Be Careful on Facebook

They're at it again.

People have have NO connection to UVa are posting on the Class of 2017 Facebook page and have also created a shadow group purporting to be connected to the University.

It seems some of the new members have started some controversial topics. If you're a member, I hope you'll flag the posts so the students who admin the page can get rid of them. 

The people behind the second group are from a company that has been selling a roommate matching service for years. They often use a Facebook profile with the last name Blackwell, which is the case for this recent group that was created. If you want some background, check out this post and this post from the NY Time's admission blog, The Choice. Our students have created roommate surveys via their class Facebook group in past years, so I'm not sure UVa is a great market for that company. Regardless, I just wanted to post a heads up.

Obviously, you're free to join whatever groups you'd like on Facebook. If you join a UVa group, I hope you'll do a quick check to verify that the creator is somehow connected to the University.
 

The Class of 2017 Facebook page that I link to has two UVa ambassadors as admins. When the first year class elects their officers, the group will be handed over to them. I've been doing this for years and it has worked quite well. Older students still use their groups today to publicize events.

Perspective

Right now, I bet March seems like a pretty long month in light of what's going to happen on notification day (officially April 1st, I'll tell you ASAP if we'll be early).  I thought I'd provide a little perspective about how far you've come.

On August 1st, the Common Application went live.  Most of you probably weren't aware.

At some point, you realized it was time to work on your applications and you sprung into action.

You plugged away here and there, trying to meet deadlines.

Goodness gracious, were there deadlines! Would you ever be done with this?

After you hit "submit" on that last application, you still had to keep an eye on your status.

Now you're in the home stretch. Your applications are complete and it's time to wait for decisions to arrive.

 

You've come a long way. Good job!

Do you recognize the beach where these photos were taken? Name it and I will give you a secret prize!

Time to Focus

This is the time of year when college-bound minds start to wander.  You've been back at school for a little bit and the routine of the new term is in place. All those applications have been in for a while, but you can't help but worry about them.  Will that minuscule typo you discovered at the end of your list of activities ruin your chances?  Was it wrong of you to go over the suggested length on the personal statement by 27 words?  Should you have used a special font? What about double spacing?  Should you quadruple check that your counselor sent your transcript even though she said it was sent in the last two times you asked?  If your neighbor's hair stylist's cousin was waitlisted in 2009, should you take her advice?

All the while, your teachers are piling on the work. You find yourself thinking that maybe you can relax just a little bit and they'll understand.  You start to daydream about the spring...prom, a new sports season, graduation...it all seems just around the corner and it's far more fun to think about those things than to keep you head in the books.

Stop.

You have work to get through in the next few months and it's going to prepare you for the next step, which isn't going to be easier.  Besides that, worrying about an application that is already submitted isn't going to affect the outcome and it's apt to take you away from those pressing academic tasks.

It's time to focus.

 There's also a little virus called senioritis that starts to make the rounds at this time of year. Resist it!

You have to focus.

It's going to take us several more weeks to get through this process. So, tune out all that background noise.

 No matter how exciting the distractions are, keep your focus.

Hang in there! 

(adorable distraction provided by CavDog's "cousin")

Let's Talk about Perfection

I wrote this a few years ago, but I think this is a good time to share it again.

There was a point yesterday afternoon when my fingers hovered over the keyboard and I found myself thinking "I don't know this student at all." I had just finished reading an application and was trying to write an enthusiastic opening to my notes, but nothing was coming. It didn't really make sense. The curriculum was excellent, the grades were great, the test scores were solid, the counselor's recommendation was positive, the essays were meticulously edited, and the student was involved in activities that were important to them, as most students are. Many people would say the application was flawless.

I had the perfect application in front of me, but I had trouble getting excited about it. It was an application that epitomized an idea I had a few years ago:

Sometimes

perfect

is

boring


Most of us feel pressure to be perfect.

Does the student who achieves perfection (whatever that is) get accepted to lots of schools? Yes. But if admission officers only admitted the perfect students, we probably wouldn't fill our classes. Yes, you need a fantastic profile to be admitted, but there are lots of imperfect students getting offers from great schools.

My advice: Try to be the most perfect version of you. Work to your greatest potential. Strive for excellence, but make sure you're also doing things that are fulfilling and meaningful to you.

Perfection is impressive, but so is personality

Did that perfect applicant get an offer from UVa? Yes. I'm sure that applicant got offers from many schools. So did lots of other students.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

CavDog is thinking of all of his Valentines around Grounds today. Kisses and wags to all of you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Notification Update (not really an update)

Regular Decision notifications will definitely be available April 1st. If we are able to release decisions earlier, I will make an announcement on the blog.

