How I Use Social Media, Part 2

Yesterday's blog post was about how I use social media, in general, in my work. The quick summary from the end of that post:

1. I like social media.
2. I don't have time to search for students on the internet.
3. If you include #UVA in a tweet or photo, you're asking our entire community to see it. 

I imagine that some were thinking "Dean J, the New York Times just said 31% of admission officers look students up online. What's that about?" That statistic was generated from a phone survey of 381 admission officers (that's not a huge sample). I'm fairly certain I got the call because I vaguely remember thinking the questions were strangely worded. They didn't ask about how systematic Googling applicant names was. They ask if we had ever done it.

Here are three instances where I might turn to the internet for more information while reading a file and some real examples from my career:


1. There's something really, really cool in a file.
I'm starting with my favorite instance, but this isn't a daily thing. Every now and then, a student talks about something that interests me and I turn to Google to get some more information about it.

Several years ago, when cupcakes were just starting to enjoy a surge in popularity, a student wrote about starting her own cupcake business. She researched best practices for small businesses, analyzed costs, and launched a true business. I was so impressed (and probably hungry) that I searched for the business name to see the fabulous cupcakes about which I had just read.

Now I want a cupcake.


2. I need more information about a school.
This is probably the most common situation for me. Your college counselor submits a high school profile with their part of the application. Profiles explain the hierarchy of the curriculum in place at schools, grading scales, and methodologies for calculating statistics like GPA and rank. I'm sure you're aware that these things vary a lot from school to school. Once in a while, there's something missing from the profile and I usually turn to the web to find the information if it's after hours and I know there isn't going to be a counselor to talk to by phone.

Just the other day, I was reading an application from a school that gave general information about the curriculum, but didn't list specific courses in each discipline. There was no way for me to know what the top course offered was in each subject area. Google gave me this year's student handbook which included all the courses being offered this year.


3. Something seems too good to be true.
Like my first example, this isn't something that happens often. This is rare, but there are times when something seems off or wrong in a file and I turn to the internet for more information. A call to a high school counselor usually follows.

While reading the file of a student who attended the public high school in my hometown, I saw that she listed herself as the founder of a club you can find at many high schools. I was certain the club existed years ago and Googled the club out of curiosity to see if they had an online presence. The club didn't exist online, but the counselor confirmed that the club was new. Perhaps the organization existed when I was still in town and faded away soon after.

One more example: A colleague read a file in which an applicant said they were in charge of the Parks and Recreation department in their town and managed a budget that was a couple million dollars.

It seemed improbable that a town with a big enough operation to need that kind of budget wouldn't have a full-time director. A quick search revealed that the town did, in fact, have a Parks and Recreation department with a full time staff. A call revealed that the student was on an advisory board.




Please don't think that every admission officer around the country is prowling the web for information about applicants. Applications are pretty robust these days and provide us with the information we need in our review. I'm sure there are exceptions, but here and at many other colleges, the reading load each officer has is substantial. Can you imagine what our reading season would be like if we were Googling 30,000 applicants and combing Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for them, too?

How I Use Social Media, Part 1

Almost every year since I started doing work in social media, there have been periods when journalists have gotten really interested in how social media is used in college admission. Sometimes we get painted as creepy folks trolling the internet for dirt about applicants.

One time, a survey asked admission officers if they had a Facebook presence. The results were reported a little differently.

Aaaah! Panic!

Really quickly after the group behind the survey put out a press release, all sorts of papers and news sites picked up on the story. This was on Time Magazine's website a few days later:

OMG, now we're stalkers?

I got a ton of calls and emails from folks asking me to comment, which I happily did. First of all, we don't have time to be digging around for information about our applicants. I don't even have time to eat lunch during reading season. I have files to read. Second of all, I think most teens are perfectly aware of privacy settings and they lock their information down.

A few months after that happened, I wanted to use the press release and resulting stories in a presentation to some new professionals at a conference. When I went to grab screen shots, I found an update from the Kaplan folks, who were behind the original survey. The update was added onto the original story, but I don't remember any media outlet picking up on that.

Doesn't that sound less scary that the original message?


Things have changed a little bit since that all happened. Students found Twitter and Instagram. I joined Twitter a long time ago. In fact, 1.45% of users have been on Twitter longer than I have been. That's a lot of people, but suffice it to say, I've been on Twitter since before most of our applicants knew what it was. Back then, it was really popular with people who worked in academia. It was a great way to keep up with what was happening all around the University.

Many (most?) people who do a lot of work with social media use a client to keep track of their different feeds. It's akin to a stock ticker on your computer screen. Mine has columns for my home feed, private messages, mentions, and my favorite hashtags. All day long, the feeds scroll. I don't watch them all the time, but I glance at them fairly regularly. Twitter is probably the fastest way to get an answer from me if you have a question because I have that client open all day. It gives me a little pop up notification if someone mentions me. 

Here's what my favorite hashtag feed looked like a few minutes ago as I was getting ready to write this post:

I do the same thing with Instagram. I downloaded Instagram when Hipstamatic was THE big photo sharing app. You don't remember that? It wasn't long ago (2010), but you had to pay $1.99 for Hipstamatic. Another blogger told me that Instagram was the free alternative. Well, look at what happened. We're all on Instagram and Hipstamatic isn't dominant anymore.

The UVA hashtag on Instagram is full of gorgeous pictures from around the Grounds (along with some pictures of grapes and grape products, por supuesto). I love checking it and so do many others in the UVa community.

On Twitter and Instagram, I think you need to be careful about your profiles and your use of hashtags. You might forget that a hashtag with a school name in it is probably used by students, faculty, administrators, and people in the community. That's the point of a hashtag...to share something with people interested in the same topic.

