Best of Youtube

I saw a good video about the club and activities fair that happens here each fall on the Alumni Association website and I went off to Youtube to see if I could find it an embed it here. In the process, I found myself clicking around and finding other little gems that I thought I'd post here. So typical with Youtube, isn't it?

Here you go...the Best of Youtube (for today, that is):


This does not show how crowded and chaotic the club fair can be.



I could get lost in UVa drum line and marching band videos...there are so many good ones!


I love music + engineering.


UVa Fencing: "It's kind of a unique club in that it attracts people who want to fight with swords." :)


The Ski & Snowboard Team: "This is my frat or my family."

A few more that don't allow me to embed right now:
The Barber Challenge (some nice photos)
The 2008 move-in slide show
They 2008 year in pictures

I wish those last two had captions because they show some interesting events and people (including our dear Jack Blackburn). I imagine the 2009 year in pictures will be out in a few weeks and I'll post a link to that when it's available.

A reminder for admitted students

As the May 1st deadline approaches, I figured I'd gently remind those of you with offers that simply hitting the "accept" button will not save you a spot in the Class of 2013. Hitting that button puts you in an "intends to matriculate" limbo. Only when you pay your deposit through UVaQuickPay (aka NelNet) will you become matriculated.

You have until 11:59 PM on Friday night to hit that "accept" button and pay your deposit. Remember that there will not be anyone here after 5 PM on Friday to answer questions if you have trouble with the SIS.

A reminder for waitlisted students

I just took a peek at the database and it looks like a good number of waitlisted students haven't hit the "accept" or "decline" buttons under their letters.

I imagine students who fall into that category aren't even reading this blog anymore, but maybe you can pass the word at school (this is mainly for Virginians, I guess): please be sure to accept or decline the waitlist spot.

Also remember that you can pull yourself off the waitlist at any time by hitting the "decline" button. So, if you accepted a spot a few weeks ago and your heart now belongs to another university, you can remove yourself from the list.

Days on The Lawn wrap up

Days on The Lawn are now behind us and you're probably either decided to close to making a decision that will end your college search. If you are planning another visit between now and decision day, make sure to check the Plan a Visit page for open class options and for information about staying overnight with The Monroe Society.

Heads up, though: the end of the semester is coming, so some courses are going into presentation mode and might not have traditional lectures. Just be flexible if you sit in on some classes.


I want to take a second to share a cool exchange that happened at DOTL the other day. It was a very rainy day, so the morning session was moved into Old Cabell Hall. Old Cabell Hall is known for it's beautiful theater and a massive, eleven panel mural called "The Student's Progress", which was painted by Lincoln Perry. Anyone who spends more than a few minutes in the lobby finds themselves inspecting the mural and finding a new detail they never noticed before (like the dog over the staircase on the right side that looks like a certain canine you all know).

As our DOTL visitors went off to school-specific sessions, I chatted with a few student volunteers in the lobby about how the events were going. A man walked up to our group and asked one of the students if she wouldn't mind being painted. I had assumed he was the father of a visiting student, but he was actually Lincoln Perry, there to add to the mural.

Off the student went to scamper up the scaffolds so Lincoln Perry could add her to the famous mural. I can just picture this student returning to UVa many years from now and pointing to her 20 year old self, immortalized in the Old Cabell Hall mural.

Last admitted student chat tonight!

Tonight will be the third and final chat for admitted students. Scroll down for the link to the UVa chat rooms.

A tour of the Aquatic and Fitness Center

The AFC is one of those places we wish students could see on the tour. If tours stopped there, though, they'd be at least another 30 minutes long. Today, I was doing some googling and found a series of videos that give an in-depth look at the AFC...including a look at the largest hot tub on the East Coast.

Aquatic and Fitness Center Tour, Part 1:



Aquatic and Fitness Center Tour, Part 2
Aquatic and Fitness Center Tour, Part 3
Aquatic and Fitness Center Tour, Part 4
Aquatic and Fitness Center Tour, Part 5

A picture perfect DOTL

I have to admit that I'm actually a little sad that the very last DOTL on Monday. CavDog and I have been having so much fun meeting all of you at these events. We just took a lunchtime fetch break in one of the gardens and on the walk back to Peabody Hall, we were stopped a good number of times as people said hello and gave CavDog a quick pet.

