Friday, August 28, 2009

Looking to Apply for Spring?

As we in the office begin to plan our recruitment travel for the Fall, so start the inquiries into the Spring Transfer Application process.

-You'll find our application on www.commonapplication.org
-We only accept applications for the College of Arts and Sciences and the Architetural History program for spring.
-You must spend one full year in your college or university before you are eligible to transfer. Therefore, someone in his/her freshman year cannot apply for the 2010 spring semester. You may apply for the Fall 2010.

We'll have an optional Transfer Information Session and Tour on Wednesday, October 21.
There will be a session given by an officer in our office and we hope to have a student panel of current UVA students who once transferred to UVA from other institutions.

So, mark your calendars for 1pm on October 21.

44 comments:

Fmalik13 said...

Transfermer,

Well, I didn't think it would be that easy but I guess even the UVA blog is quick to respond to inquiries.

Anyways, I was interested in Majoring in the PPE and PPL programs, and as well as the MESALC major. My question is how would I apply to a major such as PPE or PPL and is MESALC a regular major like Economics? I understand that I can include this in my essay, but I wanted to know for the commonapp portion where they request 3 majors. Thanks a lot.

Transfermer said...

Fmalik13,

I don't know what PPE stands for. As far as I know, we have PPL (Political Philosophy, Policy and Law) and PST (Political and Social Thought).

MESALC, PST and PPL are interdisciplinary majors because they require courswork in many departments, but they are still considered a major, like Economics.

You do not declare a major on your application, but instead you're putting down your areas of interest. So, unfortunately, you can only put two areas of interest here on the supplement. We don't take our academic interest info from the Basic Application. PST and PPL are not listed, but that was a mere oversight on behalf of the creators of the supplement. If you are interested in these, you should select politics and then go into more detail in your essays.

Fmalik13 said...

Transfermer,

I apologize about the PPE major. I mixed up PST with PPE in reference to the Oxford Major Philisophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) which was I believe Bill Clinton's major when he was there. Thanks for the info.

Seula Koo said...

Transfermer,

I spent one year in the university (08-09) and I just transferred to the community college in this year. I also want to apply for Spring.

Since I transferred my credits from the university to college, my transcript indicates only the number of credits, but grade.

If I want to send my transcript including my grade for the first year, should I send two separate transcripts like one from the university and one from the recent college? If so, how should I send them? Should I need to combine and send them in the same time??

Thank you!!

uvauvauva said...

Transfermer,

What are the statistics for Spring semester transfer? (e.g. How many on average apply to each school, and how many actually get accepted?)

Thanks again for all your hard work on this blog.

Fmalik13 said...

uvauvauva,

I am not speaking on the behalf of the UVA Admissions Staff, although I have heard on average they receive around ~250 applications. As far as how many people they accept usually varies on how good the applicant pool is.

Seula Koo said...

Transfermer,

I have one more question. If I want to apply under GUARANTEED ADMISSION AGREEMENT with VCCS, do I need to take SAT?

Also, where or whom should I need to tell that I'm applying for Fall under the guaranteed agreement?

I've read through that agreement, but can you please explain in detail about the guaranteed admission?

Fmalik13 said...

Seula Koo,

I am not providing a response on the behalf of the UVA staff, however I may be able to shed some light on this topic.

When you apply on the Common Application it will ask you if your applying under the Guaranteed Admission Agreement (GAA).

Although, there are guidelines to this Guarantee Agreement such as maintaining a 3.4 GPA and enrolling in specific courses that will meeting certain requirements.

I personally attend Northern Virginia Community College aka NOVA. The link below is the agreement made between NOVA and UVA for the Guarantee Admission Agreement.

My suggestion would be to call their admission office to see if your taking the right courses. The link below helped me a lot in structuring my courses. Though, the admissions office has been very easily accessible and helpful in my experience.


Link: http://myfuture.vccs.edu/Portals/0/ContentAreas/AcademicServices/VCCS_UVA.pdf

I'm sure Transfermer will be able to elaborate on this further.

Hope this helps...

obbelort said...

is it true that only up to 60 credits are accepted from another university upon transferring?

Fmalik13 said...

obbelort,

I know that a minimum of 54 credits is required for the Guarantee Agreement within the Virginia Community College System. However, you might want to consider revising your courses to see if they are transferable or not.

I know someone has at least 15 more credits passed their associates degree (75 credits). Even though he had so many credits only 48 or 49 of them were transferable. So he was required to take 4-5 more classes to make up for it.

