UVA Early Action - Decisions Only - Class of 2023

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Virginia
61

My DD:

EARLY ACTION DECISION: ACCEPTED!
Planned Major/ College: Double major in Biochem & French, Arts and Sciences

Residency: OOS (GA)
SAT/ACT: 1540 SAT, 36 (36, 36, 36, 36) ACT, both in 1 sitting
SAT Subject Tests: Chemistry (800), Math II (800), US History (800)
AP: 16 APs - AP Bio (5), AP Human (5), AP World (5), AP Lang (5), AP Chem (5), APUSH (5), AP Gov (5), AP Calc B/C (5), AP Lit, AP Micro, AP Macro, AP Physics 1, AP Stat, AP French, AP Comp Gov
GPA- 3.98 unweighted, 4.68 weighted
Rank: N/A, but received GA Certificate of Merit (Top 5%)
Ethnicity: Mixed race (White/Asian)
Gender: Female
Extras/ Volunteer Work/ Talents/ Jobs- Captain of HS Quiz Bowl team, Captain of Swim and Dive Team, 4-year letterman, club swimming, 200+ service hours, teaching French to elementary schoolers, Student Leadership (2 year program), Secretary of State Student Ambassadors (won statewide competition), lots of honor societies, National Merit Semifinalist, National AP Scholar, 1st Place at Nationals in Journalism (FBLA), interned with congressional campaign, interned at small investment company, coaching/ participating in summer swim, paid and peer tutoring

Demonstration of Good Character- Very involved in political activism, good amount of peer tutoring

Any hooks? Girl in STEM, maybe

Thoughts on why you received that decision: My daughter put a lot of effort into writing her essays.

Congrats to everyone else who got accepted! And good luck to everyone who got deferred! :slight_smile:

62

EARLY ACTION DECISION: Accepted
Planned Major/College: Engineering and Applied Sciences (EE)

State Residency: South Carolina
SAT/ACT: 1450
GPA: 4.0 UW, 5.166 W
Rigor: Full IB Courseload and Dual Examination (IB Bio HL/AP Bio, IB English HL/AP Lang/AP Lit, IB History of the Americas HL/APUSH, AP Spanish B SL, IB Math SL/AP Calculus AB, IB Film)

Rank: 5/371
Ethnicity: Black
Gender: M

Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: Decent amount of extras bc of CAS, cross country senior year, several honor societies, leadership positions in a few clubs

Demonstration of Good Character: My essays maybe?

Any hooks? Minority, very low income family, single mother

63

accepted Instate school of engr. 1510 SAT; 4.0 UW GPA. many APs and dual enrollments.

64

Accepted OOS (Kansas) - College of Arts and Science
GPA: 4.5
ACT: 32
9 AP
Lots of EC’s and Volunteer Work
White/African American Female
Other Schools:
Accepted: Indiana University - Kelley SoB (Full Ride + Stipend + Honors College), Villanova Univ (Honors College), UNC (chapel hill) and University of Southern California
Deferred: Georgetown
Waiting on NYU

65

Rejected OOS (NJ) - Engineering

GPA: 3.95/4.0 UW, we don’t weight. I go to a magnet public high school that has majors. I’m in Computer Science major there, applied for engineering for UVA. Took essentially the hardest classes offered

SAT: 1540, 800 math 740 English
SAT Math 2: 800
SAT Physics: 800
APs: Calc AB and BC, Physics II, Physics C, APCSP, all 5s

Senior classes:
-SUPA WRT
-SUPA MAT 397 (Calculus III)
-Waves and Modern Physics (Physics 3)

  • US History II
    -Personal Finance
  • Intro to Computing
  • AP Biology
  • Cloud Computing

Extracurriculars:

  • Computer Science and Math teacher at a sunday chinese school
  • Head ambassador and organizer of a local hackathon
  • Attended New Jersey Governor’s School of the Sciences, did 3 weeks of research on photovoltaics
  • President of physics club
  • director of outreach of chem club
  • intern at an engineering firm (software systems engineer intern)
  • Varsity Track and Field (100,200, pole vault) all 4 years
  • Made websites for physics and chem club, also solve problems on that, as well as my personal website
  • Columbia SHP
  • Played Football my sophomore and junior year

Awards:

  • One of the ap scholar thingies
  • high honor roll

Essays:

  • Common app was pretty ok, but it sounded pretentious according to many of my friends who helped me with it. I revised it for my regular schools. Definitely a unique topic.
  • UVA essays were pretty decent I thought, I thought I portrayed my interests very well.

