UVA - Holistic Review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holistic just means we’re going to admit whoever we want for whatever reasons we have, after and only after your transcript and grades have firmly placed you in the top tier of peers in your particular high school.

Yes! If you look at the Naviance data…. It’s about as holistic as my aunt Fanny. All top 5% and a smattering of clearly lower that make me think sport or URM. “Holistic” allows them to explain the discrepancy. Wonder what it will look like in this and future years.

I have wondered if they even care about ECs. For example: if you have a 4.5 GPA and 1500 SAT and were in top 5% of your class but with unimpressive ECs… do they take this student? Most of the students at that level have a good enough EC resume… but I’m wondering for my kid who while plays music and club sport and part time job… doesn’t exert an extraordinary amount of time in school stuff or leadership opportunities…. The Naviance is very consistent at the top end of applicants and of course I’m not privy to their resumes but high GPA and the corresponding (in most cases) test scores… all admitted. What about if unimpressive ECs?

I was about to say the same. She says holistic, then I look at the scattergram for my kids private school and literally the top 5-10 kids get in every year. The dots that are most top right of the graph. So she can say holistic all she wants but it’s just cover for when they have a special circumstance to let in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dean J keeps stressing that UVA does a holistic review.

But in reality all they look at is course selection ( did u take the hardest courses) and what grades did u get.

So is the “holistic” part just an act to be like a more “elite” school?

They are serious about rigor. Engineering applicant from NOVA with 4.5 and 1560 was waitlisted. Maxed out on math, history and science APs but did not bother to take Lang or lit. I warned him! Thats okay. 3rd year at UMD with a Google internship summer of 26.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:basically as op said - if the grades are not there - there is no way UVA is looking at your application for “holistic” aspects.

Only above a cut eg 4.4 at our school will they use other factors

4.4 out of 4?

How is that even possible?

It really depends on the school and the grading scale. FCPS gives a .5 GPA boost for AP classes, no boost for honors. I think MCPS gives a 1.0 boost for honors or AP. I think some of the privates do .5 for honors and 1.0 for AP.

LCPS does .5 for honors and 1.0 for AP/DE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dean J keeps stressing that UVA does a holistic review.

But in reality all they look at is course selection ( did u take the hardest courses) and what grades did u get.

So is the “holistic” part just an act to be like a more “elite” school?

They are serious about rigor. Engineering applicant from NOVA with 4.5 and 1560 was waitlisted. Maxed out on math, history and science APs but did not bother to take Lang or lit. I warned him! Thats okay. 3rd year at UMD with a Google internship summer of 26.

Not just rigor but broad rigor - all core subjects.

[Anonymous]

I feel like we see people confidently post that everyone over a certain GPA gets into certain schools at this time of year and then people post about all the exceptions once the decisions arrive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dean J keeps stressing that UVA does a holistic review.

But in reality all they look at is course selection ( did u take the hardest courses) and what grades did u get.

So is the “holistic” part just an act to be like a more “elite” school?

They are serious about rigor. Engineering applicant from NOVA with 4.5 and 1560 was waitlisted. Maxed out on math, history and science APs but did not bother to take Lang or lit. I warned him! Thats okay. 3rd year at UMD with a Google internship summer of 26.

Not just rigor but broad rigor - all core subjects.

I think that was the point of the previous post but thanks for chiming in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dean J keeps stressing that UVA does a holistic review.

But in reality all they look at is course selection ( did u take the hardest courses) and what grades did u get.

So is the “holistic” part just an act to be like a more “elite” school?

They are serious about rigor. Engineering applicant from NOVA with 4.5 and 1560 was waitlisted. Maxed out on math, history and science APs but did not bother to take Lang or lit. I warned him! Thats okay. 3rd year at UMD with a Google internship summer of 26.

Not just rigor but broad rigor - all core subjects.

This is true, most of all for College of Arts and Sciences. My youngest has two close friends that applied ED to UVA. They chose to not continue with WL senior year. I hope they didn’t kill their chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like we see people confidently post that everyone over a certain GPA gets into certain schools at this time of year and then people post about all the exceptions once the decisions arrive.

You don’t have to take our word for it. The data from our large public HS shows not one denial above a certain gpa/sat in the past 5 years. Not one. And I know for a fact that they didn’t all take world language senior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like we see people confidently post that everyone over a certain GPA gets into certain schools at this time of year and then people post about all the exceptions once the decisions arrive.

