<p>"Corruption has become a lifestyle in today's China" so says journalist Sun Xupei as quoted in Saturday's International Herald Tribune (April 7 2012). My understanding is that applications from China to UVA surged this year by 10%. From reading various articles in the IHT regarding alleged falsified information and test taking among Chinese students, I am left to wonder... How can one trust any application from China??</p>
<p>This does not only apply to UVA but other top notch Universities. In an effort to diversify, are these colleges/institutions putting themselves at risk? And what about those who are left behind? China may have resources/money, but are these applicants going to add to the University - especially when their application may not be what it says it is?</p>
<p>I fail to see the correlation! When there is no reasonable means of authenticating applications, how can institutions blindly admit? We are outraged when students from New York “scam” the SAT by paying or having others sit their exam and yet, as several articles in the NY Times point out, this is happening with alarming frequency in China.</p>
<p>OUr son attends a public high school in VA and this year was a bloodbath at his school. For a graduating class of 800, only 5 kids were admitted to UVA, which is definitely a first. Everyone has been wondering what the heck happened. </p>
<p>Momzie - You do understand that international admissions has absolutely no bearing on in state admissions. It’s a totally different pool of applicants.</p>
<p>Fortunate to have a son admitted in-state at UVA via early action. He attends a feeder school in NOVA to UVA that generally sends 20-plus students. This year only one student has committed, while in the past many more had done so by this point. I wonder if UVA will re-consider EA (and maybe go to ED instead, like W&M) because I suspect it is causing havoc with their planning. </p>
<p>As for the Chinese students at UVA, I have not heard about any problems with cheating that impact UVA. I think this program really adds cache to UVA because the students from China are typically at the very top (and in China that means a lot). UVA often gets the best of those students because it established a program in China earlier than many of its peers and has received very good word of mouth from past students. As a result, in China, UVA has as much prestige as Harvard/Yale.</p>
<p>I don’t think UVa will ever go back to binding early decision, which is unfair to students. Early action is beneficial for everyone. </p>
<p>UVa mainly loses out of state admitted students to other universities that offer large amounts of merit aid. There are plenty of highly qualified students on the UVa wait list to take the place of any admitted student who goes elsewhere.</p>
<p>School usually has about 35-40 accepts. Probably about 200 apply every year. Guidance posts acceptance letters on the bulletin board – so it’s not a small sample of people we know – it’s data from the school.</p>