<p>I too rejected UVA for financial reasons - and I am instate. I got financial aid from the school, but I still needed to take out $7,000 in loans. </p>
<p>I was stuck between UVA, Virginia Tech, and Michigan for engineering. Financial aid at Michigan was a joke, and Virginia Tech only required me to take out a $3,500 loan. </p>
<p>So I decided to enroll at Virginia Tech in the fall. I know I want to do grad school afterwards and I want to keep my loans as low as possible while still getting a great education. I also did some research on the career fairs at both UVA and VT, and VT had more companies that I was interested in. That sealed the deal for me. </p>
<p>To be honest, I can’t believe how I was given a $7,000 loan as an instate student. That seems a bit high to be honest. My family is upper middle class, but we aren’t rich. </p>
<p>It took me awhile to get over UVA. I really wanted to go after the went to the open house. But money was it for me. I have recently become quite fond of Virginia Tech though, so all is not lost. Good luck to everyone.</p>
<p><em>someone who didnt reject uva for financial reasons</em></p>
<p>actually, in state tuition was the hardest thing for me to turn down. that and mcintire, of course.</p>
<p>in the end I “rejected” uva because of their not-amazing econ program (i was kind of turned off by learning that many econ majors simply didnt get into comm school), heavy drinking culture (low factor), and social preppy atmosphere (another low factor); but the main reason is that i got off the wait list at chicago. i may have gone with uva if I received an offer to be an echol’s scholar but that didnt happen</p>
<p>^ UVa isn’t really known for yield protection. I’m not going to say it never happens, but it isn’t the norm to reject, or waitlist, a student who is ‘overqualified’ or it is deemed they may attend somewhere else.</p>
<p>Dean J, while I believe you, and have no reason not to believe, would you really tell us if you do practice yield protection? Probably not.</p>
<p>I chose school school X over UVA because I felt like the academics were better there. Also, while UVA had great appeal to me, I didn’t feel like I would love it there. I prefer big cities.</p>
<p>I believe Dean J when she says that UVa does not engage in yield protection. Yield protection does not even make sense for UVa, especially from an instate perspective. For financial reasons, a student with the best profile possible might pick UVa over any school in the country. The same situation does not hold true for a private school, especially one that is unlikely to offer merit based aid. </p>
<p>For the sake of argument, if UVa did practice yield protection, I don’t think that Dean J, or anyone involved in the admissions process would admit it - doing so would defeat the goal of the strategy. This is similar to how they offer “there are no quotas”, when asked about applicants from a specific region or school. Dean J and Co. are very good at their jobs. I do not think they would ever tell a lie, but they may decline to answer a question or offer a distraction if it is in UVa’s interest.</p>
<p>Yield protection is the LIE that some 4.0, 2400 SAT students have to tell themselves over and over to come to terms that they’ve been wait-listed or rejected from UVA. If a student has perfect numbers, but no personality–what difference will he make in college and in his career? These type of students make for the most uninteresting classmates in seminars–there are plenty of them at UVA though.</p>
<p>What I meant to say was “these type of students make the most uninteresting classmates in seminars”, and why do I think that? Because either 1) they regurgitate what the readings say without offering any type of analysis 2) they never show any vulnerability in class 3) they often don’t share any personal anecdotes or link the discussion to anything they have ever experienced. Perfectionists are there to get an A and that is it. In my opinion, they are very bland and devoid of personality.</p>
<p>Some universities DO “enrollment management/yield protection.” Although yield is not considered in US News ratings, it does have a big effect on acceptance rates. </p>
<p>UVa has a high percentage of accepted students who decide to attend. Many of the universities that do yield protection have a low yield percentage to start with.</p>
<p>If I was an admission officer who worked for a school that practiced yield protection, I wouldn’t even address it when it came up on College Confidential. </p>
<p>I’ve never been interested in working for a school that practices yield protection. I don’t see it happening in the future. Just as you all will learn about the types of companies or organizations you want to work for, you will learn about the ones you don’t want to work for once you have some experience in your industry. :)</p>
<p>FWIW, a school that operations with enrollment management in mind is not necessarily practicing yield protection.</p>
<p>Dean: I simply meant that some people at other colleges who view admissions as an “industry” use the term “enrollment management” to cover all sorts of manipulation. </p>
<p>The following is a good article from the Atlantic Monthly from a few years ago, about the high priced consultants who run admissions at some private universities. They manipulate the system to maximize the number of full pay students and maximize the US News rankings.</p>