What I was able to do since my freshman year before enrolling in classes was to check and see if UVA would accept a course as "transferable". There is a useful chart in which UVA provides which is called a "Credit Analyzer" (link is at the bottom)- majority of the information is good, however, I would check with the admissions department on certain math courses like PreCalc.

Hope that helps.

Link:

http://www.web.virginia.edu/analyzer/

Transfermer said...

Seula,

You need to send two separate transcripts. They don't have to come at the same time. The SAT is a required part of the GAA. We do not have a letter of intent, but you can check a box on the when you apply with the common application that states that you believe you qualify for the agreement.

uvauva,

In the spring, we only take transfers into the College of Arts and Sciences and Architectural History. There were no arch history applicants last year. Fmalik is right on the number of applications. We usually admit 35-50 students.

obbelort,

Let me see if I can explain this. The College of Arts and Sciences will only transfer 60 schools. It's debatable with other schools, but know that you will most likely be here for two years. Otherwise, you're not getting a full-fledged UVA degree. Fmalik is technically correct, but this is where it gets confusing. The admissions process and credit evaluation process run separately. You only need to have the minimum of 54 credits TAKEN at the community college, but the uva schools themselves evaluate the credit. If when it's all converted, you only get 48 credits, you might have to take some summer classes, but chances are you won't be behind. So, we look for you to take 54-60 credits(you should necessarily stop at the minimum of 54), but it is likely that perhaps not all 100% of them will transfer.

I bet you are thoroughly confused now. It is difficult to explain over the blog.The bottom line is that the College of Arts and Sciences wants you to have a UVA degree. You can't have this if your credits are largely from another institution.

Seula said...

Transfermer,

thank you for your answer, but I still don't understand that if I get a bad score on the SAT and I'm qualified for the guaranteed admission, am I going to be selected or not?

Is there minimum score for the SAT for the GAA students then?

Thank you!

Fmalik13 said...

Seula,

I understand what your question is concerning SAT's. If you are guaranteed admission then you should be fine. However, you are assuming that you have met all of the requirements. So even though you are applying under a Guarantee Admission - something may be missing (i.e. 1 or 2 classes didn't count)

Again, this is UVA. One of the best schools in the nation.

Generally what the admissions committee will look at are 3 main things (as well as other info like Extra-Curricular Activities).
1. College Grades
2. Secondary School Grades
3. SAT Scores

If these are the 3 major things that the admissions committee is looking at and perhaps your SAT scores aren't perfect, then you might want to consider taking them again just in case. I don't think it can hurt you in anyway - if anything it may increase your chances of being admitted.

Note: Be sure to take your SAT's at a good time so that if you are applying for the spring or even the fall the scores will arrive at UVA on time for your application to be reviewed.

I'm sure that Trasfermer will provide a better answer for, but this is just my input...

Seula said...

Fmalik13 ,

Thank you so much for your answers

Unknown said...

Transfermer,

I am very aware of the transfer application process, but I do have a question. I'm not sure if you can answer this or if it would be best answered by contacting the Arts&Sciences department?

Here goes. I know that only 60 credits can transfer, however, when I apply I will have roughly 75 or so, all of which are transferable. Since I only have two years plus summer sessions once I marticulate, if I get in, I didn't want to be too far behind if I didn't get into a desired major.

I first wanted to get into your ETP program, but since only 15 students are accepted into it I changed my course load to mimic that of your Environmental Geoscience major. Since I will be arriving with an A.S. in Science does that mean that all of my general education requirements will have been met and the department will evaluate my transcript taking the 60 credits that will best suit my planned major? I will still need to take a language, but everything else will be done including a non-western.

Just curious, it would be nice if the general education requirements were waived and I could be further along in my major and taking more interesting and detailed classes to obtain the 120 credit minimum.

Let me know if you could.

Cheers!

Fmalik13 said...

Doug,

I think I know what your talking about. I had the same situation (not with credits) but with wondering what I should do for prerequisites before going to UVA... I don't know much about this particular topic, but this information may help.

The process for when you apply to UVA is that the admissions committee will review your application. Based on your application you will be admitted to the school.
Then, the admissions committee will hand your information over to the department in which you will be going in to (A&S - Environmental Program).
They will evaluate your transcript and determine if you need to take any courses before getting in to the major (you could probably take them over the summer before you arrive in Cville).

