http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2018/04/the-end-of-enrollment-caps-in-the-engineering-school
This is great. I believe this was discussed in another thread and Dean J made a comment that the caps did not exist and she was going to check it out. I think the OP had mentioned that it was on the UVA engineering website (or language indicating there were caps). Anyhow, great that the caps are removed for this class and future Hoos!
This should make UVA more desirable for engineering majors compared to VT, where the majors are capacity limited and pre-engineering students need at least a 3.0 GPA to be able to choose any engineering major.
However, if more students choose UVA because of that, they could overflow the departmental capacities and forced them to return to enrollment limits and selective admission to majors that are overflowing.
Hmm, this is pretty interesting. Out of purely selfish curiosity, will this affect any Fall 2018 transfer applicants to the Engineering School?
@ucbalumnus This may or may not have that great a difference in the UVa, Virginia Tech engineering decisions in terms of UVa becoming “more desirable.” General engineering students at VT usually can get their desired major and 3.0 is a reasonable threshold. It usually comes down more to fit, location, size, stats, money, acceptance into one or the other (and not even necessarily applying to both to begin with) ,engineering focus, etc. with these two.
And I forgot the legacy issue! 
That is great news. I wish they would do the same for some of the other majors–it is a major factor weighing on my son’s final choice of schools. The idea that you could work for two years towards a goal, only to be denied entry into the major even with school average GPA is very concerning.
We were at UVA for an event on Friday, and none of the parents sitting at my table realized some majors were capped (as opposed to entry into a specific program like Commerce or Batten which most seemed to know).
I agree, great news !
Is the BA in CS that is offered in CAS capped? Any majors in CAS that are capped or require an application?
@happyear the BA in CS through CAS requires an application
@happytea sorry tagged the wrong person!
Cog and Neuro Sci, Global Development, and the specialty politics majors (Policy & Law, Social Thought) are the majors I know of that are capped. The BA in CS has an application, but I haven’t heard anyone complaining about not getting into that department. So maybe 5-6 majors in the College have caps?
There are UVA students here that can chime in if there are others.
@“Dean J” Are the admit rates and average number of available slots published for the capped majors and programs. We looked, but could not find info.
I did find this article which was helpful, but very concerning. If the program doesn’t expand to meet demand direct admit to a similar program presents a very difficult choice for an applicant.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2017/04/selective-global-studies-politics-relselective-global-studies-politics-related-majors-release-admissions-data
@VAMom23 The data shows that most students, when given room to develop, change their academic interest multiple times. Locking someone into a major at 17 benefits the school/program (esp when number of students drives funding), not the student.
The Cav Daily article is a year old. We don’t know if there are plans to expand these programs.
I agree, @Dean J, that academic interests develop over time, especially when students are given exposure in intro courses to areas that they may not have otherwise even considered. I personally think that is the strength of a strong liberal arts education. Having the ability to pursue those interests as they develop/change is important.
A couple of those specialized liberal arts programs were always designed to be selective and to have a small enrollment. .