We really have been so lucky to have nice weather and manageable, upbeat crowds for these events. On top of that, we have two back to back DMB shows this weekend, it's Garden Week in town, there's a marathon tomorrow, and the free Friday concert series, Fridays After Five, starts today. It's Spring in Charlottesville!

Admitted students and parents, please feel free to keep calling or posting to get your questions answered. May 1st is around the corner (The Corner...ha!) and we want to make sure you have all the information you need to make decisions.

Thanks for visiting UVa!

UVa sponsored debate on Affirmative Action tonight

I don't have much admission office news, but I thought I'd post about a debate being held tonight at the Library of Congress. The debate is part of a series being sponsored by UVa's Miller Center and the topic is "The Future of Affirmative Action." The participants will debate whether affirmative action should consider wealth and class status instead of race and ethnicity. Tickets are not available, but the Miller Center webcasts their debates, so those interested can watch from home.

The website to which I linked has information about the participates (Julian Bond and Lee Bollinger are included...should be interesting) and more information about the issue.

The debate series' Youtube, Facebook, or MySpace pages will surly have some interesting comments.

Remember that there's another admitted student chat tonight!

Admitted student chats coming up!

Our current students will be hosting three chats for admitted students. The chats will not be admission or financial aid chats. The only UVa people who will be in the chat rooms will be students. This is your chance to ask about work load, research, jobs, food, housing, activities, entertainment, Charlottesville, and other topics that are on your mind.

Chats will take place on...

Tuesday, April 14th (TONIGHT!)
Thursday, April 16th
Tuesday, April 21st

All chats are from 7 PM to 9 PM. If there are multiple rooms, try to spread yourselves out so one student isn't inundated with questions.

Click to enter UVa Chat Rooms

Happy Birthday, Mr. Jefferson!

Happy Birthday, TJ!
Happy DOTL #3, everyone. Two more to go!

In case you didn't bookmark the SIS login page

Just in case you didn't bookmark the Student Information System login page, here's an easy way to get to it for the rest of your time at UVa without hunting through emails, this blog, or the Office of Admission website.

1. Go to virginia.edu and click on "SIS" in the upper right corner.


2. Click on "Fall" almost anywhere on the page.

If you have already deposited, I hope you noticed the link for new students on the front of the SIS page.


Click on that header and you'll be taken to the Office of Orientation's site and a list of things to do next.

CavDog revealed

CavDog's parents and eleven brothers and sisters live in the area. When I jokingly told one of the other owners that we could give them all state college nicknames, I found out that one of them is named Hokie!

30 second tour: School of Architecture

Do I think it's possible to convey how amazing the School of Architecture and their new building is in 30 seconds? No way. But I can try...

(click through to go to Youtube to see related videos)
All 70+ pictures from our tour of the School of Architecture's new building

Some other blogs to read

It's time for us to get back to reading transfer applications, so blog updates might not come as quickly as in the past few weeks. For now, check out some of the student blogs. The AccessUVa student blog has some lighthearted videos up and the UVaLife student blog is in need of some incoming student comments. Wahoo World is run by international students and is an interesting addition to the student blogs.

The students writers created their blogs on their own and are not paid for their work. They are eager to answer your questions and chat with you!

A CavDog family photo to hold you over until next time
Can you guess which one is CavDog?

Days on The Lawn 2009, vol. 1

The first DOTL went beautifully on Saturday. We had a picture perfect day, lots of great things happening on Grounds, interesting speakers, and a wonderful crowd of visitors. DOTL #2 is still in progress. The morning threat of a thunderstorm was just that and the sun was shining by 10 AM as students headed off to sit in on classes. Let's hope our luck with the weather continues!

Unfortunately, the possibility of that thunderstorm lead me to leave CavDog at home. He would have loved to meet all the people who asked about him.

Waitlist FAQs

Now that you've been offered a spot on the waitlist, you are probably wondering what you should do next. First of all, you need to accept or decline the offer. Below the abbreviated waitlist letter in Student Self-Service are two buttons. Use them to accept or decline the offer of a spot on the waitlist. If you accept, you can always come back at another time and decline. However, if you decline, there is no going back. You are essentially withdrawing from consideration if you hit the decline button.

The rest of this post covers what is on the Waitlist FAQ sheet for first-year students.

