Test Optional Policy at UVA in Fall of 2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly every other large public VA school including W&M, JMU and Va Tech is remaining test optional.

UVA will take the lead, as usual. The Ivies have already done it.

They can't go test optional without sacrificing their medians

Not true with the elite public and privates. Not at all. UVA receives almost 60,000 apps a year. It's SCHEV median is a 4.4, 34 ACT and a 1470.That's not going to change because the demand for an elite public education at $160k a year compared to private at $400k (USC just passed $96k a year) is only going to increase the interest in top
publics. It's a simple analysis of supply and demand. All of the elite publics are seeing this, especially during covid when many families lost income and had to rethink the cost of higher ed. The next step would be for UVA/the Commknwealth to respond to taxpayers and reduce OOS and international from 26% to less than 8% as Cal, Texas, and N Carolina have done, but so far bills to do exactly that have never made it out of committee

Because it's economically infeasible. UVA has been one-third OOS since I went there as an OOS student the early 90s (and UNC was less than 20% OOS back then, too). It was a financial play then, and state funding has only gotten worse in the interim.

And none of the "elite publics" has gone test-required.

I guess you are not aware tgat UVA has been financialky independent if the Commonwealth for almost a decade? If gave it up to have more academic freedom. Since then the endowment has shot up Today, UVA receives onky 6% of its budget from the Commonwealth which makes it unique among publics. Going TO will have no impact on SCHEV results/GPA test scores because the demand for a reasonable alternative to privates now heading towards $100k a year will not dissipate.

12% of UVA's budget comes from the state. What are you talking about?

nope. 5.8% according to the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-much-state-funding-does-the-university-of-virginia-receive/2013/09/12/fb999782-1baf-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html#

Including the hospital? You're so stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVa is not private. It legally is a Virginia Public Corporation, meaning it is a part of the Commonwealth of Virginia government. BoV and Rector are appointed by the Governor.

No one said UVA is private. What they said was that the claim that tuition was not "sustainable" due to decreased funding was a falsehood made by someone who presumed it was funded 100% by the state. UVA wanted this shift in 2005 so it could be independent of the legislature, which it is today. If UVA decided to give up the remaining 6%, it could.

It never would because it would have to buy all the land and no one would go there from NOVA without the tuition benefit of being in-state. (As is evidenced by their OOS yield which is on par with GMU)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly every other large public VA school including W&M, JMU and Va Tech is remaining test optional.

UVA will take the lead, as usual. The Ivies have already done it.

They can't go test optional without sacrificing their medians

Not true with the elite public and privates. Not at all. UVA receives almost 60,000 apps a year. It's SCHEV median is a 4.4, 34 ACT and a 1470.That's not going to change because the demand for an elite public education at $160k a year compared to private at $400k (USC just passed $96k a year) is only going to increase the interest in top
publics. It's a simple analysis of supply and demand. All of the elite publics are seeing this, especially during covid when many families lost income and had to rethink the cost of higher ed. The next step would be for UVA/the Commknwealth to respond to taxpayers and reduce OOS and international from 26% to less than 8% as Cal, Texas, and N Carolina have done, but so far bills to do exactly that have never made it out of committee

Because it's economically infeasible. UVA has been one-third OOS since I went there as an OOS student the early 90s (and UNC was less than 20% OOS back then, too). It was a financial play then, and state funding has only gotten worse in the interim.

And none of the "elite publics" has gone test-required.

I guess you are not aware tgat UVA has been financialky independent if the Commonwealth for almost a decade? If gave it up to have more academic freedom. Since then the endowment has shot up Today, UVA receives onky 6% of its budget from the Commonwealth which makes it unique among publics. Going TO will have no impact on SCHEV results/GPA test scores because the demand for a reasonable alternative to privates now heading towards $100k a year will not dissipate.

12% of UVA's budget comes from the state. What are you talking about?

nope. 5.8% according to the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-much-state-funding-does-the-university-of-virginia-receive/2013/09/12/fb999782-1baf-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html#

If you include the medical division, which has a larger budget than the academic division, it is about 6%. But the medical division has never gotten state general fund appropriations. It is funded primarily by patient-related fees. Those fees can come from government sources (e.g. Medicaid), but these are not state general fund appropriations. That is why the percentage is so low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly every other large public VA school including W&M, JMU and Va Tech is remaining test optional.

UVA will take the lead, as usual. The Ivies have already done it.