I can't make any promises, but every notification date I've "experienced" at UVa has been before April 1st.

Hang in there.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This is a busy week in the Office of Admission. Mid-year reports are pouring in for review. Those applicants who weren't checking their application statuses in the SIS were emailed, prompting the arrival of missing credentials.

Students who were admitted during the early action process have started to visit us and we are already seeing juniors (and a few sophomores) in the office. It's nice to have visitors again!

I have a few post planned for the next two weeks, but please understand if my response to questions or comments isn't as fast as usual!

CavDog's been busy, too!

What Should You Do Now?

As you can probably tell from my lack of updates, we are immersed in the regular decision application review. Many of you responded to our call for missing credentials, but there are a couple hundred applicants still missing something from their files. We're going to email those folks again in the next week to give them one last chance to get those missing items in.

Early Action Offers
At this point, you two things to consider.

1. You need to make sure your counselor sends your mid-year report (remember, offers are extended with the expectation that you'll maintain your academic profile through the end of senior year). Those are due February 15th.

2. You should consider whether a visit will help you make a final decision about coming to UVa. We've emailed all of you about the visit options and plenty of you have signed up for our admitted student visit days. That's great!  If the days we offer don't fit with your schedule, you can plan your own visit using a few tools on our website. More on planning a visit in the future. 

Early Action Defers
There was a link to the FAQs for deferred students in your decision letter, but I'm still getting many, many questions about sending extra items. At this point, we have rolled your application into the regular decision pool.  The only difference between an early action application and a regular decision application is senior grades.  We need your mid-year report to review your early action application during this regular decision round. Please make sure your counselors get the mid-year grades to us by February 15th.  Many have already arrived.

Demonstrated interest is NOT considered in the regular decision review. Your time should be spent on things at school. You don't need to be spending time and money on sending us extra "stuff" right now.  If there's an important update to share, email it along (to the general account, please) or have your counselor mention it on the mid-year report.

All Applicants
When you send us documents, send them to the general Office of Admission address that is on the bottom of our website. Because of our reading load, the deans and counselors often read from home for a few days each week. When you send a general item with one of our names on it, it goes into our mailbox where it will sit until the next time we are in the office.

As a paperless school, we prefer electronic submission of items (Common App has a secure system for teachers and counselors).  

Where is everybody? 

(Home reading files!)

 

Missing Credential Emails Going Out Today

We are up to date with processing mail, so we'll be sending emails to anyone with missing credentials this afternoon.  If you haven't been monitoring your application status via your SIS account, you might not know if you are missing items from your file.  If you happen to get an email, please log in to see what might be missing. 

In some cases, we might be missing an item that was sent to us, but was lost in transit. Please don't fly into the your school's counseling office in a panic if something is missing. Calmly follow up with the appropriate party and ask for the item to be submitted.

Remember that we want your application to be complete and "ready to read."  If you get one of these emails, we aren't mad and you aren't in trouble.  We understand that mid-year grades are only just becoming available at many schools. Those are due February 15th.

Please do not send duplicate document unless you get one of these emails. Sending duplicates slows down the processing of documents we really need to complete other students' files.

 Some duplicates are cuter than others.

Financial Aid Deadline

Everyone in the region is excited about the inch or so of snow that we got over night, but I have a something serious to share.

This is serious.

There's a hard and fast deadline for financial aid this year at UVa. 

You must submit all financial aid documents by Friday, March 1st.

I'm happy to say that admission and financial aid are separate at UVa, so whether you file for financial aid or not isn't a factor when we review applications.  Your finances are between you and Student Financial Services.

If you're interested is learning more about the financial aid process, check out the SFS website, the financial aid Twitter feed, and the financial aid Facebook page.

Now, back to playing in the snow!

Our office is closed today. All eyes seem to be on Washington, so I don't think anyone is missing us.

Let's Talk about the Weather

You'd think weather would be a lame topic for a blog, but weather posts on Notes from Peabody always get people talking.  Perhaps I find talk about the weather, and specifically snow, entertaining because I have northern roots and it's funny to see people fret about flurries when I trudged to school in several inches of snow (uphill both ways, mind you).

My snow posts actually started in 2007, so this is quite a tradition.  A 2008 post about snow was CavDog's debut on the blog. In fact, the response to that post (large at the time with nine comments) convinced me to make CavDog a regular part of the blog.  