The vast, vast majority of my interaction with students online is awesome. That's why I keep writing blog posts, tweeting, and sharing images on Instagram. Once in a blue moon, something comes to my attention that raises an eyebrow. I usually address it. For example, a high school student once tweeted mean comments about the physical appearance of the admission dean giving an information session. He tagged the posts with #UVA. I wrote right back. He apologized. I didn't take a screen shot or try to figure out the student's real name so I could connect the tweets to an application. 

To summarize:

1. I like social media.
2. I don't have time to search for students on the internet.
3. If you include #UVA in a tweet or photo, you're asking our entire community to see it. 


Next time, I'll talk about how we use social media during the reading process.


Update: Here's How I Use Social Media, Part 2.

How UVa Looks at Test Scores (or When Super Scoring isn't Exactly Super Scoring)

I wrote a very long post in early October about the timing of SAT score reporting. At the end, I promised to talk about SAT super scoring at UVa.

Just to recap, that earlier post covered three topics:

1.  How we receive your SAT scores. This includes to answer to the common question about whether we will "accept" scores.
   
2. The timing of SAT score reporting. More students than ever are waiting until the last minute to send scores and that's not good!
   
3. What happens if you send scores after deadlines. This is probably the most common testing question we get.

So now I need to talk about how we look at the scores when we open an admission file. Let's define super scoring first. Generally, super scoring the SAT means the best section scores from multiple sittings are used to create a new composite score.

At UVa, we look at each section of the SAT. We don't talk about totals too much. If someone asked me for the score of the applicant in front of me, I would say three, three digit numbers. I would not cite a total. This isn't how all admission offices work, so check with your other schools about practices if you are curious.

Our application system pulls the best score from each section if a student has taken a test multiple times. We do not create new totals. That's why this isn't exactly super scoring. Here are rough examples (as in, I've made these up) for both the SAT and ACT:

This is not exact. I have made edits.

See how there are a mix of test dates shown? The dates honestly don't factor into our review. When I read, I'm looking at the two or three digit scores. I don't see how many times an applicant took the tests and I don't see all of their scores. The application system shows me the right mix of scores to get the best possible combination.

This is why we always tell students to just send their scores without delay. Use the free score reports knowing that our computer system is only going to show us the best ones when we open your file.

 What questions do you have about super scoring and how we look at testing when we read?

*Again, those scores weren't lifted directly out of a student's file.*

Virginia Residency and Your Application

This morning, I have some information from the Office of Virginia Status at UVa. The folks in this office make residency determinations for the entire university, from undergraduate admission to the graduate schools. They're involved in every admission process we have here. Clearly, undergraduate admission season is a busy time in their office.

Here are some things to know about the process of being deemed a Virginia resident:

1. The Common App asks most of the questions.
For many of you, the residency questions on the Common App provide the information needed to deem you domiciled in Virginia. Do not fill out the Application for Virginia Status that's on the OVS website. That's not for you! The Common App is exactly what they need in many cases.


2. A few of you need to provide documentation.
There are a few cases where you might have to provide some documentation to support your case. Two common cases (and what to do if one applies to you):

a. Military families - fax one parent's active duty orders, Leave and Earnings Statement, or proof of separation.

b. Permanent residents, visa holders, asylees, or those with immigrations statuses pending - fax documentation for you and a parent

Outside of those situations, you will get an email asking for documents if your case needs supporting documentation.


3. The Office of Virginia Status prefers faxed documents over email.
They communicate with applicants via email, but like documents to come via fax. Their fax number is 434-982-2663.


4. The Office of Virginia Status doesn't confirmation receipt of documents.
The volume of items coming into the OVS is too great for them to respond to every fax, but you will be emailed repeatedly if the documents they requested haven't arrived. Check your email. This is really important for the admission process and for your tuition bill!


Now, here's the tricky part. I can't really answer questions about Virginia Status. I can, of course, reiterate that being a Virginia resident is a big advantage in our process, point you to past admission statistics to show this, and promise you that within Virginia there are no quotas.

So I fear to ask...what are your questions?

Virginia Gentleman

Double Check Your Common App!

For the last week, we've been emailing people who didn't submit all parts of their Common App to give them a chance (or several last chances) to hit submit on what was missing. Would you believe that 23 people paid a fee and told Common App they were applying during the Early Action period, but never submitted the actual application?

So one last email went out yesterday. We are about to shut things down and move forward with processing all those fabulous transcripts and recommendations that are rolling in. I should have some preliminary numbers for you soon. Keep in mind that our official stats use completed application numbers, so you will see these numbers go down in time.

By the way, official statistics about everything at UVa come from the Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies. You can see all kinds of admission statistics on their website. Most schools have an office like this. The name often has a name like institutional research or assessment.


Now, because I've given you lots of screen shots lately, here's a picture of CavDog in one of the UVa gardens.

Happy day!

Sending Resumes to UVa

Common App has a great upload feature for resumes. They also have a great feature that lets colleges turn that function off if they don't need applicants to upload resumes.

UVa turned the feature off. We don't need resumes.

Here's the thing: we have a pretty large applicant pool (just over 29,000 people applied last year). It's helpful when information is presented in a consistent format. We really like how activities are organized in the Common App. We know where to look for the facts and we don't spend time sifting through extra information to get to the good stuff. Resumes tend to restate a lot of information that is presented elsewhere in the application. Repetition is totally unnecessary in this process. What's more, I think students divert a lot of time and energy to crafting a resume when they could be working on school work or putting the finishing touches on their essays.

Here's an early draft of what the activity section looks like on my side of the Common App. This was a test application from a few months ago. There have been a few changes, but you can get the idea...