1. How does this work? When will I hear?
If fewer than 3,240 students accept offers of admission, we will offer admission to some students who have placed themselves on the waitlist. The waitlist is not ranked. After May 1st, we'll get an idea of where there is room in the class. In a way, you could think of the waitlist as having eight parts - Virginians and out-of-state students for each of the four colleges. When we go to the waitlist, we might know we have room for in-state engineers or out-of-state Arts & Sciences students, for example. We work in teams to reread files of waitlisted students that fit the criteria needed. It takes about two weeks for us to review waitlist files. We aim to notify you between the third week in May and the end of June. If you are offered admission, you will have some time to think about the offer.

2. How many will get in?
We don't know how many students will come off the waitlist this year. We won't know until the beginning of May. There is no "typical" number, either. Consider the numbers from the last few years:
2008 - 60 waitlist offers
2007 - 159 waitlist offers
2006 - 145 waitlist offers
2005 - 83 waitlist offers
2004 - 37 waitlist offers

3. Why are so many offered a waitlist spot?
First of all, we know that only half of the students offered a waitlist spot actually take us up on the offer. Second, those eight groups come into play. Third, with more students applying to more colleges, it's hard to know how interested a student is in UVa. Yield may go up, as students perceive public schools to be attractive financially, but yield might go down because students have applied to many other schools and are inevitably getting attractive offers to go elsewhere.

4. What should I do to improve my chances?
Keep your application file current. When the marking period ends, send along your grades. You may write a letter, but understand that the letter should provide us with new information. If you receive any honors or awards, feel free to email us about that and we'll file your email with your application. We don't track visitations, so you will not improve your chances by coming to our office. If you have questions, feel free to call.

5. What now?
The wait list is unpredictable. Therefore, you need to commit to another university by paying a deposit and completing their enrollment process.


Rest assured that as soon as we have spots available, we will spring into action. We are eager to pull students off the waitlist and are not interested in prolonging this process.

Comments will now be moderated

Sadly, I feel the need to turn on comment moderation on this blog. I am not happy about this, but there are 2-3 readers who have prompted this move. Perhaps we can go back to normal in a few weeks, when those readers will have hopefully moved on and won't care enough about UVa to post here.

Yet another update from Student Financial Services

This time, I have some numbers for you.

572 of you have not submitted your UFAA. It is on your to-do list in the SIS and Student Financial Services has emailed you about this. If you do not submit this form, a financial aid package can not be created for you. Check your to-do lists!

463 of you are still in review. You have submitted all of your documents and the aid officers are working as quickly as possible to get your packages completed.

Comparing the numbers I was given yesterday to those I got this morning, they seem to be moving very quickly. Hang in there...I know this is stressful, but I also know that Student Financial Services is trying to be thorough and fair in awarding your aid.

As always, you can contact the Office of Student Financial Services with questions, but realize that they are probably getting hundreds of calls each day, so you may have to wait to speak with someone.

Visitors: very important parking info for April

I posted this information about a month ago, but I feel that I should repeat it now that April is upon us.

If you are visiting for Days on The Lawn, please pay close attention to the parking information on your invitation and on the website. If you are a prospective student visiting for an information session and tour this month, please pay close attention to the parking information posted on our "Plan a Visit" website.

We have rented out an entire garage for visitors this month. As a result, we will not be validating parking tickets from the Central Grounds Garage.

Just in case you don't click through, here is the information for prospective students:

**On April 4th, 6th, 13th, 17th and 20th, we will be hosting our newly admitted students on grounds for Days on the Lawn. Traffic volume in and around Charlottesville will be unusually high, and visitor parking will be extremely limited. To accommodate the visitors for Days on the Lawn, we highly discourage non-admitted prospective students from visiting on those dates. Please select a different day if your travel plans include us in April. See schedule below for more detailed information.

Please also note that the Office of Admission WILL NOT validate tickets for the Central Grounds Parking Garage from April 1-24, 2009. We will offer COMPLIMENTARY parking in the Emmet/Ivy Garage from 7am – 6pm on WEEKDAYS in April from the 1st through the 24th. WEEKEND PARKING is available at Central Grounds Parking Garage for a small fee. **

Update from Student Financial Services

The Office of Student Financial Services continues to read and post packages on the SIS student self-service pages. At this point, they seem to have 1,400 applications left, so most of you who applied for financial aid should see your packages right now.

Please understand that they are working as quickly as they can to finish reviewing your documentation.

If you have questions about your package, please contact SFS directly.