Here was CavDog's reaction to a snow "storm" in Charlottesville This was the first snowfall he ever saw:

Clearly was not impressed by the snow.

We don't get a lot of snow.  It snows now and then, but the snow often melts pretty quickly.  Sometimes, the melted snow will freeze overnight and we'll get a second day of messy roads.

We get slammed with a major snowfall once in a blue moon.  There was a "snowpocolypse" a few years ago (check out how one of the funniest weather guys reacted to that) and another major storm that dumped three feet on the area about 10 years prior. 


If you are from the north, you'll find winters in Charlottesville delightful.  If you're from the south, you'll want to buy a couple pairs of gloves/mittens and a hat or two so you are ready for the weather. 


Oh, and if you love to ski and snowboard, we have a mountain resort called Wintergreen about 45 minutes away.  The ski and snowboarding team use the facilities up there.


Just for fun, here's a video from the last time we got some serious snow:

Here's another video for those interested in the ski and snowboard team.

Early Action Admission Statistics

Here are some numbers about the early action process. I ran these numbers in the wee hours of the night, so they are up to date as of 1/16/2013. 

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.

Early Action Admission
Total number of Early Action applications: 13,670
Total number of VA apps: 3,985
Total number of OOS apps: 9,685
*These are the numbers of completed applications. Some schools report incomplete apps in their numbers.


Overall offers: 3,841
Total VA offers: 1,695 (42.5% offer rate)
Total OOS offers: 2,146 (22% offer rate)
Enrollment goal: 3,475 (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).


Overall defers: 3,454
Total VA defers: 1,001
Total OOS defers: 2,453
*Some applicants will withdraw, so these numbers will drop.
 
Middle 50% SAT score (offers only): 2030-2260
*We look at each section of the SAT, but the reports on averages generate totals.
97.8% of offers were in the top 10% of their high school class
*This number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank.


Early Action Scholar Invitations
1 in 20 early applicants to the College of Arts & Sciences invited into Echols Scholars Program
1 in 25 early applicants to the School of Engineering invited into Rodman Scholars Program
1 in 200 early applicants to the College of Arts & Sciences invited into College Science Scholars
*These numbers are a result of our review.  We didn't not start the year with these numbers in mind.


Please understand that I do not have additional statistics.This is a very busy week between application reading, responding to emails/comments/tweets, and evening programs.

Searching...

Early action statistics are coming! Between emails, calls, applications, and evening programs, I'm a little swamped! 

Scholars Update!

I like art.

Forgive the late post! We have jumped into the regular decision review and I'm traveling for evening programs this week.  I have an update about scholars programs, but the statistics post might not come until tomorrow.

Echols/Rodman/College Science Scholars
Invitations to the Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars programs were mailed today. We will follow up with emails on Wednesday.  Keep in mind that these are comparatively small programs.  Rodman and CSS are especially small.

If you are not invited into the programs now, you can apply to join them during your first year at UVa.


Arts Scholars
Faculty members will name 3-5 Arts Scholars per department at the end of the regular decision process. Invitations should go out shortly after we post admission decisions.  Check out the Arts Scholars page for more information.

Don't know what those are? Click the links to learn more about each program.

 Art is tasty.

Let's Talk About Decisions: The Offer

Admitted students can use this entry to talk.  I imagine you might also want to join the UVa Class of 2017 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 I will verify that and post about it next week.

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: The Defer

Students offered a spot on the defer list 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 Decisons: The Early Action 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

It's become a tradition for me to write this post on notification days.

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. This blog is successful because you read it and you write comments.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to interact with you here.

It's exciting to know that we're going to make some of you very happy this evening, but 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 highly selective school is that I have to say "no" more often than I 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 your status page says, you are going to be just fine.  You are going to attend a great school and you are going to grow tremendously while there. You're going to have "ah ha" moments like you've never had before. You're going to learn from amazing, inspirational professors. 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 at something. What's going to make or break those experiences is your response and your openness to learn from them, not necessarily the location of the events.

Remember that your decision is not a statement about your value. Most of our applicants 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 chime in as we move into the regular decision period.

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

Early Action Notification Update!

The theme of this post is "speed over ceremony."  Here's the deal:

We're done with the early action review. It's waaaay early, but there's no reason to hold onto these decisions.  Therefore, tonight is the night. Please keep reading!

Hooray!

1.  You have to log into your SIS account to see the decision.  Some time tonight, that "View Decision" link 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.

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. I've only had one person flagged in the comments before.

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 highly 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 early action admission statistics on Monday.  I'll post one more time before the office closes.

Good luck to you all!