An early draft of the activity page on the Common App

We also like that there are ten spaces for activities on the Common App. So many people think this part is about documenting every step you've taken over the last four years when we are really interested in seeing where you have your deepest involvement. We don't need intense detail about your activities. Short summaries are perfect.

There's a school out there that only has five spaces for activities and I think that's a great idea. It coveys the message that this isn't about having a long list, it's about sharing your favorite ways to spend your time when you aren't involved in classwork.

Students have taken to emailing resumes because we don't offer the upload function. I got one the other day that was four pages long and the first two pages listed details about the same activity. It was as if the student whose activity sheet is above listed statistics about every game in which he had played. The detail provided (three years on varsity, elected caption) helps me understand the involvement far better than knowing a batting average does.

Keep it simple. Remember that schools ask for the things they need and they usually tell you the format they prefer. Use the activity section of the Common App and don't email a resume. If we wanted resumes, we would have allowed them to be uploaded in the Common App.

After Your Hit Submit

We are still processing everything that was submitted over the weekend, but I thought I'd remind you of the "After you submit" section of our application instructions.

Once you submit your application, the Common App holds onto it until a designated time when we pull the day's submitted applications. If you submit after the day's pull, we might not get your file until the next day. That's totally fine.

Our system has to move the information from your file into our databases. Around deadline time, it can take a while for all of this processing to happen. Once your application has be set up in our system, an email will be sent to the email address you submitted. The email will give you login instructions for our Student Information System (SIS). It can take up to five business days for these emails to go out. It all depends on volume.

The first time you log into SIS, you might see several things on your "to do" list. For now, you should not be worrying about missing credentials that are being submitted by your counselors and teachers. I will let you know when it's time to worry about that. The system has to look through credentials that have already arrived to match up documents that are for the same applicant. This can take a little while.

If the only thing on your "to do" list is the mid-year report, your file is complete for now and ready to read! Hooray! Mid-year reports come in late January or early February.

One your file moves into our reading process, you'll see a "view decision" box pop up. It's built into SIS and we can't change it. It does not mean we have a decision for you. Decisions won't be final until some time in January. I'll post as soon as we are done to let you know about the release of decisions. 

By the way, if you file financial aid documents, a second "to do" list will appear for that process. Be sure to log in regularly.

Common Worries Around Deadline Time

The Early Action deadline was Friday night and it seems like more students than in the past decided that they wanted to submit an application to UVa early. I'll have some unofficial numbers to share in a few days. Today, I wanted to address a few of the things that keep coming up calls, emails, and blog comments.

1. Admission officers have ALWAYS been flexible around deadlines.
There's a story that goes with this. 

Back when I was a college student, I gave a tour to someone who is a bit of a legend in the college admission field. He wound up pushing me to think about working in this world. I went to the admission office at my Alma Mater and begged for a job. After promising to stay at school and work for them over holidays and spring break, they let me join their staff. 

On my very first day in the office, probably within the first hour I was in the office, I took a call from someone who had been prevented from applying (I can't remember the reason) and wanted an application sent out. (This was in the dark ages, when we had to mail applications.) The call came after the deadline, so you can imagine my total shock when my supervisor told me to stamp "Late Application" on the packet and mail it out. 

Looking back, I have never worked for a school that refused applications after 11:59 PM on deadline night. Even the school I know that is very strict about their application process being followed precisely has a very loose deadline. When something beyond your control affects your ability to submit, we are understanding. 

This is probably why the majority of colleges didn't feel the need to make a big statement about extending the application deadline in the wake of reports of Common App glitches. We always leave the application open for a little while after the deadline. This is pretty standard in college admission.

2. Applications are transferred electronically once each day.
There were several comments and emails over the weekend about the date "stamp" you are seeing on your application when you log into your Common App account. There could be lots of reasons why your account says you submitted a day after you did, but the bottom line is that if there's something there, your application was submitted to us.

Common App has a scheduled delivery once per day for us. Be aware that if you hit submit after the day's transfer, we'll be getting it the next day. This isn't anything to worry about.

3. Counselors and teachers have a different deadline.
I was a little surprised that I got a slew of emails from people panicking about teachers not submitting recommendations by November 1st. November 1 is your deadline. Teachers and counselors have so much going on and it seems like more and more students are leaving the recommendation assignment to the last minute (back in my day, you were expected to give forms to your teachers/counselors about a month before deadline). No one is in trouble if the recommendations come in after deadline.

4. Application components accumulate in your file.
More than ever, people seem very worried about the different components of an application getting matched up in the admission office. With a few exceptions, the different components of applications have always arrived separately and get reunited in the student's file.

Back in the day, there were schools that wanted to applicant to send everything in one envelope, but plenty had a stack of envelopes in the application that students would distribute to their counselors and teachers so credentials could be mailed separately.

These days, things are much faster. Everything that is submitted electronically through the Common App is already tagged with your basic information. Our system knows how to file everything that comes in electronically. Everything that comes by mail is scanned into the system and then filed.

The process is much faster than it was in the paper days! Back then, this is where we put items send for students who hadn't applied:

This is what about 16,000 applications looks like. Imagine how much more space we'd need for the 30,000 applications we'll get this year!

Early Action Deadline Day!

Happy Deadine Day! To those who are still putting the finishing touches on applications, please submit early. So many colleges have November 1 deadlines that the Common App servers (and help team) are apt to be extremely busy tonight. Do not wait until 11:59 PM.

There are three things you should double check to make sure your application is coming to us as an Early Action application.

1. Check that you designated that you are a first year student. Even if you have a boatload of AP, IB, or Dual-Enrollment classes, you're applying for a first year if you didn't finish high school and then get 24 college credits after your high school diploma was granted.

2. Make sure you selected Fall 2014 as a term. If you did #1 properly, the only option you had was to apply for the Fall of 2014, but it's worth mentioning.