They can't go test optional without sacrificing their medians

Not true with the elite public and privates. Not at all. UVA receives almost 60,000 apps a year. It's SCHEV median is a 4.4, 34 ACT and a 1470.That's not going to change because the demand for an elite public education at $160k a year compared to private at $400k (USC just passed $96k a year) is only going to increase the interest in top
publics. It's a simple analysis of supply and demand. All of the elite publics are seeing this, especially during covid when many families lost income and had to rethink the cost of higher ed. The next step would be for UVA/the Commknwealth to respond to taxpayers and reduce OOS and international from 26% to less than 8% as Cal, Texas, and N Carolina have done, but so far bills to do exactly that have never made it out of committee

Because it's economically infeasible. UVA has been one-third OOS since I went there as an OOS student the early 90s (and UNC was less than 20% OOS back then, too). It was a financial play then, and state funding has only gotten worse in the interim.

And none of the "elite publics" has gone test-required.

I guess you are not aware tgat UVA has been financialky independent if the Commonwealth for almost a decade? If gave it up to have more academic freedom. Since then the endowment has shot up Today, UVA receives onky 6% of its budget from the Commonwealth which makes it unique among publics. Going TO will have no impact on SCHEV results/GPA test scores because the demand for a reasonable alternative to privates now heading towards $100k a year will not dissipate.

+1. UVA became independent of the Commonwealth in 2005. Since then, the endowment has soared to 16.9 billion. It can do anything it wants to do.

It isn't independent of the Commonwealth. There was a law passed that gave schools (including W&M and Virginia Tech initially and now more schools), but that is different from independence. They are all state institutions, subject to many levels of state control. It can't do anything it wants. You are overstating the endowment (NACUBO is the source that does apples-to-apples comparisons, and much of it belongs to specific programs (like the medical school) that don't have any undergraduates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly every other large public VA school including W&M, JMU and Va Tech is remaining test optional.

UVA will take the lead, as usual. The Ivies have already done it.

They can't go test optional without sacrificing their medians

Not true with the elite public and privates. Not at all. UVA receives almost 60,000 apps a year. It's SCHEV median is a 4.4, 34 ACT and a 1470.That's not going to change because the demand for an elite public education at $160k a year compared to private at $400k (USC just passed $96k a year) is only going to increase the interest in top
publics. It's a simple analysis of supply and demand. All of the elite publics are seeing this, especially during covid when many families lost income and had to rethink the cost of higher ed. The next step would be for UVA/the Commknwealth to respond to taxpayers and reduce OOS and international from 26% to less than 8% as Cal, Texas, and N Carolina have done, but so far bills to do exactly that have never made it out of committee

Because it's economically infeasible. UVA has been one-third OOS since I went there as an OOS student the early 90s (and UNC was less than 20% OOS back then, too). It was a financial play then, and state funding has only gotten worse in the interim.

And none of the "elite publics" has gone test-required.

I guess you are not aware tgat UVA has been financialky independent if the Commonwealth for almost a decade? If gave it up to have more academic freedom. Since then the endowment has shot up Today, UVA receives onky 6% of its budget from the Commonwealth which makes it unique among publics. Going TO will have no impact on SCHEV results/GPA test scores because the demand for a reasonable alternative to privates now heading towards $100k a year will not dissipate.

+1. UVA became independent of the Commonwealth in 2005. Since then, the endowment has soared to 16.9 billion. It can do anything it wants to do.

It isn't independent of the Commonwealth. There was a law passed that gave schools (including W&M and Virginia Tech initially and now more schools), but that is different from independence. They are all state institutions, subject to many levels of state control. It can't do anything it wants. You are overstating the endowment (NACUBO is the source that does apples-to-apples comparisons, and much of it belongs to specific programs (like the medical school) that don't have any undergraduates.

^ This is the restructuring (not independence) act: https://www.schev.edu/institutions/planning-performance/restructuring-act

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Watch Dean J. There’s a committee making the decision in January. They never used test scores heavily because their pool does coursework more advanced than the SAT, especially in math.

So does MIT's pool. The SAT is an important sanity check.

With high school grade inflation utterly out of control, grades have not been a good indicator of proficiency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly every other large public VA school including W&M, JMU and Va Tech is remaining test optional.

UVA will take the lead, as usual. The Ivies have already done it.

They can't go test optional without sacrificing their medians

Not true with the elite public and privates. Not at all. UVA receives almost 60,000 apps a year. It's SCHEV median is a 4.4, 34 ACT and a 1470.That's not going to change because the demand for an elite public education at $160k a year compared to private at $400k (USC just passed $96k a year) is only going to increase the interest in top
publics. It's a simple analysis of supply and demand. All of the elite publics are seeing this, especially during covid when many families lost income and had to rethink the cost of higher ed. The next step would be for UVA/the Commknwealth to respond to taxpayers and reduce OOS and international from 26% to less than 8% as Cal, Texas, and N Carolina have done, but so far bills to do exactly that have never made it out of committee

Because it's economically infeasible. UVA has been one-third OOS since I went there as an OOS student the early 90s (and UNC was less than 20% OOS back then, too). It was a financial play then, and state funding has only gotten worse in the interim.