LORS:

Counselor: 8/10

Physics Teacher: 9/10,
Math teacher: 8/10, they both know I work hard in their classes, and they like my personality. They really want me to succeed. They’ll probably talk about how I don’t just want myself to have good grades, I try to help others (with my website and staying afterschool to help others)

Really confused as to why I got rejected. I thought I would really get into UVA. I put a lot of attention to my UVA essays, spent time on them. I wanna say I was yield protected because it’ll make me feel better, but at the end of the day, nobody knows why except the admissions panel. I wasn’t even deferred, just straight up rejected, my first one. Maybe it’s also because nobody from my school really goes to UVA, even the ones who are accepted. But my stats on naviance were aligned with the people from previous years that got in. Anyways, I got into Georgia Tech. I’m still really annoyed at UVA, but I guess this just means I’m meant for better schools. Let’s hope I get some good news come March. If anyone wants to postulate a hypothesis on my rejection, feel free.

66

EARLY ACTION DECISION: DEFERRED
Planned Major/College: college of arts & science and then college of commerce

State Residency: International
SAT/ACT: 1460 superscore (R670 M790)
Toefl: 110/120
GPA: weighted 4.81 on a 4-point scale
Rigor: took 4 out of the 5 offered AP courses at school, 5 in Gov, 5 in Stats, 4 in Lit, currently learning Calc AB
Rank: non-ranked although I know I ranked 3rd and potentially 2nd by the end out of 42
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: female
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: volunteered at an annual winter clothes give-away event for four years, started a Chinese newsletter at school, served at Internationals Student Club for four years, worked at one of my study-abroad organization’s student-led committees to guide the prospective study-abroad students and their parents in China
Demonstration of Good Character: elected to be a part of student council for two years
Any hooks? IDK

Thoughts on why you received that decision: the competition for international students is just insanely hard?? my SAT is comparatively low, as well (sad face

67

EARLY ACTION DECISION: ACCEPTED
Planned Major/College: Biochemistry/ College of Arts and Sciences

State Residency: VA
SAT/ACT: 1380 SAT (690 m, 690 r/w)
GPA: 3.9 (UW), 4.3 (W)
Rigor: Took many dual enrollment classes and took all AP classes offered.
Rank: 11/270
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: Played JV soccer, varsity tennis, swim, volunteered as an EMT, went to teach English to children in India, NHS
Demonstration of Good Character: Volunteer work
Any hooks? None

Thoughts on why you received that decision: SAT score was low but my grades were good and I am in-state.

68

EARLY ACTION DECISION: Deferred
Planned Major/College: Arts & sciences but w/ an interest in school of commerce
SAT/ACT: 1490
GPA: 4.0079 UW/ 4.16 W
Rigor: AP Stat (havent taken test yet), AP Envi Sci (havent taken test yet), AP Literature (havent taken test yet), AP Psychology (havent taken test yet), AP Econ (4),AP Lang(4), AP US history (4) (cant take APs until junior year at my school). Honors spanish 2, 3, and 4. advanced Calc, chem and physics, took summer school to get ahead in math sophomore year
Rank: School doesnt rank
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: varsity field hockey (captain), varsity ice hockey, indoor track, outdoor track, Women in business club (co-founder, co-president), community service club (co-founder, co-president), model congress (secretary), started youth evening service at my church, volunteer field hockey coach, year round tournament field hockey team, National honors society, bronze award on national spanish exam, AP Scholar, work at my swim club, day camp counselor, completed a week-long business leadership program , four service trips through my church
Demonstration of Good Character: Lots of community service, created a mural at a school for underprivileged children
Any hooks? My extracurriculars

Thoughts on why you received that decision: prob my test scores which r lower than OOS averages and my lack of honors math and science classes until senior year

69

EARLY ACTION DECISION: ACCEPTED
Planned Major/College: Biology, College of Arts & Sciences

State Residency: VA
SAT/ACT: 1440 SAT (770 math, 670 reading), 34 ACT (35 E, 35 M, 30 R, 36 S)
GPA: 4.4 W, 3.96 UW
Rigor: Dual enrollment courses at a local university, 8 APs
Rank: 5/472
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Male
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: 150+ hours volunteering at local hospital, SCA Class Rep, Spanish Honor Society Treasurer, International Heritage Society Vice President, Math Honor Society tutoring, School Theatre, International Thespian Society Publicity Officer, Piano for 11 years, summer work
Demonstration of Good Character: Volunteering I guess
Any hooks? URM, in-state

Thoughts on why you received that decision: In-state with decent scores and GPA

70

This discussion was created from comments split from: UVA Early Action Thread: Class of 2023.

