<p>My son is very interested in UVA. We live in CT. His grades, ec's, are good (3.6ish). We are a majority family with no financial problems. He attends a Jesuit H.S. </p>
<p>Does anyone have experience being OOS and applying to UVA. I hear that unless you are very unique, it is almost impossible to get in.</p>
<p>I live in VA and have heard that to get in from OOS requires that you be in the top 5% of your class and solidly over 1400 SAT. If your son is in the top 10% look at Holy Cross which is near Boston and SAT optional.</p>
<p>It's fairly hard to get in. It's a top public school by all standarsds</p>
<p>cd - i think your assessment of being "very unique" may be pretty much on the mark.
My d applied OOS to UVA a few years ago. Your basic NY kid over 1400 (old score) SAT's and A + grades. A few kids from her HS with similar scores applied and none got in.<br>
Following the UVA boards for a few years, I noticed 2 fellow NY'rs who were successful- and both had stats less than my d- but their backgrounds were a bit unique-
one guy worked volunteer ambulance corp and wanted to go to the nursing school at UVA-
another kid was born in Russia and came to the USA as a child-
so their backgrounds may have been a bit atypical. There stats were solid- but definitely less than SAT 1400 / 2100 range.
so I think UVA, may look at the whole package- and having the highest SAT's/ or grades may not get you in--
ps- my kid got into William and Mary which is also pretty tough for OOS
but she decided to stay closed to home and will be graduating from Cornell this May.
Good luck with UVA- but I think they do have a quirky admission process. They may not necessarily take the strongest academic candidate- they seem to take one's background into consideration too!</p>
<p>A 3.6 GPA makes UVA a reach even for an in-state applicant (at least from my county). Very unique is important, but that statement is, IME, usually applied to William and Mary more so than UVA. I go to a competitive private school and UVA is almost always considered at least a slight reach for anyone, even with near a 4.0, just because it's so hard to get admitted at. Students who get turned down from UVA can sometimes get into schools that are considered much tougher (Ivy-type schools). </p>
<p>If he does decide to apply, no matter what you do, don't let him write essays about Jefferson! ;)</p>