3. Verify that you selected the Early Action plan. You'd be surprised by how many students call us after we release EA decisions wondering why they didn't get a decision. Inevitably, they indicated that they were applying under Regular Decision, so we didn't touch their file during the EA review.

You can double check all of this on the very first screen of the section of your application dedicated to UVa's application questions.

I'm the "Dean of the Day" today, so I'm going to spend much of the day giving information sessions and talking to visitors. Please understand that my response to comments might be a little delayed!

Good luck, EA students!

Happy Deadline Day!

The EA Deadline is Approaching!

I've been getting so much email from worried students in the last few days that I think I need to draw attention to some things that have been covered on the blog this season. Feel free to use the comment section on this post to ask a question about anything application related.

How we are dealing with Common App issues
Hints for those submitting art or architecture supplements
Logistics of submitting SAT and SAT Subject Test scores
How applying for aid affects your application
Sending extra supplements
Demonstrated interest as a factor in our review
Quotas for densely populated areas like Northern Virginia

Every year, I implore students not to procrastinate when it comes to submitting applications. You can imagine that the support team at Common App is already inundated with requests and the volume of help requests is apt to increase dramatically as deadlines approach. Submit well before deadline in case there's a problem on your side or on the Common App's.

 The EA deadline is coming!

One UVa Student's Thoughts on AP Courses

This morning's Cavalier Daily has an opinion piece about Advanced Placement and how it prepared the author for the academic challenges of UVa. I'm not going to summarize the author's thoughts because I think you should read her entire piece.

After you read it, I'd love to hear your opinion. I will come back and edit this post to add my thoughts later.

Notes from the Road

My last week on the road for the 2013 travel season is coming to an end. This week has been full of college fairs in Northern Virginia. Some of these events have been huge and I'm so thankful that our alumni have come out to help answer questions and talk about life at UVa.

Last night's table team at the Ballston Commons Mall

College fairs are always interesting. While we get the same questions over and over again, we also get insight into what rumors are floating around about admission to UVa this year. Some of the more interesting ones I've heard:

Rumor #1 
Only 2,000 students from Northern Virginia are allowed at UVa.
I've been answering the quota question for years (we don't have them), but I'm surprised that someone attached an actual number to that rumor. The number makes no sense. There are about 14,600 undergraduates at UVa. Using a pretty strict definition of "Northern Virginia," I counted well over 4,000 students from the region when I added up headcount totals.

Many students in densely populated areas worry about restrictions or quotas affecting them when it comes to the college admission process. I assure you that we don't have them for areas within Virginia.

Rumor #2
Having a Virginia529 college savings plan affects admission to UVa.
When someone told me this, I asked them for clarification. They said that some believe we are easier on applicants with Virginia529 plans because "UVa gets more money from them."

First of all, I don't know how the Office of Admission would even know that a family had set up a 529 plan for an applicant. The group that oversees that plan in Virginia is an independent state agency. They aren't part of University of Virginia.

In addition, our application review system has no financial data in it. That information is between you and Student Financial Services. When I review a file, I don't know if you applied for aid or if you have a college savings plan. My job does not include guessing about how you'll be paying your tuition bill.

Rumor #3
We don't recognize International Baccalaureate programs.
This one really surprised me. IB programs are extremely common in Virginia and have been for years. From the IBO.org:

"The states with the largest number of IB World Schools are California (120), Florida (114), Texas (102), Colorado (79), Virginia (73), New York (63), Georgia (57) and North Carolina (55). 

More than 55% of all U.S. IB World Schools are located in these eight states. California has the largest number of DP, while Virginia has the most MYP and Texas has the most PYP."

We also offer credit to students to score well on their higher level IB exams. This isn't new. I've been referencing the chart on that webpage for years.

Something else to consider, from an IBO report:

If you have a rumor you'd like to check out, feel free to post it in the comments.

A Note about Common App Difficulties

Our Spring transfer application deadline has come and gone. While some of our staff is still on the road for evening programs and high school visits, some of us are already entrenched in the transfer review process. The new version of the Common App is getting positive reviews by those reading files, but we know the system is giving many of you trouble.

The Spring transfer population is pretty small compared to the one that is applying for our next deadline. The Early Action group will be quite a bit larger. Rest assured that we're monitoring what's going on via Common App's known issues page, Facebook, and Twitter. If the problems they are having aren't resolved by the next deadline, you'll see an announcement here and in your email inbox (if you have an application started) about next steps. Submitted applications and credentials are coming to us just fine at this point.

We are still two weeks from deadline. There is time to get things submitted. We have always been understanding when things outside applicants' control have affected their ability to apply. In just the last couple years, Hurricane Sandy and a freak snowstorm on Halloween prompted us to extend our deadline for students in certain regions.

When an Honor isn't an Honor

It's the time of year when letters start arriving in mailboxes with news that students have been nominated to join fabulous, exclusive organizations. The arrival of the letters coincides with filling out applications, which isn't a huge surprise. Some students may be looking at the honors or activities sections of their applications thinking that an extra item or two might make their list look nice. Or, the anxiety of applying to colleges might make the student susceptible to the flattery that comes from some impressive sounding groups.

Many of these groups solicit "nominations" from your peers or teachers. For some high school students, the nomination is often related to having taken the SAT, which sells mailing lists of student names to colleges and others. If you were somehow able to sign your baby sister up for the SAT, you might be able to get her into one of these things, too.

Even I have gotten the letters. This one came back in 2011 and I shared it on the blog then, but plenty have come since then...

Are these organizations legitimate? Yes, insofar that they exist and have members who pay fees for programs and conferences. However, admission folks aren't really impressed by expensive certificates or conferences. No one has ever excited told me "and they're part of the International Consortium of Future Publicists!" when they've been telling me about an applicant.

