Twelve years ago, I thought it would be funny to chronicle my transition to life at UVA and I started blogging with this simple post. There have been years when people said blogging was dying and everyone was going to move to some other platform. Some of those platforms are gone and some faded into obscurity. A few have stayed with us. Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat came along and changed how we communicate and digest information, but I think blogging remains an important component of the social space online.
Whether you've been checking in for a while or are new here, thanks for reading!
I'll have posts about admission statistics and Days on the Lawn (our admitted student open houses) in the coming days. Just for reference, below your letter are buttons to accept or decline your offer. If you accept, you will see a button to let you pay your tuition deposit online*. I believe orientation registration will open after April 1st, but you'll get more information about that in the future.
You have until May 1st to decide whether you'll be joining us in Charlottesville. If you decide to go elsewhere at some point in the coming weeks, I hope you'll decline the offer immediately via your self-service page.
Our relationship does not end here. We are here to talk if you need more information about UVA to make your decision. Don't hesitate to call or reach out to us online if we can help.
Congratulations! We are so lucky to have you considering UVA!
Image by Sanjay Suchak
*We have an e-check system for deposits. You'll type in the numbers on the bottom of a check. The system will take certain kinds of credit cards, but it's primarily an e-check system. Be sure to turn off your pop-up blocker when you go to pay the deposit!
If you've planned a visit to UVA, you know that we have visitor programming every day and allow students to visit class any day of the week. In addition to those daily options, we have several open houses for admitted students each spring.
Students admitted during Early Action will be getting an email shortly about Days on the Lawn, these admitted student open houses (on the UVA Grounds, we just say DOTL).
A photo posted by Dean J|UVa Office of Admission (@uvadeanj) on
DOTL is not required, but it's a chance to experience UVA in a deeper way than you may have if you visited us to attend an information session and take a tour. Admitted students can attend classes, tour residence halls, eat in the dining hall with a current student, and meet with staff members from different offices around the Grounds at a resource fair. There are also sessions about academics, student life, and resources for parents during DOTL (since parents don't go to class with the students).
Admitted students will get an email when registration opens. Keep in mind that a portion of the reservations for the April events will be set aside for RD students. For now, think about which DOTL dates might fit into your schedule if you want to make a return visit to UVA before May 1st. DOTL has always started bright and early at 9 AM, but we are going to offer one program that starts in the afternoon this year.
2016 Days on the Lawn
Monday, March 21 Monday, March 28 Monday, April 4 Friday, April 8 Monday, April 11 Friday, April 15 Monday, April 18 (AM and PM)
One of the things that I love about DOTL is seeing students who "met" each other via the UVA Class of 2020 Facebook page or other social media channels getting to spend time together in person. I feel like our classes show up more connected to each other than ever before because they get to know each other before they step foot on Grounds!
This year will be the first one in 8 years without CavDog at DOTL. He went from being scared of the large crowds as a pup to being so excited by all of the extra attention he got. So, UVA20, a cycle starts anew with you. Your DOTLs will be Jack's first ones and we hope you'll bear with us as he gets used to attending.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, or the Office of Admission page on Facebook, you already know that we had to say goodbye to CavDog, my beloved Baxter, just over a week ago. Posting the news on those sites was relatively easy, though heartbreaking. A photo and a short caption were all that was needed.
A photo posted by Dean J|UVa Office of Admission (@uvadeanj) on
The idea of sharing the news on my blog was a little more daunting. Writing a short caption is one thing and composing a post is another. It took me a while to be able to do this, even though we've known this was going to happen since the beginning of June, when Baxter was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma, a type of cancer.
I've been overwhelmed by the support I've gotten from the UVa community in the last week. The kind comments and notes have been wonderful. My original thought was to highlight some of the lovely comments people made about meeting CavDog, but I think I'll share some of Baxter's quirks instead.
1. To teach him not to bark whenever he wanted, we trained Baxter to bark for specific words. The word set evolved over the years from just "squirrel" and "kitty cat" to the names of our athletic rivals. The day we debuted his bark for that state school in the upper mid-west that beat our basketball team a couple times, we had students cheering.
2. Baxter loved everyone, but he especially loves Allegra, one of the women at our front desk, and Jane, a former admission counselor here. Allegra says Baxter must remember she was holding a doughnut the first time she met him, but I think he loves her because she's just a lovely person. Jane had an office near mine and Baxter used to sneak over to her when I wasn't watching. The day she left us, he seemed to know it was her last day.
3. Baxter would go completely bananas when he saw CavMan. If I wanted to get a picture of them together, I'd have to wait for Bax to run in a massive circle a few times so he'd be calm enough to sit for the camera. I know the people inside the costume changes, but Baxter seemed to know that they put good people in that position!
4. He could identify a "to go" box from the dining room in Newcomb Hall and a bag from Bodo's Bagels. He was not subtle about his interest in them if he saw them.
A photo posted by Dean J|UVa Office of Admission (@uvadeanj) on
6. Days on the Lawn were Baxter's favorite days. He loved to come to work with me, but when he realized it was a DOTL day and not a regular day in the office, he would get so excited. In his early days, he would do tricks during the welcome talk. It was a little random, but it was a way to start the day off with some laughs.
April 2008, Baxter's first Days on the Lawn Playing "dead" doesn't see funny today, but it was at the time.
7. He despised the sound of Facebook notifications. It got to the point that he would get up and leave the room over Facebook Messenger alerts. There's a certain irony that a dog who had been all over social media would find notifications of new activity annoying.
8. While he was extremely happy on the UVa Grounds, there were a few things at UVa that unsettled Baxter: the steam grate behind Monroe Hall, the black floors in the Peabody Hall stairwell, and the squirrels. The UVa squirrel was his greatest nemesis.
A photo posted by Dean J|UVa Office of Admission (@uvadeanj) on
9. His selfie game is strong thanks to a few of the Virginia Ambassadors. They taught him to take selfies during their office hours. We used treats at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly.
10. One of Baxter's sisters is a Hokie and I think they exhibit the perfect Hoo/Hokie relationship. They each wanted to "win" when they were playing, but when playtime was over, they were great friends, as siblings should be.
I hope you enjoyed to getting to know Baxter beyond his "CavDog" role. Back in 2008, I thought including him on the blog was risky and that I'd have complaints about a dog being on the blog. That worry seems so silly now. These days, if I post a few entries without a CavDog photo, someone usually points it out. Last week, I told a student that Baxter was gone and they said something like "is it really Days on the Lawn if you don't get your picture with CavDog?" It'll have to be, but it'll be a little bit different.
I was a little startled today when an independent counselor complained that they couldn't find admission statistics broken down by residency, so I thought I would point out a three resources for those who are looking for UVa admission data.
First of all, I always post unofficial admission stats just after our decisions are released. You can click on the "statistics" tab at the bottom of this entry to see those posts. I'm pointing this out because some readers ask questions about data in the comments and the discussions might be interesting to you.
Third, there are some government websites that aggregate statistics from many universities. On the IPEDS website, you can look up specific schools and even compare multiple schools that you may be considering. If you are looking at Virginia schools the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) collates statistics from all Virginia schools on their site.
If you decide to dig into the charts, just remember that in a holistic admission process, decisions aren't made using numbers alone. We'll be reading your entire file before rendering an admission decision. There are obviously pieces of data in your file, but all of the components of your file tell your story.
