Are there any public stats on OOS legacy admission rates? I know UNC published their statistics fairly recently and OOS legacy seemed to be a large factor in admission. The article I read was OSS admission rates were 13% but OOS legacy admits were 40%. As an OOS UVA observer, it does not seem like UVA comes anywhere close to this level of preference. Does anyone have any recent statistics on this?
Legacy is very helpful in the OOS admissions pool.
I don’t think UVA publishes an admit rate for just OOS, which is the info you are looking for.
UVA says it only provides a legacy tip to OOS legacies. So if IS legacies are getting admitted, it would just be because they are strong applicants under the IS admission standards (which are tough, but not as tough as OOS).
UVA’s admit standards in the OOS pool are hard – 19% last cycle vs. 36% IS. It would not be crazy to surmise that the OOS legacy admit rate is double that 19%. Some folks on CC have anecdotally claimed that the OOS admit rate is 40%, maybe even 50%.
Note, however, that the 2019 cycle data does not include ED (which was new for 2020 cycle) so things may change. For example, many schools only give the legacy tip to legacy applicants if they apply ED. TBD if that will be part of UVA’s model going forward.
Pro tip: Definitely take advantage of the alumni association’s admissions liaison program. They are extremely helpful and knowledge-able in working with alumni families. Good luck.
https://alumni.virginia.edu/admission/
https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2019/03/u-va-offers-admission-to-23-8-percent-of-applicants
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@northwesty Thanks for the info. I have scheduled the alumni interview for late March with this child. We did it with my older son also a couple of years ago. He was admitted OOS but decided to go elsewhere. He had extremely high stats and was the valedictorian of his class so not sure legacy really mattered in his case. We live in an area without very many alumni applicants and none than I can recall from our high school so just wondering how it plays out. Quite a few kids from our school just got into UNC early out of state but almost all were legacies. Hoping it has a significant impact at UVA as well
As a parent of a first year OOS legacy, I strongly suggest the ALP. You can do it twice before your child’s Senior year. They gave my daughter target GPA and SAT as well as suggesting her class choices. So I would suggest, Sophomore year and then before selecting classes for Senior year.
They work at arm’s length from the admissions department but know what is being emphasized. It helped with her acceptance at UVA and strengthened her application everywhere…
We live in Chapel Hill so she never wanted to go to Duke or UNC, it was always UVA (even though she is legacy at both of the other schools as well.)
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"Quite a few kids from our school just got into UNC early out of state but almost all were legacies. "
My anecdotal experience has been that a lot of the UVA OOS admits around my area wind up being the strong stat legacies.
Last cycle the OOS ACT range was 33-35 and the IS range was 32-34. So what seems to happen is something like this. The 36 OOS non-legacy kid tends to get in. The 32 legacy OOS kid tends to get denied. The 34 OOS non-legacy kid gets denied, but the 34 OOS legacy kid gets in.
So you could say legacy is “just” as a tie-breaker. But UVA got 29,000 OOS apps and the OOS admit rate was 19%. So OOS admissions is a game that produces many thousands of ties.
If you are playing a game that produces a lot of ties, “just” holding the tie-breaker makes a big difference.
And you’d expect that would be even more the case at UNC than UVA. UNC OOS admit rate is an even lower 13%. Probably because the UNC OOS class is limited to 18% vs. one-third for UVA. So the OOS legacy tie-breaker at UNC might make a bigger difference.
Remember that the OOS numbers also include international students, which comprise about 5% of the ug population at each of these schools.
Neither school breaks out international applications or acceptance rate AFAIK, but those are likely lower than the OOS blended rate…making the domestic OOS rates likely a little higher than 19% at UVA and 13% at UNC.
I agree that the ALP is great! We went the summer before my son’s junior year, and it was very helpful especially advice on scheduling. My son is waiting for his EA decision. UVA is his first choice and he will definitely attend if admitted. He is out of state.
l’m sweating bullets. I’m trying not to obsess over his chances but it’s really hard not to!
Good luck to all of your kids!
Hi there,
Has your daughter enjoyed UVA so far (not sure if he/she got to enjoy much of it because of COVID)? Did she pass on UNC/Duke for reasons other than the location (too close to home maybe?). Thanks!
She has enjoyed it.
The first semester being away from home was difficult. The second semester started well and joining a sorority really helped then the COVID rollercoaster started.
Having come home and gone to parties at UNC and visited friends at Duke has reassured her she made the correct choice. She appreciates that the ease of hanging out with her friends and proximity to home would have made college an extension of high school. Limiting her growth and independence.
The academic rigor has been just right and she’s done really well adapting to all the curves COVID/administration has thrown at her.
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Great to know, thanks and good luck!
My older child recently graduated from UVA. My daughter just applied EA and there does not seem to be any place to advise that her sibling recently graduated. Does a sibling legacy help? Should UVA be advised somehow about this? Thanks
Legacy at UVA is parent only (defined on their website as father, mother, step parent or guardian).