I personally was interested in the Econ major at UVA and I know that they want you to fulfill Statistics and Calculus courses. So I am planning on finishing Stat and then taking Calc at Community College (it's probably easier to take math in community college anyways) which are transferable.

If you say your credits are transferable then I don't think you will have any issues other than the language requirement which I know you can fulfill this requirement in your time at UVA - hopefully. It's just good to cover all grounds.


Hope this helps.

Fmalik13 said...

Transfermer,

I am interested in the the Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literature Major aka MESALC.

I was wondering if this is a big department as well as generally what is the total amount of transfer students who apply to this department...

Thanks

obbelort said...

To Transfermer:

I think it would help to clarify my background a little. I'm a social sophomore, but an academic junior who will have 60 credits by the end of this semester, and around 72-75 by the end of next spring. I will most likely be accepted into W&M's undergraduate business program in the spring, but I would love to attend McIntire next fall. Is the transfer credit cut-off at 60 for the comm school as well? As I understand it, it is extremely difficult to get into UVA's comm school from another institution, but if I were to get into UVA's College next spring and rejected from the comm school, I might as well have stayed at W&M. I know it's completely my call in the end, but advice is so very, very welcome.. (I'm sorry I made this so long).

Transfermer said...

Doug,

Arts and Sciences will pick from your general ed requirements first and make sure that's taken care of as best as possible. Then they'll look to see what works best with your major.

Fmalik,

As you can imagine, the MESALC department is not a large one, but I understand it is of a high quality. There are only a small handful that apply to transfer each year, but keep in mind that we are not admitting you based on your major in most cases. We are admitting you based upon the school in which you apply.

obbelort,

I'd encourage you to email the office of admission or call and ask to speak to the "dean of the day."

I feel it's best not to get too specific and personal with your questions on the blog. Please keep them relatively general and short. Thanks everybody!

bjo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jrw132 said...

Transfermer,

I originally applied for admission for Fall semester '08. Would my high school transcript and SAT scores still be on file, or should I send them again with my Spring '10 application?

Fmalik13 said...

jrw132,

I believe they hold that information for 2 years...So you should be alright, nevertheless it's always good to check.

jrw132 said...

Fmalik13,

You've been answering so many questions that I'm not sure if you're actually in the admissions office or not. Are you? I don't mean to be rude, but the reason I ask is because I do not want to take advice from someone who may or may not be misinformed.

Fmalik13 said...

jrw132,

Your not being rude, and I appreciate the gesture.

I am not in any capacity associated with UVA.
I am just a regular student who is trying to become a wahoo just as much as the other person.

I tried to use words like I "believe" "As far as I know"...

I apologize to anyone if I gave you the wrong impression but I certainly tried to be clear that I wasn't associated with UVA in earlier posts. I apologize for the confusion.

Though, Transfermer will always come in and elaborate on all the questions regardless of my input.

I figured it is a blog and we could help one another out. Hopefully.

Again, my apologies.

Milton said...

Dear Transfermer,

I am a student at Northern Virginia Community College. I am a member of the honors society and my GPA is 4.0 (61 credits). My intention is to graduate this semester (fall 2009), and transfer to UVA (spring 2010). However, UVA’s transfer admission website indicated that in order to be accepted to UVA, I need to provide my SAT and TOEFL scores (I graduated High school in a non-English speaking country). To my immeasurable chagrin, I have neither SAT nor TOEFL scores. But that did not discourage me.
Fully determined to overcome all the nuisances and subtleties, I decided to speak with an admission counselor in person to find out whether I really need these scores. Last week I visited UVA campus and met with a representative. She kindly explained that I am not required to submit SAT and TOEFL scores, but it is preferable to do so. She told me that my grades (all A’s) will probably outweigh all other requirements, and that instructors’ recommendation letters would be extremely helpful as well. I am not trying to be accepted in UVA under GAA because this agreement guarantees admission only for the fall semester. I want to double check that the admission’s counselor at UVA provided correct information. I think that University of Virginia is a great institution, and I am afraid that my application (with my essays and letters of recommendation from professors) would not be even reviewed due to the lack of SAT and TOEFL scores. So if I earn an Associate Degree from NOVA, do I still need to submit SAT and TOEFL scores (or do they just increase my chances of getting accepted)?

Fmalik13 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fmalik13 said...

Milton,

That's a great accomplishment, having all A's. Which NOVA campus do you attend?

