katzen-kultur: regular decision

Showing posts with label regular decision. Show all posts

Showing posts with label regular decision. Show all posts

Early Action vs Regular Decision at #UVA

I've been Northern Virginia and New Jersey for the last week, making high school visits and attending some evening fairs. With the Early Action deadline looming, many students are feeling pressure to get some college applications submitted. Early Action isn't always the best route, though. Let's talk about how to decide between Early Action and Regular Decision at UVA.

Keep in mind:

1. We have the same review process during Early Action (EA) and Regular Decision (RD).
2. Interest isn't a factor (this is non-binding EA, after all), so an early application is not seen as a statement about your intent to enroll at UVA.
3. The results of an early application could be admission, denial, or deferral.

Successful Early Action applicants usually have transcripts that show consistently strong work across the core subjects. My suggestion is to look at your final report card from 9th, 10th, and 11th grades side-by-side. If you can say that your program builds nicely and your grades are consistent, Early Action might make sense for you. Of course, having time to write well-crafted essays is a consideration and you have to have given your counselor/teacher plenty of time to write wonderful recommendation letters!

Regular decision would be best for a student who needs more time to complete a thoughtful application or for whom one fall semester grades would be very helpful. There are so many scenarios where RD makes more sense then EA - rebounding grades, school changes, and the list goes on.

Early Action = transcript shows 9th-11th grade work and senior courses
Regular Decision = transcript shows 9th-11th grade work and fall grades in senior courses

This is an area where there is definitely some conflicting advice. For UVA, you need to submit your application at a strong point.

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

Eager to start the reading season!

Notes for the #UVA21 Waiting List

If you were offered a spot on the waiting list at UVA, you had a link to the Waiting List FAQs in your decision letter. Many of the questions we're getting by phone and email are covered there, so please be sure to share that link with your parents so they understand the process. I'm going to go over the parts that come up the most and add some more information. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

How many people are on the waiting list?

The waiting list forms as people hit the "accept" buttons under their letters in SIS. We offer spots to many, but about half of those students will actually put themselves on the waiting list. The Common Data Set, something every school fills out, has a section about waiting list numbers. Some schools omit this section, but here are our numbers from last year:

From the 2016-2017 Common Data Set:
Do you have a policy of placing students on a waiting list? Yes Number of qualified applicants offered a place on the waiting list: 4,987
Number accepting a place on the waiting list: 2,871
Number of wait-listed students admitted:360
Is your waiting list ranked? No

The waiting list will be big on May 1st because we need to ensure there are students to fit all ten sections of the first year class. The class is made up of Virginia residents and out-of-state students for each of the five schools/programs that take first years.

I accepted. Why are the buttons still there?

If you hit the "accept" button, you can always come back and pull yourself off the list. That is why the buttons remain after you opt in. There is no going back once you decline, though. If you decline the spot, the buttons disappear.

How many people will come off the waiting list?

Even though I've been doing this for years, I can't predict this one. May 1st is when all of the admitted students need to have deposits submitted to reserve a place in the class, which should be about 3,725 students. If we don't have that number of admitted students accepting a spot, we move to the waiting list.

It's hard to cite trends with certainty. One year, we might have room for in-state Nursing students and the next year, that group could be full on May 1. We're all waiting to see how this works out right now.

How many people got offers to come off the waiting list in the past?

Here's a decade of data, which should show you how unpredictable this part can be. I don't have a breakdown of where the offers were for these years.

2016 - 360
2015- 402
2014- 42
2013 - 185
2012 - 284
2011 - 117
2010 - 240
2009 - 288
2008 - 60
2007 - 159
2006 - 145
2005 - 83

How do I improve my chances of getting an offer?

There is a lot of conflicting information out there about this. Emailing a update letter to uvaapplicationinfo@virginia.edu is appropriate. Mailing a package is not. Updating us via uvaapplicationinfo@virginia.edu with significant news is okay. Bombarding every admission officer with an email each day is not. Please don't email admission officers directly with your updates. We're just going to forward your email to uvaapplicationinfo@virginia.edu and it will delay your email being filed. Please use the general account.

