For schools who don’t ask for LOCIs, but just mid-year grades, what are they looking for? If a student already has 3 years of straight As, they aren’t looking for 1st semester senior year to show improvement.
Continued strength vs Senioritis.
And time.
They need more time to evaluate.
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I agree with this. I know a lot of students who have much easier schedules their senior year than their junior year. If two students are very similar, this could be the difference.
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Have admitted student dates been released?
My D25 was accepted to CAS, in-state, top 10%, 1460, 3.96 UW, 12 AP/DE, very good ECs, and found a way to include a historical connection in that essay. She and her friends think the most important piece for UVA is grades/rigor. She was surprised with her acceptance due to her lower SAT score.
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You can see in section C7
Test is of third priority.
The top is rank, rigor, gpa, character and state of residence.
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From that report the class is
42% male
58% female
Overall undergrad enrollment is
44 male / 56 female
Surprising.
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I think I saw on Instagram that 20-25% were deferred.
If rank is the #1 factor, then that makes sense. It is well known that females, on average, tend to get better grades than males.
It’s one of the five factors labeled most important in the CDS. Are those five ranked themselves or how they are viewed, I don’t know.
Even though test is considered (third level of importance), I believe it matters vs not testing. The parent said their test wasn’t good but without an actual # it’s hard to know what that means.
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I always hate that my kid took AP Calculus as a Junior that’s the one thing I would change that made her not have a 4.0 but our valedictorian took AP Calculus his senior year in order to not mess with his GPA on college apps and decided to do statistics at community college instead of at school. Starting to see how it works so I can apply it to my youngest but at the end of the day I know the right school they settle on will know the rigor they went through instead of just having a perfect GPA.
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If she was ready as a Junior - then it was what it was.
There’s no way to know if that class caused a rejection somewhere.
If she skipped math for a year, that wouldn’t be good either.
Hey there, rank isn’t the most important factor, as only about 34% of applicants have that stat.
The most important factors are residency and sustained classroom performance across core academic disciplines in a rigorous program (with the program being reviewed in the context of what the high school offers). You can’t really fit all that into the CDS, so the statisticians do their best with the chart they’re given.
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Thanks for the info. Any insight as to why the student demographics swing female?
A counter perspective: schools want to see whether students challenged themselves within the offerings of their high school. A student who took math beyond Calc BC with a lower grade is not at a disadvantage against a student who topped out at Calc BC, assuming the grades aren’t standalone subpar.
The only place I think that would matter is in states like Texas which autoadmit a top percentage.
@UVADeanJ … great insight! Our DS25 was admitted early action and ever grateful! Applied to a handful of schools as expected, mostly “public ivies” or well respected private schools. Being OOS we weren’t expecting an admit… but with the good news Friday evening UVA immediately top of list and a visit scheduled!
A question for you on this same topic, that is immaterial for my son but may apply to our last kiddo in a few years who will be in the same boat.
DS25 basically took all the “hard” courses one year early. Example IB Physics in 10th grade, IB BIO2 11th grade, etc. So personally we’re not a fan of grade-skipping but we are okay with maximizing one’s time while in high school. Enjoy the 4-years … don’t rush. Similarly any dual enrollment courses taken at PSU were always done over summer, to enjoy being the four walls of school.
On paper, it looks like his senior year is fluff… maybe yes, there is IB history, IB literature, IB French IV … but the math and science are now softer like statistics honors or IB sports health, etc. In reality, he’s kind of taking as much as he can that the school offers, and with our parental thinking to not hyperfocus on academics we don’t want him dual enrolling during the school year … is this strategy risky??? I mean, he got lucky… but just curious what a school rep might think. Thanks!
Does UVA consider the applicant’s decile/quartile rank?
My daughter took AP World as a sophomore, it’s her only B+, but I don’t regret her taking that at all. It helped prepare her for the 5 APs she took her junior year, including Calc AB. My other daughter is a junior and taking Calc BC this year and I also have no regrets for her. I believe rigor is just as important as excellent grades. Plus the colleges that have their own formulas usually give a bump to AP classes, so it’s to your benefit to take more AP classes if you are ready for them.
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Thanks. I really should get on social media!
College admissions at top schools are a crapshoot. The more you read sometimes the less it makes sense!
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female students have been out-performing male students at all levels of school for at least a decade. Colleges and universities with more balanced demographics either are accepting intentionally balancing their admits by gender or are generally much more STEM heavy.
So boys are falling behind. Shouldn’t this be a bigger concern?
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