<p>Does anyone out there know why UVA waits until January 31st to return early action decisions? I may be wrong, but I thought early action was meant to prevent students from having to apply to several universities. Most all universities have a deadline of January 15th or earlier for their regular decision. So, in the case of UVA, early action applicants still must send in apps to other schools. Does UVA wait until they receive all of the regular decision applications and perform some type of quick analysis to help them determine how to respond to the early decision applications? There has to be some reason along those lines as to why they wait as they could easily return the early action decision earlier if they wanted to. Just curious because it's a pain for students! And expensive.</p>
<p>We aren’t waiting. We’re working.</p>
<p>We have a small staff compared to our peers. Reviewing 15,000 files in six weeks would require a larger staff or a dramatically different (read: less thorough) review. </p>
<p>I don’t think a less thorough review is in the applicants’ best interests. It would probably mean a lot more deferring, which I think most agree wouldn’t be ideal!</p>
<p>They receive much more applications than most small schools that have EA, so it takes longer to review. Plus they have the whole in state OOS thing that probably makes it more complicated. I’m not sure but that’s just my thinking.</p>
<p>Early Action notifications are different at each school but given the fact that they get so many EA applications I think an indepth review of each application is needed for them to make a proper decision. I would rather wait to hear the decision then to be declined or deferred based on a quick review. For me EA action simply means I will have an answer in January vs having to wait till April. In other schools the EA pool maybe much smaller so a decision can be provided more quickly. At the same time it is smart to apply to other schools and keep options open in case things don’t work out. I agree completely multiple applications is time consuming and expensive but sometimes good things happen for those who wait. I think the decision making process gets more complicated when you have more out of state applicants and have to keep in mind the instate vs out of state ratios that need to be maintained. The decision making process is I am sure more complicated then we think it to be.</p>
<p>Thanks, Dean J. I wasn’t suggesting a trade off between thoroughness of review and getting decisions back earlier. I would hope that universities that get EA decisions back before January 15th are doing as thorough of a review as UVA or any other school. My point is if UVA wanted to get the decisions back earlier they could. Not by doing a less thorough review, but by hiring the appropriate amount of readers to deal with the number of applications received. I know many of the readers are seasonal employees who only work 4-6 months reading applications. If there isn’t budget for more, then that would be the reason you can’t return decisions earlier.</p>
<p>Looks like tonight’s the night!</p>
<p>What time specifically? I want to know if I should wait until my mom gets home from work, so I won’t accidentally view the decision when I thought it wouldn’t be there</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone knows that derfundoopleyhj, even Dean J perhaps! I think when they are ready they will post. Good luck!</p>
<p>Dean J responded to this question on her blog. This is controlled by IT so she can’t promise an exact time.</p>
<p>For the most up to date information, and to see any questions Dean J has responded to, check her blog <a href=“http://www.uvaapplication.blogspot.com%5B/url%5D”>www.uvaapplication.blogspot.com</a></p>