By the way, showing up in Peabody Hall will have no affect. I can't tell you how many students drive here and then sit on the sofa and ask the questions covered in the FAQs. This is not the best use of your time (or gas money!).

When/How do you make wait-list offers?

We start making waiting list offers as soon as we know we have space in the class. We move quickly because no one wants to drag this out. We aim to have everything wrapped up by the end of June. Last year, we completed the class on June 2nd. In 2015, we were done by June 22nd.

If you are going to get an offer, we'll call you at the number you put on your Common Application. The call is a heads up that your status is about to change in SIS. Of course, it's fine if you tell us "no thanks" and that's the end of it. We hope that people who are no longer interested in UVA use the "decline" button to remove their name from the list, but some people forget. When SIS updates, a new letter shows up along with the buttons to accept the offer and pay a deposit.

Because we want to give students a few days to think about the offer (and because the Financial Aid folks need time to post a package if the newly-admitted student applied for aid), this process takes a while. I can't give constant updates on the blog. I can usually check in once or twice in May. I will always tell you when the Dean says the class is full.

What about aid?

If you applied for aid by March 1st and got all of your documentation in, Student Financial Services will put a financial aid package together. Once that's posted, you'll have a couple days to accept the offer and pay your deposit.

What now?

Look at your other options. Get excited about one of them and pay a deposit to guarantee yourself a spot in a freshman class somewhere.

By the way, calling a student and telling them that they are getting an offer of admission is probably the most exciting thing admission officers experience. We can't wait to make them and everyone has a story or two about favorite calls. I promise you that when it's time, we'll be working very quickly so we can deliver some happy news!

Let's Talk about #UVA21 Decisions: The Offer

Admitted students can use this entry to talk. I imagine you might also want to join the UVA Class of 2021 Facebook group to chat with your future classmates. That group is just for students. Parents, you can check out the UVA Parents Page and the UVA Parents Facebook page.

I'll have post about admission statistics in the coming days and you'll be getting an email with your personalized RSVP link for Days on the Lawn (admitted student open houses) soon. 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*. Orientation registration will open after April 1st and 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 via your self-service page.

Congratulations! We are so lucky to have you considering UVA!

Image by Jen Fariello Photography

*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!

Let's Talk about #UVA21 Decisions: The Waiting List

Students offered a spot on the waiting list can use this entry to talk.

This is probably the toughest decision to get from a school. At UVA, the waiting list tends to be large because there are so many different segments to the population here (VA and OOS groups for each of the four schools and the one program that take first year students). At this point, we don't know where there will be openings in the class.

We won't know how large the waiting list is until you all accept or decline your waiting list offers. Right now, you've been offered a spot on the list. You aren't actually on it until you reply using the response buttons in SIS.

Still, the numbers can change dramatically from year-to-year. We took 42 students off the waiting list in 2015 and made 402 waiting list offers the next year.

For now, you need to look at your other options and think about which one feels right to you. Some of you will want to hold on and see what happens with the waiting list and others will want to fully invest themselves in another school. Either way, you need to submit a deposit somewhere by May 1st to ensure yourself a spot in a freshman class. If you are offered a spot in our class and you decide to accept it, you'll have to write to that other school and withdraw your name from the class (you may lose your deposit at that school). Just remember that you can't "double deposit".

Feel free chat here. You should have already seen the link to the waiting list FAQ page in your decision letter, which answers the most common questions (is the list ranked, what do I do now, what's the time line, etc.).

We hope you find a peaceful place to think about your options

Let's Talk about #UVA21 Decisions: The Deny

Denied students can use this entry to talk.

I know this is hard to handle and some of you might not have gotten a disappointing admission decision yet. I hope you all can look at your options and get excited about your other schools. If your immediate reaction is "I'll transfer", don't let that plan keep you from getting involved in campus life at the school you choose. I think many students come to think of their next choice as "home" and can't imagine leaving it after a little while. Give yourself time to explore your options.