What degree plan did you follow?
It seems to me that you probably took summer classes because I don't know many people who have this many credits by the end of the fall semester (second year). I myself will have 53 and that is seen to be more than the average. 61 is quite an achievement especially being in exceptional academic standing.

Btw, I think just for the sake of being safe, you should just take the SAT's. Why not? I think you can still sign up for the October SAT (late registration) and still have those scores arrive at UVA on time.

Also, were you considering any other schools if you don't mind me asking....

Anonymous said...

I am applying for spring transfer admission and I began to complete the common application, but I am unable to pay the application fee. Does UVA provide a fee waiver for students who cannot afford the apllication fee and I would like to know what is the process for applying?. I read in the GUARANTEED ADMISSION AGREEMENT with VCCS that students must notify in writing to the admission office about their economic hardship, but I know that the agreement only applies for fall admission. So, do students who apply for spring admission eligible to be greanted a fee waiver?

arod1819 said...

Transfermer,

Does UVA accept out-of-state students for Spring transfer, or only those students from VA Community Colleges?

What are the pros/cons of applying for the Spring as opposed to Fall?

I'm not sure which to apply for.

Fmalik13 said...

arod1819,

I am going to apply in the Spring and I am pretty sure the application is open to everyone.

Here is what you should probably keep in mind (I may be wrong about this). Community College students usually have a valid reason for transferring more-so than one who is currently attending a 4yr instutition simply because you can only earn an associates degree at a CC, thus you have a legitimate reason (not saying those at a 4yr institution don't).

As far as in-state students are concerned, just as UCLA and UC Berkeley pretty much give precedence to in-state transfers over out of state transfers, UVA does essentially the same thing though don't quote me on this....

I would say it would be wise for you to apply for the spring app because then you will not be mixed into a group of other people who are applying from out-of-state. Meaning your application may be looked at more carefully considering there are I am sure many more out-of-state apps for the fall transfer, plus I don't think it would hurt you in anyway...

I know many people who have been accepted coming from out of the state and I am certain that if you are doing the right things (i.e. getting good grades, Extra-curric...) you can be admitted as well so don't pay attention to all the statistics rather you can become one yourself by simply working hard and putting it all out there, worrying about if out-of-state get's accepted more or not shouldn't change your mind from applying. (I am not saying it is...but people do think this way)

If there isn't a statistic you will make it (as far as being admitted is concerned).

I'm assuming you like baseball (arod1819), so think of UVA as the Yankees and they want you to play for them because you are good and they (Yankees) would be willing to offer you their services and in return you can help benefit their organization. So do your best to get the organizations attention, plead that case(in your essays of course) and your grades I am sure will speak for them-self....

Sorry for the terribly long analogy....

Hope it works out.

UVAfan said...

Transfermer,

I am applying for Spring 2010 and transferring from a Community College in N.Va. I am currently in my 2nd yr of comm.college. I got waitlisted for fall 2009 at the school of nursing and then got a "nice" rejection letter around July. My question is: with only about 10 credits completed. And right now taking only 2 classes (1 of the classes is a non-credit) will that lower my chances of being accepted for spring 2010? Should I even bother applying? I'm afraid I don't look competitive enough. Although I do have a full time job at a hospital. Please let me know, thank for all you do!!!

Fmalik13 said...

UVAFan,

I am not an expert on your particular situation, however I would like to provide some general feedback if I may. Do consider that I am not from UVA and have no association with UVA, though I would like to shed some light on your particular situation.

I know that UVA will appreciate a student who is taking a full course load (5 classes or 15 credits) and is doing well in those classes. Regardless of what you have taken I am sure that there may be a few prerequisites that you may still need to fulfill, because all the credits may not transfer over.

Working in a hospital is certainly a plus, but do not put too much emphasis on that as it may only differentiate you from a short list of people (in my opinion)

Obviously, you are applying to the Nursing school, but the school cannot argue that a person has too high of a GPA or is doing too well. They want to know if you can fit in the school.

As far as applying in the Spring, why not? Will it hurt? I personally don't think so. Work really hard on your essays because at this point that really is the only thing that can change, your grades from the previous semesters are now set in stone.

I hope this helps somewhat.

Good luck...

UVAfan said...

Fmalik13,

Thank you so much for your feedback. Appreciate it! I also don't think it will hurt applying for the spring to the College of Arts & Sciences. I think if I got waitlisted at the School of Nursing, I could MAYBE get into the College more easily. I don't wanna underestimate it though. I will work hard in my 2 classes this fall and work even harder on my essays. Thanks again :)

Fmalik13 said...

