Early Action 2014 Statistics (Unofficial)

First of all, I am not the source of official statistics. The Office of Institutional Assessment is the source of all official statistics about UVa. They take a census in October to determine the final statistics for the class. You can see official admission data in the data digest part of their website.  Obviously, what happened in past years isn't going to predict the future, but some people have fun playing around with the different charts on their site. 

Here are some numbers about the early action process. These numbers are up to date as of 1/20/2014. If you are a reporter reading this, please be sure to get in touch with the Media Relations team in the Office of University Communications for all of your reporterly needs. :)

We are still relatively new to Early Action. In a few years, we'll be able to cite trends. For now, if you want to look at numbers from past years, head to the Office of Institutional Assessment site (link above) or click on the "statistics" tag at the end of this post, which will take you to older posts of this nature.


Early Action Applications
Total number of Early Action applications: 14,819
Total number of VA apps: 4,027
Total number of OOS apps: 10,792
We use completed application numbers in our statistics. There are schools that include incomplete applications in their stats.

Early Action Offers
Overall offers: 4,590
Total VA offers: 2,057 (51.1% offer rate)
Total OOS offers: 2,533 (23.5% offer rate)
Enrollment goal: 3,570 (between EA and RD)
*Schools admit more students than the enrollment goal with yield in mind.Yield is how many students accept an offer of admission. Check out yield from past years, broken down by residency (these numbers are for the entire applicant pool, not just early action). 

Early Action Defers
Overall defers: 3,771
Total VA defers: 920
Total OOS defers: 2,851
Some applicants will withdraw, so these numbers will go down.

Early Action Testing/Rank
Middle 50% SAT score (offers only): 2020-2260
Middle 50% ACT composite (offers only): 31-34
We use scores from each section in our review, but the reports on averages generate totals.

95% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school class 
This number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank.


Please understand that I do not have additional statistics. We are now immersed in the Regular Decision review process. There will be a post about scholars programs tomorrow and next step later this week.

A Slight Delay...

I guess I forgot that our office is closed when I promised to post Early Action admission statistics on the blog today. I'll be sure to post those ASAP when I get back into the office.

In the meantime, did anyone see UVa alumna Sasheer Zamata make her debut on Saturday Night Live the other night? I have to admit that I don't stay up for SNL anymore, but I made sure to watch this episode. I think she was fabulous.

By the way, if you'd like to check out Martin Luther King Day activities at UVa (which actually span a few weeks), check out the University's MLK Celebration page.

Let's Talk About Decisions 2014: The Offer

Admitted students can use this entry to talk.  I imagine you might also want to join the UVa Class of 2018 Facebook group to chat with your future classmates. That group is just for students.  Parents, you can check out the UVa Parents Committee and the UVa Families page.

Just below your letter are buttons to accept or decline your offer. If you accept, you will see a button to let you pay your tuition deposit online*. I believe orientation registration will open after April 1st, but you'll get more information about that soon via email.

You have until May 1st to make your decision about whether you'll come to UVa or not. If you decide to go elsewhere at some point in the coming weeks, I hope you'll decline the offer immediately via your self-service page.

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

*We have an e-check system for deposits.  You'll type in the numbers on the bottom of your check, much like the system used when filing taxes.  The system will take certain kinds of credit cards, but it's primarily an e-check system.  Be sure to turn off your pop-up blocker when you go to pay the deposit!

Let's Talk About Decisions 2014: The Defer

Students who were deferred can use this entry to talk.

There's no way around it.  This is probably the toughest decision (or maybe it's a "non-decision") to get from a school after applying under Early Action. In most cases, we have deferred students when we think senior grades are needed before making a final decision. At this point, you should simply make sure your mid-year report is sent when the grades from the first semester or second trimester are ready.  Most of your counselors will do this automatically.

Feel free chat here. You should have already seen the link to the defer FAQ page, which answers the most common questions.

CavDog hopes you find a peaceful place to wait

Let's Talk about Decisions 2014: The Deny

Denied students can use this entry to talk.

I'm so sorry this sort of entry is needed. I hope you all can look at your options and get excited about your other schools. If your immediate reaction is "I'll transfer", don't let that plan keep you from getting involved in campus life at the school you choose. I think many students come to think of their next choice as "home" and can't imagine leaving it after a little while. Give yourself time to explore you options.

I hope you'll read this post and remember that this decision is probably about our numbers. You didn't do anything "wrong" (a common question). I'll leave you until tomorrow, when I'll be back to answer questions.

Please be polite and respectful of others when posting.


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

CavDog wishes he could make this easier on you

A Note of Thanks

This blog is almost 9 years old and writing this post on decision days has become my little tradition. Way back in 2005, I was truly anonymous. Almost no one had an admission blog and some people at UVa were afraid of what I was doing. CavDog wasn't even born yet, so I used a teddy bear from the bookstore for the entertaining pictures. Twitter and Instagram didn't exist and Facebook was still, primarily, the students' domain. A lot has changed, but writing my note of thanks is one thing that hasn't. So, here we go.

