UVa admission stats

sv3a
Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:42:25 +0000

Well, GPA information is rarely good, because you never know who the poster is and where they come from. The only relevant information in terms of grades is class rank, and it has already been expressed numerous times on these boards that you need a top 5% class rank to be remotely competitive OOS for UVA and top 10-15% for IS. Essentially, GPA is a useless measure by itself, without reference to the class rank or the estimate of class rank (since not all schools provide a specific ranking). The best way to figure out your chances would be to just review chances or acceptances threads on this board. The Common Data Set is essentially no better than assessing your chances by looking up UVA’s rank in the latest USNWR report and comparing it to other school’s chances.

Pretty much everyone here has seen the CDS for one year or another, but it’s important to understand that reading posts by someone like cav’s on this board would give more information about one’s chances than reading the CDS, unfortunately. It is tempting to think that sources like the CDS are great and all, because you think they are hard facts that show what it takes to get in. After all, that would be the rational way to go about it. However, this is one of the few instances that looking at a large amount of data isn’t as effective, mainly because of the very limited transparency of the admissions process (for obvious reasons).