Some students inquire about appealing their decision. We do not have an appeal process, so the denial is your final decision.

Please be polite and respectful of others when posting.

BTW, if you signed yourself up to read the blog by email and don't want the messages anymore, there's an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.

A Regular Decision Update for #UVA21 Applicants

When online applications became the norm, most college admission officers and school counselors agreed to a best practice around the release of admission decisions. To avoid disrupting the school day and saving students from hours and hours of worry, it was decided that we would notify students of their decisions after the school day was over in our time zone, where most of our applicants live. This also let our staff work on fine tuning decisions throughout the work day.

Most smart, resourceful applicants will look at the 10+ years of posts on this blog and zero in on the fact that we tend to finish our Regular Decision review in the last two weeks of March.

Jack practicing his surprised look.

So...it won't be much of a surprise that we're done with our review and we are releasing decisions tonight. Please keep reading. There's a lot of important info to go over.

1. At some point tonight (this is handled by the tech people these days and I don't control the exact time), the "View Decision" link at the bottom of your SIS page will go to a decision letter. If you can't find your login info for the SIS, review the "After You Submit" section of the application instructions. A welcome mailing with info about next steps will come later for those who are admitted. Please do not open multiple windows or constantly hit refresh. Students have slowed SIS down to a crawl in the past by doing it. Use one window. Set a time tonight when you'll check and do something offline until then.

2. The release is always exciting, but some of you aren't going to get the decision for which you hoped. I hope you'll focus on the college options you have instead of the ones you don't. I hope those of you who get offers will celebrate your success, but also be gracious around those who might not have gotten good news.

3. I will post blog entries where you can talk about the different decisions. I'll be back to work through any questions that are asked in the comments tomorrow. I trust you to be respectful of others in the comments. A lot of people on Grounds will be watching #UVA21 so they can welcome our newest Wahoos to the UVA community. We love seeing your reactions when we check that hashtag!

Keep an eye on the UVA Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook accounts. There might be some nice messages!

4. Please don't post personal information in the comments (contact info, statistics, etc.). After all, school-specific statistics like GPA are subjective and don't represent the applicant accurately. GPAs are meaningless without the high school profile's explanation of the methodology used to calculate them. What's more, there have been times when enough information about an applicant has been shared that their classmates could identify them.

5. Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars will be notified by email by the end of the week. Posts about the waiting list and statistics will come in a few days as well. There is no lag time in our office, so we are now reading transfer applications. Please understand if my responses to questions are a little delayed.

6. You don't need to call us to verify this. It's true. We are releasing decisions tonight. The receptionists can't tell you an exact time or your decision.

THANK YOU to all of you who have read and commented on the blog so far this season.

Regardless of what SIS shows you tonight, you are going to attend a great school. You're going to learn from amazing, inspirational professors, administrators, and peers. You're going to meet people with whom you will stay friends for the rest of your lives. You're going to pull all-nighters studying. You're going to pull all-nighters not studying. You're going to have great successes and you're going to fail miserably at some things. What's going to make or break those experiences is your response and your openness to learning from them, not your location when they happen.

Remember that your decision is not a statement about your value. Most of our applicants are qualified. They are perfectly capable of doing the work at UVA. Our first-year class just isn't large enough to accommodate everyone.

Best wishes to those who won't be back to the blog after this (if you're reading this by email, you can unsubscribe yourself at the bottom of the email). To the rest, I hope you'll continue to comment and stay in touch.

It's a big night and I'll be thinking about you all. Good luck!

Overlapp Season Returns to UVA

Just when you start to get really, really drained from reading season, the overlap season begins and saves the day. Days on the Lawn brought several hundred admitted students to Grounds over the last few days. These events are supposed to help admitted students, but they wind up giving us an infusion of energy that will carry us through the final days of the process. DOTLs also remind us that a careful, thoughtful review of every application is so important. There are wonderful people behind each application we consider.

When I refer to "overlap season," I mean a time when we are interacting with several different groups of students. We are working with our admitted EA students, RD applicants, transfers (their application deadline was March 1), and juniors visiting us during spring break.