Thank you.

Some of you won't be visiting after today, so I feel that this is a good time to say thank you for being part of this blog. My work in social media is successful because of you. When I'm bleary eyed from staring at forms and transcripts, it's wonderful to look at comments online and be reminded of the students who are behind the applications. I'm thankful for the opportunity to interact with you.

Our office is buzzing with excitement because we know that we're going to make some of you very happy this evening. That excitement is tempered by the fact that we're going to make many of you sad or upset. One of the drawbacks to working at a selective school is that we have to say "no" more often than we get to say "yes". I console myself with the knowledge that you will all have other attractive offers, some from our 14 public sisters in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Regardless of what SIS shows you tonight, 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're going to have "ah ha" moments like you've never had before. You're going to learn from amazing, inspirational professors, administrators, and peers. You're going to meet people with whom you will stay friends for the rest of your lives. You're going to pull all nighters studying. You're going to pull all nighters not studying. You are going to have highs and lows, you're going to have great successes and you're going to fail miserably sometimes. What's going to make or break those experiences is your response and your openness to learning from them, not necessarily your location when they happen.

Remember that your decision is not a statement about your value. Most of our applicants are qualified. They are perfectly capable of doing the work at UVa. Our first-year class just isn't large enough to accommodate everyone.


Best wishes to those who won't be back to the blog after this (if you're reading this by email, you can unsubscribe yourself at the bottom of the email). To the rest, I hope you'll continue to chime in to help the next group of applicants.

It's a big night and I'll be thinking about you all. Good luck!

Early Action Notification Update

It seems as though everyone has analyzed the calendar and realized that if notification was coming early, it would most likely come today or next Friday.

At the request (or maybe behest is a better word) of our colleagues on the high school side, we wait until after school is over to let the cat (or CavDog?) out of the bag. We're going to post Early Action decisions on your SIS accounts TONIGHT! Please keep reading!

The happiest CavDog image I could find!

1. You have to log into your SIS account to see the decision. Some time tonight, that "View Decision" link at the bottom of the dashboard that goes to a dead end right now will go to a decision letter. If you can't find your login info for the SIS, use the links on the login page to generate a new password. A welcome mailing with info about next steps will come later. Please do not open multiple windows, hammering the system. Students have slowed SIS down to a crawl in the past by doing it. Use one window.

2. I will post blog entries where you can talk about the different decisions. I will step away from the blog and social media this evening to give you time to chat. I'll be back to work through any questions that are asked in the comments tomorrow.  I trust you to be respectful of others in the comments. Feel free to flag a comment if you need me to step in. That notification will go to my phone.

3. Notification Day brings a lot of joy, but there are going to be some hurt feelings as well. While I want you to be happy and celebrate your successes, I hope you'll be gracious around classmates who might not get good news. If you don't get the good news, I hope you'll be happy about the options you DO have.

4. Please don't post personal information in the comments (contact info, statistics, etc.). This is not a private page. What's more, statistics like GPA and rank are subjective these days and don't represent the applicant accurately. GPAs are meaningless without the high school profile's explanation of the methodology used to calculate them.

5. I'll post one more time before the office closes today. Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars will be notified by email next week. Posts about deferral, Days on the Lawn (open houses for admitted students), an EA statistics will come next week. We are moving into Regular Decision reading now and we have to do this all over again. Please understand if my responses to questions are a little delayed.

Good luck to you all!

Class of 2018 Facebook Group (for students only!)

I try to create as many avenues for applicants to chat and ask questions as possible.  This is why I'm available here (I answer questions in the comments on posts) and on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and email.

Sometimes, you'll want to chat with each other and ask questions in a student-only space.  You can do that in the Class of 2018 Facebook group.  In the spirit of student self-governance, which is a big deal here at UVa, this is a space just for students. 

Click the image to go to the group on Facebook!

Obviously, the group will be for students who hope they'll be members of the Class of 2018 at this point.  This is normal.  The membership of the group will evolve as decisions are released and students start committing to colleges.

I am not in the Class of 2018 group, so if you have application questions and want to ask them on Facebook, you can use the Notes from Peabody Facebook page.

 

How UVa Admission Officers Use Facebook

The express version: 
We aren't searching for you on Facebook. 

So why am I on Facebook?
Years ago, an enterprising young college student had an idea to market a business to college bound students through Facebook in a new way.  Through made up Facebook accounts, he or his unpaid interns became administrators for hundreds of "Class of 20xx" Facebook groups for colleges all around the country.

Back then, most admission folks let Facebook groups grow organically.  Some excited student would start a group for their class and others would join as they got their admission decisions. I shared that view. After the made up accounts were connected by a group of admission officers interested in social media, what was happening got picked up by the media and dubbed "Facebookgate."  The full story unfolds on the Squared Peg blog.

