Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 08:17     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:Admission to one highly selective school does not mean admission to another highly selective school. It doesn't mean they're practicing yield protection. There's a randomness to all this that is impossible to explain.


So true. Every application is viewed by different eyes at every school.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 08:14     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:Make this make sense.

UVA hates VA privates is the explanation we are primarily hearing.


UVA striving is what I hear.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 08:10     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:It's funny to me that some parents think the college applications process is like coin sorting, that if a student gets into a school with a 5% admit rate, that — of course! — they'll get into a school with a 9% admit rate.


+1

Also, if my child who is within range did not get in to a school that rejects 90+%, then something fishy is going on.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 08:08     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
It's funny to me that some parents think the college applications process is like coin sorting, that if a student gets into a school with a 5% admit rate, that — of course! — they'll get into a school with a 9% admit rate.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 08:02     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Oy it isn't yield protection. UVA does not yield protect.

But it does take a lot of out-of-state students (a much higher percentage than comparable state schools). And it does feel a responsibility to limit how many students from Northern Virginia so that it can take some from the Rest of Virginia.

And it, of course, limits how many it takes from a particular high school in NOVA. These are not quotas or hard limits but they are a reality and it hurts TJ more than any other school, then probably the most high performing HS in Virginia (the McLeans and Langleys) and then of course the private high schools.

All of those schools have far more applicants who would likely be accepted if they were from Roanoke than those who actually get in.

In other words, it is not yield protection, it is that your peers are very strong. It feels unfair but that is the reality in a lot of schools.


Spot on. OP, why not just accept this common sense explanation? Why do you insist on making it into a conspiracy? Is your very accomplished kid so fragile that he or she can't handle one deferral?

DP. Don’t live in Virginia, didn’t apply to UVA, but kids getting in to HYP but not UVA seems like obvious yield protection to me.

In my opinion the burden is on the people saying that UVA doesn’t yield protect to show that UVA in-state has a lower admissions rate and a higher SAT range than HYP.

If you can’t show that, all this chatter about how UVA is actually, secretly, far more selective than any other school on earth is just nonsense.


You're mentioning completely outlier situations. Very few people get into HYP and are rejected from UVA. It is possible that someone with a very specific hook gets into a particular Ivy but does not get into UVA.

Look... how do we know that UVA does not yield protect? First of all, it wouldn't make sense. There are incredibly strong students who are accepted to Ivies but choose UVA because of the money. Second, my kids go to one of the strongest NOVA high schools. I have seen the scattergrams and the top right corner is a sea of green with an occasional red X. Schools that yield protect do not look like this. Period. They don't.

Absolutely no one has said that UVA has a lower admissions rate or a higher SAT range than HYP. That would be patently false.

Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 07:53     Subject: Re:UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:UVA holds an extremely high bar at DMV privates. At the private my kid graduated from last year every kid admitted to UVA EA or RD was also admitted to an Ivy and most of these were HYP.

Multiple kids were admitted to an Ivy and deferred/waitlisted by UVA.


To me this means UVA has lost sight of their mission; they are not truly attainable for the vast majority of instate applicants anymore.


It's attainable for the top 5% of students. I mentioned in another thread that 30 kids accepted offers of admission to UVA from DC's FCPS public school out of a class of 630. Assume that means more than that were admitted. It was never meant to be attainable for the vast majority of instate applicants. Fortunately, there are so many other great in-state options for Virginia students - we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of good state schools.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 07:47     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Admission to one highly selective school does not mean admission to another highly selective school. It doesn't mean they're practicing yield protection. There's a randomness to all this that is impossible to explain.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 07:31     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Oy it isn't yield protection. UVA does not yield protect.

But it does take a lot of out-of-state students (a much higher percentage than comparable state schools). And it does feel a responsibility to limit how many students from Northern Virginia so that it can take some from the Rest of Virginia.

And it, of course, limits how many it takes from a particular high school in NOVA. These are not quotas or hard limits but they are a reality and it hurts TJ more than any other school, then probably the most high performing HS in Virginia (the McLeans and Langleys) and then of course the private high schools.

All of those schools have far more applicants who would likely be accepted if they were from Roanoke than those who actually get in.