71

EARLY ACTION DECISION: Deferred
Planned Major/College: Economics (McIntire goal)

State Residency: OOS
SAT/ACT: 34
GPA: 4.0/4.74
Rigor: good
Rank: 17/375
Ethnicity: W
Gender: M
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: Varsity XC, working sales/fast food
Demonstration of Good Character: Member of youth police organization
Any hooks? No

Thoughts on why you received that decision: No. Made it to the second round of regional interviews for Jefferson Scholarship so obviously that committee saw something they liked. He didn’t take any SAT subject tests? Does that hurt?

72

EARLY ACTION DECISION: ACCEPTED
Planned Major/College: College of Arts and Sciences in Commerce/Business

State Residency: ILLINOIS BABY GO CUBS FLY THE W!!!

SAT I: 1520 (790M, 730R) → didn’t send
ACT: 35 (35G, 35R, 35S, 33M)
SAT II: 770 physics, 800 math II
Unweighted/Weighted GPA: Unweighted - 3.94 / Weighted - 4.43
AP/IB: AP Chinese - 5, APUSH - 5 (I had other fours but I didn’t send those in)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus BC, AP Physics I and II, AP Literature, AP Psychology, AP Computer Science, Weightlifting lmao

  • In all took about 12 AP classes in total

Ethnicity → Asian
Gender → Female

Extra/Volunteer/Talents/Jobs: It’s a lot here we go

Major Awards:

  • Ranked 47th in the US for girls 16 and younger (when I was 16)
  • 12th place at the All-Girl Nationals 2017 for 16U
  • Champion of Chicago K-9 Varsity section 2015
  • 3rd place at the Susan Polgar World Open 2014

Common Awards:

  • National Honors Society (Grades 11-12)
  • AP Scholar with Distinction
  • High School Honor Roll (Grades 9-12)
  • Best Witness Award at the 2018 Illinois State Bar Association High School State Tournament
  • 3rd place in the Illinois Poetry and Prose Competition (IATE)
  • Nominated as an Illinois Chess Association Rising Star Player

ExtraCurriculars: fair warning I really took to heart the “try everything” suggestion my freshman year

  • Mock Trial Varsity Team (Grades 10-12) → one of the team captains
  • Scholastic Bowl Varsity Team (Grades 9-12) → one of the team captains
  • Future Business Leaders of America (Grade 9)
  • Debate Club (Grade 9)
  • Cosmetics Club (Grade 9)
  • Interact Club (Volunteering Club) (Grade 9)
  • Congressman Robert Dold Young Women’s Leadership Academy (Grade 10)
  • Academic Decathlon (Grade 12)
  • Softball
  • Travel: since I was like 7 years old. Went to nationals a few times, won state, won pretty much every single regional
    tournament, awarded MVP a lot.
  • High School: Won regionals last year, JV and Varsity my whole high school career, All academic awards all my years
  • Got selected as one of the women who went to the WashU women of future in business weekend.
  • Ran a small cosmetics company of my own at my school. Did students makeup and hair for school dances or any other formal events they had in their lives. Spread to surrounding high schools. Recruited some of my other makeup-savvy friends to help me out with the large number of requests we were getting.

Job/Work Experience: I work as a waitress at a senior living home for elders with Parkinson’s, dementia, and other illnesses. Few hours a week nothing crazy

Volunteer/Community Service:

  • Lake County Haven: A women’s shelter for women and children who are escaping child abuse
  • Feed My Starving Children (ALOT)
  • North Chicago Community Partners (summer school for low-income immigrant children)

Hooks (URM, first generation, recruited athletes, development): Nah

Thoughts on why you received that decision: solid candidate all around I feel, idk

73

EARLY ACTION DECISION: Accepted
Planned Major/College: Electrical Engineering (College of engineering)