Each year since, that same enterprising, young man has tweaked his practices and tried again, more recently for a roommate matching website (our students have created their own roommate matching surveys on the class Facebook pages for years). In 2010, even The Choice blog at the New York Times covered what was happening and the Washington Post covered it as well.


Why am I telling you this?  So you understand why I stepped in a few years ago to create class groups on Facebook.  I have absolutely no interest in tracking you or looking at your profiles.  My interest is in creating a group for each class where content won't include advertisements and your information won't be mined (my worry with groups that are tied to a company).

There are two current students who run the Class of 2018 group. When your class elects officers, they will hand the group over to your chosen leaders. We've been doing this for about five years and it works beautifully. For now, they are happy to answer questions, but they are also happy to sit back and let you chat.  Nothing in these groups will be saved or connected to your applications.


How do you feel about admission folks being on Facebook?  Do you like the avenues we've set up for you?  What do you think we should do in the future?

Why GPA is Meaningless Without Context

As I read my first few files this morning, decided to jot down the top GPA in each of the applicant's classes. I hope this puts somethings in perspective.

4.4422

4.8092

4.458

4.87

4.81

4.4951

Many adults outside of academia are baffled by modern GPAs. They're used to a simple 4.0 scale that's unweighted, so when they hear about a student with a 4.2 GPA, they are totally blown away. What does a 4.2 GPA mean? It clearly means different things at different schools. This is why admission officers at UVa often decline to answer the question about what our "average GPA" is. First off, we don't have a GPA requirement here since our process is holistic. Second, any average calculation is incorporating numbers that weren't calculated with the same methodology. Our statisticians calculate an average every year, but I don't think it's something you can lean on in light of the different scales used.

The counselors at each school send us a high school profile that explains the methodology in place. These profiles help us understand the context of the data presented in the application.

Resist the urge to compare your numbers to students outside your school. I see students posting their GPAs online all the time and it just doesn't make sense.

 Don't compare yourself to students from other places. It doesn't make sense!

By the way, I also jotted down the number of Honors and AP courses offered at a few schools.

29/19

14/6

20/16

27/16*

35/19*

67/21

The two with the asterisks limit how many AP courses a student can take to 3 or 4 per year. I hope this helps you understand why there's no required number of APs for those of you who attend AP schools.We look at the coursework you selected based on what is available to you at your school. Would you consider a student's program strong if he took 4 AP courses out of the 6 offered at his school? Would you consider the program strong if he took 4 APs at a school that offered 21 with no restrictions? If you start thinking about everything in context, you're thinking like an admission officer.

Are We There Yet? A Note about Notification.

By the looks of blog comments, Twitter, and message boards, this is the week when restless Early Action applicants are wondering what is going on in Peabody Hall and how much longer they'll have to wait for decisions.

People deal with the uncertainty in different ways. Some just keep checking and hoping that there will be an update. They look at last year's blog posts and count days on the calendar. They look for signs in tweets and posts. Is it time?

And other people get a little irritated and impatient. They think we must be holding back and we should just hurry up and tell them the inevitable conclusion to this process.

So here's what's going on. We're still entrenched in the process. A holistic review, which means a decision is rendered after reading the entire application (not just the numbers), takes time. We are working as quickly as possible while not sacrificing a thorough and thoughtful review. We feel really strongly about this. We've been working weekends and over holidays in hopes of releasing early, but we aren't done yet.  In fact, I really should have my head in the files right now, so I won't go.

Hang in there, early action applicants.

Regular decision applicants, our processing staff is now working on completing your applications. Don't fixate on your status pages just yet because we are still filing supporting documents. I'll let you know when it's time to worry about those.

Intermission

We are still immersed in our Early Action review, but I have to take a moment to introduce you to someone who will probably be making an appearance on the blog in gif form in the future.

If you hadn't noticed, I love to sprinkle gifs into my posts these days. I started doing this last year, when we were moving to the waiting list. I was trying to covey how excited we were to make waiting list offers and my CavDog pictures weren't doing the trick. A gif from 30 Rock was perfect. Tina Fey became my "go to" gif subject since she's one of the smartest, funniest women around and she's a UVa graduate.

If someone would give me a few Katie Couric gifs to work with that go beyond blinking, I'd use them.

Yesterday afternoon, I learned that another funny, smart UVa alumna is joining the cast of Saturday Night Live. Sasheer Zamata, who graduated just three years ago, is the newest member of that show's cast. I expect the library of Sasheer gifs to grow as soon as her first show airs.

Wahoowa, Sasheer!

By the way, I see the comments, tweets, and posts on message boards about the timing of our process. We are still working. A thorough, thoughtful review takes time. Rest assured that as soon as we are done, I will post immediately.

Reminder Emails

In the next few hours, we will be emailing Regular Decision applicants who didn't submit all three parts of their application to give them one more chance to get it done. We've been emailing you for a few weeks about this. Thousands of you have everything submitted. A few hundred are leaving us hanging. 64 of you paid a fee, but never submitted anything else.

