UVa sending its final ‘early-decision’ notices</p>
<p>By Aaron Kessler / <a href="mailto:akessler@dailyprogress.com">akessler@dailyprogress.com</a> | 964-5476
December 7, 2006</p>
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<p>The last early decision letters from the University of Virginia are in the mail, marking the end of a policy administrators said has kept low-income families outside the university gates.</p>
<p>UVa joined several other high-profile institutions earlier this year when it announced the end of its early decision program, effective next year. The reason, administrators said, was that low-income students were almost entirely excluded from the process. Last year, only a handful of early applicants even applied for financial aid.</p>
<p>But before early decision goes the way of the dinosaur, about 1,000 students will open their mailbox this week to discover the good news: Theyre in. Some 768 students from Virginia and 205 from out of state will become the last group benefiting from the program.</p>
<p>Another** 1,131 prospective students have been deferred to the regular pool, and in 306 cases, the answer was an outright no.**</p>
<p>We do deny some students at this stage, as we think rather than stringing them along, we should tell them now if we know they wont be admitted, said UVas dean of admissions, John Blackburn.</p>
<p>Blackburn said the admission staffs decisions werent affected by the fact that this class of early applicants would be the last.</p>
<p>We didnt change our approach in any way, he said. The quality of this group is about the same as in the past.</p>
<p>Blackburn hopes the end of early decision, coupled with the millions of dollars being poured into Access-UVa, the universitys financial aid program started in 2004, will help bring in more low-income and minority students.</p>
<p>They are clearly signaling theyre interested in more diversity, said Brandon Jones, with Kaplan Test Prep. Students will now be able to compare financial aid packages, even though theyll of course be competing against a larger pool of applicants.</p>
<p>AccessUVa aims to fund 100 percent of a students financial need, with a particular focus on grants, not loans, for poor families. The university has pledged to make a debt-free education possible for students from families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level - about $38,000 a year for a family of four.</p>
<p>UVa officials are aware they have a problem. A recent study of U.S. public universities by the Education Trust, a non-partisan group based in Washington, gave UVa a grade of F for its access to low-income students. And while that study used data from 2004, before the creation of AccessUVa, the universitys own studies confirmed low-income access as one of its pressing challenges - and the main reason behind the ending of early decision.</p>
<p>The numbers are pretty shocking, and everyone here wants to see them change, Blackburn said.</p>
<p>The year before AccessUVa was started, only 133 students out of roughly 3,000 in the first-year class came from poor families. That number increased the following year to 202 students.</p>
<p>But a couple hundred still represents a small fraction of the entering class, and Blackburn said admissions officers would like to bring more qualified low-income students to campus.</p>
<p>One factor that would help is to know who they are in the first place. Most universities, including UVa, keep the financial aid and admissions offices separate, an attempt to be need blind in admissions.</p>
<p>But Blackburn said admissions officers nationwide are leaning toward more of a need-conscious approach that would at least allow low-income students to be identified during the process. Currently, the UVa admissions office can use a students location or work history to attempt to discern financial status, but a national task force assembled by the College Board, which Blackburn sits on, is trying to figure out some more accurate measures.</p>
<p>One example would be to allow families to voluntarily disclose their status when taking standardized tests offered by the College Board. Universities could then get that data and use it to help give low-income students a fair shake in the process, or at least consider it as a factor.</p>
<p>There are already a number of long-standing preferences that primarily benefit the well-connected during college admissions.</p>
<p>The most visible of these is the legacy preference given to children of alumni, which gives those applicants an added edge over their competitors.</p>
<p>**We treat alumni children from out of state the same way we treat Virginians, Blackburn said.</p>
<p>Virginia residents are at least twice as likely as out-of-state applicants to be admitted, giving legacies from New York to New Mexico a greater advantage.**</p>
<p>Its an institutional policy that is seen as benefiting the institution - an attempt to recognize those who have supported the university, Blackburn said.</p>
<p>A lesser-known practice involves UVas development office identifying children of very wealthy individuals who may give (or have already given) large contributions to the university. These development cases are funneled through the office of President John T. Casteen III, which in turn makes the case to admissions officers.</p>
<p>The development office doesnt come directly to me. Theres a buffer, Blackburn said. The presidents office is the buffer, if you will.</p>
<p>Blackburn said the number of such cases is small, with about 25 to 30 students identified by university fundraisers for special consideration being admitted each year.