<p>First it was every single social thing and one rejection after another, and now D has gotten a letter that she has been denied from her chosen major. I don’t even know where to begin. My disappointment with the school grows by the day. </p>
<p>What major? Some like Comm school are highly competitive. </p>
<p>Batten, which as you probably know is not terribly competitive because it is new. She has a 3 point something (right on the average for UVA) which you would think should be good enough to get into a new school. Last year only 19 kids accepted the offer to enroll according to the Batten website which implies a school that is not very popular. </p>
<p>Perhaps she, like you, assumed admissions would not be competitive based on the small size of the inaugual BA cohort and didn’t put her best foot forward on the essay, resume, and recs? “Popularity” of a program that has existed for only one year should not imply it is non-competitive. Batten would have every reason to grow slowly with students best positioned for success.</p>
<p>Batten is very keen on extra curricular involvement. And since your D for one reason of another wasn’t able to get involved, that may have weighed against her. Her GPA might have been too low also. I know someone who had a 3.6 and was denied from the accelerated masters program. </p>
<p>The social rejections came one after another and I do hope she’s found something to do, so I do sympathize there. However this is an academic rejection which has nothing to do with UVA and everything to do with your daughter’s grades. I hope you don’t react this way when she’s applying to jobs.</p>
<p>Whatever mislead you to think it wasn’t competitive is unfortunate. Any major program at UVA with an application is competitive, and 3.6 should be the minimum GPA where an acceptance would be reasonable. Below that GPA would be “lucky” and not “a given.” There are tons of other majors she can choose from that won’t reject her based on her average GPA. Did she go to the information sessions and ask about GPA etc?</p>
<p>Did she apply to any transfer schools? Otherwise she needs to put her best foot forward and choose another major for her last 2 years at UVA. Is early graduation an option?</p>
<p>I’m sorry for the disappointments. My son is in Batten’s undergrad program. I don’t know how competitive it is,. Batten is designed to expand in cohorts - they want to keep class sizes at a maximum size - I think it was 25, so they would go from 25 students a year to 50 students a year. </p>
<p>There is an option to apply next year (middle of 3rd year) to the joint bachelors/masters program. Only current UVa students can apply for it. </p>
<p>The straight 2 year master’s program apparently was very competitive last year. </p>
<p>@Hazel- I guess my first problem is your statement that the rejections “have everything to do with your daughter’s grades”. That makes it sound like she is low achiever. If you just showed that quote to someone they would think that she is doing poorly. I hope you don’t mean that an average student at UVA doesn’t deserve to learn what they want to, or major in something they like (and I don’t think that you do). </p>
<p>I guess my biggest problem is that the school apparently does feel that way. Unless you are the very top of the academic pyramid don’t try applying to a school like Education, or Commerce, or Leadership, or Nursing, or Engineering, or probably any other school, because you won’t get in. </p>
<p>I understand that not everyone can take whatever they want, but any University should have the flexibility to allow its students to major in whatever they want as long as they aren’t well below the University average. Admittedly I am not an expert on college procedures and statistics these days, but I doubt that an average student at most Universities is prohibited from transferring to another College within the University. </p>
<p>@Charlie- that may be true, but I am amazed that a school would have that few students in a cohort (especially with that many teachers). I thought that I read that UVA had hired 14 professors for that College. If that is the case then they have enough teachers for many multiples larger of a class than 25. </p>
<p>you already heard back???</p>
<p>Many state flagship schools have very strict limits on number of kids that get to choose certain majors (or what we call out west “impacted majors”). It’s one piece of info we did not understand at the start of the process but were glad to discover along the way. It’s heartbreaking to have your child go somewhere that touts many great programs only to find out the pipeline for those programs are very restricted. It’s why we choose a mid-size school that never restricts how many kids choose certain majors provided they are not on probation. </p>
<p>@ehh - yes. email Fri or Sat. It said a paper copy would come in the mail too. </p>
<p>do the decisions come out at different times?? my sis says decisions are unavailable </p>
<p>@ehh789
This is not the same admission decision for high school students. </p>
<p>@TV4caster
I hope your D will be able to find another major that she also enjoy studying. Good luck & best to her.</p>
<p>"any University should have the flexibility to allow its students to major in whatever they want as long as they aren’t well below the University average. "</p>
<p>The problem with the above statement is that your daughter was accepted to and is enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences, and within it she can major in anything she wishes as long as she meets the prerequisites of the department. You seem upset that she can’t just decide to change schools within the University, something that is well explained online and in information sessions. I think you will find that most Universities will not simply allow average students to switch into a different undergraduate school – and will require above average stats and an application to do so. UVa’s last reported average GPA for second years was 3.279.</p>
<p>Batten’s website clearly states, “Students who are admitted to this COMPETITIVE major will enroll in the Batten School BA degree program for the final two years of their undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia…” if your daughter attended one of the many information sessions offered for the Batten school, she would have understood the small size of the cohorts and the average stats, quality of essays and recs required. We were told that the essay and extra-curriculars should show a passion in the gut for making change happen in the public arena. Your daughter, and you, would further understand that the professors who have been hired serve the Masters programs as well, which have been running for several years.</p>
<p>Thoroughly researching one’s options is essential for setting appropriate expectations and avoiding a victim mentality. I sincerely hope your daughter has already brushed herself off and is working her Plan B.</p>
<p>M2T said: “I think you will find that most Universities will not simply allow average students to switch into a different undergraduate school – and will require above average stats and an application to do so. UVa’s last reported average GPA for second years was 3.279.”</p>
<p>I don’t believe that. It certainly hasn’t been my experience. Granted, I am only guessing, and the info in a quick Google search is not definitive (and it definitely is Univ. and College specific) but it appears to support my position.
