It depends on the quality of students from your school, though, and where you live as well. From my school, about 10 people came to UVA (and several more accepted) and all of them ranged from 1420-1580. There were more that applied with lower SAT numbers, and were deferred/waitlisted/rejected.
This is very much relative to your school. If you come from a small, south VA school where everyone scores like a 1250 and a couple above 1300 (also assuming correlation between this and grades/ranks), then UVA will just take the top couple. If you're from NoVa, though, with a lot of 1250s-1300s and a lot of applicants, then the admissions could be different, since UVA draws a great amount of students from that area. If you're from a school in Hampton Roads where many apply to UVA but the top students score 14/1500s, then the 1300 average marker is almost totally irrelevant. As I said before, it is very much based on your location, since that goes along with the size of your school and number of applicants, as well as how well other students applying to UVA are doing. While the 1300 answers the OP's first question, a 'good, solid score' is based also on other factors. After all, one of the major stats, class rank, is based on competing with your peer high schoolers.
Actually, there's between a 40-50 point difference in SAT score on AVERAGE between the numerous students applying from NoVa and those applying from a more rural area, such as Southwest Virginia or whatever. This is the difference between a 1270-1280 (the rural average at the most) and a 1320 (About the NoVa average) SAT. There are many exceptions based on one where lives. One school in a particular county can be very different from another school in the same county, just by the nature of what kind of programs exist in and what kind of students attend the school. Obviously, things 'average out' in the end.
Funny thing. As some of you may recall, my D thought about applying early decison and was told as an out of state legacy that unless she was in the top 5% (she was in the top 10%), do not bother. They were also looking for 650's across the board on her SAT's which she had not taken as of then. She just got the results of her first attempt and scored a 1930 (roughly equilvalent to a 1300 on the old test) with her scores broken down 600 M, 660 V and 670 W. She has decided to take the legacy person's advice and not to bother applying early although she may apply regular if she is till in the game at that point. She also told me that a highly qualified senior at her HS was rejected from UVA undergraduate with a 2350 on his boards. This is getting silly--UVA undergraduate is NOT HYP and althugh I am a grad of the Law School (which now ranks 8th in the country), I feel something has to give soon in the undergraduate admission criteria if UVA wants to keep its legacy dollars coming. Maybe this is why the Law School felt the need to break away and essentially become private so it could take as many qualified students (in state or out of state) as it wanted.
Yeah, my son (OOS) was waitlisted at UVA with a 1480 SAT and GPA of 3.9 (with lots of good ECs like Tennis Team Captain and Eagle Scout). He also took the hardest courses at his high school (9 APS total) and got 5s on his exams. Wrote good essays, had excellent recommendations. Not sure what they want. He was disappointed but is moving on (and not expecting to get off the waitlist).
Thanks for all your replies!! I actually am from a southern, rural school in VA. I will be retaking the SAT's in October, so I was wondering what I should aim for. Thanks for everyone's help!
SAT's are not as important at UVA as they are at other colleges...that's not saying they aren't looked at, however.
The many times I talked to those involved in admission and professors before I applied told me not to worry about SATs if GPA was high and I had secure ECs with leadership. This was obviously true because my SAT's were a 1200/1800 and I still got in.
"Maybe this is why the Law School felt the need to break away and essentially become private so it could take as many qualified students (in state or out of state) as it wanted."
the law school broke away so they could charge more tuition.
