You Need 9 APs and Other Ridiculous #UVA Admission Rumors

Admission rumors make me laugh sometimes, but not today. Today, I heard that multiple students at a particular high school told their counselors that UVA would put them in a "special category" if they were able to get 9 AP courses on their transcripts.

Let's just nip this in the bud. This is completely false. Every application is reviewed the same way. There is a preliminary review by the Office of Virginia Status that verifies the applicant's residency. Once that is completed, the process is the same for all applicants. Each admission officer reads their applications front-to-back. There is no "first round" that just looks at academics or test scores. There is no "special category" for students with a certain number of AP courses on their transcript. Remember that program options are different from school to school, so having a universal "bar" for applicants wouldn't make sense.

There's another rumor out there that claims we will deny students who have "too many" APs because awarding advanced credit "robs" UVA of tuition dollars. This one is truly baffling. The College addresses their very generous AP/IB/DE credit policy on their website. Students can bring up to 60 credits with them to UVA. The President's office also gives a special stole that those who are completing degrees in 2 or 3 years and President Sullivan makes special mention of those students at Final Exercises. If your school offers advanced options and you feel ready to weave them into your program, go for it!

I suspect that these rumors get cooked up when people try to explain an admission decision that they didn't expect. Keep in mind that while course rigor is very important to us, the other components of the application must be strong and compelling as well.

As always, I'm happy to answer your questions in the comments!

Don't worry! We're here to dispel those rumors!

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Academic Specialization in High School

Life is pretty cyclical in academia. Sophomores and juniors seem to be getting ready to register for next year's courses and we're getting lots of calls about course options. I sat down this morning to write a post about the curriculum choice that I think is a mistake and realized that I wrote about the same thing around this time in the past. If you don't want to click over, I'm talking about high school students tailoring their program to a certain major in order to "look good" on their college application.

Some people out there seem to think that a lopsided curriculum in high school is a great thing. They know what they want to be when they grow up and they just need to execute a finely crafted plan to get them there. These tend to be the same people show up at college orientation with four years of courses mapped out. We see this a lot and it doesn't always rarely works out the way the student planned.

At UVA, most students aren't doing work in a major until the second or third year. The exception is Kinesiology majors, who are admitted directly into the program. We hope that you'll see the first few semesters as a time to explore your options and determine if the paths that looked attractive in high school are still interesting. There are academic options that you aren't even aware of right now!  The path that seems clear in high school is apt to change. 

Sophomores and juniors, focus on getting strong courses in the core academic areas right now. Don't drop core subjects to go over board on one area. A lopsided curriculum doesn't "look good" to us. We want you to get a solid foundation so that you are prepared to go in any direction later on, not just the direction that is appealing right now.

I'm not talking about governors schools or magnet programs. My students at those schools tend to take care of their core. Perhaps that's mandated in some of those schools. I'm talking about students who don't establish a strong, broad foundation across the core subjects.

As always, I'm happy to answer questions in the comments.

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