<p>Thank you for your reply. One more question, please: how are the applications sorted, e.g., alphabetically, by region, by date submitted? In other words, the closer you are geographically to Richmond, the later you'll be reviewed because those farther away need more time to plan their travel? Thanks.</p>
<p>clewless--all applicants are notified at the same time if I am properly reading your question. We mail all decision letters within a day of each other, usually getting them all out on the same day. Richmond Scholar finalists are an exception to this rule as they hear earlier, but that is only about 100 students. International students who are being offered admission are notified by e-mail within a short window of time as close as possible to the day we mail the domestic decisions.</p>
<p>Actually, I was following up your previous post (#18) about when Richmond Scholar semi-finalists are notified. You said they do not go out at one time, so I was wondering how these semi-finalists are ordered or sorted: geographically, alphabetically, or just randomly. It would make sense to send out international applicants first because they need time to make travel arrangements, while someone in VA doesn't face the same challenges. Sorry I was unclear. Thanks.</p>
<p>Sorry. I didn't remember your previous post. The timing for Richmond Scholar semi-finalists would have several factors. First would be how soon your application was COMPLETE. A lot of people submitted on time but then have had credentials following behind. The sooner you were complete, the better the odds would be that you were read earlier. But beyond that, it would be rather random. Every member of the staff has a particular geographic area where they take the lead, and how fast your file would get read on their timetable. For whatever reason, certain geographic areas tend to apply on the earlier side and others on the later side. PA and NJ tend to come in early. VA comes in last (and it is the largest state, so it is hard to get it read quickly). Also, whatever other projects your officer has on his/her desk could influence it. I wish that 100% of our time was dedicated to reading folders right now, but few of us are able to do that given other responsibilities. And while in a perfect world we'd get internationals done first, it isn't realistic because a lot of their credentials tend to straggle and they are challenging to get filed quickly. Plus, many international students tend to include a lot of extra documentation, (some helpful, some less so) but they take longer to read as a result. </p>
<p>Bottom line is that it probably ends up feeling pretty random to the outside world, but there is a method to the madness. And as I've said before, we've never had an international student who was unsuccessful at making the trip (and we've brought people from Nepal, Bangladesh, China, among many other countries--places that it's just not that easy to get to the US from) even when the turn-around was short. So I'm sorry if you are stressed. We're truly working 12-13 hour days at this stage to try to give everyone a fair chance. I just wrapped up folder reading tonight about 30 minutes ago.</p>
<p>Hehe poor URA.. i applaud you for that!</p>
<p>Is Uni of Richmond in the Top 100 nationally? (undergraduate)</p>
<p>^ I believe it is 33 or so in US News and World Report for National LACs</p>
<p>Clewless, semi-finalists do not travel to UR for interviews. Finalists do. So you wouldn't make your travel arrangements until you were selected as a finalist, not a semi-finalist.</p>
<p>Answers to Annoying Questions from Otis:</p>
<hr>
<p>Dear Honorable "UR Admissions",</p>
<p>Any public stats you can release regarding the annoying questions I posed in post #1 in this thread?</p>
<p>Q: How is ED2 shaping up? (numbers & quality)
A: We're up in ED2 but haven't done anything to assess quality yet. </p>
<p>Q:How is Regular Admissions shaping up? (numbers & quality)
A: It will be close because we're looking at lots of different indicators right now, but we might very well equal last year's numbers in the pool and might exceed them by a little bit. This is great news for us. Too soon to say on quality. Lots of apps are entered but their stats/credentials are still incomplete. </p>
<p>Q: Has the recession/ depression had any impact on college admission in general and on UR's applications in particular?
A: I think that the economy has infused even more uncertainty into the system as a whole because families just don't know how it is all going to shake out this spring so that could be driving apps up. Certainly we hear anecdotally that public institutions are way up in apps so I'm sure that is scaring a lot of people who used to feel pretty sure they could be admitted to their in-state publics and they are looking for back-ups. I hate to say that a bad economy is good for UR, because it is so bad for everyone. But we're fortunate not to be cutting budgets (we're watching our pennies and trying to be particularly frugal, but there aren't hiring freezes, cut backs in programs etc) so the quality of our product is not at risk so far as we can tell right now. We have four major construction projects going on and since the cost of construction has dropped, it is actually working out to our benefit to be building in a down economy. Our board is meeting this week and we expect the smallest tuition increase in memory (good for them!) and nothing but affirmation of our commitments to need and merit based aid programs. </p>
<p>Thanks. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks, Otis. It is an incredibly busy time and we're trying to keep up with everything that is coming our direction. I hope this gets at what you wanted to know. UR Admissions</p>
<p>otis.</p>
<p>I still haven't received log-in information for the banner web, and I applied over a month ago, does it normally take this long?
I'm international if that matters.</p>
<p>Hello all--</p>
<p>If you have not received your log-in information, please contact the office by phone during business hours to let us know. We'll try to resolve the problem ASAP. It is not, however, something we can do in this "confidential" environment. </p>
<p>Sorry for those who are frustrated.</p>
<p>I understand, I just wondered if that happened to anyone else. Thank you for your answer.</p>