UVa early decision applications up by 35% for class of 2025

Early applications are up at UVa

According to The Cavalier Daily, the University of Virginia received 2,918 binding early decision (ED) applications for the Class of 2025. This marks a 35% increase over last year’s somewhat disappointing ED pool of 2,157 applicants. While the total number of ED applicants represents a relatively small portion of an overall pool expected to come in around 41,000 applications, the fact that UVa admitted approximately 35% of early decision applicants last year might be a little alarming to students not willing to commit to a binding contract so early in the process.

At the same time early decision grew by more than a third, the number of early action applications also rose to 28,884 from 25,122—a 15% increase from last year. And although the university is waiting for the January 1 regular decision deadline to provide final numbers, it has already received 17% more applications compared to the same time last year.

In other words, it looks like the University of Virginia will have another very good year in terms of numbers of students interested in possibly attending the Commonwealth’s flagship institution.

Last year was the first time in over a decade that UVa offered an early decision option—the announcement came late and with an October 15 deadline. This year, the deadline was moved to coincide with the November 1 early action deadline. ED decisions will be released in mid-December while early action decisions will come out in mid-February. Students applying regular decision will receive decisions before April 1.

Earlier this year, UVa announced it would not require applicants for the Class of 2025 to submit standardized testing as part of the application process, because of concerns related to COVID-19. Admissions officials promised that students opting to apply test optional would not be in any way penalized for their decision. The change in testing policy, however, probably contributed to UVa’s uptick in early applications.

Among the early decision applicants, 54% were Virginia residents, while the remaining 46% came from out of state. Early action applicants, however, were much more likely to come from out of state as only 28% of the EA applicants were from the Commonwealth. The early decision pool was also overwhelmingly white, with Black and Hispanic students making up only about eight percent of the applicants.

According to Jeanine Lalonde, Associate Dean of Admissions—Dean J to her fans, students applying either early decision or early action receive no advantage in the admissions process.

“We review the applications the same way throughout the entire application season,” Lalonde said. “The admission rates are telling you about the strength of the different pools at U.Va., not about a different style of application review.”

But if the rate of admissions offers remains about the same for this year, a very large percent will come from among early applicants, with as many as 20% of the incoming freshman class applying binding early decision. Note that Virginia Tech admits about 20% of the class through early decision, while the College of William and Mary typically admits at least a third through early decision—suggesting a precedent for Virginia institutions willing to lock down a significant percent of their class this way. Whether UVa will stay closer to Tech than William and Mary in terms of how it uses the early decision tool remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the University of Virginia will continue to accept applications until January 1, 2021.