If you thinking about paying for one of those honors, don't do it because you think it will look good on an application. If you think the experience will be beneficial to you in another way, go for it. Just don't do it thinking it will have an effect on your application.

By the way, I just checked up on the organization that sent me the above letter. The website from the letter is dead, but they are still around. I don't think I'll be joining, though.

I dug that picture from 2011 up because someone recently shared a link to an old New York Times article about expensive leadership conferences. It's worth a read.

Slideroom for Art and Architecture Supplements

If you are interested in the arts or architecture, you may be thinking about submitting a supplement to your application. Supplements are optional, but can allow students who are thinking of majoring, minoring, or being significantly involved in the arts a chance to share their talents with faculty.

This year, art supplements are submitted online. The Common App teamed up with Sideroom, a company that has managed portfolio submission for many schools for a while now. Our faculty are thrilled that this part of the application is moving online. Submission is easier for students and professors can review supplements without hauling packages around with them. Most think that this will also save students some money, since the mailed portfolios required making slides or burning discs and mailing things in protective packages. It costs $5 to submit a supplement in Slideroom. Looking at the mailers in our supplement bins from the past, it seems like most people spent about that in postage.

If you tell the Common App, in the UVa section, that you'll be submitting a supplement, you'll see a new tab appear at the bottom of the application menu.

When you go into Slideroom, you'll see that there are 18 different ways to submit an art or architecture supplement. In the past, we had a massive document that listed all of the requirements from the different departments. Now, you only see the instructions that pertain to the supplement you are submitting. So, those submitting supplements about playwriting don't have to see the instructions for jazz instrumentalists.

One quirk of Slideroom is that they don't allow us to show you multiple deadlines at once. If you log in right now, the deadline shown is November 2, 2013. That's the art supplement deadline for Early Action applicants.

Once the Early Action deadline has come and gone, you'll see the next deadline appear. January 2, 2014 is the deadline for Regular Decision applicants.

So, why the 2nd of those months? Slideroom wisely only lets your submit a supplement once you actually apply. This saves faculty from reviewing supplements from students who aren't applicants. It might sound odd, but this happens every year.

Any questions about submitting an optional supplement?

On the Road in NOVA, Week 2

I'm back in northern Virginia for another week of school visits. If you're on the UVa mailing list and attend one of the schools on my itinerary, you already got an email about my visits. If you want to come see my presentation, you probably know how to sign up for it. At most schools, you have to log into Family Connections to get on the list with your Career Center Specialist.

Monday, October 7
Herndon High School
Potomac Falls High School
Academy of Science
Dominion High School

Tuesday, October 8
West Springfield High School
Hayfield Secondary School
Edison High School
R.E. Lee High School
George Marshall High School (evening program for Marshall families only)

Wednesday, October 9
Stone Bridge High School
Broad Run High School
Briar Woods High School
Park View High School

Thursday, October 10
Freedom High School
John Champe High School
Oakcrest School

Friday, October 11
Foxcroft School
Middleburg Academy
Wakefield School
Highland School

If you don't see your school on the list, you'll probably see me or another admission officer later in the month.

What you NEED to Know about Sending SAT Scores

There are three parts to this post..

1.  How we (and many colleges) receive your SAT scores.
2. The timing of SAT score reporting.
3. What happens if you send scores after the deadlines.

This might get a little long, but I think understanding the logistics of score reporting will help you figure out when you want to take care of this part of your application.



1. How UVa Receives SAT Scores
So many students want to know if we will "accept" scores from the November administration of the SAT if they are planning to apply under the Early Action plan. That's coming in part 3 of this post. Let's cover how scores get to us first.

Let me address the vocabulary. Most colleges (UVa included) receive scores electronically. We do not "accept" the scores, our system files them automatically. At slow times, the reports come once each day (around 3 AM). Around deadline, the reports come more often. I get an email every time there's an electronic transfer, regardless of whether the delivery is of one person's scores or of a massive group of scores from a popular test date.

Okay, so we're clear that UVa doesn't accept or reject your scores. You tell the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to send them to us, they get sent electronically, and our system grabs them to add to your file.


2. The Timing of SAT Score Reporting
Now, let's talk about timing. The good news is that ETS has improved a lot over the years when it comes to how long it takes them to deliver scores. They aren't totally consistent in the dates that they say they'll deliver scores, but the general idea is that it takes a few weeks for scores to get to us.

From the student part of the SAT website, on 10/2/2013:

From the college administrator part of the SAT website: 

Again, the dates don't agree exactly, but you get the gist. Those dates only apply to schools you identified as score recipients during registration. Again, from the student part of the SAT website:

3. What Happens if You Send Scores After Deadlines
If you don't send colleges your scores until after you get to look at them or send scores after deadlines, it will take a few more weeks for the scores to get to us. I can't find language about how long it takes on the website, but once upon a time, ETS had a line on there that said it took five weeks. I really hope they have improved since I read that.

In our application instructions, we say that the last recommended test dates for students applying through Early Action are the October dates. The last recommended test dates for students applying through Regular Decision are the December dates.

If you take tests on those dates, we know your scores will be here when we start to review your file. Now, November is a super popular time to take SAT Subject Tests. Some students planning to apply through Early Action worry that we won't "accept" those November scores. We've already taken care of that "accept" part above. So, here's the deal with the rest of that question. The November SAT scores will be sent to us around Thanksgiving. There is a chance that we will have already started the review your file before those scores arrive.

You should still send those scores. After all, our review takes over two months and there's a possibility that you could be deferred to regular decision. There's a chance that the scores will be seen at some point in the process.

If you planned to apply under Early Action and are taking the November SATs, I encourage you to designate UVa as a score recipient in advance so scores aren't further delayed.

tl;dr

Will This Help?

