UVa offers Admissions to 3,841 Early Applicants

University of Virginia

UVa early action (EA) applicants received their decisions this year well ahead of the January 31st published release date.  And while the numbers fell slightly short of earlier projections, the increase in EA applicants provides impressive proof that admission to the Commonwealth’s flagship university remains a highly sought after prize among high school students—both from within the state and across the country.

Make no mistake, the competition for admission under UVa’s two-year-old EA program was intense, as the overall number of applications grew to 13,670—an impressive increase over last year.

Predictably, most of the early applicants, 9685 (71 percent) came from out of state.  The balance—3985 applicants—came from within Virginia.

Out of this year's EA pool, 3841 students were admitted—about 20% more than last year.  Of these, 1695 were from Virginia (42.5% offer rate), and 2146 were from out of state (22% offer rate).  Typically, more offers are made to nonresidents because the “yield” among students faced with out-of-state tuition is significantly lower—27 percent as opposed to 63 percent last year.

According to assistant admissions dean Jeannine Lalonde (Dean J) those offered early admission bids were exceptionally well qualified. The middle range of SAT scores of this year's admitted students fell between 2030 and 2260.  And 97.8 percent of the offers went to students in the top ten percent of their high school classes.

Although over 6000 students were denied admission during the first round of consideration, another 3454 were thrown a lifeline by being deferred to the regular decision pool.  These applicants will decisions by April 1^st and are being encouraged to send new test scores and midyear grades as soon as possible. 

Note that it’s far from hopeless for deferred students. Last year, over 25 percent of the deferrals were offered places at UVa, and almost 60 percent gladly accepted the offer.

All students will have until May 1^st to make up their minds.  And those who were lucky enough to be admitted to UVa’s Class of 2017 can expect to receive significant encouragement to commit as soon as possible.