14,000 Apply Early to UVa

University of Virginia

At yesterday’s breakfast for local college counselors, UVa’s Dean Greg Roberts announced a major increase in the number of early applications received by the Commonwealth’s flagship university for the fall of 2013. 

While final numbers are still being tabulated, it appears that as many as 14,000 high school students applied for early consideration at the University of Virginia.  In 2011, UVa received 10,822 early action applications.

“Even with the storm, early action is up by well over 10 percent,” explained Dean Roberts.  “And the applications appear stronger than ever.”

UVa returned to unrestricted early action last year, and the program is still being evaluated for possible adjustments in future years.

“We are in the second of a three-year evaluation of the program,” said Dean Roberts.  “After next year, we’ll consider the possibility of making some changes.”

For now, UVa plans to provide applicants with decisions some time mid- to late-January.  While acknowledging that not everyone is happy waiting until after the holidays, Dean Roberts suggested that the increase in applications presents a challenge to the admissions office, which is committed to providing a thorough reading of each application.

In addition, by waiting until after the Ivies and other selective liberal arts colleges have made their early decisions, UVa can free up spaces that might have been offered to students committed to programs binding them to attend.

In fact, 350 of UVa’s strongest applicants dropped out of consideration before decisions were announce in mid-January last year.

Interestingly, early action applicants remain very committed to UVa throughout the application process. 

While UVa’s overall yield (percent of applicants offered admission who actually attend) was about 43 percent last year, the yield for early action applicants who were deferred to the regular pool and then eventually admitted was over 78 percent for Virginians and nearly 60 percent overall. 

And deferred students were admitted at a slightly higher rate (25.6%) than regular decision applicants (25%).  It just goes to show you really can keep hope alive, and it's never too late to receive good news in the admissions process.

At the same event, Harvard’s Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons and Princeton’s Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye also indicated that early applications increased this fall, but they aren’t quite ready to announce numbers.

“We’re still working with storm victims,” said Dean Rapelye, “But we hope to have numbers ready next week.”