Denied to University of Virginia. Why?

Applying to College
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<p>I really think your problem was class rank, which is indirectly related to how many AP classes you took in that if took more, your weighted GPA, and thereby class rank, would have been higher. If you think about it from the school’s perspective, you have to deny 2/3 of your applications, which is thousands of applicants. If I had to do that, I would start by drawing up criteria, and denying every one not meeting one or more of the criteria. If they really have 93% of accepted students in the top 10% of their class, my guess is they are cutting right at the top 10% of the class and then reviewing all the exceptions (recruited athletes and so on), which is why they are at 93% and not 100% in the top 10% of their class.</p>

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<p>cali60 and 3tallblonds, VT probably gets that info from SCHEV (some of the peer stuff seems to relate to how they determine professor salaries based on what their peers are paying). <a href=“SCHEV Approved Peer Groups”>http://research.schev.edu/policytools/peergroups.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UVa’s peers would be schools like Michigan, Berkeley, Vanderbilt, Washington U, Cornell, Penn,etc… according to the above link.</p>

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<p>i wonder how much credit colleges give to class rank . At our public HS in Fairfax county, they do not rank(per the counselor to my son). Also there is no valedictorian. </p>

<p>Wonder if the OP will come back…my heart does go out to him and we have been in same situtations</p>

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Look up the common data set for each college, section C7. It shows how much weight goes to class rank vs. other elements.</p>

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<p>what school did you apply to in UVA?</p>

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<p>I just don’t get how around 50 students above you got straight A’s as well and are ahead of you. At my school, if you get straight A’s you will be in top 10 and that’s usually it. That sounds a bit strange</p>

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<p>From U. VA’s CDS for 2012-13"
"Percentage of all enrolled, degree-seeking, first-time, first-year students who had high school grade-point averages within each of the following ranges (using 4.0 scale):
Percent who had GPA of 3.75 or higher: 93%
Percent who had GPA between 3.50 and 3.74: 4% "</p>

<p>97% of admitted froshes have GPA of 3.50 or greater. OP’s GPA is 4.29 / 5.0 (?). If that is valid then she is getting 3.43 / 4.0. Score on ACT of 31 is towards the lower tertile for accepted applicants, and would not give as much of a boost. Including what ucbalumnus wrote on page 3 made this a more-than-anticipated reach school, if the GPA ratio is valid. Hard to get into this school, in general.</p>

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<p>I don’t think her ACT had any part of the deny to be honest. I know someone who got in with a 28 this year and two people who had a 27. To them, the scores are just another part of the application. It’s not more important than any other part. They look at applicants holistically. They also look more at the subsections of the ACT and SAT rather than the composite<br>
“The dates honestly don’t factor into our review. When I read, I’m looking at the two or three digit scores. I don’t see how many times an applicant took the tests and I don’t see all of their scores.” -Dean J on her blog</p>