Yep- all of this.
My daughter decided not to apply to UVA because she was worried she would get accepted and feel this internal and peer pressure to accept an offer if she got in because of the schoolâs reputation. She had the stats to get into UVA and the other good schools that did allow freshman to declare a business major. But UVA requires all freshman to come in undeclared, and students apply for admission into the accounting program for their junior and senior year. We were told there was a 50/50 chance of being admitted, so she didnt understand the point of that if she already knew what she wanted to major in. I respected her decision and didnt make her apply to UVA. I also figured, if she really wanted to, she could apply to the UVA business school as an external transfer when the UVA students are applying for busines school admissions. But I wonder if that was the right decision?
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I donât think the same 10,000 kids are getting 10 or more acceptances. S24 was rejected twice before UVA (and a likely letter from William & Mary) and I highly doubt he will get into most of his remaining 9 schools.
Extremely random data point / comment. Yesterday while I was at the grocery store I overheard two sets of parents discussing the UVA admission decisions. I couldnât help but hear them because (1) they were totally blocking the chobani yogurt, which were on sale and what I was aiming for so i had to be practically on top of them to get what I needed; and (2) they were repeatedly saying the name of my sonâs very strong local public high school. The more I listened the more I realized that they were complaining that not enough kids had gotten in from their local private high school. I know nothing about the rigor of this school, just that itâs crazy expensive for high school. Anyhoo, the gist of their complaints was that because so many kids got in from the public high school, where they KNOW people applied test optional, and not as many got in from their fancy private high school, clearly the UVA admissions folks were biased against the private high school.
ACK - posted too early, editing to add⊠What this left me walking away with was (1) dude, snob much? (2) letâs maybe not talk about other schools/people/kids in the dairy section, you donât know who is standing next to you; (3) sounds like admission was hard all around, even at the âfancyâ schools; and (4) how on earth would they know if the local public school kids applied test optional or not, or what their qualifications were, or anything to lead them to âUVA doesnât like usâ?
No idea why Iâm sharing this, just, maybe, donât dis other people by the yogurt.
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I donât want to do a deep dive into dairy section discussions, but it is âreceived wisdomâ among the DC area private school parents that UVA and W&M favor the NOVA public schools, while the NOVA public school parents feel that the privates (particularly SLACs, non-Ivys and Catholic schools) favor the DC private schools.
Everyone needs an âotherâ to blame. From my older sonâs experience, I think there is something to these sentiments, just like there is some evidence to support it being more difficult in general to get into UVA from NOVA and Richmond. But only the admissions office will truly ever know.
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The âwhy didnât I get inâ discussion inevitably happens this time every year for kids applying to highly rejective/selective schools. While âyield protectionâ is a thing and weâd be naive to assume it never happens in the college landscape, it doesnât happen nearly enough to be the go to explanation its become. I like to remind people this time of year that you are literally only being compared to the people that drill down into your exact admission demographic bucket. Are you in state or out of state, which college are you applying to within the university, private or public high school (some schools), gender, ethnicity, and to varying degrees the standard hooks (recruited athlete, first gen, URM, legacy, geography). Institutional priorities determine the numbers and the AOâs determine the fit based on your application for each school which is why despite the fact that you are the same applicant, your chances vary at different schools with similar profiles so you may get in at UVA and not UNC or vice versa, or neither, or both.
In my D24âs case, she applied OOS to Kinesiology in the school of Education. In 2023 there were 136 offers made to applicants in the school of Education. While not direct data for these applicants, I can presume based on overall UVA student data that roughly 30% of that 136 were available to OOS students so 40 spots. And similarly I can presume roughly half of those spots are reserved per gender so around 20 with only a few demographic filters, there are likely a few more that would dwindle the number of seats she is able to fill but Iâll stop there for ease. Yes what sheâs accomplished in her time in the four years of high school is phenomenal, but its also easy to see how there were 20 other amazing kids in the world like her too!
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Perhaps not in the 10,000 cohort?
D24 OOS Waitlisted
Double legacy
4.0UW/4.5W
35 ACT
12 APs
Varsity athlete
Artist (painting/drawing) w/ awards
Class Officer
ECs, including lots of community service
I give up on understanding the admissions process, and itâs disheartening for us to see our very high-performing daughter get what we see as a soft rejection at our alma mater.
Extremely competitive.
That could be true, considering the cost of attendance has gone up dramatically. There is also some self selection bias because many kids do not apply due to affordability factors. You raise a very important point.
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Public or private?
I think itâs a very wise decision if she knows for certain she wants to major in Accounting to attend a school where she is directly admitted into the program. That was the appeal for my son who attended VA Tech.
Private. Same school I attended.
Thanks for this response. Itâs so reassuring to know that she wasnât the only one thinking along this line. Her logic made sense to me. I was just questioning it because I wasnât hearing any other parents doing what I was letting my daughter do. I only knew of another parent who did the opposite of us.
my daughter was very similar. We did ask her to apply to UVA since it was in state. She was actually dreading an unexpected acceptance coming in as she was direct admit to business school (also wants to study accounting) at 7 other schools but she knew that if she got accepted to UVA she would feel intense pressure to attend even though she would still have to compete again in order to major in her desired major. Of course, we would never ask or encourage her to attend if it wasnât her best choice, but she was vocal about how much pressure she would feel from peers and others if she were accepted.
Itâs a huge risk when you know for certain that is what you want to major in. Now my daughter was just accepted to VT, UVA, and W&M. She is pre-law so has some flexibility in what she gets her undergrad in. It is still a significant factor though in deciding between the schools since she is interested in Business. UVA has a business minor as an option though so that is appealing.
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Being in accounting myself, and having interviewed someone who went UVA but who didnât get into McIntire, may have influenced my decision to let my daughter decide too. The person I interviewed had to craft his own major at UVA after not getting into McIntire and was trying to find an accounting job at the time.
Ugh thatâs interesting. My degree is accounting as well so I understand. I did read this year UVA will be allowing them to apply to the Business school after their freshman year. I donât know if that will help or make a difference.
Unless you are only interested in accounting, the in and out of McIntire doesnât have as much of an impact as you would thinkâŠthat may change with them going to a 3 year program (admission after first year) next yearâŠwhich then may inevitably go to direct admit.
I say this with a child who graduated last year as an Econ major who didnât get into McIntire with a 3.7+ gpa. She minored in Entrepreneurship at McIntire and landed a job in finance starting at $100K+/ year with three other UVA grads in her cohort all from McIntire.
She was OOS (legacy- me CLAS â92) and got into UNC (IS) and Carroll direct at BC.
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Another thing that I found interesting through this application process this year, was that there are many schools that donât even have Accounting as an undergrad major!