You might want to be proactive and log into your Common App account to make sure you submitted all three items (the application, writing supplement, and payment) for each of your schools. You don't want your application to be in limbo!

Limbo.

The Day After Deadline

So that thing we knew would happen? It happened. That thing that happens almost every year when students apply to college? It happened (though the issue is bigger this year than in the past). That thing that happens every Saturday at 10 AM when tickets for some great concert go on sale? It happened.

A really popular website crashed at a time of peak use. It's totally foreseeable. Some people hoped they'd be lucky, though, and jumped in during that period of peak usage.

Look, while we wish you didn't wait until the last minute, we realize that you are juggling a lot and you might have really needed the final hours to put the finishing touches on your application.

That's why we are always flexible.

On top of that, application deadlines seem to coincide with bad weather, which sometimes results in internet outages or blakouts.

That's why we are always, always flexible.

If you encountered a problem with the Common App website last night, get your app in today. I can almost guarantee that no school cut their applications off at midnight last night. There is always a grace period. You're in it right now. Get those apps completed and submitted! Double and triple check that you submitted all three parts of the application (application, writing supplement, and payment).

It will be okay!

Regular Decision Deadline Tonight!

The Regular Decision deadline is tonight at 11:59 PM. I'm sure you've heard it before, but if you haven't hit submit, make sure you do it well before the deadline. There is apt to be a lot of traffic on the Common App's servers and if you need help, you'll probably one of many submitting a help ticket.

After you hit submit and ALL sections of the Common App (the application, writing section, and payment), Common App will send the application to us. Within five days of that, our computer system will send you login information. The system is called SIS and that is where you'll monitor your application and your financial aid documents (if you submit them).

The first time you log in, you will probably see several items missing from your file. Don't worry about that yet! Your teachers and counselors have a different deadline for submitting their documents.

 Good night, applicants!

Now, here are some links to posts about common questions that arise around deadline time:

• Incomplete application status messages
• Submitting supplements that aren't art supplements
• Sending resumes
• How a Financial Aid application affects admission (remember aid forms are due March 1)
• How UVa uses demonstrated interest
• Quotas for different geographic regions
• Quotas addressed again
• SAT score submission 
• Superscoring
• How activities are used in our review
• Essay length and word count
• The role of parents in the process
• How we use social media part 1 and part 2

Happy New Year!

The Timing of Reporting Test Scores

As the Regular Decision deadline approaches, I'm getting lots of questions from those who haven't sent their standardized test scores yet.

Perhaps the immediacy of submitting applications online has made many people forget about the parts of the application that need to be done well in advance. Just as your counselors and teachers need a few weeks to prepare supporting credentials for your application, the testing people need advanced notice about your intention to apply to schools. It can take them several weeks to send scores to your schools.

I wrote a very long post about this back in October. In short, the testing companies take several weeks to delivery scores. If you are applying RD and haven't told the SAT or ACT to send scores to us yet, you need to do it right away!

CavDog isn't a fan of standardized tests.

How to Withdraw an Application to UVa

It's the time of year when many schools with Early Decision programs start making their notifications. Applying to a school via Early Decision is binding, so if the school makes you an offer, you're taking it and your college search is over.

If you applied to a school with Early Decision and they have admitted you, you need to withdraw your application to UVa. To withdraw, just email uvaapplicationinfo@virginia.edu with your name, high school, date of birth, and tell us that you want to withdraw your application.

Some people are emailing admission officers directly, but remember that doing that will slow things down.

Congratulations to those who have come to the end of their college search!

Let's Talk about Class Rank

Once upon a time, class rank was really simple. Students in a class were put in order by average or GPA and assigned a rank based on that order. The person with the top GPA got the #1 spot. Now and then, you'd hear about a tie or a school where there were TWO valedictorians. Imagine that!

Many schools still use a fairly straightforward methodology for determining rank, but there are schools where class rank has become a bit more complicated. There are schools where large groups of students are huddled at the same spot in the class. There are school that give the #1 spot in the class to anyone with a 4.0 GPA. Most of those schools are on weighted GPA scales where the highest GPA in the class is in the neighborhood of 4.50. There's a school where 114 students are holding the first spot in the class right now.

 You're in good company, at some schools.

So why is rank interesting to us? When it is reported, it can help us understand how strong an applicant's work has been in the context of their class and their school. We're aren't ruled by rank, just as we aren't ruled by testing, GPA, or other statistics. The reported statistics contribute to review.

Some schools have stopped reporting rank. In those cases, we often get GPA and grade distribution charts (via the school profile...see the second half of those post for more about that) that provide context for us.


Here's an example of a GPA distribution chart:

Here's part of a (much longer) grade distribution chart:

We publish a chart that shows where students who were admitted ranked in their high school class (if they attended a high school that provides rank to colleges) in case you are curious. Just remember that your admission decision doesn't rest on one statistic. All of the information in your file is used to arrive at a decision. 

