Admissions Blog

Early applicants to the University of Virginia’s Class of 2021 received decisions earlier this week—well ahead of the January 31st published release date. Following the recent announcement from UVa President Teresa Sullivan that she will be leaving at the end of her current contract in 2018, the admissions office decided to give over 5000 prospective ‘Hoos some good news to consider.

And it’s clear that admission to the Commonwealth’s flagship university remains a highly sought-after prize among high school students—both from within the state and across the country.

Even with plans to increase undergraduate enrollment for 2017-18, the competition for admission under UVa’s early action program continues to be intense, as the overall number of applications grew to 20,446—about a 24 percent increase over numbers reported the same time last year.

Predictably, most of the early applicants, 14,968 (or 73 percent) came from out of state. The balance—5,278 applicants—came from within Virginia.

Out of this year’s early action pool, 5,914 students were admitted—about 14 percent more than for the Class of 2020, which experienced a seven percent jump in EA admits from the year before. Of those admitted, 2,575 were from Virginia (47 percent offer rate—down three percentage points), and 3,339 were from out of state (22 percent offer rate).

Among the offers, 4,496 were for the College of Arts & Sciences, 1,180 were for the School of Engineering and Applied Science, 97 were for the School of Architecture, 75 were for the School of Nursing, and 66 were for the Curry School of Education.

Typically, more offers are made to nonresidents because the yield among students faced with out-of-state tuition is significantly lower. But it’s worth noting that offers made to out-of-state students increased by over 13 percent from last year.

According to assistant admissions dean Jeannine Lalonde (Dean J), those offered early admission bids were very well qualified. The middle range of SAT scores of this year’s admitted students fell between 2020 and 2290 (ACT between 31 and 34). And 94.6 percent of the offers went to students in the top ten percent of their high school classes (this number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank).

Although over 9000 students were denied admission during the first round of consideration, another 5458 were thrown a lifeline by being deferred to the regular decision pool, which stands at about 16,250 additional applicants. The entire group will receive decisions before April 1. Note that deferred applicants are specifically encouraged to send new test scores and midyear grades as soon as possible.

All students will have until May 1, to make up their minds. And those early applicants who were lucky enough to be admitted to UVa’s Class of 2021 can expect to receive significant encouragement to commit as soon as possible.

Nancy Griesemer is an independent educational consultant and founder of College Explorations LLC. She has written extensively and authoritatively about the college admissions process and related topics since 2009.

In a newsletter circulated late last week, Annie Reznik, executive director of the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, described some of the progress the Coalition has made since she joined the organization last April and announced expansion plans for the coming year.

“…my first week with the Coalition coincided with the launch of the Platform; at that time we had 900 users which grew to 119,000 users at the year’s end.”

While only 47 out of 95 Coalition members finally launched applications during 2016-17, it is expected that all will be online by next summer. In fact, with new membership guidelines in place effective January 1, the Coalition expects to add more colleges for 2017-18. So far, new members include Arizona State University, Drew University, Loyola University Maryland, Rutgers University—Newark, University of Arizona and University of New Mexico. By May 1, the Coalition plans to make a final announcement of all members for the upcoming cycle.

But most important, according to Reznik, during this time Coalition member colleges and universities completed 554 visits to 270 high schools where students are most likely to benefit from college information and resources. In preparation for these visits, several members collaborated to create a series of communications to connect students with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Up Next mobile text messaging campaign, which is designed to introduce students to the FAFSA toolkit and College Scorecard.

This project, together with the free tools available as part of the Coalition platform, form a foundation for achieving the Coalition’s mission to “improve the college admission application process for all students.”

And for juniors on deck for 2017-18, Reznik announced that the Coalition essay questions will remain the same for next year for those members requiring a personal statement—not all do. They are:

Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.
Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.
Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?
What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?
Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

To learn more about the Coalition for Access Affordability and Success or to create an account, visit the Coalition website.