Preliminary #UVA Early Action Numbers

We are already deep into the review process! Transfers applying for the January term had an October 1st deadline, so Early Action students are actually the second group of applicants this season. I thought I would share a few numbers to tide you over for a while since I'm not always able to post regularly in November.

21,393 students submitted applications for Fall 2018 under the Early Action plan. When I post admission statistics at the end of the EA process, you will definitely see a smaller number. Some applicants won't complete their application, though we'll email them plenty of reminders!


Keep in mind that we are still processing applications. There's a lot that has to happen between the time when you submit your Common App and when admission officers get to read it. Applications are downloaded and added to our system, documents that arrive electronically are matched up with applications, and anything submitted by mail has to be scanned into the system and manually linked to the correct applicant's file.

It will take several weeks to process all the documents that are arriving in our office right now. Please do not worry about your status page at this time. Once we are caught up on filing, we'll start contacting students by email about missing items. I know some of you have read this multiple times at this point between our application instructions and the blog, but it's important to get this information to as many students as possible!

Back to reading...

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Unofficial #UVA21 Admission Statistics

My post about admission statistics hasn't changed much over the years, but I am so excited to share a big development over in The Office of Institutional Assessment. Every school has an office (the name usually has to do with institutional assessment or research) that publishes data about the school and answers surveys about statistics. I personally think UVA's assessment group has been one of the best around, maintaining clear, easy to digest data (with percentages already calculated, hooray!) about all facets of the University for years and years.

Accessing Official Data from the Office of Institutional Assessment

Our assessment team has recently migrated to presenting data using Tableau. Basically, instead of fixed charts showing years of data, you can now customize tables to show the data you wish to review. It's hard to explain, but you should take a look at the admission part of their website and play around a bit.

I just created this chart about Fall 2016 applicants using residency and school of entry as my variables. Isn't this cool?

Remember that the charts show you the results of an lengthy, elaborate review. They don't show you how we make decisions, but rather how our decisions correlate to different variables (just as the scattergrams your school just show correlation between decisions and testing a certain GPA).


There's also a really interesting report on the results of the SERU 2016 survey, which stands for the Student Experience in the Research University. A consortium of peer schools administered this survey, so you might be able to access the SERU survey for other schools on your list. Of course, make sure to check the percentage of students who completed the survey at each institution. At UVA, 30% filled it out, which I believe is a pretty good return rate for a survey.

If you love data, the Assessment website is a treasure trove that you may enjoy exploring.

Unofficial Data for this Season

These numbers are up to date as of yesterday, March 22, 2017. If you are a reporter, please contact the Media Relations team in the Office of University Communications for current, official information and all of your reporterly needs. :)

Applications for Admission

Total number of  applications: 36,807 (32,377 last year)
Total number of VA apps: 10,942
Total number of OOS apps: 25,865
We only count completed applications here. There are schools that include incomplete/partial applications in their statistics.

Offers of Admission

Overall offers: 9,957
Total VA offers: 4,276 (39% offer rate)
Total OOS offers: 5,681 (22% offer rate)
Schools admit more students than the enrollment goal with yield in mind. Yield reflects how many students accepted our offer of admission.

Class of 2021 goal: ~3,725 students

Testing/Rank (offers only)

Middle 50% NEW SAT score: 1330-1490
Middle 50% ACT composite: 31-34
We use scores from each section in our review, but the reports on averages generate totals. Way more students submitted the new SAT than the old, so I'm dropping the stats about the old exam. 

93.4% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school class
This number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank to colleges. Even if your school ranks, they may not report that statistic to colleges. Your counselor can tell you if your schools reports rank.


These are all the statistics I have for now. We are now throwing ourselves into the transfer review process.


Some final notes:
-Waiting list students should be sure to click the link in their letter to read the FAQs. Most of the waiting list questions I'm seeing on the blog are answered there.
-Days on the Lawn emails with your personalized RSVP link will go out this afternoon.
-Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars will be invited to their programs via email today or tomorrow.
-Welcome packets with information about next steps have left the office via US Mail.

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Unofficial #UVA21 Early Action Admission Statistics

The Office of Institutional Assessment is the source of all official statistics about UVA. They take a census to determine the final statistics for the class. You can see official admission data in the data digest part of their website. Obviously, what happened in past years isn't going to predict the future, but some people have fun playing around with the different charts on their site.

