<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>