I know tons of kids who had very poor grades who were allowed to transfer out of their College into another College within their University. </p>
<p>Anyway, think about it logically and I hope you will realize that the arguments against having stringent transfer rules are pretty compelling. If student can pick any major within their college, why not between colleges? If the theory is that students could overwhelm the faculty department from another College with the U, then why couldn’t a department within any of the other schools also get overwhelmed? If double the normal number of kids suddenly declared basket weaving as a major the Univ. would deal with it. Same thing with too many declaring EE vs MechE. So, why can’t they deal with it if a few more kids than normal want to switch from Eng to Comm, or A&S to nursing, or whatever to whatever?</p>
<p>Another option would be to let anyone in to whatever they want once they are in a school and use course difficulty to weed out the ones that can’t make it and shouldn’t have applied in the first place. Plenty of majors do that already with courses like Calc, DiffEq, Physics, etc. Especially now days in the era of frequent online classes it would be completely possible. ,</p>
<p>Here is most definitive answer I have found yet to the argument over policies re: transferring colleges within a University. And, it is an apples to apples comparison, and not comparing UVA to Mid Podunk State. </p>
<p>From the Cornell website: Is it hard to transfer within Cornell?</p>
<p>No, in most cases it is not difficult. If you have a clear idea of what you want to pursue, and meet the standards for direct transfer, you may be admitted directly.</p>
<p>In other cases, e.g., a below-average academic record or a curriculum that differs substantially from your target college, you may be considered for conditional transfer.</p>
<p><a href=“http://internaltransfer.cornell.edu/frequently-asked-questions/”>http://internaltransfer.cornell.edu/frequently-asked-questions/</a></p>
<p>Notice how anyone who is average or above is generally allowed to transfer to another College, and even the “below-average” student gets a “conditional transfer”</p>
<p>My son believes there are 60 people in his 3rd year Batten cohort. </p>
<p>The difficulty of transferring between programs varies from university to university. At Villanova for instance, it is almost impossible to transfer from liberal arts into business. At most direct entry nursing programs (including UVa), I believe you cannot transfer into nursing. If a UVa, arts and sciences student is able to transfer into engineering, they will probably need an extra time to graduate because of the sequence of courses. Many universities restrict the number of majors in popular programs, such as biomed engineering. At Penn State it is really hard to get into architectural engineering and mineral sciences. At U Del, it is really hard to get into chemical engineering. </p>
<p>Why is everybody talking about transferring? This is different. Everyone applies in their 2nd year ( or 3rd year in the Masters program). </p>
<p>It would have been a good idea to research and choose a school with the flexibility of Cornell, then. Perhaps a better example would be a school to which you have previously suggested your daughter might have been happier, Virginia Tech. Surely you’ve researched their similar restrictions? Just one example from their website:</p>
<p>“BIT (Business Information Technology) is a restricted major within the university, and thus transfer is not automatic. If you decide to apply to transfer into BIT your application will be considered in a competitive process with many other Virginia Tech students who annually seek to transfer into BIT. As such, your application will be evaluated based on your academic performance to date at Virginia Tech. Currently students transferring into BIT must have above a 3.2 GPA in a group of selected required courses, which the college uses as indicators to evaluate prospective transfer students. About half of those who apply are accepted.”</p>
<p>Specific to your daughter’s interest in Public Policy, which at Tech resides in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, she would again have to compete to transfer if she did not apply as an entering freshman: “Transfer applicants have limited space in the School of Architecture + Design majors. Competitive transfer applicants will present A averages on all college-level work to be considered.”</p>
<p>Many people on this forum debate and ultimately choose other Universities because of the certainty of direct admit to a business school or the like. They are making informed decisions based on their understanding of the process with data that is readily available. Others attend UVA with a backup plan in case they do not gain admission to the Comm School, for example. My own child has a Plan B if she does not gain admission to Batten, knowing from information sessions how small and competitive each class is. It is clear from your initial posts, however, that the competitiveness of Batten was a surprise to you, betraying a lack of research before applying. To now cry foul because you find it unfair rings hollow. In the context of your other posts blaming UVa for your daughter’s unhappiness, a pattern of perceived victimhood has clearly emerged. You and your daughter have the power to chart a course that will ensure some successes amid the setbacks, but applying blindly to competitive programs is not the way (e.g. rejection from UGuides should have been no surprise whatsoever). If you had read the Batten website as readiliy as you read Cornell’s you could have helped manage her expectations and ease this blow with a positive next step, instead of again crying victim.</p>