And none of the "elite publics" has gone test-required.

I guess you are not aware tgat UVA has been financialky independent if the Commonwealth for almost a decade? If gave it up to have more academic freedom. Since then the endowment has shot up Today, UVA receives onky 6% of its budget from the Commonwealth which makes it unique among publics. Going TO will have no impact on SCHEV results/GPA test scores because the demand for a reasonable alternative to privates now heading towards $100k a year will not dissipate.

12% of UVA's budget comes from the state. What are you talking about?

nope. 5.8% according to the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-much-state-funding-does-the-university-of-virginia-receive/2013/09/12/fb999782-1baf-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html#

If you include the medical division, which has a larger budget than the academic division, it is about 6%. But the medical division has never gotten state general fund appropriations. It is funded primarily by patient-related fees. Those fees can come from government sources (e.g. Medicaid), but these are not state general fund appropriations. That is why the percentage is so low.

This. The correct number for what people would consider to be the university is the Academic Division and is 12% (which is not far off from some other states, in any event). The Medical Center is its own entire thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this thread since it is now January. How do you think we will hear about the results from the meeting this month?

I called and UVA Admissions Office said they should announce by 1/31.
FYI - Virginia Tech just announced test optional through students entering through Fall 2028.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this thread since it is now January. How do you think we will hear about the results from the meeting this month?

I called and UVA Admissions Office said they should announce by 1/31.
FYI - Virginia Tech just announced test optional through students entering through Fall 2028.

They put an announcement on their blog and instagram yesterday. pp linked to them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this thread since it is now January. How do you think we will hear about the results from the meeting this month?

I called and UVA Admissions Office said they should announce by 1/31.
FYI - Virginia Tech just announced test optional through students entering through Fall 2028.

They put an announcement on their blog and instagram yesterday. pp linked to them

Are you referring to UVA admission decisions or whether UVA will change their test-optional policy? This thread is about the SAT. I don't see any announcements about the SAT but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

[Anonymous]

We went on a UVA admissions tour in April 2024 and they said they hadn’t determined their test optional policy yet for this current admissions cycle. Obviously they remained TO but I don’t recall when they finalized it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this thread since it is now January. How do you think we will hear about the results from the meeting this month?

I called and UVA Admissions Office said they should announce by 1/31.
FYI - Virginia Tech just announced test optional through students entering through Fall 2028.

They put an announcement on their blog and instagram yesterday. pp linked to them

Test-optional decision should be announced by 1/31. Yes, also the same day as EA decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this thread since it is now January. How do you think we will hear about the results from the meeting this month?

I called and UVA Admissions Office said they should announce by 1/31.
FYI - Virginia Tech just announced test optional through students entering through Fall 2028.

Thanks for checking! That’s great that they are still on track for January announcement, even if it might be 5pm on the last day of the month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this thread since it is now January. How do you think we will hear about the results from the meeting this month?

I called and UVA Admissions Office said they should announce by 1/31.
FYI - Virginia Tech just announced test optional through students entering through Fall 2028.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly every other large public VA school including W&M, JMU and Va Tech is remaining test optional.

UVA will take the lead, as usual. The Ivies have already done it.

They can't go test optional without sacrificing their medians

Not true with the elite public and privates. Not at all. UVA receives almost 60,000 apps a year. It's SCHEV median is a 4.4, 34 ACT and a 1470.That's not going to change because the demand for an elite public education at $160k a year compared to private at $400k (USC just passed $96k a year) is only going to increase the interest in top
publics. It's a simple analysis of supply and demand. All of the elite publics are seeing this, especially during covid when many families lost income and had to rethink the cost of higher ed. The next step would be for UVA/the Commknwealth to respond to taxpayers and reduce OOS and international from 26% to less than 8% as Cal, Texas, and N Carolina have done, but so far bills to do exactly that have never made it out of committee

Because it's economically infeasible. UVA has been one-third OOS since I went there as an OOS student the early 90s (and UNC was less than 20% OOS back then, too). It was a financial play then, and state funding has only gotten worse in the interim.

And none of the "elite publics" has gone test-required.

I guess you are not aware tgat UVA has been financialky independent if the Commonwealth for almost a decade? If gave it up to have more academic freedom. Since then the endowment has shot up Today, UVA receives onky 6% of its budget from the Commonwealth which makes it unique among publics. Going TO will have no impact on SCHEV results/GPA test scores because the demand for a reasonable alternative to privates now heading towards $100k a year will not dissipate.

12% of UVA's budget comes from the state. What are you talking about?

nope. 5.8% according to the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-much-state-funding-does-the-university-of-virginia-receive/2013/09/12/fb999782-1baf-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html#

Including the hospital? You're so stupid.

No, they are pretty spot on.