In other words, it is not yield protection, it is that your peers are very strong. It feels unfair but that is the reality in a lot of schools.


Spot on. OP, why not just accept this common sense explanation? Why do you insist on making it into a conspiracy? Is your very accomplished kid so fragile that he or she can't handle one deferral?

DP. Don’t live in Virginia, didn’t apply to UVA, but kids getting in to HYP but not UVA seems like obvious yield protection to me.

In my opinion the burden is on the people saying that UVA doesn’t yield protect to show that UVA in-state has a lower admissions rate and a higher SAT range than HYP.

If you can’t show that, all this chatter about how UVA is actually, secretly, far more selective than any other school on earth is just nonsense.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 07:04     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:Oy it isn't yield protection. UVA does not yield protect.

But it does take a lot of out-of-state students (a much higher percentage than comparable state schools). And it does feel a responsibility to limit how many students from Northern Virginia so that it can take some from the Rest of Virginia.

And it, of course, limits how many it takes from a particular high school in NOVA. These are not quotas or hard limits but they are a reality and it hurts TJ more than any other school, then probably the most high performing HS in Virginia (the McLeans and Langleys) and then of course the private high schools.

All of those schools have far more applicants who would likely be accepted if they were from Roanoke than those who actually get in.

In other words, it is not yield protection, it is that your peers are very strong. It feels unfair but that is the reality in a lot of schools.


Spot on. OP, why not just accept this common sense explanation? Why do you insist on making it into a conspiracy? Is your very accomplished kid so fragile that he or she can't handle one deferral?
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 06:55     Subject: Re:UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:UVA holds an extremely high bar at DMV privates. At the private my kid graduated from last year every kid admitted to UVA EA or RD was also admitted to an Ivy and most of these were HYP.

Multiple kids were admitted to an Ivy and deferred/waitlisted by UVA.


To me this means UVA has lost sight of their mission; they are not truly attainable for the vast majority of instate applicants anymore.


That is not UVA's mission.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 06:53     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Oy it isn't yield protection. UVA does not yield protect.

But it does take a lot of out-of-state students (a much higher percentage than comparable state schools). And it does feel a responsibility to limit how many students from Northern Virginia so that it can take some from the Rest of Virginia.

And it, of course, limits how many it takes from a particular high school in NOVA. These are not quotas or hard limits but they are a reality and it hurts TJ more than any other school, then probably the most high performing HS in Virginia (the McLeans and Langleys) and then of course the private high schools.

All of those schools have far more applicants who would likely be accepted if they were from Roanoke than those who actually get in.

In other words, it is not yield protection, it is that your peers are very strong. It feels unfair but that is the reality in a lot of schools.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 06:38     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Colleges look for different things.

You’re competing within their pool of applicants that year and you just can’t know what the other applications looked like.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 00:51     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:Your kid got into a better school than UVA. UVA makes no sense. They took kids with lower stats from our school and then defer for EA and those deferrals end up at higher ranked schools. I don’t believe they don’t yield protect.


You’ll find this at nearly all of the T25 schools. Too many applicants for too few spots. With holistic admissions there will always be kids with lower stats accepted and others with higher stats denied/WL but in at higher ranked schools.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 00:48     Subject: Re:UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:UVA holds an extremely high bar at DMV privates. At the private my kid graduated from last year every kid admitted to UVA EA or RD was also admitted to an Ivy and most of these were HYP.

Multiple kids were admitted to an Ivy and deferred/waitlisted by UVA.


UVA doesn’t yield protect. It’s just an extremely hard acceptance from NoVA. My DC and their friends accepted to HYPSM were also accepted to UVA. But there are others who were accepted to ivies (including HYP) that were waitlisted or rejected at UVA. UVA is a tough admit from NoVA.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 00:25     Subject: UVA deferral but UNC and Mich and UGA accepted
Anonymous wrote:Your kid got into a better school than UVA. UVA makes no sense. They took kids with lower stats from our school and then defer for EA and those deferrals end up at higher ranked schools. I don’t believe they don’t yield protect.


UVA OOS ~ 9%
UNC OOS ~ 9% (but for state mandate, UNC's OOS would be much higher effectively)
UGA OOS ~ 20%
UM OOS ~ 17%

No. UVA is much more selective than them all.