When talking about activities, many students ask admission officers to gauge to what extent their involvement will affect their application. The questions normally go something like "I did 642 community service hours last year. Will that help?" or "How much will Eagle Scout help?"

 Wut?

Those questions are a bit hard for us to answer. Of course, we want students who are active and engaged in life outside the classroom, but we don't have a strong opinion about certain activities being better than others. There are 924 student organizations currently on the books here. They all make UVa an interested place. Will doing community service help? Sure. That's a great thing to do outside of the classroom, but there are many other activities that are great, too.

The questions about "how much" something will affect an application are hard to answer as well. I think students want to know that we definitely take the time to read all of those details they share in the activity section of the application. We read it all, but there isn't a rubric that we are filling in as we work through a file. You don't get points for involvement, so weight isn't being assigned.

Feel free to use the comment section to ask questions about how we use the activity section.

How Applying for Aid Affects Your UVa Application

During my visit to TJHSST (a high school in Fairfax County) today, a student asked about how changes to AccessUVa will affect our applicants. If you weren't aware, AccessUVa is the financial aid program that guarantees that the school will meet 100% of the need that's demonstrated by the financial aid forms. Talk about possible changes in the program have been happening for years.

While I was talking to the group, I realized that I haven't addressed how applying for aid affects an application on this blog. The short answer: applying for aid doesn't affect how we review your application.

When we're reading files. We aren't able to see any of the financial aid documents an applicant has filed. Those documents are between you and the folks in Student Financial Services. We are need blind in the Office of Admission. This is why I don't field questions about aid on this blog. Those questions are best answered by SFS.

On the Road in NOVA, Week 1

It's time for me to bounce between Charlottesville and Northern Virginia like a ping pong ball. I'll be in Fairfax for two weeks and Loudoun for one week over the next month. Two other admission officers will be spending time in NOVA and I think we'll have someone in every public high school in Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudoun (and many of the private schools).

Our databases emailed every student from the schools on my list who are also on the UVa mailing list. If you aren't on our mailing list and want to come to the visit at your school, I'm sure you know to register with your Career Center.

Here's where I'll be this week:

Monday, September 23rd
Flint Hill School
Pope Paul VI
Centreville High School

Tuesday, September 24th
Woodson High School
Oakton High School
Fairfax High School
James Madison High School

Wednesday, September 25th
Annandale High School
Lake Braddock High School
Robinson Secondary School
TJHSST
Falls Church High School (Senior Night)

Thursday, September 26th
Langley High School
McLean High School
JEB Stuart High School
Falls Church High School

Friday, September 27th
George Mason High School
Chantilly High School
Westfield High School

What's Life REALLY Like at UVa?

A tip of the hat this morning to Josh Bland, a 2013 graduate of the College of Arts & Sciences, who meticulously documented his last year on the UVa Grounds last year for our enjoyment. Josh took pictures or videos every single day of the year and turned all that footage into an incredible video.

There are simple moments showing Josh and friends studying or playing on the Lawn and more momentous shots of major events on Grounds.

What Kinds of Supplements Should You Send to UVa?

Colleges ask students to submit the things they'd like to receive in an application. Everyone lays out their requirements somewhere. On the UVa website, we have a little chart that lists all the different components of an application with deadlines for the different kinds of applicants (btw, if you use an old version of IE, the chart comes out a little wonky...I'm not sure why). We also have a page that explains the different supplements that some students might opt to submit if they are interested in the arts or architecture. If you aren't submitting an art supplement or architecture portfolio, just focus on filling out the Common App.

Over the years, more and more people have taken to submitting extra items that don't fit into the parameters of the art and architecture supplements. I think the assumption is that either the Common App, long though it may be, doesn't provide enough information or that the exceptional student must go to extraordinary lengths to convey their awesomeness.

For UVa, you really don't need to submit extras with your application. Sure, now and then, there's an extra recommendation that tells us something that didn't come through in other components. We'll definitely read those if you send them. Outside of that, we think you should focus on completing the Common App instead of chasing down supplemental items.


By the way, did you know what we have a special place for anything that comes in that doesn't fit into the application? It's called the "Not Art Supplements" bin. We don't look at the things that go into that bin. It'd probably be a lot of fun to go through those bins, but with 29,000 applications to review in just a few months, we don't really have time for that.

The good news is that if you are a busy high school student with many commitments on your plate, you don't have to spend time crafting elaborate application documents. The required credentials are exactly what we need for our review.

24 Hours in the Life of an Admission Officer

The whirlwind that is group travel is about to end for me. We have several trips with other schools (called consortium or group travel).  I've been covering the northeast swing for about seven years at UVa. This year, I'm visiting Boston (really Bedford, MA), Portland, Providence, Stamford, and Fort Lee (NJ). I grew up in the NYC area and spent 10 years in New England, so this trip always feels like a trip home...a very rushed trip home.

When we tell people about these trips, they often think we must have such a fabulous time. While we definitely enjoy much of the work we do, I don't think I'd consider it fabulous. Since readers seem to have loved the "behind the scenes" posts on Notes from Peabody over the years, I thought I'd give you a glimpse into the life an admission officer on the road.

Wednesday
5:55 AM
The alarm goes off and I wake up not really knowing where I am or what day it is. Every Marriott looks almost identical and when you check out of your hotel every morning to move to a new city, it can take a few minutes to figure out where you are on your itinerary. I slowly realize that it's Wednesday, so that means I'm in Providence, Rhode Island.

Two of my travel partners work out in the morning, but I take a few minutes to do a little writing, get ready for the morning's event, and pack my bag so I'm ready to check out quickly later.

Is this Providence or Portland?

