.

On the "Tours & Information Sessions" page, you'll see schedules for these events. Open the "Daily Schedules" PDF for specific locations of sessions.

When you arrive at the Central Grounds Parking Garage, you'll be tempted to grab the first open space you see. I suggest that you pass by the entire first floor (which can get congested when a line forms at the cashier's booth) and park on the 2nd or 3rd floors because the garage is built into a hill and you will exit on the 4th floor.

When you leave the parking deck, just go to the location of your information session. Newcomb Hall, where most sessions are held, will be right in front of you. Your tour guides will pick you up from the info session and drop you off at the Office of Admission, where we'll load you down with as many brochures as you'd like. There's no need to go to the Office of Admission before your session and you don't have the "check in" ahead of time.

On Saturdays, the Office of Admission is closed, even though we give information sessions. I'll be the lucky dean coming in this weekend for the session and I know that if I stop in the office, I'll hear people trying to pry open the door. Just look to the left of the door and there's a little kiosk where you can get brochures and fill out an inquiry card (it's just as easy to fill out the inquiry form online, though).


If you want to eat before heading off to the next school, I personally think you should go to The Corner instead of a dining hall. Our dining halls are run by Aramark and chances are that they are similar to Aramark dining halls at other schools. It's not mom's home cooking and it's not horrible; it's just pretty standard. The Corner is a shopping area on the other side of The Rotunda where there are all sorts of shops and cafes. it's definitely worth a visit.

What are your questions about visiting?

2009 Application Essays

With the Common App's "go live" date around the corner, I thought I'd post the 2009 application essays for any of the juniors who want to start thinking about their essay topics. All applicants (first-year and transfer) will write three personal statements. Please pay attention to the word limits. These are not term papers, then are short, personal statements.


The Common App General Essay
Please write an essay (250 words minimum) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below. This personal essay helps us to become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself.

• Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
• Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
• Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
• Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
• A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
• Topic of your choice.

UVa Supplement Essays for First-Years
1. Answer the question that corresponds to the school you selected above. Limit your answer to a half page or roughly 250 words.

• College of Arts and Sciences: What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?
• Engineering: Discuss experiences that led you to choose an engineering education at U.Va. and the role that scientific curiosity plays in your life.
• Architecture: What led you to apply to the School of Architecture?
• Nursing: Discuss experiences that led you to choose the School of Nursing.

2. Answer one of the following questions in a half page or roughly 250 words

• What is your favorite word and why?
• Describe the world you come from and how that world shaped who you are.
• Discuss something you secretly like but pretend not to, or vice versa.
• "We might say that we were looking for global schemas, symmetries, universal and unchanging laws - and what we have discovered is the mutable, the ephemeral, the complex." Support or challenge Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine's assertion.

UVa Supplement Essays for Transfers
1. How do the possible career or professional plans you indicated on the Common Application relate to your planned course of study?

• If you are applying to the College of Arts and Sciences and are undecided about your major, indicate your general area of interest.
• If you are applying to the Architecture, Commerce, Education, Engineering, or Nursing Schools, tell us why you have chosen this field and what experiences (work, internships, etc.) have prepared you for it.
• If you are applying to the Five-Year Teacher Education Program, indicate your academic major within the College of Arts and Sciences and your intended teaching area (e.g., elementary education, secondary education).

2. Describe your activities during periods of time (other than summer vacations) when you were not enrolled in college. Do you plan to spend the Spring term away from your current college or university? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, please describe, in chronological order, your activities or employment during these periods.

The wait list is no more

I got word late yesterday that all wait list decisions have been made. Status pages should reflect your final status and letters have been mailed.

It looks like the Class of 2012 is complete!

Status pages have been updated

Just checking in during a very busy week to let you all know that all status pages should be up to date.

I know it's taken a while and I'm sorry about that. Our staff was working hard to get all the decisions entered into the system and help with the transfer process simultaneously.

Introducing the UVa Life Blog

There are times when I feel badly that I don't have all the answers. When Transfermer arrived on the UVa blogging scene, I was so excited that transfer students would have an expert to field all their questions. Then, the AccessUVa students joined the blogging fray and added a student voice to the mix. Now, I'm happy to share the newest addition to our cast of blogs. It's a student blog that is simply called UVa Life.

Click that link and check it out! I'm sure your comments will be appreciated!

Waitlist letters on the way

Waitlist letters are on the way to you. Those who are local may have them today, others might have to wait a few days for them to be delivered. Inevitably, someone asks when the letter will arrive at their home and I can't predict that...you probably know more about your mail service than I do!

