TJ College Admissions 2011

[Anonymous]

Ah gotcha. I knew UVA was very competitive out of state, and out of state, it is as selective as many Ivy-level schools. I just assumed if someone went to the best high school in VA (and the country on some lists), and did fairly well, that they should have a reasonable expectation to be admitted to their own state's 'best' school. I guess that's not the case.

I actually went to UVA (out of state), but there were so many TJ grads there that it seemed sort of like the safety school for them and the school that those who didn't get into an Ivy went. Not that an Ivy is a good fit for everyone or that it necessarily provides a better education (not to mention UVA is MUCH cheaper in-state). It was just my 18 yr old assumption that I guess I have carried with me. They were still super smart kids for the most part.

I guess I wouldn't want such a high-stress high school experience, especially knowing that I might have gone to a 'better' college if I had just stayed at my base high school. Of course, I was a history major, so the prospect of spending much of the day on STEM subjects with other kids who think it's the best thing in the world wouldn't have appealed to me! (Nevermind whether I would have gotten in, lol. )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah gotcha. I knew UVA was very competitive out of state, and out of state, it is as selective as many Ivy-level schools. I just assumed if someone went to the best high school in VA (and the country on some lists), and did fairly well, that they should have a reasonable expectation to be admitted to their own state's 'best' school. I guess that's not the case.

I actually went to UVA (out of state), but there were so many TJ grads there that it seemed sort of like the safety school for them and the school that those who didn't get into an Ivy went. Not that an Ivy is a good fit for everyone or that it necessarily provides a better education (not to mention UVA is MUCH cheaper in-state). It was just my 18 yr old assumption that I guess I have carried with me. They were still super smart kids for the most part.

I guess I wouldn't want such a high-stress high school experience, especially knowing that I might have gone to a 'better' college if I had just stayed at my base high school. Of course, I was a history major, so the prospect of spending much of the day on STEM subjects with other kids who think it's the best thing in the world wouldn't have appealed to me! (Nevermind whether I would have gotten in, lol. )

UVA is referred to as TJ South I agree that UVA is a great deal especially for families who can't afford to send their kids to other schools. Looking upon the past two years, I would say the stress level is high but not overly so.

[Anonymous]

Any idea why only 5 TJ students were accepted by U Penn this year? 5/115 seemed even below the Penn overall acceptance ratio.

[Anonymous]

How many applied to Penn?

[Anonymous]

For a top FCPS student, it's entirely possible to get into MIT and CMU or wherever and not get into UVA. UVA is just that competitive for VA students from our area. There's no question that less qualified applicants are accepted from out of state and ROVA (rest of VA) simply because UVa can't become a NOVA outpost (which we've seen over and over and over).

I've read a few comments like the one above, saying that admission to UVa from Northern Virginia is very difficult. I'm sure it is difficult, but I cannot find anything that proves it. All I find is some general statistics about UVa having an overall admissions rate of about 32-39% of applicants (depending on year), other statistics showing that about 70% of UVa's undergraduates come from Virginia, and some numbers showing that a large percentage of those undergraduates (about 20% I think) come from NoVa. But I don't see anything (other than anecdotal claims on anonymous message boards) suggesting that applicants from NoVa face significantly tougher admissions standards than applicants from other parts of Virginia.

Can anyone provide some support for this? Many thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For a top FCPS student, it's entirely possible to get into MIT and CMU or wherever and not get into UVA. UVA is just that competitive for VA students from our area. There's no question that less qualified applicants are accepted from out of state and ROVA (rest of VA) simply because UVa can't become a NOVA outpost (which we've seen over and over and over).

I've read a few comments like the one above, saying that admission to UVa from Northern Virginia is very difficult. I'm sure it is difficult, but I cannot find anything that proves it. All I find is some general statistics about UVa having an overall admissions rate of about 32-39% of applicants (depending on year), other statistics showing that about 70% of UVa's undergraduates come from Virginia, and some numbers showing that a large percentage of those undergraduates (about 20% I think) come from NoVa. But I don't see anything (other than anecdotal claims on anonymous message boards) suggesting that applicants from NoVa face significantly tougher admissions standards than applicants from other parts of Virginia.