And then we had a dance party

We're only a month into the application season, but for UVa students, it's the last day of classes. It's fitting that the annual Lighting of the Lawn happened last night. It was a nice way to celebrate the end of the semester and get a little fun in before exam week.

This year, the light show turned into a dance party, complete with flying glow sticks. 

I've seen a "glow stick war" at concerts, but never on Grounds. Isn't it fantastic?

"View Decision" = Your File is Ready to Read in SIS

I've written about this a few times in blog posts and in my responses to comments, but I think I need to revisit this in depth.

The Student Information System has a built-in feature that adds a box at the bottom of your status page when your file is deemed complete and ready for us to read. 

Here's what it looks like:

The Short Explanation
If you see that box show up, it might cause a little excitement because "view decision" shows up in the box.  Alas, when you click on the words, you get a little message saying decisions aren't ready yet.  Because they aren't.

Early Action Notification = January 31st

Regular Decision Notification = April 1st

(any change will be announced on this blog)

We are just a few weeks into the EA process and there are somewhere around 15,000 applications to read.  Four weeks is not enough time for a thorough review. When we are done, we release all decisions without delay. It only takes a few hours for us to get the system ready to release decisions, so as soon as we know all decisions are finalized, we push them out. I always FLY to the computer to post the update when I get the word.


The Long Explanation
The long version is that student information systems are built by companies that are in the information management business.  The company that built the system that we use did a lot of things right. However, there are a couple things that those of us "on the ground" don't love and that is to be expected. 

The "view decision" box works for lots of admission situations (many undergraduate and graduate programs use a rolling notification).  It just doesn't work for schools that admit a class as a big group.  Our SIS does a lot of things really well, but this one feature doesn't work perfectly for us.



In our process, your file goes through many different statuses. Applications are submitted, incomplete, complete, ready to read, and then they move into the review pipeline. The colors and symbols you see reflect some of those statuses. Don't worry about them. Aside from submitting your credentials, there's nothing you can do to change the symbol. Once your file moves into the reading pipeline, it will go through many different rounds of review. That's why it takes three months to do this. We don't just read a file, throw a decision on it, and move on. We revisit files over and over again during the review process.

If the only thing left on your SIS to do list is the mid-year report, you are done for now. It's time to throw your focus back to school work and preparing for your Regular Decision deadlines. You can also start working with your parents on getting ready to file financial aid forms (the FAFSA comes out January 1 and the CSS Profile is already out). Or, you can take a nap.

 
I have a feeling that if you have an offer on the big day, you'll be pretty happy with SIS.  Without it, you'd be standing by the mailbox, waiting for the postal service to bring your decision the way I did a long time ago.

Missing Credentials Emails Going Out!

Remember when I told you not to panic about your status pages? Well, you still shouldn't panic. However, we are now in the process of emailing those of you who are missing key components of your applications (recommendations, test scores, etc.).

Mid-year reports are a "to do" item for everyone, regardless of when an application was submitted. EA decisions come out before most schools send mid-year reports, but if you get an offer or are deferred to the Regular Decision round, we expect your counselor to send those mid-years along. We want you to be aware of this now as opposed to having that pop up late in the game. Some students are apt to stop checking their status once the to do list disappears.

If you get an email about a missing credential, don't panic. Please contact the appropriate folks to get that missing item sent to us as soon as possible. Testing comes to us through electronic transfers from ETS. Teachers can send recommendations through the Common App website or email.

Stay calm.

Sending Application Updates After Deadline

My physical mailbox and email inbox are flooded right now. I have to imagine that the same is true for my colleagues. Many applicants are sending updates for their Early Action applications right now.

I know many of you have been conditioned to communicate with a regional representative, but sending your updates to a specific person will delay their appearance in your file. Here's what happens...


How Updates Sent via Physical Mail are Processed
All of the snail mail that comes to UVa goes to the school's central mail facility first. There, it is sorted into divisions/offices/buildings and sent out for delivery. Mail that is sent to the Office of Admission arrives in the Peabody Hall mail room that is in our processing area. Anything sent to the general "Office of Admission" stays in the processing area because those envelopes usually contain application credentials. Envelopes addressed to a specific admission officer get sorted and set upstairs to our mailboxes.

During reading season, admission officers only spend part of the week in their offices. Some days, we stay at home to read, which lets us be more productive (no commuting, no walk-ins, no phone). We love reading from home!

When I read from home, I generally start around 6 AM and will read until late at night. When I read in the office, I have to get ready to come into the office, commute to Grounds, and walk to Peabody Hall from the parking garage. That means I start reading around 8:30 or 9:00 AM and stop reading around 5:15 PM to head home. It might not sound like a big difference, but there's a lot of time lost when we read in the office.

Because we read at home a few days each week, our mail can sit for a while in our mailboxes. When we open the mail and see application credentials, we put them in a bin to go back downstairs. It goes right back to where it started to be scanned.