Remember that we were over enrolled with very few spaces open in certain areas. I don't have exact numbers right now, but hope to have something to post tomorrow. To be brutally honest, you should expect a letter releasing you. If my posts have been ignored and you're expecting something else, I think you might be setting yourself up for a disappointment.

I think it's time to revisit some things I wrote back in March:

Regardless of what your letter says, you are going to be just fine. You are going to attend a great school and you are going to grow tremendously while there. You are going to have highs and lows, you're going to have great successes and you're going to fail miserably at something. What's going to make or break those experiences is your response and your attitude, not necessarily the location of the events.

You're going to wind up at another great school and I hope you'll throw yourself into life there. For most of you, UVa will be forgotten fairly easily. However, if months go by and things don't feel right, then I hope the idea of transferring will inspire you to work your hardest and take courses that will help you in the transfer process. Good luck to you all and thank so much for spending your time here. It's been a pleasure interacting with you on this blog.

Oh, one last note about the online status pages:
Because we've been working on two processes simultaneously (the processes for first years and transfers), it is going to take a few more days to get the status pages updated. So you will not see any change today or tomorrow. As always, I'll post an update when I know more.

Waitlist decisions are down

Those of you who are still checking status pages may see decisions gone from the system. I just removed all waitlist decisions so the staff can do some work on them. Decisions will come back up on Monday or Tuesday. I will post an update when I know which day it will be.

Waitlist update

I just got off the phone with my colleagues in admission (remember, I'm in another office right now). Most of the waitlist will hear one way or the other early next week. We usually hold onto a few applicants in case of more "melt" (the admission "industry" term for when deposited students drop out of the class, usually because they've gotten off a waitlist elsewhere), but that will be a very, very mall number of cases.

We'll also be taking down the online application system shortly so that we can clear the way for the new students information system, our online reading system, and the Common App. The site's been buggy at times, but if you have trouble connecting to it in the next few weeks, it might be because the system is completely going away.

Some interesting stats

I was crunching blog statistics yesterday and thought I'd share some interesting ones. I was very surprised by the overall traffic to this site over the last academic year:

45,381 unique visitors
259,612 page views

The peak of traffic came in the last week of March, which was when decisions were posted on your status pages. The blog had 62,592 hits that week.

Most students find the blog through the online application status page or Google. Other sources include message boards and other blogs.

The vast majority of readers are from the United States, but there are readers from many other countries. The rest of the top ten (in order): Singapore, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, India, Hong Kong (my stats program doesn't lump Hong Kong in with China), Canada, United Kingdom, Thailand, and Turkey.

Roughly half of the domestic readers are from Virginia. Other states that round out the top ten (in order): New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Florida, District of Columbia, Massachusetts.

The percentage of readers who are new to the blog has held steady at 30% for the last three months. Back in January, there was a big jump (obviously as student started checking their status pages) and the percentage of new readers hit 60%.

Seeing these numbers and reading your comments makes this so rewarding. Thank you all so much for visiting and contributing to this blog!

By request

Sitting in the buttercups at Darden Towe Park

I can't accommodate every request these days, as there's not much news on the waitlist front and I'm spending more and more time working with the team that's getting UVa ready for the Common App, a new central information system for student records, and the new paperless application review process. However, there was a request made on those message boards you all love/hate to prowl and I can definitely accommodate that.

At the request of "DB", here are some CavDog pictures:

Eating breakfast at a downtown diner

A dog's first experience with cannoli is very special

Being washed and fluffed at the self-service dog wash
(he's yawning, not crying)

Checking out the Downtown Mall traffic at a favorite cafe

What happens after your deposit is received

There have been lots of questions on the blog and message boards about orientation, housing, and the time line for getting information after making a deposit.

After the Office of Admission logs your deposit into our computer system, other offices can start to work with you. The very first thing you'll receive is your MyUva book (click for a PDF version) from the Office of Orientation and New Student Programs. The very first thing you'll want to do is activate your computing ID. See that MyUVa link for online information about that. After that, do some reading. Talk to your parents about orientation dates and make plans to come to Charlottesville for that. On the Summer Orientation site (first menu item on the main orientation page), you can find all sorts of info about what happens at orientation, who should come, etc.

The Orientation & New Student Programs site also has info about move-in weekend activities (called Fall Orientation), Family Weekend in October, and other activities for first-year students.

Hope that helps!

Finals are upon us

Traffic is increasing. Restaurants are a little more crowded. Students standing on the Rotunda steps, smiling for pictures is a regular sight. Huge, party tents are being assembled on any flat (or relatively flat) surface around Grounds. It's all a sign of what's just around the corner.