I know our Regular Decision students are eagerly waiting for updates. As always, we will release decisions when we finalize all decisions. We promise decisions will be available on April 1st, but you all know that we will post them earlier, if possible. Keep an eye on one of my accounts (the blog, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook) for updates.

By the way, the photos in today's post are from yesterday's DOTL. The first image is from the morning welcome at the Rotunda and the rest are from the student social in the afternoon. The social is "students only," but I took Jack over to meet some of our visitors.

March Madness in UVA Admission

I'm so thankful the students on our basketball team aren't playing in the ACC tournament until this evening. They've been slated for afternoon games in the past and everyone winds up sneak peeks at the updates between files. We have a tradition of letting my dog "play" with our opponents' mascots before games. Follow me on Instagram if you want to see how things go this year.

A post shared by Dean J|UVA Office of Admission (@uvadeanj) on Mar 25, 2016 at 3:50am PDT

March Madness for us is the knowledge that this process wraps up this month! The end of the tunnel is in sight, though it's still weeks away. At this point, there is still a lot to do! We are reading Regular Decision files and rereading the files that were deferred from the Early Action process now that midyear reports have arrived. We've emailed students missing documents twice at this point. In a few cases, we've called counselors to get some extra information or to track down a missing item.

The Days on the Lawn (our admitted student open houses) planning team is also busy preparing for admitted students to arrive on Grounds. We have a few DOTLs in March for Early Action students and many more in April for EA and RD students together. Personalized links to register are emailed to admitted students. Obviously, we aren't done with the RD process yet. We'll send links after decisions are released.

To get you excited, here are some images from past DOTLs...

This next image is from a new tradition. When the previous First Lady suggested that all students celebrate "signing day," something that traditionally was associated with athletics, we created a faux press conference photo booth so students could take pictures of themselves to post on May 1st, the national "signing day."

We'll have the photobooth set up in Peabody Hall again this year. Jack sometimes joins it!

Just collecting those images has me excited. Back to the files...

Mid-Year Reports Rolling In!

We ask that counselors submit mid-year reports to us by February 15th so we can review fall grades during the regular decision process. Receipt of these reports also allows us to review the files of students who were deferred to the Regular Decision pool after applying during the Early Action phase.

Around deadlines, we have thousands of documents arriving in our office via the Common App's transfer and traditional mail. It will take a few weeks to get thousands of documents filed, so you might not see the mid-year report disappear from your SIS account for a little while.

When things are on your to-do list, don't panic. Sometimes, documents are en route or they are here, but haven't been checked in. If you know an item was sent to us, sit tight. We'll be in touch if we need anything from you. Remember, colleges want to review complete applications. We always reach out via email (we give you the two email addresses we use in the application instructions) to get missing documents for incomplete files.

Mailed documents waiting to be scanned into application files

In the meantime, keep an eye on your financial aid to-do list. Our offices are separate, but we know they sometimes add items to the to-do list if they need extra documentation while building your aid package.

Ready to cheer for the Hoos tonight!

Showing Interest and Sending Supplements

We have this great page on our website with all of our email addresses on it. We put our photos on it to show that human beings read all of the applications.

Side note: There was a dad at a college fair this year who could not believe that we read all the applications and nothing I said could convince him otherwise. I hope he saw my Instagram post on Thanksgiving! We do read the applications. It's hard work, but we enjoy it and believe it's important to review every file.

Anyway, it's pretty awesome that people are using the Contact page.

I fear that something is being missed, though. Before you get to our lovely pictures, there's some text. I underlined two points I want to explain on the blog today.

1. Demonstrated interest is not a factor during Early Action or Regular Decision.

I've gotten several emails from students in the last two weeks that contain declarations of love for UVA and even promises to enroll if we offer admission. I get that there are schools out there that are using interest right now, but we don't expect or desire students to tell us where UVA is on their list of colleges. Your application is enough demonstration of interest for us.