We are a paperless office, so we prefer electronic submission of application materials. That's why we put the email address on the top of our instructions page.  Let's cover how email gets processed...

How Updates Sent via Email are Processed
When you email an application update, it gets opened and filed by our administrative staff. That's all there is to it.

If you send an email to a specific admission officer, guess what happens? We sent it right over to our administrative staff to file it. At the height of the season (now through March), we are immersed in the review process. When I'm reading a file, I'm completely focused on the student in front of me. I schedule specific breaks to look at email and clean out all the update emails by sending them to be processed.

Please use the general delivery methods we've give you for updates. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

The turkey's in the oven, so it's time to read some files. Hope you all are enjoying a wonderful day with your loved ones. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

CavDog takes the sous chef role very seriously and is guarding the turkey.

Preview the New UVA Commercial

I love a good college commercial. You know how some people wait with baited breath for Super Bowl commercials? That's how I am with college spots. Most schools get a 30-60 second spot during half time of televised games and I have to see them.

I find that the good ones either give me chills or make me want to stand up and cheer. The new UVa spot just came out (it will make its TV debut this weekend) and it makes me want to do both of those things. I feel very lucky to be part of this amazing place in my very small way.




Many will be traveling tomorrow, so I'll wish you a happy Thanksgiving today. Safe travels and have a wonderful holiday!

Quotas. Again.

Here's the CavDog image I pull out anytime I fear I'm covering a topic so much that regular readers will be horribly bored by the post:

Really? You're talking about this again?

He's only about six months old in that picture. I think the dog was born to be on a blog because he gives me so many great expressions to use here. Anyway...


Let's talk about quotas
I'm going to talk about quotas again since it came up in the Washington Post today. Reporter Michael Chandler linked to my last post about quotas (unfortunately, it was the mobile version, so folks won't see that big, beautiful picture of CavDog), but I thought I'd revisit the topic just in case it will help quell some of the anxiety that will come up if people see this tweet and the related article:

I'll say something I've danced around through all of my posts about this topic. I think quotas are dumb. I want to concentrate on reading applications, not constantly have an eye on some counter that will stop me from admitting people. Quotas get in the way when you're building a great class. I don't think I could ever work for a school that has a cap on how many students we could take from a particular high school.

Look at posts on my Instagram account from the fall travel season and you'll see that I adore my high schools. I adore my applicants. I adore their Career Center Specialists (I'm resisting the urge to do shout outs right now). I spend a lot of time telling my colleagues about my fabulous visits to schools in Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun. If someone suddenly told me there was a cap on how many students we could take from each of those schools, I would be completely gobsmacked. Honestly, I would leave if that ever happened.


About those numbers...
A parent quoted in that WaPo article cited his daughter's GPA. The GPAs at many schools these days are approaching 5.0, so it's hard for some of us who grew up with unweighted 4.0 scales to understand what the numbers mean. What's more, the GPA doesn't tell us about the courses the student selected and the rigor of the applicant's high school program is hugely important in this process.

Each high school sends us a profile that explains how they calculate GPAs so admission officers understand the context. The profile explains the hierarchy of the curriculum at the school so we can assess how challenging the student's chosen program is. When you have lots of fabulous options, the expectation is obviously that you'll take advantage of them. Every school is different, of course.

If you haven't seen your school's profile, google it. You can usually find them online. If you don't see yours online, your school counselor can show it to you.


Feel free to ask questions in the comments. As always, this is anonymous, but please pick a nickname to use.

Throwing Away the Formula

People cringe when formulas come up in conversations about the college admission process. The idea that there is some rubric into which we plug ratings to get an admission decision makes a lot of people uncomfortable, regardless of whether they're an admission officer, school counselor, student, or parent.

At UVa, we don't use formulas at all. We aren't assigning scores to or rating each component of your application. We aren't plugging data into a form that tells us what to do with an application. Our review is holistic.

However, in many files, there's a formula that has a huge influence on us. It's the formula most students use to write essays.

Many people, myself included, are taught to write essays using a five-paragraph format. It's called different things in different schools. When I was in school, we called it the Three-Five Essay. I've also heard it called One-Three-One. You might have been told a different name for it, but the structure is the same. The teaching is that essays consist of an introduction, three supporting sections, and a conclusion. These essays are great for school assignments and they are perfect for the SAT and ACT folks, who expect you to write an essay in 30 minutes. However, the five-paragraph formula can be horrible for college application essays.

Inserting your thoughts into a preconceived format can strip the best part of the essay away (the personality!). Start with the idea or the story. Free write with that idea in mind and then go back and organize your thoughts so the structure makes sense.

Essay Length and Word Counts

Today I'm going to address Gwen's question from Monday. Specifically, she asked about word counts.