Here are some unofficial numbers about the early action process. These numbers are up to date as of yesterday, January 25, 2017. If you are a reporter, please contact the Media Relations team in the Office of University Communications for current, official information and all of your reporterly needs. :)

Early Action Applications

Total number of Early Action applications: 20,446 (16,768 last year)
Total number of VA apps: 5,278
Total number of OOS apps: 14,968
We use completed application numbers in our statistics. There are schools that include incomplete applications in their stats.

Early Action Offers

Overall offers: 5,914
Total VA offers: 2,575 (47% offer rate)
Total OOS offers: 3,339 (22% offer rate)
Schools admit more students than the enrollment goal with yield in mind.Yield is how many students accept an offer of admission. Check out yield from past years, broken down by residency (these numbers are for the entire applicant pool, not just early action).

Early Action Defers

Overall defers: 5,458
Some applicants will withdraw, so these numbers will go down!

Early Action Testing/Rank (offers only)

Middle 50% OLD SAT score: 2020-2290
Middle 50% NEW SAT score: 1350-1500
Middle 50% ACT composite: 31-34
We use scores from each section in our review, but the reports on averages generate totals.  

94.6% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school class
This number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank.


Please understand that I do not have additional statistics. We are already immersed in the Regular Decision review process. There will be a post about deferral tomorrow, but if you clicked the link in your letter and read the Defer FAQs, you know much of the content.

The Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars programs are sending invitations in the coming days. I will post an update when I know specifics. Welcome packets with information about next steps will be leaving our office soon!

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Unofficial Admission Statistics for #UVA20

As usual, I am sharing some unofficial statistics this application season. These numbers weren't targets (meaning, we don't read to "hit" a certain test statistic), they are the result of the committee's process. Please keep in mind that the Office of Institutional Assessment is the source of all official statistics about UVA. They will determine the final statistics for the class, which can be found in the data digest part of their website.

Here are some unofficial numbers about this year's process. These numbers are up to date as of 3/28/2016. If you are a reporter reading this, please be sure to get in touch with the Media Relations team in the Office of University Communications for all of your reporterly needs. :)

If you want to look at numbers from past years, head to the Office of Institutional Assessment site (link above) or click on the "statistics" tag at the end of this post, which will take you to older posts of this nature. Remember that my numbers are unofficial and old posts were not updated when the census was taken.


Applications
Total number of applications: 32,426
Total number of VA apps: 9,653
Total number of OOS apps:22,773
We use completed application numbers in our statistics. There are schools that include incomplete applications in their stats.


Offers
Overall offers: 9,416
Total VA offers: 4,019 (41.6% offer rate)
Total OOS offers: 5,397 (23.7% offer rate)
Enrollment goal: 3,675
Schools admit more students than the enrollment goal with yield in mind.Yield is how many students accept an offer of admission. We do not try to figure out an individual student's likelihood of enrolling (or look at demonstrated interest), but overall yield influences the offer rate. Check out yield from past years, broken down by residency.


Testing/Rank
Middle 50% SAT score (offers only): 1970-2250
Middle 50% ACT composite (offers only): 30-34
We use scores from each section in our review, but the reports I'm using generate totals.

92.8% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school class
This number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank.


Defers and the Waiting List
Overall offer rate for the defer group: 21.4%
Students offered spots on the waiting list: 15%
Remember that the waiting list forms as students opt into it via SIS and many will decline. The waiting list will have ten different segments (in-state and OOS for each of the five academic areas that take first-year students).


Please understand that I do not have additional statistics. It's Days on the Lawn season and spring break at many high schools, so we are inundated with visitors. We have also moved into the transfer review process (reading season doesn't end with the first year release!).

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Unofficial Early Action #UVA20 Statistics

The Office of Institutional Assessment is the source of all official statistics about UVa. They take a census in October to determine the final statistics for the class. You can see official admission data in the data digest part of their website.  Obviously, what happened in past years isn't going to predict the future, but some people have fun playing around with the different charts on their site. 

