I think UVA does a great job supporting kids from a variety of backgrounds. I agree it’s worthwhile to take a risk on kids who don’t have the opportunity to take advanced classes in HS but there are also numerous kids with demonstrated abilities in those areas that are not accepted that perhaps could have utilized the opportunity at a higher level. My son has not ruled out UVA. He has friends that are happy there who have taken similar levels of math and science but they say their classes are not harder than what they have already taken in HS and are spending huge number of hours on outside activities like athletics and marching band. Nice to have a balanced life though of course and I suppose they could have selected harder classes but we haven’t heard this from other friends in engineering at other schools.