Commencement is on Saturday.

Obviously, this is a very happy time at UVa, but it's also the time of a transition that can be a little rough on admission officers. It's time for admission to hand off "our" students to the other offices of the University. A few months ago, if you had questions, you called us or you posted here on the blog. Now, you'll start calling orientation, housing, dining services, and after orientation, you adviser to get answers to your questions. I imagine that a good number of you who posted questions here in the past are already gone because there's no need to check ol' Dean J's blog anymore.

Here's my plea: keep in touch! My work is infinitely more rewarding when I'm interacting with students. When a current UVa student chimes in on the blog or when someone calls me Dean J (or my dog by his UVa name), I'm ecstatic. So, between now and next fall, when the juniors find the blog, please check in and say hello. It means a lot to me!

Here's another plea: think about the juniors behind you and think about some of the things you can do to share what you've learned about this process. Maybe you'll do something formal like join the Guide Service or visit your high school over breaks to talk to the younger students. Maybe you'll do something more casual like post on the blog/message boards or be that student that offers to answer questions for a visiting family that's wandering around Grounds. I'm sure your own conversations with admission officers pale in comparison with conversations you had with students during your college search. Please try to be a part of this process for the students behind you!

Quick reminder for transfers

Transfers, please remember that information being shared here about the waitlist pertains to first year students. It does not pertain to transfers. The transfer blog will have information about the transfer waitlist.

The two groups are separate and what happens to one does not affect the other.

Weekend Topic: Shopping

In the weekend topics "series", I've already covered outdoor activities, music, weather, food, transportation, cheap entertainment options, and sports. As some of you are heading out to the stores to find that perfect present for mom (you do know what day it is tomorrow, yes?), I thought I'd cover the suggested topic of shopping.

First, some background: I'm a "city kid". Prior to arriving in Charlottesville, I only lived in major metropolitan areas. Coming to Charlottesville, I imagined the shopping options of a small city being limited and thought I'd be driving to Richmond and Northern Virginia fairly often on the weekends. What I learned is that Charlottesville has everything I need, but might not have a range of options, which turns out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. Before, I'd race all over my city, investigating all the options available before settling on a purchase. Buying even simple things could take weeks. Here, there are still multiple options for things, but still not as many as in a large city, which saves a lot of time and energy when shopping.

So, let's start with an overview of Charlottesville's shopping districts: The Corner (by UVa), the Downtown Mall (covered in a previous weekend topic), and Emmet Street/Route 29.

The Corner
The Corner covers about six blocks along University Avenue, which runs alongside Grounds, and a few side streets. Among the cafes and restaurants are bookstores and boutiques. A few of the cafes, a deli and a pizza place come to mind, stay open late at night, so there's activity on The Corner at all hours.

Emmet Street/Route 29
Emmet Street is a major road that has some University buildings on it (John Paul Jones Arena, Lambeth Field Apartments), but it's mostly known for being the road that has all the big, chain stores that each city seems to have. Students seem to do a lot of shopping at Barracks Road Shopping Center, which is on the UVa bus route and a pretty short walk from Lambeth. Around Barracks Road, Emmet turns into more of a highway than a road. Further up, you'll find lots of "big box" type stores (Best Buy, discount stores like TJ Max, Lowes, Target, etc). The #7 Charlottesville goes up and down Route 29 (the UVa bus doesn't go higher than Barracks Road).

Outlets
The two closest outlet centers currently are in Northern Virginia (Leesburg) and Williamsburg. I heard recently that a new outlet center along the same lines as those two is being planned for Zions Crossroads, which is about 20-25 minutes east on Route 64.

What have a missed? What questions do you have about shopping?

Waitlist Status

CavDog is sorry this isn't very happy news for some.

We are over enrolled. This doesn't mean we won't go to the waitlist. What I'm fairly certain of is the following:

The College of Arts & Sciences is most likely closed. CLAS applicants probably won't come off the waitlist.

The specialty schools (Engineering, Architecture, and Nursing) might see some waitlist movement. If we go to those waitlists, the number of offers will be very small.

When I have more info, I will post it. I know many of you have been checking daily to see news and I wanted to be close to certain before I posted anything. As the mail rolled in, I knew what would possibly happen, but wasn't completely sure.

It's been four days...

By the end of the week, we'll probably be able to say that all the mail postmarked on May 1st has arrived and we'll have a final count of deposits. I hope to have an update for all of you by Friday night.

More weekend topics?

One reader suggested that we revisit the weekend topics. I'm game...but I'd like to know what topics you'd like to see.