You don’t have to take our word for it. The data from our large public HS shows not one denial above a certain gpa/sat in the past 5 years. Not one. And I know for a fact that they didn’t all take world language senior year.

What's the GPA and SAT for admission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like we see people confidently post that everyone over a certain GPA gets into certain schools at this time of year and then people post about all the exceptions once the decisions arrive.

You don’t have to take our word for it. The data from our large public HS shows not one denial above a certain gpa/sat in the past 5 years. Not one. And I know for a fact that they didn’t all take world language senior year.

What's the GPA and SAT for admission?

DP. Depends on your peers at your school.

[Anonymous]

My kid got in from a low ranked FCPS school:
1470 SAT (sent score) 4.4 GPA, top rigor in all course areas. Three varsity sports, summer job and over 100 hours of volunteer work in a leadership position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like we see people confidently post that everyone over a certain GPA gets into certain schools at this time of year and then people post about all the exceptions once the decisions arrive.

You don’t have to take our word for it. The data from our large public HS shows not one denial above a certain gpa/sat in the past 5 years. Not one. And I know for a fact that they didn’t all take world language senior year.

What's the GPA and SAT for admission?

GPA was 4.4 at our school. I don’t recall the exact SAT because our DC was well above it at 1510. So, less than that. Applied ED. We will know soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holistic just means we’re going to admit whoever we want for whatever reasons we have, after and only after your transcript and grades have firmly placed you in the top tier of peers in your particular high school.

Yes! If you look at the Naviance data…. It’s about as holistic as my aunt Fanny. All top 5% and a smattering of clearly lower that make me think sport or URM. “Holistic” allows them to explain the discrepancy. Wonder what it will look like in this and future years.

I have wondered if they even care about ECs. For example: if you have a 4.5 GPA and 1500 SAT and were in top 5% of your class but with unimpressive ECs… do they take this student? Most of the students at that level have a good enough EC resume… but I’m wondering for my kid who while plays music and club sport and part time job… doesn’t exert an extraordinary amount of time in school stuff or leadership opportunities…. The Naviance is very consistent at the top end of applicants and of course I’m not privy to their resumes but high GPA and the corresponding (in most cases) test scores… all admitted. What about if unimpressive ECs?

I was about to say the same. She says holistic, then I look at the scattergram for my kids private school and literally the top 5-10 kids get in every year. The dots that are most top right of the graph. So she can say holistic all she wants but it’s just cover for when they have a special circumstance to let in.

It’s hilarious that so many people think holistic means “more mediocre or even outright dumb kids should be admitted.”

It means that they are making choices among the excess of very strong students who apply. All the top schools do this. There are 60,000 applicants but they don’t just rank the applicants by gpa and sat then admit the 10,000 best ones. They make non-gpa/test score distinctions between them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holistic just means we’re going to admit whoever we want for whatever reasons we have, after and only after your transcript and grades have firmly placed you in the top tier of peers in your particular high school.

Yes! If you look at the Naviance data…. It’s about as holistic as my aunt Fanny. All top 5% and a smattering of clearly lower that make me think sport or URM. “Holistic” allows them to explain the discrepancy. Wonder what it will look like in this and future years.

I have wondered if they even care about ECs. For example: if you have a 4.5 GPA and 1500 SAT and were in top 5% of your class but with unimpressive ECs… do they take this student? Most of the students at that level have a good enough EC resume… but I’m wondering for my kid who while plays music and club sport and part time job… doesn’t exert an extraordinary amount of time in school stuff or leadership opportunities…. The Naviance is very consistent at the top end of applicants and of course I’m not privy to their resumes but high GPA and the corresponding (in most cases) test scores… all admitted. What about if unimpressive ECs?

I was about to say the same. She says holistic, then I look at the scattergram for my kids private school and literally the top 5-10 kids get in every year. The dots that are most top right of the graph. So she can say holistic all she wants but it’s just cover for when they have a special circumstance to let in.

It’s hilarious that so many people think holistic means “more mediocre or even outright dumb kids should be admitted.”

It means that they are making choices among the excess of very strong students who apply. All the top schools do this. There are 60,000 applicants but they don’t just rank the applicants by gpa and sat then admit the 10,000 best ones. They make non-gpa/test score distinctions between them.

+1. This

[Anonymous]

Holistic means if UVa have an applicant from a poor county in rural VA with a weaker public school system, then they might admit a candidate who took max rigor **available in that county public schools**, simply because that county does not *offer* more rigor.

They might well do that even if that student has less rigor than say the median kid at TJ or Langley.

That is an example of what “holistic” means.