The quick answer is that we don't have time to count words in essays. The word limits are there so you know what kind of essay is appropriate for the prompt given. I also think that being able to express yourself in a clear, concise manner is part of being a good writer. Our "What's your favorite word and why" essay question isn't something that warrants a term paper. Answer the question, share something with us that isn't coming through in other parts of the application, and edit if you wind up writing a page when half of a page is requested.

Keep in mind that we are giving every applicant three places to write (and some use the additional info section to throw in one more essay...totally unnecessary!).  We're looking for personal statements and stories in the form of essays.

By the way, I've addressed supplements in the past and recently wrote about sending resumes, but it's worth revisiting them during essay week. We can't read term papers. We can't read research abstracts. Please do not send them. Use the format presented on the application for your activities. Applications these days are robust. They contain a lot of information and it takes a while to get through them. Please don't stuff your file with items we haven't requested or we'll look like this:

By the way, a few people who actually saw Admission (the Tina Fey movie from which that still was taken) asked me how close it was to reality. There are parts that hit pretty close to home, especially when the main character envisions her applicants as she reads their files.

I don't really imagine an applicant doing a back walk-over across the desk, I promise.

Another realistic aspect of the movie: having a few favorites. There are definitely times when you get attached to an amazing applicant and want to shepherd them through the process. You scribble their names down on a post-it note and vow to check up on them throughout the process. However, there are lines you don't cross and the main character in the movie crossed a line when she changed a student's decision after it was finalized.



Keep the questions coming...and check back if you asked a question in an earlier thread. I've written back to some of you.

Picking the Right Topic for a UVa Application Essay

There's a rule that most admission officers learn during their rookie year. Never, ever tell anyone exactly what you do for a living in a social setting. When I was a new professional, I couldn't fathom why this rule was important, but I learned soon enough. Here is what happens when you tell someone you work in admission at a party, meeting in the community, or on a plane:

There are two common themes in the barrage of questions we get. First, people want to discuss the rumors they've heard about our process. Second, they want to know if we really read the application essays and what topics are the best ones.

That dovetails with Andy's question in the comments on yesterday's post.

The quick answers:

1. How do admission counselors feel about essays with a religion bent? Fine.

2. Are they cliche right from the start? No.

3. Do you get a lot of them? Plenty. (How many would a lot be if the pool is 90,000 essays?)

4. Are you tempted to skip them or give them a skimming over? No.

5. Or is there a negative bias if, say, the school itself is a public or secular institution? No.

The long answer:

I think people "over think" essay topics. They spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the "right" answer is or what answer will be most pleasing to the admission officers. Here's the thing:

The essay topic is a vehicle that you are using to convey something about you, your personality, and/or your voice.

There is no "right" topic for me or my colleagues. There isn't a topic that we see that is instantly pleasing to us. There is a "right" for you to use, though. You need to settle on a topic that lets you be interesting and authentic in your writing. 

One of the fun parts about working for a public school with 14,000 students (and about 30,000 applicants) is that we get to read all sorts of essays. The essays we see cover everything under the sun (and some stuff beyond that, too). The variety makes this process interesting, educational, and, at times, entertaining. 

Oftentimes, we are put on the spot to describe a favorite or great essay. What comes to mind are the outliers. So, we rattle off a few lines from the quirky or strange essay that stuck in our head and I imagine that some think they have to say something shocking or weird to get our attention. That isn't necessarily the case. Most students write about every day things. They talk about an academic area that interests them, an activity, a family member, or an experience that might be somewhat common to teenagers that affected them. What makes those essays successful? They are deeply personal and give us insight into the person behind the application. 

What other topics would you like me to cover? I have a great list of future blog posts going and I'm happy to add to it.

Welcome to Essay Week!

I'm writing this on Sunday morning, two weeks into the Early Action reading season. I've already read a few hundred files, but as I was reading my first file today, I remembered something that had people in a panic a few weeks ago that really wasn't anything about which to worry.

Fonts. I can't tell you how many emails I got about fonts last month. The Common App's essay boxes were doing funky things to text formatting. One of the more common (ha ha) issues was that the font would change when an applicant (at least I hope it was the applicant) used italics or underlining in their essay. 

People were really scared that we would penalize them over fonts or improper italics or underlining. 

If you could see what we look like a couple months into reading season, you would know that we aren't in a position to criticize anyone when it comes to appearance. I'm not interested in how pretty your essays look. I'm interested in the stories they tell. Content wins over appearance every single time. I have never had a colleague say "this essay isn't very deep, but it looks so nice on the screen." 

Little known fact: before we were a Common App school, we had our own UVa-only application. The essays came to us in 6 point font. It was hilariously tiny. We all toggled between magnification strengths on our monitors and squinted our way through the essay section of our application. Can you imagine the eye strain? 

Based on your comments, I'm making this the week of the essay. Ask whatever questions you have about essays in the comments (some have already come in via twitter and comments on past posts) and I'll cover them this week. Maybe I can alleviate some of the stress you've been feeling about this part of the application.

This is how CavDog deals with stress.