6:45 AM
I arrive at the meeting room we'll be using for breakfast. We're hosting guidance counselors from schools in Rhode Island, southern Massachusetts, and eastern Connecticut this morning. Coffee isn't ready, but a staff member covering our breakfast brings me a mug right away. I love the Marriott in Providence. They're always so good to us.

 Coffee is a constant part of the day.

7:00 AM
Counselors start to trickle in and we talk about the evening program we held the night before in the large ballroom down the hall. For some reason, we had a larger crowd than we've ever seen in Providence. We hypothesize about why this year might be different.

8:00 AM
We start the formal part of our program. We each discuss new developments on our campuses and then field questions from the counselors.

9:00 AM
The counselors have to get back to school, so the breakfast ends. We all head to our rooms to pack and check out. The drive to Stamford will take 1.5-2 hours, depending on how the traffic is on I-95, so we debate spending a little more time in Providence. Since I lived in this city for a while, I suggest we head over to Federal Hill (the Italian section of town) for cannoli and coffee. It's a beautiful day, so we can sit outside in DePasquale Square. It's a nice change from being cooped up in hotels.

Federal Hill...a little bit of Italy in Providence.

11:30 AM
While on the road to Stamford, I research a place for us to grab some lunch. I feel pretty strongly about eating properly on these consortium trips. Some groups might stop for fast food or a mediocre, rushed lunch at a chain spot on the highway, but I think it's important to eat well and patronize local restaurants along the way. Because I lived in many of these areas (one of my colleagues jokes that we are touring my former homes), the pressure is on to pick a good place for lunch.

1:30 PM
After a quick stop at Remo's in downtown Stamford for pizza (when I get close to NYC, I have to get some pizza), we check into the Stamford Marriott. Thank goodness they have rooms available for us even though we have arrived before check in. We're all exhausted and need naps.

3:30 PM
I close my laptop and vow to get at least a quick nap before it's time to get ready for our evening program.

4:15 PM
My colleague from Berkeley realizes that the room in which we'll hold our evening program wasn't set up with enough chairs to accommodate our crowd, so he works with the event staff to increase the room's capacity and get more AV set up.

6:30 PM
The first families being to arrive for our 7:30 PM presentation. We also realize that there's going to be an event in the room next to our ballroom and we might have to compete with their sound system.

7:40 PM
Our evening program was supposed to start at 7:30 PM and people are still streaming into the room. Two recent UVa graduates have arrived to help us and they cover the registration table so my colleagues and I can get the program going.

8:10 PM
The event next door sounds like a pep rally for some sort of sales force. I see how high I can push the volume up on the soundboard in our room without getting that dreaded feedback. I hope people can hear my colleague from Emory.

8:45 PM
We finish answering group questions and go to our tables to talk to families who didn't want to ask their questions in front of the group. The crowd in Stamford has great questions and my alumni volunteers are pretty popular.

Most of the people leave fairly quickly, but a few linger to ask questions. We start eying the clock around 9:30 PM because we haven't eaten dinner and most hotel restaurants close at 10 PM.

9:45 PM
We get out of the ballroom and race to the restaurant. It's closed! We panic, but one of the staff members says he'll take care of us. We eat dinner in the empty restaurant and wonder why people aren't taking as many brochures as in years past. We're all lugging massive boxes of materials and don't want to fly home with them. We hope that the good people of New Jersey will gobble up the rest of our brochures tomorrow.

11:00 PM
We finally head to our rooms. I check my phone and see that I've gotten a message from home.

The alarm goes off again at 5:55 AM on Thursday.

How UVa Uses Demonstrated Interest

Many years ago, I experienced a college fair unlike any I had experienced before. My experience at that fair has become sadly common.

The college fair was organized by a consortium of private schools in a nearby state. It was a massive fair, held in the field house of a college. I set up my table, found the refreshments too late to have anything to eat (and kicked myself for not stopping somewhere on the way), and watched as crowds of attendees gathered outside the doors of the building. In my mind, the opening of the doors had a similar sound to the opening of the gates at a horse race. The doors opened, the crowd poured in, and the massive space was immediately filled with noise. Then the thing that made this fair so unusual happened.

A receiving line formed at my table. One after another, students stepped forward, stuck an arm out to shake hands, and simply said "Hi, my name is ___ ___." I'd reply "Nice to meet you, I'm Dean J. Do you have any questions?" The answer was almost always "no." It was a long fair. There were times when I wondered why I was there. Those 15 second exchanges weren't helpful to anyone.

I left that fair so confused. Looking back, I wonder if that was my first experience with something that has become almost ubiquitous. People assume that demonstrated interest matters. Everywhere. Some folks think that if they can just get some "face time," they will be in a better position later in the process. In reality, the names of the students at that fair fell out of my head the moment they stepped away from my table.

Today, we have students doing all sorts of things to put their name in front of us before they apply. They send emails that either contain questions easily answered on our website ("Is it true that I can't apply to McIntire until my 2nd year?") or no questions at all. They reply to the mass email that alerts them to programs in their area. They send thank you notes for tours.


We don't use demonstrated interest in our application review. The message doesn't seem to be getting through, so I put it on the "Contact" page on the Office of Admission website:

In my mind, your application is how you demonstrate your interest. When you visit us for a tour and information session or come to see us at your high school or a hotel program, you are gathering information about us. We are not making an assessment about you as a candidate.

On the Road in the Northeast

Greetings from Boston! I'm writing to you from my hotel in Bedford (a hotel I never knew existed in my 10 years of living here) as I get ready for a breakfast with local guidance and college counselors. I'm traveling with colleagues from UC Berkeley, Hopkins, and Emory and it's a bit of a reunion. This group has traveled together for several years.