You're going to be making a big decision once decisions are out and we think every student should have until May 1 to thoroughly evaluate their options.

2. The Common App is enough.

I wrote a post about this during Early Action, but it bears repeating. The Common App is lengthy and robust. It provides us with A LOT of information. Still, there are those who want to make the app even longer by sending supplements. We take two kinds of supplements: arts supplements and architecture supplements. Y ou can read about them in the application instructions.

We don't accept resumes, writing portfolios, research papers, research abstracts, outside recommendations, newspaper clippings, or certificates. I went over each of those in the post that went up during EA, so take a look if you are curious.

The point is that you have a lot going on during senior year and getting your college applications submitted should feel like a huge accomplishment. Submitting shouldn't feel like the start of a campaign.

I know waiting for decisions is hard. We are working quickly, but carefully, to make sure every file is reviewed in a thoughtful way. The release of decisions is exciting for us and we're eager to finish our review! There is still a lot of work to do, though. Hang in there.

May your wait not be as difficult as Jack's.

Post-Deadline Notes for UVA Regular Decision

Happy New Year! Peabody hall is back open and our administrative staff is processing Regular Decision applications while the admission officers continue to read Early Action files.

Most of the emails we're getting are from students worried about their application being incomplete. Let's back up and cover how we'll communication with you about your status and why it's too early to be worrying about a Regular Decision application status.

1. Add uvaapplicationinfo@virginia.edu and undergradadmission@virginia.edu to your safe senders list.

We send important application updates and requests for info from these two accounts. If you put them in your address book, that will hopefully make sure our emails don't go into your junk folder. I know a lot of people use email sporadically these days, but we use it a lot. You need to keep an eye on your inbox for messages from us.

2. Keep an eye out for a SIS Login email.

As I hope you read in the "After You Submit" part of the application instructions, a few days after we download your application and get it into our system, you'll get an email about logging into SIS. SIS is where you will monitor your application status for both admission and financial aid. On notification day, you'll also check your decision in SIS.

3. Your application will probably be incomplete when you log in.

At this point, most applications are incomplete. Please do not worry! As long as you submitted your application in time, everything will be okay.

It can take several weeks for us to match recommendations, test scores, and transcripts with Regular Decision applications. This is true even if you submitted days or weeks before the deadline since our Early Action applicants were the priority early on in the season.

As a reminder, here are posts about:
-sending supplements and resumes to UVA
-admission quotas
-the Class of 2021 Facebook group (students only)

As always, you can ask questions anonymously (but please pick a name!) in the comments.

Virginia Residents: Don't Omit the Residency Questions!

Nothing has really changed in the residency questions of the Common App lately, but we've noticed that many Virginia residents seem to skipping the questions that allow them to be considered in-state applicants. Let's go over the residency section...

As you're filling out the UVA questions on the Common App, you'll encounter a section marked "Residency." If you answer "no" to the question in this section, you'll be evaluated as out-of-state. From there, you'll be asked to affirm that you will comply with our Honor Code and then you can move onto to other parts of the submission process.

If you answer "yes" to that first question, you'll see several questions load relating to you, the applicant.

Most high school students are going to answer "yes" to the driver's license question and "no" to the rest. That's because their residency is really gained through a parent or guardian.

Here's the important part. Since most applicants get residency status through parents or a guardian, information about one of those people is required. This isn't a UVA thing, it's a Commonwealth of Virginia thing. If you answered "no" to most of the questions in the first Residency section, you need to fill out the Parent/Legal Guardian Residency section.

This section is going to ask about where a parent/guardian is working and paying taxes. Don't leave this section blank if you are a minor and a Virginia resident.

The criteria for being considered a Virginia resident is dictated by Virginia law. The Office of Virginia Status at UVA is required to collect this information to make a residency determination. Every year, there are students who assume that being born in Virginia and attending a Virginia high school make their residency status obvious, but the government still requires the status office to verify residency by gathering some very specific information.

Regular Decision applicants, please make sure to fill out the Residency sections of the Common App if you believe you should be reviewed as a Virginia resident!