Can anyone provide some support for this? Many thanks in advance.

The UVa admissions people state this matter-of-factly and unapologetically during info sessions with prospective families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The UVa admissions people state this matter-of-factly and unapologetically during info sessions with prospective families.

Great -- then it should be easy to find some proof of the disparate admission standards! And maybe even some info that shows the median GPAs and SATs of NoVa applicants, so that people applying can get some realistic sense of what is expected. But sadly, when I search for that sort of info, I find nothing. It would be odd for UVa to have dramatically different admissions standards for different parts of the state -- and to unapologetically state it during info sessions -- but not put anything into writing. Wouldn't it? Surely there must be some evidence to support this claim, right?

[Anonymous]

PP posting again. I found some info, but nothing confirming the folk wisdom about NoVa applicants to UVa. In fact, what I've found really refutes it.

Every admission officer I know bristles at the mention of the word "quota". Maybe we hate it because it implies that we don't have control over our processes and that we are slaves to demographics while we read applications. During every Q&A session, every College Night panel, and every phone call, I think we all brace ourselves for that word, which usually comes in a sentence that starts with "We heard that UVa..." and ends with the name of a county or a region. We don't have quotas that specific here. We have one ratio.

The State Legislature has set a ratio that governs the in state and out of state populations at UVa. Two thirds of our students must have Virginia residency. Therefore, one third can come from outside of the state.

Beyond that, no population rules are enforced on us. Obviously, most admission offices want to bring in an interesting class that has people from many backgrounds, but we have not been handed target numbers for different regions, counties, or populations beyond that 2/3 : 1/3 ratio. There are definitely trends within the admitted group, though. For example, around one third of our Virginia population tends to come from the northern part of the state, but that area is highly populated and makes up a pretty big part of our applicant pool. There's no target for that region or any other. State legislators propose bills to change the ratio almost every year, but the bills fail each year.

UVa admissions dean's blog:
http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-talk-about-ratios-quotas-and-admit.html

I also found this on the blog ....

dadofapp said... Is there any information in the Website, or can you tell me, what the SAT/ACT averages are or any other criteria that distinguish between in-state and out-of-state UVA applicants. There is always the line that it is harder to get in from out of state, but I would like to know what the differences really are.

Response: I talked about this a little bit yesterday. We don't have minimums or different bars for the different pools. While we could generate stats for the different groups, I fear that publishing them would lead people to assume that we read with minimum numbers in our minds, which we don't do. If you want to poke around and look at statistics, the Office of Institutional Assessment is the place for you. There are more statistics on their website they you'll ever want!

Out of curiosity, I compared the percentages of admitted undergrads against the percentages of people living in NoVa. Here are the results ....

32% of Virginia's population lives in Northern Virginia
42% of UVa's admission class in 2008 was from Northern Virginia

13.5% if Virginia's population lives in Fairfax County
25.6% of UVa's admission class in 2008 was from Fairfax County

I'm not sure these statistics necessarily prove anything about what the admissions standards are for NoVa applicants. But they do seem consistent with the Dean's claim that there are no regional quotas for admissions.

Maybe someone else has something to add.

[Anonymous]

Small correction to the percentages above .... The percentages for UVa's admission class refer only to the percentages of in-state Virginia residents, and do not include out-of-state applicants. That exclusion makes sense for a proper comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many applied to Penn?

115 applied, but only 5 accepted

[Anonymous]

don't mean to distract but here's a pic of nittany knome

http://www.amazon.com/State-Nittany-Lions-Garden-Gnome/dp/B000OZUTTS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314114284&sr=8-1

[Anonymous]

U Penn, not Penn State. They are pretty different.

[Anonymous]

Who cares! UVA? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares! UVA? Really?

Wonder if you would get into UVA - it seems unlikely.

But in any case, UVA is a great state school. Yes, Marie Antoinette, most TJ families are different from private school families that are used to paying $30K/year for tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares! UVA? Really?

Wonder if you would get into UVA - it seems unlikely.

But in any case, UVA is a great state school. Yes, Marie Antoinette, most TJ families are different from private school families that are used to paying $30K/year for tuition.

What the f does that mean?