UVa increases early admission offers to 4856 for the Class of 2019

Early applicants to the University of Virginia’s Class of 2019 received decisions late last week—well ahead of the January 31st published release date. 

And the continued increase in early action (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 four-year old EA program continues to be intense, as the overall number of applications grew to 16,092—about an 8.6% increase over numbers reported the same time last year.

Predictably, most of the early applicants, 11,743 (or 73%) came from out of state.  The balance—4,349 applicants—came from within Virginia.

Out of this year's EA pool, 4856 students were admitted—about six percent more than for the Class of 2018, which unexpectedly experienced a 20% jump in EA admits from the year before. Of those admitted, 2044 were from Virginia (47% offer rate—down four percentage points), and 2812 were from out of state.

Typically, more offers are made to nonresidents because the “yield” among students faced with out-of-state tuition is significantly lower.   But it’s worth noting that offers made to out-of-state students increased by 11 percent, suggesting that UVa is trying to recoup some of the tuition dollars lost by enrolling an additional 2% Virginians in last fall's freshman class.

According to assistant admissions dean Jeannine Lalonde (Dean J), those offered early admission bids were very well qualified. The middle range of SAT scores of this year's admitted students fell between 2010 and 2270.  And 95 percent of the offers went to students in the top ten percent of their high school classes (this number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank).

Although over 7270 students were denied admission during the first round of consideration, another 3963 were thrown a lifeline by being deferred to the regular decision pool.  These applicants will receive decisions before April 1 and are being encouraged to send new test scores and midyear grades as soon as possible.

All students will have until May 1 to make up their minds.  And those who were lucky enough to be admitted to UVa’s Class of 2019 can expect to receive significant encouragement to commit as soon as possible.