Early Action vs Regular Decision at UVA

With the Early Action deadline around the corner, we're getting more calls and emails than ever about the "right" time to submit an application to UVA. It seems there are some rumors out there about how this all works, so let me go over a few things...

1. Early Action isn't "easier" at UVA.

Our review is the same no matter when you apply. We aren't lenient on one group and hard on another. If you feel your academic program is strong right now, you can feel good about an Early Action application. If you're rebounded from something, see #3 below.

2. We don't fill the class during Early Action.

For the last few years, our applicant pool (the people who applied, not the people who were admitted) has been split pretty evenly between the Early Action and Regular Decision pools. We did not fill our classes during the EA round.

Apparently, there is a gem of a rumor being passed around at one high school (direct quote from a student's email):

"Do you think this year will be like last year where most kids apply Early Action and those who apply Regular Decision receive a denial or waitlist?"

The data doesn't support this. Last year, we made about 5,000 Early Action offers and over 9,400 offers overall to get a class of about 3,700. Please don't think that you must apply early to be admitted to UVA. It's simply not the case. In fact...

3. Regular Decision is the best route for many students.

The big difference between Early Action and Regular Decision is what we know about senior year when we are making a decision. For EA students, we see the courses in which a student is enrolled as a senior, but no grades. For RD students, we get mid-year grades in February, so we also see how well a student is doing in their senior courses. If your grades dipped at some point or you had a slow start, Regular Decision would be the best route for you because you would have one more semester of work to show that you have rebounded.

Which pool is right for you?

Heads up: Order Test Scores Well In Advance of Deadlines

I started writing posts about the timing of test scores a few years ago. The posts always seemed most appropriate for October, a few weeks before the first application deadline (our Early Action deadline is November 1). A colleague told me something she learned on a conference call a couple weeks ago that made me think a summer post was more appropriate. Seeing the info repeated on the SAT website confirms the move.

Be sure to send your scores well before the deadline. The SAT is saying it could take them longer to deliver scores from the Fall 2016 test dates. The last recommended test dates have always been the month before the application deadline. Be sure to use your free reports to make sure scores get to us before the deadlines.

From the SAT website:

We built our system to automatically select the best scores from each section of the SAT. When we open a file, we don't see all of the scores the student has submitted, we just see the best ones. So, there is no need to wait to see your scores and then spend money sending just your best ones to us. Use those free reports!

In case you are wondering about ACT score delivery:

When the Trophy Generation Applies to College

I'm used to fielding calls about admission to UVA from friends, friends of friends, and complete strangers. At this time of year, most of the conversations are with parents and are about the waiting list, but one exchange rattled me a bit. The woman on the other end of the line told me she was having trouble eating and sleeping because of her son's admission results. At one point, the conversation went like this:

Me: What other options are on the table?
Her: No good ones. We've had no good news.
Me: None of the schools on his list admitted him?
Her: Well, no elite ones.

Thank goodness we were talking on the phone because I winced. I pointed out that the schools on her son's list were probably all places he imagined attending back when he was working on the applications. His personal ranking system for schools might make them elite in his mind (I tweeted about this a while ago).

By the time we were done with our conversation, I think she was feeling better.

Being a high school student right now must be so confusing. This is a generation of students who have gotten tremendous support from adults throughout their lives. This is a good thing. From getting participation trophies to seeing 112 people named valedictorian at their school, they've experienced a lot of validation. But when some of these students get to this point in their senior year, it seems like the script gets flipped on them and only certain options are valued. Why did the support evaporate? Why was that mom losing sleep and not eating despite her son having multiple offers of admission at schools he probably liked? We gave them trophies for a job well done before, but why not now?

As we approach May 1st, let's all try to congratulate students on their success and encourage them to attend the best school for them. That's the school where they are most likely to be happy and engaged both inside and outside of the classroom.

As always, if you have lingering questions about UVA, we are here to help. There's a dean on call during business hours and a team answering emails to our general email account. I'm also happy to answer questions in the comments below.

We're here to help, too!