I think this is a good move for students whose top choice is UVA. If you read these blogs you will find a lot of students who are applying early to Ivy league and other top schools also apply to UVA early as a back up plan since it has good rankings. These students already have good test scores and essays written. Many of these top students get into UVA early and take spots away from students who choose UVA as their top school. If these top students get into an Ivy or other top school they usually don’t attend UVA. The early decision plan will let students who really want to attend UVA get admitted early instead of students who have just applied to UVA as a back up plan. Since financial aid will be given with the decision, I don’t think it will hurt low income students. It doesn’t seem that federal financial aid differs much from school to school. UVA doesn’t give merit scholarships so most students will only receive federal financial aid. There are some special scholarships for certain students but not much. Of course private schools will offer merit scholarships and so you won’t be able to compare those but from reading these boards it seems since UVA is a state school a student applying should not expect anything other then federal financial aid. If you are looking for merit scholarships then UVA is not the school to apply to, look for private schools that offer that. So, I feel that ED is a good decision for UVA.
The top students who are applying to Ivy league schools can still apply EA and have UVA as a back up plan but not at the expense of students who have picked UVA first.