<p>My D is a junior just starting her college search. We’re heading down to VA this spring to check out colleges. She’s a legacy at UVA, has a 1200 CR/M SAT, solid grades- mix of A’s and B’s, taking a strong program with advanced math/science at a private school in the NE; plenty of EC’s and community service.</p>
<p>Thinking about JMU and UMW as “match” schools - not sure whether we should include U VA in our tour- I know its a “reach” but does she even have a shot as an OOS legacy applicant with those stats? I don’t want her to fall in love with the school if the chances of getting in are slim; also see she would have to take SAT IIs. Please give honest opinion whether it is worthwhile to even consider U VA for this student.</p>
<p>Contact the Alumni Liason Program. They will give your daughter very frank advice about the strengths and weaknesses in her application (or resume in her case) and what she can do to improve the weaknesses. Contacting them in her junior year is the perfect time because she still has time to work on any suggestions they give her. I think she’ll feel she made a more informed decision (to apply or not) after meeting with them. The head of the program is Cindy Garver.</p>
<p>They have daily program, then you can have a one on one with the director. My older D went through it. It was good.
Dont eliminate UVA until after you talk with the alumni liaison folks. But based on the info you gave, UVA may be a reach. Next year, UVA will have EA, so your D may want to apply early and find out before she applies to JMU.</p>
<p>I have read that an OOS legacy is considered as an “in state” applicant for admissions purposes; how much does this “lower the bar” for things like SAT scores? Does UVA publish anywhere the stats for admitted in-state students vs. out-of-state students?</p>
<p>If you are already visiting JMU, you may swing by and see UVA, which is only about an hour from JMU. It may motivate her to work harder this summer to improve her SAT score. Also consider taking the ACT. Some people do better ACT better than SAT. Some NE private schools are hard. I think A/B’s may be ok if she is taking a challenging curriculum and in the top 10% of the class (for IS); and she may only need to improve her SAT to be selective which she can take at least 2 more time in her senior year. </p>
<p>Also, an FYI, UVa Early Action notification will not be until January 31st so students will still need to apply to most of the schools on their list with deadlines prior to this date.</p>
<p>We found the UVA Alumni Liasion program very useful. We learned that legacies had about a 53% acceptance rate last year and those that were accepted were highly competitive applicants in terms of rigor, GPA, test scores (650+ SAT I and SAT II, 30+ ACT preferred),ECs, etc. In short, they are students who qualified to get in anyway and the legacy status was a nice bonus.</p>
<p>My son is a senior and has applied to UVA. Although he is highly competitive, we are not counting on anything. We have seen instances of highly qualified students being denied at many fine schools including UVA, William & Mary, VT, and JMU. I attribute this to the number of competitive students applying. It is certainly different than when we were applying to school!</p>
<p>That said, there is only one sure way not to get accepted, and that is not to apply. Good luck in this process. We will be going through all this again next year with our daughter:).</p>
<p>This is on the UVa Alumni Association site:</p>
<p>What percentage of legacies are admitted?</p>
<p>The legacy offer rate varies from year to year, but roughly lies between 45-50%, while the total offer rate at U.Va. is between 30-35%. While legacies are admitted at a slightly higher rate, it is important to note that in the last several years almost one-half of legacy applicants were not admitted to U.Va.</p>
<p>Yes, the legacy admit rate usually looks a bit like the Virginia admit rate. 53% is a bit high. Legacy status is definitely an advantage, of course.</p>
<p>The total offer rate is found by averaging the VA/OOS rates. We don’t really use that number. You can see the VA/OOS rates from the past few years on my blog:</p>
<p>Thanks for looking into it further. We thought it sounded high at the time (not that we minded:)), but figured that it was possible it could be 53% considering it included all legacy applicants, and not all applicants are necessarily equal in credentials. We were all taking notes and all had the same number written down, so it seems likely that we did hear the number correctly…perhaps the presenter just overestimated the figure or misspoke. Anyway, thanks for the clarification.</p>
<p>As long as your child doesn’t get their hopes up unrealistically, apply to UVa. I like the comment above that a visit to Cville may give your child more motivation to work harder on the test scores. </p>
<p>Of the 6 kids of alums who I know who applied last year, only one was admitted.</p>
<p>(Everyone needs a reach school. My attitude is: if you don’t get rejected from one college, you haven’t reached high enough.)</p>