State Residency: VA
SAT/ACT: 1500, 710 EW, 790 M, 780 SAT Math Level 2
GPA: 4.3 (W) after junior year
Rigor: APUSH sophmore year, full AP schedule junior year (Stats, calc AB, phys 1, english, Comp Sci, Human geo), A few APs senior year (Phys c, calc bc, psych, econ)
Rank: n/a
Ethnicity: White & Asian
Gender: Male
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: Starbucks Barista, NHS president senior year, NHS vice president junior year, Varsity Track & cross country captain sophmore year, MVP/MIP awards
Demonstration of Good Character: Eagle Scout, good recs from teachers that I got along well with
Any hooks? nah

Thoughts on why you received that decision: common app essay showed my passion for electrical engineering, my supplemental essays were pretty bad tho ngl

74

EARLY ACTION DECISION: Accepted
Planned Major/College: School of Nursing

State Residency: VA
SAT/ACT: 1280 SAT
GPA: 4.42
Rigor: IB Diploma Candidate, All IB Classes (Math SL, English HL, TOK, Spanish SL, Biology HL, Topics HL, Anthropology SL) - Straight A student since freshman year
Rank:School does not rank
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: GIVE tutoring, hospital volunteer, editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, founder of a club, secretary of school bible study, treasurer of social studies honor society, part-time job, varsity sports (cheerleading & softball) & member of various clubs (key club, just world, mission possible, red cross) and honor societies (math, national, social studies, english, quill & scroll, spanish)
Demonstration of Good Character: A lot of volunteer work
Any hooks? Unsure.

75

EARLY ACTION DECISION: Accepted
Planned Major/College: Computer Science/College of Arts and Science

State Residency: In state
SAT/ACT: 1370
GPA: 4.325
Rigor: 9 AP classes, 2 DE classes
Rank: 1/154
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs:
Key Club, History Club, BETA Club, FBLA, Teens for Christ, Upward Bound, work full-time (40-45 hrs/week)

Any hooks? First generation

Thoughts on why you received that decision: My test scores were a bit below average, but I’ve done the best as I can as far as rigor and grades at my school. My essays were full of passion and very personal–mentioning my broken home problems (not for pity, to show motivation). Another big factor is that I’m able to maintain my perfect grades while working so much to pay for stuff like club dues, exam fees, etc. I’m still shocked to have gotten in though and super excited for the year to start!

76

EARLY ACTION DECISION: (D) ACCEPTED
Planned Major/College: Pre-med (biological sciences)

State Residency: OOS
SAT: 1490
GPA: 4.0 unweighted
Rigor: 10 AP classes (AP exams: All 5’s and one 4)
Rank:18/474 Competitive high school
Ethnicity: Asian/White
Gender: female
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: Belongs to several community service oriented clubs at school. Last year was accepted into highly selective medical internship through a regional medical center over the summer. Level 9 USAG club Gymnast, competing all over the country, training 30+ hours a week (year around) in her 9th year of competing.

Any hooks? Don’t know…perhaps my D’s time and dedication to gymnastics while maintaining high academic rigor/performance. She also has a multicultural background, bi-racial, dual citizenship, having lived both here and abroad in Asia.

Thoughts on why you received that decision: Her acceptance was a surprise to be honest. Her stats are above average, but after seeing the stats of other OOS applicants from last year, we really didn’t think she had a chance. She did have some very strong essays, which I’m guessing went along way in helping her admission. I truly believe that when UVA uses the term “holistic” they (unlike many other highly selective colleges) mean it. Congrats to everyone and good luck!

77

EARLY ACTION DECISION: ACCEPTED!!
Planned Major/College: Public Policy & Leadership / College of Arts and Sciences

State Residency: OOS / NJ
SAT/ACT: 1530 (math 790; writing 740)
GPA: 97.29 / 100 (UW), 102 / 100 (W)
Rigor: 4 AP Classes ( English Lit, Spanish, US Gov, Calc BC), 2 Honors Classes, 1 Religion Class (required)
Rank: N / A, school doesn’t rank
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Extras/Volunteer work/Talents/Jobs: model congress (pres), south jersey region choir (3x), elite a cappella group, select choir, school musical, fencing (varsity), crew (varsity), shift manager of farm market, tri-m music honor society (pres), national spanish honor society, nhs
Demonstration of Good Character: founded a free music camp for kids at my local library, and was a founding member of a service-based a cappella quartet that traveled around south NJ singing at nursing homes.
Any hooks? None that come to mind

Thoughts on why you received that decision: My supplemental essays came out really good, and they offered an authentic picture of who I am. My recommendations were probably really strong, too, because I have a great relationship with both teachers.