<p>Did your English teacher give a source, masticore? I don't think that news came out of the Office of Admission.</p>
<p>You'd be amazed at the elaborate college admissions mythologies created by PTA moms.</p>
<p>I see why there are some good reasons to eliminate ED, but the fact is at UVA the ED and R admissions statistics, as far as grades and such go, are almost identical if I remember correctly. Sure at other schools applying early gives you an edge, but not at UVA.</p>
<p>So I have a question. If the statistics stay the same, or get worse, will UVA reinstitute ED?</p>
<p>I do think it's good that UVA is moving to the common app. That alone will get more applications. It was so easy applying to schools that used the common app. Filling out my information for each application was such a waste of time.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I see why there are some good reasons to eliminate ED, but the fact is at UVA the ED and R admissions statistics, as far as grades and such go, are almost identical if I remember correctly.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This says nothing about the quality of each applicant pool.</p>
<p>well, it says that the ED pool is weaker than the RD pool. if the 900 or so best students get into UVa ED, its safe to assume that the absolute best applicants in the RD pool would have gone to better schools.</p>
<p>the statistics come from who is admitted, not who matriculates. That being said, the best students were included in these stats (I think) even though they may have turned UVA down for another school. I'd guess the only way you could really find out the quality of the applicant pool would be to find out the strength of the applicants who got rejected.</p>
<p>
[quote]
First, while my children may have been inclined to pursue an ED application to the University (they have visited the school probably a dozen times and we follow many of the sports teams), the elimination of ED now encourages, nay forces, them to consider a wider range of schools. Some schools that come to mind are Duke, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Emory, Northwestern, W&M. If accepted to UVA, my children may still elect to attend vs these other schools, but I feel a bit like this is opening Pandora's Box as I don't know where the college process would then lead my child and our family.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Do you realize that you just wrote that you want UVA to have ED so your kids won't consider any other schools? That's not what ED is for.</p>
<p><-- was one unhappy legacy kid who didn't get in, and now probably couldn't be happier where he is.</p>
<p>i think her point was different.</p>
<p>lets say her s or d really wanted to go to uva. so they apply early, get in, and thats the end of it. now lets assume the s or d applies to uva...and a few safeties, and say brown. now assuming she gets into uva and brown - it would now be a hard choice to choose between uva and brown - regardless of whether or not she preferred uva - simply because a brown degree is worth more than a uva degree.</p>
<p>if the kid really wants to go to UVA and gets in, then they should have no problem choosing it.</p>
<p>^ thats not necessarily true.</p>
<p>think about it yourself. lets say you're a huge football fan and you want to go to USC. so you get in there and you're all set to go, and now you're offered the opportunity to go to Yale. That would be a hard opportunity to pass up even if you're a huge football fan.</p>
<p>you're never 100% sure unless you're forced to be ;)</p>
<p>I've written it before: ED forces students to commit before they know their options. Knowing all your options is a good thing, even if the decision is a little harder to make.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
We really gotta sit down and think if having 50 more poor kids is worth losing 200 quality kids.
[/QUOTE]
I just noticed this comment and want to make something clear: Low income does not mean low achieving. </p>
<p>We didn't just wake up one morning and decided to copy Harvard and Princeton. Doing away with early admission has been discussed for years and years. The potential results have been examined and discussed many times.
[QUOTE]
The University's announcement comes on the heels of Harvard and Princeton, which both recently announced that they were abandoning early admissions programs. Blackburn said that while the University had considered eliminating early decision over the past two years it chose to act now because other schools were also eliminating the program.</p>
<p>"We felt that we shouldn't just do it alone," Blackburn said, noting that if students wanted to be accepted to college early, the University might "lose out" on potential applicants to schools with early admissions programs.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>I'll end with this.
[QUOTE]
Blackburn said the changes could affect UVa's selectivity rate and subsequently its place in college rankings lists. But when he discussed the idea of ending early decision with faculty and administrators, it received unanimous support.</p>
<p>"This is the right thing to do no matter what people say about us," he said. "For a state university, we ought to be more accessible to low-income families."
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Yet its funny today how in the Cav daily they mentioned how the school presses donations from the current 4th year students in order to increase its alumni giving rate in order to increase its rank in US news...</p>
<p>I'm sorry - its just I don't see how getting rid of ED makes the school more accessible to low income students...it won't "increase" their chances of getting admitted in the RD round as all the ED people will just be pushed into the RD pile...</p>
<p>on a side note...</p>
<p>i find it somewhat amusing as you make the comment about UVa waking up one morning and copying Harvard and Princeton.<br>
Nothing aginst the admissions committee and their purposes, but it was amusing how Professor Leffler mentioned in her class how UVa wants to be in the same league as harvard and princeton and always has wanted to be in league of schools and copying them may help us get there...</p>
<p>Actually, it does increase their chances of getting in the RD round. Without ED, those spots will be up for grabs by all equally competitive students, rather than just the ones who can afford it.</p>
<p>Obviously, almost any undergrad school would want to be like Harvard/Princeton. They are among the best undergrads in the country. However, I don't see how UVA is trying to imitate them. We don't use the common app, after all, after over 30 years of its existence</p>
<p>isn't uva switching to the common app??</p>
<p>Hopefully yes, at some unspecified point 3 decades after its creation</p>
<p>I believe so and I don't like the common app essay questions quite frankly.</p>
<p>I thought UVA and Stanford's essay questions were much better (both don't use common app) and when looking at prospective schools I glance at their essays to see what kind of students they are looking for. </p>
<p>Go look at University of Chicago's essays and compare them to the Common app...UChicago has much more creative essays than the common app would ever have.</p>
<p>Common app essays:
[quote]
Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
Topic of your choice.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>versus University of Chicago
<a href="http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=376%5B/url%5D">http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=376</a>
(too many topics to copy and paste)</p>
<p>You can clearly see the different students they are looking for. Sure UVA could add supplemental essays but I believe you would still have to answer the common app essays...correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Frankly, I want a college that has unique essays rather than generic ones...then again I'm known to be an rather "odd" so essay topics may not be a criteria for many college applicants looking for a school that fits them.</p>
<p>If UVA has to copy any school, I say it be Stanford because:
1. They don't use the common app
2. The MIT dean said college apps are making students sick....well duh! Look at Stanford's apps and you can see how much emphasis they put on putting stuff you were actually committed too and really enjoyed rather than flooding up your applications with insane e/cs, which MIT referenced to.
3. Stanford isn't afraid to stick it to the man (see Stanford keeping up it's Early action plan)
4. Stanford is pretty highly ranked even though they dont mimick everything Harvard/Princeton does</p>
<p>Of course, I still like UVA's system/campus/academics/social life which is why it's my no.1 school and I will be applying early to it :)</p>
<p>Terrible, yoshi. Use of the common app can only serve to help a school - not to hurt it. The common app essays may be a bit generic, which is why many schools also have supplements. </p>
<p>I agree with you, though, in your selection of Stanford as a school to emulate.</p>
<p>How can the common app help the student besides facilitating the application submission process? Have you seen the common app application? The layout seems rather slopped together rather than being carefully planned out. The UVA application seems much more organized and has an easier interface.</p>
<p>I rather schools give essays that are more creative. Sure, a really creative person can make any essay creative but generic essays can be boring to write :(</p>
<p>jags861,</p>
<p>I'm on your page.
If you live in VA and see how competitive it is to get into our state schools (I know other states are the same) but you start to get jaded with the minority and low income comments. It also comes up with the Thomas Jefferson admissions. I don't have a child there but they really need to make people a number and not be biased just to get their numbers up, and I think that is what UVA is now attempting to do.</p>