Anyone catch that I changed the font of this post from my default one?

The Role of Parents in the Process

Once upon a time, there were just parents. Moms and dads were just moms and dads. Today, we have all these added titles for parents. People use helicopter, black hawk, and snow plow to describe the style of a parent.

In a recent conversation with some friends, the feeling was that there's a period in a childhood when parents are expected to be a constant advocate, intervening and managing all aspects of life. In those early years, if they aren't supervising every play date, soccer game, school assembly, and school project, they are bad parents. There's a point where the whole equation is flipped and if they do any of that stuff, they're smothering helicopter parents who are trying to control everything.

 In the education world, people tell stories about over-the-top parents who blow through boundaries with students, teachers, and counselors. We all have them. There are the calls from parents who say "we are thinking about taking the SAT one more time" (hm...a team-based SAT) or "we're going to be pre-med." I'm usually a little amused. Going away to college is a big transition for parents as well as students.The verbal slips are probably a sign that the parents are still adjusting to the idea of their teenager going away.

In my opinion, most parents are completely appropriate when it comes to their involvement in the process. There are some that go a bit overboard. Here are a few areas where parents might be tempted to overstep:

1. Curating the college list
It's definitely good to have a frank discussion with students about what college options are financially viable and they might not love what they hear. Hopefully, a mutually pleasing list of schools can be compiled. Making a student apply to a school they don't want to attend is probably a mistake. First of all, even if they have the best professor in the world in front of them, if the student isn't happy, they probably won't get the most out of the experience. Second, we might get an essay like this:

This was an actual essay we received.

2. Filling out the application
Most parents who do this will say they are helping because their teen is so busy. I would guess that if I had a look the student's text message archive or Facebook profile (but we aren't digging for that, remember), it would show that they have some time to fill out their own application.

The parents of our applicants don't seem to go to extremes, but we once got an email from a dad asking us to forgive the typos in his daughter's essays because the typos were his.


3. Following up on the application
Once an application is submitted, it's fine if a student wants to submit new information. Advocating for themselves is a good habit for students to learn, so it's always a little interesting when a parent grabs the wheel after the student submits their application. We prefer that the student email us if there is an update. They can email uvaapplicationinfo@virginia.edu to add a note to their file.

Several years ago, there was a parent whose emails were so numerous that I had to create a sub-folder and rule to funnel the messages away from my inbox. I just remembered the folder and went to look at it. There are over 75 messages in there, all from reading season. It's fine to call the Office of Admission. It's fine to email the Office of Admission. Doing that seventy-five times probably isn't necessary.

By the way, the applicant in that case was awesome and didn't need any special intervention to get our attention. The student was admitted and probably has no idea that that we were in such frequent touch with the parent.

CavDog knows how to advocate for himself  (especially if hotel receptionists have treats!)

One more time, most parents a have a totally appropriate amount of involvement in this process. I think people slap the "helicopter" label on others far more often than it's deserved. Let's stop shaming interested, involved parents with heavy equipment labels. The majority of them are doing just fine.

The parents who go over the top tend to do it in a spectacular way. They should let their students drive and take the role of a very supportive navigator on this journey.

Evidence that Mr. Jefferson was a bulldozer parent?

Feel free to use the comment section for questions about anything or to suggest a future blog topic.

A Note About Status Pages

Within five business days of applying, students get an email from our Student Information System telling them how to log into their status page. The status page is where you can see a "to do" list for your application. If you apply for financial aid, a separate list will appear for that process.

Many of you got the email and eagerly logged in to see your status. That's when you might have seen items on your to-do list that you thought were already sent to us.

Cue tons of emails asking me if we're going to move an Early Action application over to Regular Decision.

First of all, I've mentioned it before, but your counselors and teachers have a different deadline for submitting their materials. We don't expect everything to be in the office on the deadline day. That would be pretty amazing since those folks are probably filing supporting documents for lots of different students.

Second, we get a veritable deluge of documents right around the deadline. It takes a while to process them all. Back before applications were online, we would get dozens of bins of mail each day. Everyone in the office would be charged with opening mail and even then we wouldn't be able to open everything that came in a day. This is how we (even Jack Blackburn) spent the days following the deadline:

These days, far more counselors and teachers submit online, but some still send things by mail (that's totally fine). We wind up having a lot of paper to scan into our system and link to an application.

We want you to have a complete application. Our staff is processing and filing things as fast as they can.

Please don't panic about your status page yet. When we are done processing, we will start to send emails about missing credentials. Keep in mind that sometimes, things go astray. A missing document might have been sent, but didn't make it to us for some reason. Applicants aren't penalized for this.

Only send duplicate credentials if you have been asked to send them.

Now, if the mid-year report is the only thing left on your to-do list, you're done! The mid-year reports get sent by counselors later in the year (usually in late January or early February). That's after the Early Action notification, but we still need to see those reports.

Questions? Topics you'd like me to cover next time?