Reply to NOVA Stats for spring '17 UVA, W & M & Tech acceptances (or not)

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Reply to "NOVA Stats for spring '17 UVA, W & M & Tech acceptances (or not)"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A) taxpayers are no longer paying for UVA - it has been self-funding for about a decade now.
B) It is almost impossible to get in from NOVA now. The TJ figures are an anomaly because of the self-selecting that has already occurred just to get into TJ.  Langley and McLean (with 2000 students) might sent 12 to 15 each.  The other NOVA positions have to be spread amongst all the other NOVA highschools (33 in FCPS alone) plus the privates AND the in-state students who are attending a private in Maryland or D.C.
C) Yes, you must be in the top 10% of your class to get in.  Class of 2020 was 93.5% top 10% and class of 2021 is 94.6%.  Remaining slots are out of state  paying full freight, URMs, international students, first generation or other strong diversity types who bring something to the class.
D) Yes, smart parents much prefer UVAs %26K a year (now $30K a year for incoming class) to out-of=state tuition of $50K or private university or SLAC at $70-$72K.  I know several students who turned down Ivies and U Cal schools because of the prohibitive cost.  One didn't get into UVA so went to Berkeley but his parents are furious.
E)  UVA seems to be also seeking out students with exceptional SAT and ACT scores.  682 in last year's incoming class had perfect SAT.  The two students I know who got in from NOVA had perfect ACTs.  The average ACT for the class of 2021 is 31-34.  The average GPA is 4.26.
F)  UVA seems to look for exceptionally well-rounded students and cherry picks the best off of each public and private.  Check the stats on College Confidential and study the backgrounds of the "Chance Mes" who didn't get in and you will be astounded.
G)  Eagle Scout seems to be well-regarded.  I work inthe field and heard that Eagle Scout is an auto. in for U of Cal schools (UCLA Berkeley).  That has been true in my experience  The four young men I know who went to UVA in the class of 2020 were all Eagle Scouts but also had GPAs over 4.0 and perfect scores.
H)  Although no one will tell you this up front, top scores on the SAT II subjectmatter tests will help your application immensely.  Many schools like UVA and princeton will say "not required but recommended" but they say that because testing is expensive and they want first generation, URMS and the poor to apply.  The ivies have a special program for this . . . to help the inner city and poor kids apply.  That is a huge plus on your appliction if the FAFSA will support your claimed financial situation.
I)  The college world has REALLY changed since we all went.  It's no small feat now to get into many of the schools we attended.  Study the stats on College Confidential to get  atrue handle of the situation before you apply and check with Naviance.  Your VA high school will not help you inthe application process if you don't have the minimum stats.  THat's why the acceptance rates that people claim show that UVA, W&M and some of theother VA schools are easy to get into is not accurate.  You can't compare the application class of UVA to other privates across the nation.  The public high school counselors will laugh atyou if you ask them to help get your B student into UVA and W&M and will steer you to another Virginia school.  They will not work to get good letters of recommendation.  They will not signal to UVA or W&M your child's rank.
I)  Re rank.  Now you will sqwak and say that Langley doesn't rank.  But it does.  Those 60 kids or more who make valedictorian (GPA over 4.0) are the only ones they will help get into UVA or W&M.  Also, if you compete for the Jefferson Scholarship, the nominating school must rank the nominated student.  Even if the school doens't rank, the principal must indicate a rank on the application form which i have filled out.
J) I have no answer.  Many counties in VA send no student or one to UVA.  FCPS sends about 600, but when you see those 600 spread out across all the public and private schools plus VA boarding school and Maryland private and DC private but VA residents, you see just how difficult it is to get in by sheer population numbers.  One Congressman introduced a bill into the VA assembly which would have allotted 100 more seats to NOVA but I don't think it passed.  Those 100 would have had a negligble impact, anyhow, on say Langley of Mclean.  UVA does its best to make it fair but it also wants the top flight VA students and OOS and international students.  
G) Meanwhile, as UVA cuts down on the no of VA seats, the U of Cal system isgoing the other direction to limit the no of OOS seats in upcoming classes to only 20% - this is in response to angry californians who are paying into a system that their students can't get into.  But my professional guess is that 20% will go to top flight international students.  The Chinese, in particular, have an irrational fix on UCLA and Berkeley because of proximity to mainland China.

I apologize for typos -working on small phone while on vacation  Hope that is of some help.
[/quote]

There's so much misinformation in this post I almost don't know where to begin.  For starters, it isn't impossible to get into UVA from NoVA.  My kid goes to Yorktown and the admission rate is a consistent 33%.  Over the past 3 years, from a school of ~1800 students, 401 applied, 134 accepted, and 76 enrolled.  If you are in the top 10% of the class, you are in decent shape.  Not impossible.  It's not Stanford.

682 students with perfect SAT scores in last year's class had perfect SAT scores?  Perfect 2400?  That's total garbage.[/quote]

Maybe you need to have a sit-down with the UVA President Teresa sullivan and the Dean of Admissions to get your facts straight.  I sat  I thru President's Sullivans convocation last year (DC is in class of 2020) and heard the stats.  600+ accepted with perfect SATs, 265 accepted.  93.4% top 10 percent of class.  all 50 states and 80 countries.  Here are the stats as known now for incoming class of 2021.  https://admissionsintel.com/uva-admits-9957-for-class-of-2021.  Note average ACT of 31-34.  Note SAT scores.  Note Perfect SAT scores.  I am told this class is 94.6% top ten percent of class. DCs stats were no 1 in class, 4.23 GPA (average of incoming class will be a 4.26), ACT with writing combined first take 34 and perfect 36 on retry.  His friends who also got in had similar records and perfect SATT II subject matter test scores in Math I, II and chemistry.  By the way, the Virginia acceptance rate is now only 29.1%and nos of applications are up.  People who cite to the acceptance rate as a indicator that it is easy to get in to UVA and to W&M do not understand that you cannot compare selection rates of a top state flagship to a top private, say, Duke at 7%.  Those that apply to UVA and W&M self-select or their public high schools do it for them.  For example, the TJ students by virtue of attending TJ have have already gone through the toughest selection process in most of the U.S.  Then the public high school will support the candidacies to UVA and W&M of only their top students because their reputation is on the line.  IT's the high school college counselor who controls the gateway.  She or he is not going to support a B+ candidate when there are 300 others in the class who have better records.  She or he won't push the application, pull together the letters of recommendation (or read them to make sure they are good and fit), help w/ essays and talk to the university (which they do ) and indicate "these are our top ten - they are also applying to HYP; these are our top 20; these are our top 30 . .  out of 2000".  UVA can take only a few from each public school. or a dozen in the case of a school of 2400.  You have a distinct advantage if you are applying from anywhere outside of Fairfax County or the TJ area - but not as great as many say.  Some counties send zero or one student.  OP asked for help in making assessments about where to apply.  To do a good job of that she needs to understsand the statistics and the game that is played.  If they in a FCPS they need a 4.0+ in order to get the blessing of the college counselor.  That's just the way it is.  DCs stats were good enough to get him into Ivies and the top tech schools in the USA with 6.0% acceptance rates that year but we knew how tough the UVA process was.  He got in and turned down some $72K a year elites but at then $26K a year for in-state (now jumping to $30K) you can't beat UVA for undergrad especially if you child thimks they want to go to grad school and/or you have otherr children in college or coming up the pipeline.  So lets help OP make reasonable choices instead of calling names.[/quote]

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