UVa extends early action offers to 5219 for the Class of 2024

Early action applicants to the University of Virginia’s Class of 2024 received decisions somewhat ahead of the mid-February release date originally established to accommodate bottlenecks anticipated by UVa’s early decision December release—the first since 2006, when it was discontinued.

And it’s clear 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.

Running somewhat counter to industry trends, UVa received 40,971 applications this fall, besting the previous record of 40,804 applications, set last year. Of those new applications, 25,160 were submitted through early action, also up from 25,126, from the same time last year. And by the end of January, UVa extended non-binding offers of admission to 5219 or 21% of those prospective ‘Hoos.

In addition, UVa’s binding early decision option attracted 2,159 applications—probably a bit lower than anticipated (down from 2,410 in the year 2006) given the late announcement, the October 15 deadline and the number of “unknowns” associated with the new program. Of those applicants, 748 or about 35% were offered admission in December. These students were expected to send deposits and withdraw all other applications by January 1, 2020.

Take altogether, UVa made 5,967 offers through both early decision and early action—down from the 6,541 early offers made last year. But still to come is regular admission, with decisions set to be released by April 1 (or most likely earlier). Note that 570 students deferred from early decision plus 6447 deferred from early action will be considered in the regular decision pool (about 13,650 before the addition of deferred students).

According to Dean J, the enrollment target for the Class of 2024 is “~3,750”—the same as last year. But according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SHEV), the class entering in the fall of 2019, actually totaled 3921, somewhat exceeding original projections. Whether this will ultimately have an impact on the size of the class entering this coming fall remains to be seen. Regardless, it appears that students coming through binding early decision will make up approximately 20% of the class—more in line with Virginia Tech than the College of William and Mary, which fills about a third of its class early decision.

Drilling a little deeper into the numbers, about 29% of the early action applicants and 54% of the early decision applicants came from Virginia. The majority of early action applicants, or about 71% came from out of state—a percentage that is consistent with past years.

Early action offers were made to 35% of the Virginia applicants (43.4% last year) and 15% of the out-of-state applicants (19% last year). Early decision offers, however, went to 40% of the Virginians and 28% of those from out of state.

 UVa indicates that 586 early action offers were made to first-generation students. Of the students accepted under early decision, 56 are the first in their families to attend college.

Admissions Dean Greg Roberts reports that of those offered admission in this year’s early action group, the mean SAT score is 1439 (out of a possible 1600), and more than 95% of these students are in the top 10% of their high school graduating class.

“We’re honored to offer admission to this impressive group of citizen-scholars. This was the most challenging and competitive admission cycle in our history and these students stood out for a host of reasons,” Roberts said. “They are truly exceptional.”

Although a considerable number of students were denied admission during the first rounds of consideration, a little over 7000 were thrown a lifeline by being deferred to the regular decision pool. Of the 40,971 students applying for spots in this year’s entering class, about two-thirds came through one early option or the other.

Decisions for deferred students and those applying regular decision should arrive sometime before April 1. Note that deferred applicants are specifically encouraged to send new test scores and midyear grades as soon as possible.

All students admitted under early action will have until May 1, to make up their minds. And those applicants who were lucky enough to be admitted to UVa’s Class of 2024 can expect to receive significant encouragement to commit as soon as possible.