<p>I am a potential transfer student from Florida and will soon be submitting an application to UVA. After two years I will have about a 3.8 GPA from a community college honors program. I believe I am at least a bit competitive? My essays are interesting and well written, good GPA, work and volunteering experience, etc etc.</p>
<p>The point of this thread is that I was wondering about the first generation in college and ethnicity factor. On collegeboard.com it states that UVA weighs both of them in the "Very important admission factors" category.</p>
<p>Is this accurate? Why does UVA place such a large weight on these factors compared to other schools? Not many other profiles on collegeboard have those two placed on the very important list. </p>
<p>I am fully hispanic and neither of my parents have college degrees, so this may be beneficial to me in the application process but I am wondering how accurate it is and why it is important to UVA in particular.</p>
<p>Lastly, is the 850/2255 of transfer applicants accepted an accurate figure?</p>
<p>The College Board website is a bit old fashioned, in my opinion. The fact that they try to assign weighting in those groups is misleading. That format implies that factors in that first "group" is on equal footing. That's not the case.</p>
<p>Your academic record (course selection is a big part of this) is the most important part of your application. The other factors are considered, but the academics have to be strong first and foremost.</p>
<p>Do you know where collegeboard got that order of importance? Even though first gen and ethnicity aren't as important as collegeboard makes it out to be, does UVA weigh it heavier than other schools weigh it? I was just very curious about why UVA has them so high on that list while other schools usually have it toward the very bottom of the list.</p>
<p>Look, don't even take much of their info seriously. What you need to know is that UVA looks primarily at college GPA when you're transferring after two years of college. There are too few spots to be worried about ethnicity and first-gen status. If you're borderline with someone else, it might help a bit. But GPA, course load, essays, and high school records are much more determining factors. A low GPA, a weak courseload, or meager essays won't be offset by your ethnicity or first-gen status.</p>