Denied to University of Virginia. Why?

<p>You have every right to feel sad. Give yourself a day. Wallow. Move on. UVA is a great school. But one of many great schools. You will find the right one for you and once you get there and make it your own you will be HAPPY that UVA passed.</p>

<p>Believe me, there will be a lot of other very hard-working students at VT. </p>

<p>If your goal is med school, then go to VT, get a high GPA, do well on the MCAT and move on with your life.</p>

<p>I don’t blame you for feeling sad about this…i agree - that on paper, at least - you seem like an ideal candidate.</p>

<p>My guess is that there are hundreds of “yous” right now …in various states…people who really should have gotten in but didn’t. That said, I believe your path will take you in a better direction…though I realize that’s hard to see right now.</p>

<p>UVA accepts transfers after 2 semesters.</p>

<p>Don’t be 40 and still mourning UVA. Don’t even be a graduated high school senior still mourning UVA.</p>

<p>I was rejected by my dream school as well. Much of my family went to Duke, and I (wrongly) had it in my head that I would too. I felt as if I was qualified, but you can never know with top-tier admissions. Best of luck with your search!</p>

<p>Thanks to everybody for the support. Guess I’ll never really know why I didn’t get in. I am allowed to call the admissions office and ask why I didn’t get accepted, correct? Just to understand why.</p>

<p>It’ll be okay. It might seem like the end of the world now, but there are tons of colleges out there, and many will offer much of the same opportunities UVA can offer. It’s perfectly okay to hurt right now. Rejection is painful. But you will move on.</p>

<p>Another option is that you can call admissions to possibly appeal the decision. It’s a really small chance, but to never know unless you try.</p>

<p>Are you “allowed to call and ask”? Well, there’s no law saying you can’t call. But that’s not the issue.</p>

<p>The school won’t tell you why. They probably aren’t allowed to provide an answer.</p>

<p>VT is an awesome school. In fact, I prefer it to UVA. I am originally from Virginia, and now live in California. My kid turned down UCLA (the equivalent of UVA here in CA) and chose Cal Poly (the equivalent of VT in CA). He loves it.</p>

<p>One of our neighbor’s kids got turned down to all the University of California campuses that she applied to and by some form of divine intervention she got accepted to Cal Poly. Her major was in environmental management and she would have languished at a UC.</p>

<p>Med school eh? It is quite possible that the Universe was looking out for your best interests and pointed in a direction that you may not want right now, but will be better for you long term. A polytechnic school could be the way to go!</p>

<p>I’m sorry.</p>

<p>It’s tough but with any school with selectivity below 30%, odds are against you no matter what. It’s not you, it’s just the way it is. You know you were not a lock-in (no one is) so right now you’re trying to get over the sting of disappointment, but you have lots of excellent choices.
In addition, as mentioned before, there are some excellent schools with good financial aid and certain merit for your stats out there, accepting applications for Feb 1. But VTech is a great choice.</p>

<p>On seeing your stats in the first post, my first reaction was to think there may have been a mistake in filing the application (such as a missing LOR, score, or transcript). On closer inspection, it appears the rejection can be explained by the numbers. </p>

<p>I think this sentence from the Washington Post article is key:
“In all, 92 percent of the class was in the top 10 percent of their high school’s graduating class.”
For 2012-13, according to the UVa Common Data Set, it inched up to 93%.
Your class rank was just outside the top 10%; your scores only fell in the median range. You apparently had no hardships or other “hooks”. So a lot must have been riding on factors such as ECs, LORs and essays.</p>

<p>Among entering freshmen who submitted a HS GPA to UVa for 2012-13, the average was 4.21. Straight As don’t mean what they used to mean. This must shift more weight to class rank, scores, and subjective factors. The decision may have come down to a close judgement call. That’s the way it is for many applications to very selective colleges.</p>

<p>YAS, Sorry to hear you were not accepted to UVa. It’s a great school and older son is a graduate. My guess is that not being in the top 10% hurt you but that is only a guess. It’s a tough admit for everyone.</p>

<p>Younger son did not bother to apply to UVa because his grades did not put him in the top 10% of his class(his SAT’s were above UVa’s average and his EC’s were excellent though). He went to Virginia Tech and just graduated Magna Cum Laude in engineering last May. He could have pursued transfer to UVa but had no interest. He LOVED Virginia Tech. Chances are you will too if you end up going there. Keep an open mind and embrace any school you go to. I know you’re disappointed but as others have said, there are lots of great schools out there. Good luck!</p>

<p>It’s just awful that if my GPA was .01 higher I would’ve been in the top ten percent. I was off by .02%</p>

<p>But the thing is that many many kids that are even in the top 10% don’t make it in to UVa. Try to start exploring things to like about other schools . Most kids do end up loving the school they end up at , even if it wasn’t initially their first choice. Go in with an open mind and open heart. Look forward.</p>

<p>You said you couldn’t afford to go to one school. Finances may be an issue. Your stats are good, but there are many candidates similar to you. When a school is faced with two identical applicants, one who can pay full price and one who can’t, they will pick the one who can.</p>

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<p>Your class rank is not so great for highly competitive schools, and Virginia considers it “very important” along with rigor of secondary school record and academic GPA.</p>

<p>Also, if your high school offers more or harder AP courses, then your list of AP courses may not seem too impressive compared to some other applicants’ lists (rigor of secondary school record).</p>

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<p>Lots of college students end up “settling” because their first choice was too selective or too expensive. But the schools they “settle” for may be fine fits for their goals.</p>

<p>If you think “settling” for college is a problem, wait until you apply to medical school, if your college grades and MCAT scores make that a realistic possibility. Only about half of medical school applicants get even one admission to medical school.</p>

<p>Don’t cross UNC off your list yet; you’re highly competitive and still stand a shot.</p>

<p>Don’t rule out William & Mary yet, either. UVA and The College have a long and storied history of accepting people the other denies for some reason and I have seen it happen at both schools. At least wait till Day for Admitted Students to rule out WM. I know many that had no intentions of going to WM before DFAS and DFAS completely changed their mind. </p>

<p>I saw you’re interested in Med school, WM usually has a 65-75% acceptance rate to med schools while the national average is in the 40s%.</p>

<p>Obviously I’m selling WM here, but the point is…you’re gonna be ok. We have such awesome public schools here in VA that it’s hard to wrong with any school. If you do decide on Tech than that’s awesome! Everyone there loves the school, the campus is gorgeous, and the food is to die for! </p>

<p>College is a service industry. Move on; don’t lose hope.</p>

<p>YAS</p>

<p>Unfortunately, you probably never will know. UVA receives so many applications that are … let’s face it … indistinguishable academically, that the admissions process can seem random or unfair. For top schools, it’s basically a numbers game. There are more qualified applicants than slots.</p>

<p>Why didn’t you get in – there could be 100 reasons, or there could be none. </p>

<p>UNCor WM – your rejection at UVA may have no bearing. Every year, there are students (both in state and out of state) who get into UNC (or WM) and not UVA. Likewise, there are students who get into UVA but not UNC (or WM). Every year, there are many posts on College Confidential which basically say (Why did School A reject me when I got into School B which is a ‘better’ school).</p>

<p>No one really knows.</p>

<p>Anyway, Good luck.</p>

<p>Anyway, I’m sure you’ll do</p>