hi I was just wondering how much being in state helps at uva compared to being out of state
Well if we looked at last year’s stats for EA, we see that 51.1% of EA applicants INSTATE were admitted compared to the approximately 23% EA applicants OOS. I think there were around 16k OOS apps alone and 6-7kish instate? Either way, you have VERY good chance of getting in as an instate applicant with the prereqs in GPA/Scores/ect. Honestly, I don’t think I would’ve made it if I was an OOS’er with the stats I got in as an instater EA, so be happy you’re instate 
^I don’t like when people say this because it implies that some of the in-state students don’t deserve to be at UVA. My impression is that it’s not “easier” per se, but more consistent. If there are 2 OOS students with a 2200/3.9, they might reject one for a 6/10 essay but accept another for an 8/10 essay. In-state, they would probably accept both. The holistic view works more in your favor if your are in state. That doesn’t mean it’s any “easier” to get in because you still have to have generally the same qualifications, it just means that since UVA has to have more in-state students, they will accept a good portion of their qualified applicants. OOS will have a lot of their qualified students getting rejected for arbitrary reasons.
50% for EA instate??? Gah, I knew I should have done early…
2/3 of incoming class seats are reserved for IS, 1/3 go to OOS applicants.
I believe there are something like 22k applicants competing for the OOS seats, something like 9k applicants competing for the IS seats.
They have a pretty good idea what their yields will be. Lately they have offered admission to about 22%-25% of OOS applicants to fill those seats, and to about 40%-42% if IS applicants to fill those seats.
So basically an IS applicant should be among the top 40% or so of IS pool to get an offer, but an OOS applicant must be among top 22% or so of OOS pool.
And the OOS threshold for admission tends to be a higher GPA and test score to end up with the number of warm fundaments they are aiming to fill those seats with.
Basically, there is a LOT more competition for fewer OOS seats.
I’m not necessarily saying people don’t deserve to be at UVA (cause clearly the adcoms would say otherwise) but its just that the law requires 2/3 instate residents and 1/3 out of state so naturally instate would seem easier to get into because you have an advantage over the OOS’rs. But because the OOS competition is so much higher than instate, people need to be on their game and have really good stats, essays, and activities to convince adcoms to admit them. If you compare your average instater’s stats with an OOS stats, you’ll see the difference. But I don’t consider people who got admitted to UVA as an instater “unqualified” but its just that the preference for instate is so high that there is a huge difference in stats between the two sets of applicant pools.
Official first year admission data broken down by residency:
http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studat/hist/admission/first_by_residency.htm
Thanks so much for the help! I was always really curious how in-state and out of state actually factored into admissions at UVA. Needless to say I’m still nervous. Can’t wait to hear on April 1!