Here are some unofficial numbers about the early action process. These numbers are up to date as of 8 AM this morning, January 26, 2016. If you are a reporter, please contact the Media Relations team in the Office of University Communications for current, official information and all of your reporterly needs. :)

Early Action Applications 

Total number of Early Action applications: 16,768 
Total number of VA apps: 4,460 
Total number of OOS apps: 12,308 
We use completed application numbers in our statistics. There are schools that include incomplete applications in their stats.

Early Action Offers

Overall offers: 5,192
Total VA offers: 2,237 (50% offer rate) 
Total OOS offers: 2,955 (24% offer rate)
*Schools admit more students than the enrollment goal with yield in mind.Yield is how many students accept an offer of admission. Check out yield from past years, broken down by residency (these numbers are for the entire applicant pool, not just early action). 

Early Action Defers

Overall defers: 4,065   
Total VA defers: 1,060 
Total OOS defers: 3,005 
Some applicants will withdraw, so these numbers will go down!

Early Action Testing/Rank

Middle 50% SAT score (offers only): 2020-2270 
Middle 50% ACT composite (offers only): 31-34 
We use scores from each section in our review, but the reports on averages generate totals. 
95% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school class  
This number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank.

Please understand that I do not have additional statistics. We are already immersed in the Regular Decision review process. There will be a post about deferral tomorrow, but if you clicked the link in your letter and read the Defer FAQs, you know much of the content.




The Echols, Rodman, and College Science Scholars programs are sending invitations by mail on Friday. Welcome packets with information about next steps will be leaving our office soon!

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Three Interesting Questions from the Fair Oaks Mall Fair

The always massive, usually chaotic Fairfax County Public Schools college fair was Sunday night at the Fair Oaks Mall. I don't know if this is because UVa was in a new location (the center of the mall instead of by a department store) or if attendance was down, but the fair wasn't as frenzied as it has been in years past. Instead of people shouting basic questions over the crowd (what's your SAT score? what's your average GPA?), we actually got to have some nice conversations with students and parents.

This fair always gives us insight into the issues that are on people's minds in one of the most densely populated areas of the state. Most of the questions were totally normal, but a few raised an eyebrow.

1. How many hours of community service do we need for UVa?

 When I got this question from a dad, I realized that there are still people out there giving really bad advice to people about the college process. I don't think students and parents come up with a question like this on their own. Rather, they're told by someone who claims to know better that colleges want a certain number of volunteer hours on the activity sheet. Perhaps there is one out there, but I have never heard any admission officer state any sort of service requirement for admission. 

If service work is something you do, that's great. It is not required for admission to UVa, though. When it comes to your activities, there are no check lists and no preferred activities. We are looking to see that you will contribute to our community is some way.

2. Is a bad grade in a really tough course okay?

 One student asked a pretty standard question about course selection. She wondered whether it's better to take a top course and get a "bad grade" or to take a lower-level course and get an A. When I asked her to define a bad grade, her answer almost made me tear up. She said "a B+ or an A-." I was pretty shocked.

I think some of you are way too hard on yourselves. I think your ideas of weak credentials and my ideas of weak credentials are really, really different. It makes me wonder if there are students who don't even apply to their dream schools because they have convinced themselves that they aren't competitive for admission.

When we look at your transcript, we are looking at all four years of work. One grade doesn't derail an application. If we see a low grade, we look to the next semesters to see if the student has rebounded. I think it's smart to address a dip in grades if you have one due to illness, a family situation, a change in schools, etc.

3. What will the admit rate be for ______ High School this year?

I think this points to how someone is using admission statistics. Admission statistics are the result of the process. We don't start reading each year with a goal of having a certain admission rate or a certain testing statistic. The data can help you understand some of the characteristics of the incoming class from the prior year, but it doesn't tell you exactly what will happen in future admission seasons. The applicant pool can evolve over time.

Jack with members of the Class of 2019. Your admission process won't be exactly like theirs!

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Three Sources for UVA Admission Statistics

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.

Second, there are tables of data on the Office of Institutional Assessment websites. Most schools have an office that generates official statistics. The name of the office will often have to words "institutional assessment" or "institutional research" in it. You can review the Common Data Set (all schools fill these out) and also see admission and enrollment data broken down by school and residency on the assessment website.

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.

So much data.

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