Here's what the room looked like last night at our program here:

(photo taken by my colleague from Berkeley)

The schedule for the rest of the week:
Monday, September 9 - Portland, ME
Tuesday, September 10 - Providence, RI
Wednesday, September 11 - Stamford, CT
Thursday, September 12 - Fort Lee, NJ

If you're in the area and are on the mailing list for any of our schools, you got an invitation to the program. At this point, our sessions in Stamford, CT and Fort Lee, NJ are full, but there's still room for folks to join us in Portland, ME and Providence, RI. You can get RSVP information (and information about other evening programs around the world) on our UVa Visits You page.

You can follow along as we travel via my Instagram account.

CavDog is represented on the road by my luggage tag.

UVa Admission Quotas for Northern Virginia

If you ever want to fire an admission officer up, mention the word "quota." Back in 2010, I wrote a post in which I said we bristle at the word and I still think that's valid.

Every admission officer I know bristles at the mention of the word "quota". Maybe we hate it because it implies that we don't have control over our processes and that we are slaves to demographics while we read applications. During every Q&A session, every College Night panel, and every phone call, I think we all brace ourselves for that word, which usually comes in a sentence that starts with "We heard that UVa..." and ends with the name of a county or a region.

The one statistic that governs our process is that two-thirds of the students at UVa must have Virginia residency. One-third may come from out-of-state (commonly referred to as OOS). Beyond that, there are no restrictions on how many students we can take from a school, town, county, or region.

Rumors about quotas are particularly pervasive in densely populated areas. People worry that they are at a disadvantage because they are in NOVA or Richmond or at the beach. Those areas have lots of great students and we admit a lot of them. 

Year after year, when I talk to families from Northern Virginia (or read college admission discussions online), I find that someone has declared themselves an expert on our process and tells anyone who will listen that UVa has a quota for NOVA as a region or for individual schools in the area. This stuff never comes for someone who has worked in our office. Oftentimes, that person has never worked in any college admission office or a high school's guidance office or career center. They are wrong.


I'd be the first in line to rally against a NOVA quote if we had one. After all, I've been covering the region for a long time. I visit high schools in Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, and Loudoun every year (I'm well aware that the definition of "NOVA" now includes more areas, but others travel to those areas). I love those schools. They have amazing counseling staffs, the most amazing resource in those wonderful Career Center Specialists, and fantastic students.

CavDog is bored of quota talk.

If you want to dig around in more admission statistics, check out the Office of Institutional Assessment's website. They are the official statisticians of the University. Remember that the statistics are the result of the process. We don't walk into the year with targets beyond that 2/3 : 1/3 ratio.

They're coming back!

The UVa Grounds are started to come alive again. The Corner is bustling, traffic is picking up, and parking spaces aren't as easy to get as they were a week ago. Members of the Cavalier Marching Band are already here and I've been seeing the new RAs around for a few days. The UVa Express, which picked international students up at Dulles airport, arrived about 40 minutes ago.

Why am I telling you this on the admission blog? Because you should try to avoid visiting us this weekend, when most students will be returning to Charlottesville. The UVa police and the residence hall staff keep things moving all weekend long, but be aware that it will take much, much longer to get here than your GPS tells you it will. Once you get to town, you might get mixed in with the lines of cars headed to the first year residence halls. Here's what that looked like a couple years ago when CavDog and I wandered around during move-in:

To anyone from the incoming class who might read this, please travel safely! When you get to your hall, there will be greeters there to help you. They are amazing volunteers who can often get a car unloaded in less than 15 minutes. Once your things are in your room, you can park your car away from the dorm (I think most people use the stadium lot) and get settled.

For more information:
Move-in Information and Tips from the Office of Orientation & New Student Programs
Detailed information about move-in day from the Housing Office

An Application Tip: The Common App Writing Section

When you add UVa to your "My Colleges" list in the Common Application, you may be tempted to go directly to the writing section to look at the essays. If you realized that we post our application essays in June each year right on the blog, you might notice that something is missing.

Only one essay is showing at first.

You see, one of the essays is tied to the school to which you apply. To get that essay to show up in the writing section, you need to answer the academic questions. Luckily, the Common App is smart enough to alert you to the fact that you aren't done if you try to just fill in one essay and submit it.

Start at the beginning and fill out your academic information.

When you work through the questions and get to the writing section, you'll see that school-specific question on the page.

Good luck!

Essay Advice from UVa Students

I'm going to share some of my advice for essay writing soon, but I thought I'd share this great post by our Summer Interns about essay writing that appeared on the Hoo Stories Blog. Hoo Stories is a blog that's been run by a rotating cast of students since 2009. Every year, a new group of students take the reigns and share some stories from their lives at UVa.

This year's Summer Interns have been fantastic and I've enjoyed reading about the different ways they've gotten involved on Grounds.

If you haven't visited Hoo Stories before, check them out today! I know the students are eager to answer your questions about student life.

The 2013-2014 Common App is Live!

If you're checking an admission blog, then you were probably aware when the new Common Application launched on August 1st. I've been playing around in there for a month or so at this point and I am really impressed with how things are presented in the redesigned site.

I hope my Common App colleagues won't be upset that we used to say the Common App looked like a tax form. The user interface is now clean and sleek. The application is dynamic, so if you answer a question that requires follow up, a new question will appear. On the flip side, if questions don't apply to you, you won't see them. For example, there is a question asking if you believe you are eligible for in-state tuition. Answer yes, and residency questions appear. Answer no, and you move on without seeing residency questions.

The dynamic nature of the new Common App should mean less time spent navigating general, biographical questions, which will hopefully mean applicants have more time for thinking about the written portions of the application, which is where applicants often distinguish themselves.

Have you poked around in the new Common App yet? If so, what are your initial impressions?