My son was waitlisted. So disappointing as he also got the same news from Amherst and John Hopkins this week. It’s absolutely insane to get into these schools now with the heavy influx of international students and the common app, which I would argue has added to the frenzy. In my day most people applied to 3-5 schools. Not 15-20!
OOS
SAT 1510
GPA 100.12 weighted
APs: 8 APs
Heavy ECs: Track and Cross Country all-county, Lead in School Musical, volunteer work, NHS President, multiple clubs, jazz band, a capella, songwriting
ACCEPTED after being deferred EA
Nursing
In state; female
4.49 weighted; top 5%
SAT 1430
9 AP’s mostly 4/5; one DE
SAT BIO 780
Jobs: Tutor math, swim coach
ECS: NHS, Latin club, Medical club
Community: +5 yrs volunteering at church
@HaroldBenny1 I don’t think that you are going to get much sympathy here. So many people rejected and waitlisted and then you make that post? Pretty insensitive.
Understand that you are disappointed, but why apply to schools that you cannot afford? What made you think that they were going to throw a bunch of money at you?
I had my DS check his portal this morning and he has no financial aid listed at all. Hoping this is a good sign and that they are still working on a good FA package for him.
@“Dean J” my son was accepted to a higher ranked school, EA. He was deferred then rejected. students accepted at our school will not enroll, (same stats). is there any rhyme or reason? why no wait list?
This is long, as I’m writing this as I skim the last few pages…
There’s some talk about ED/EA/RD differences. I’ve always been really clear that the EA pool has historically been the stronger pool for us ([since it was introduced in 2011](Notes from Peabody: The UVA Application Process: Let's talk about Early Action)). Our review does remain the same throughout the season, so hopefully you can see that the data is backing up the EA group continues to be quite strong.
Legacy is a factor and we have always been frank about that. It’s hard to quantify the legacy advantage, but it’s there.
@shortbrowngirl It’s hard to know what the offer rate for the waiting list will be. I included over a decade of data on the waiting list FAQ page to show that this is something hard to predict. Even schools with fairly consistent waiting list activity in the past may see a very different process this year. On top of how we are all being impacted by COVID-19, [the DOJ took issue with the ethical code of admission officers](Justice Department sues and settles with college admissions group) and we had to remove the provision that said colleges are not to recruit students after they commit to a school. So, we might see schools continue courting students even after they’ve paid their enrollment deposits at their chosen schools. Which means some schools may hold onto their waiting lists for long and be making decisions further into the summer. We shall see.
@coco3611 I was told SFS was going to start posting packages on Monday. My recollection is that they post in batches, so I imagine they’ll continue to show up as their staff works through the financial aid forms.
I know the feeling. Money clearly isn’t a factor in deciding a school to attend for the people responding that this was insensitive. Good luck and hopefully one of your top schools gives you enough aid to make attending possible!
@redretriever Interesting that you know my financial situation.
The point is that students need to have realistic expectations (based on research, history and facts) regarding the financial aid practices of each university to which they apply. That information is readily available. Then the student should determine whether that expected financial picture will work in their situation and make decisions and get emotionally invested based on that determination.
Attending any university that one desires is not a right. Nobody in entitled to go to any particular university at a price that they choose. I know this is countercultural today, but it is reality.
D was accepted RD. She didn’t apply to any of her schools as ED or EA. Got accepted to the four she applied to. Does anyone know if the Echols Scholar info was released at the same time? I understand from the site that all applicants are automatically considered for that. Just wondering when that info might come out or, if it wasn’t part of her notification, it means she wasn’t offered it. Thanks.
I don’t think the info here constitutes “reality.” It’s just a subset of people who applied. My D applied RD to 4 schools including UVA. Not a legacy. She got accepted to all 4. Admissions isn’t just stats although her stats were fine. Ninth out of about 550 students. I don’t recall her SAT or GPA but both were/are high. She took 3-4 AP classes each year for 4 years. A wide variety of ECs. She was accepted to Emerson’s Honors Program (50 people), Arizona State’s honor’s college (Barrett), and is a finalist for Elon’s Honors Fellows program (45 students) and Communications Fellows program (about 22 students). She’s still waiting to hear on that. I expect admissions people are looking at a number of factors and the stats are just a portion of the overall applicant.
I’m not expecting much movement from the waiting list again this year. UVA looks to have 2/3 of inbound students be in-state. For a projected class size of 3750, that means about 2,475 VA students. Now considering that they already admitted 466 VA students as part of ED, that leaves about 2009 slots. With a typical in-state yield rate of 60%, they would need to make 3,348 offers to get 2009 acceptances. It looks like they made 3506 in-state offers in EA and RD combined. So they would have to have a lower yield rate than they’ve had in a few years to need to pull much from the waitlist. That being said, there could be particular schools where they run low and pull a couple. The same math applies to the OOS pool.
I used the link for the blog posted on this chat which took me to the Admissions page. There it says students are notified of Echols status with acceptance. Since she didn’t receive that notification I’m going to assume that’s a no. I’m not sure it’s worth going to UVA without being an Echols scholar, especially since she got into some very competitive honors programs, but ultimately it’s her decision.
Not sure Echols is that beneficial - it removes major requirements, provides different housing options and allows you to enroll earlier for classes. But you aren’t in a special honors program it just gives you more leeway within the university academically.