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, February 15, 2023

Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars Notifications

The Office of Admission reviews all applicants to the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering for a potential invitation to three scholars programs: Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars

The first round of invitations will go to students who applied during the Early Decision and Early Action rounds. An email with invitations from this first round is going out at 5 PM today and a short note is being added to portals as well. 

The second round of invitations will include students from all three rounds and will be posted at the conclusion of the Regular Decision process. Echols and Rodman have a third round that takes place after the first semester (you can self-nominate for that round). 

About 5% of students in the College and School of Engineering are invited to join these programs. You can read more about them on their websites. In addition to showing exceptional academic records, scholars show a love of learning and an extraordinary commitment to academic pursuits beyond the classroom. We see this in transcripts, recommendations, essays, and activities. The review for the scholars programs is not driven by GPAs or test scores. 

Congratulations to our first group of scholars for the Class of 2027!

Thursday, February 09, 2023

2023 #UVA Early Action Admission Statistics (Unofficial)

I've written a post like this 1-3 times per year since 2008. UVA has always been pretty transparent about statistics (if you love data, you'll love the Office of Institutional Research and Analytics website), but I realize that unofficial information about each phase of the application process helps students prepare for decision notification. 

The Research and Analytics website has admission data going back to 1991. Our office shares admission rates broken down by residency in our presentations, publications, on our website, and on social media. If you're familiar with any of those, then these numbers I'm sharing aren't all that surprising. 

These numbers were up to date on Thursday morning. If you are a reporter, this data is unofficial and you should contact the Office of University Communications for information.


Early Action Applications

Total number of Early Action applications: 36,443 (31,143 last year)
Total number of VA apps: 9,468
Total number of OOS apps: 26,975
We use completed applications in our statistics.

Early Action Offers

Overall offers: 5,939
Total VA offers:
 2,601 (27% offer rate)
Total OOS offers:  3,338 (12% offer rate)
Enrollment Goal: ~3,970
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. 

Early Action Defers

Overall defers: 7,707 (21%)
Total VA defers: 2,200
Total OOS defers: 5,507
Deferred students opt in or out of being reviewed and that number will change over the remainder of the application season. Read more about deferral here (this link is in all defer letters). Please read #2 below. 

Our total application number is around 55,845. 

Some notes:

1. I do not have additional statistics. I know people want to see how many students were admitted without testing. I was not given that number. 
 
2. If you are deferred, you must submit the defer form in your portal if you'd like to be considered in RD. This form takes the place of a "letter of continued interest" or LOCI. Please follow the directions on the defer student page about what you may add to your file. That page also tells you what you should not do. Following directions is important and it saves busy students time and energy. 

3. Admitted students will get a paper copy of the offer letter by mail via USPS. 

4. The first round of invitations into EcholsRodman, and College Science Scholars, will be posted in the portal next week. I will post an update when that happens. A second round will be posted after the Regular Decision process is completed. Echols and Rodman also allow self-nomination after your first semester. Miller Arts Scholars only apply after the first semester.

Wednesday, February 08, 2023

#UVA Early Action Update

Let's just get to the reason you clicked through.

Early Action notification will be
Friday, February 10, 2023
This is official. Please do not call our office to confirm it. 


Where are the decisions posted?
You will see a place to view your decision when you log into your applicant portal. Remember that your applicant portal is different from SIS. You received login information for the portal back when you applied.

Decisions are not sent by email, but we will send an email out once decisions are posted in portals. 


What time will decisions show up?
The decisions will get posted all at once to portals in the early evening. There's a technical team runs several processes to get the portals updated and I can't predict the exact time that they'll finish their work.


Why is the portal changing? Is it a sign of my decision?
The portal will look a little different throughout the day as the technical team prepares for the release. The changes are not tied to your decision. 

As always, I'll have a post with admission statistics to share in the coming days. 


This post is about Early Action decisions. Regular Decision notification will happen by April 1st.