UVAfan,

No problem.

Just one quick tid-bit. I am not sure how this works, though it might be applicable in your situation.

I know a friend of mine who applied to Mcintire and stated on his application that if not admitted to Mcintire, then he would want to be considered for the school of Arts & Sciences.

I'm thinking if you can apply to the nursing school while stating in your application (via essay or some indication) that if not admitted, the committee would consider your application for the school of arts & sciences.

Don't quote me on all of this information, but I think it's possible for you to do this. I would certainly double check with a UVA rep. or "the Dean of the day" as they call it at the admissions office.

Who knows you might just get your first selection....

Good luck.

Fmalik13 said...

UVAfan

You said, "I think if I got waitlisted at the School of Nursing, I could MAYBE get into the College more easily."

Not sure if I understand this correctly, but just keep in mind if you want to be a History major for example, apply as a history major and etc. I just think when you apply to something of your interest then everything on your application becomes easier (i.e. essay's, recommendations, etc.) because one is more enthusiastic and shows more interest in that regard.

Applying to the Nursing school to get into the School of Arts and Science in my opinion wouldn't be the wisest thing to do. If it works out to be that way, certainly you got lucky and many people do. Though, this is UVA after all...

Check out my suggestion in the previous post may be that will work.

I apologize if I misunderstood.

Good luck.

uvauvauva said...

Transfermer,

I understand that there are word limits for the transfer application and UVA supplement essays. My question is: Will we be penalized if we go over the word limit? Or will it decrease our chances of being accepted?

Thanks again.

Fmalik13 said...

uvauvauva,

I'm sure Transfermer will elaborate on this though I would like to share my experience concerning the elaborated activity statement.

On the writing section (not the supplement - before the personal statement) in which it states:

"In the space provided below, please elaborate on one of your activities (extracurricular, personal activities, or work experience)(150 words or fewer)."

Keep in mind that the 150 words might be 150 characters meaning letters and spaces. I ran into this problem and it will not allow you to submit anything over 150 characters so just keep that in mind.

You will not be able to tell if you simply paste the "150 words" and save it to the application and come back later and finish it. I had my 150 word activity statement pasted, finished the application a couple of days later, then when I went to submit the application for good, it prompted me with a message stating that I was over the limit. Even though the statement had been saved on the app for all those days...

SO BE CAREFUL.

As for the personal statement and the supplement, I couldn't imagine that if you were a few words or sentences off they would penalize you for that. I think it's simply a general standard and a measurement of your writing ability. But don't take my word for it, that's just my opinion...

Hope this helps.

Good Luck.

heftyperson said...

so I have a question, say we do get accepted for the spring semester. Are we guaranteed on-campus housing?

Transfermer said...

heftyperson,
Housing is not guaranteed at this time becuase we're in the middle of constructing a dorm, but the housing department tries very hard to place all students.

Regarding a fee waiver, there is a place on the common application to click if you'd like to apply for a fee waiver.

JT said...

Transformer: This is not a question on applying for spring but on admissions in general.

Can I apply for transfer to college of arts and sciences under the guaranteed admissions agreement and at the same time also apply to transfer to McIntire? Thanks.

Fmalik13 said...

JT,

Before I begin my post, I just want to clarify as Transfermer had mentioned. I am not affiliated or employed by UVA. So I am simply just another student. I am certain Transfermer will give a more correct and thorough answer.

I just know of a friend who wanted to do the same thing. My friend from Community College did that. He essentially wrote it out in his essay that if not accepted to the Mcintire School of Commerce then he would like to be considered to Arts and Sciences (I think as an Econ major). But he got into McIntire so I guess that certainly made life easier.


Good Luck

Transfermer said...

JT,

If you are interested in McIntire, on your application, you must select this as the school in which you would like to apply. As Fmalik wrote, you should check the box for the GAA on our supplement and state it somewhere in your application, that if you are not admitted to Commerce, you would like to be considered for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Unknown said...

hi i missed the UVA application deadline so am attending a X university as a pre-med student i want to transfer to UVA this at spring semister or in the fall next year is there certain subjects i should take and if u have any information about pre-med transfer to UVA would be a great help

Anonymous said...

I am currently studying at Nova and intend to apply for a transfer this spring 2014. I wanted to apply for the PST (political and social thought) major offered by the university but read that there are certain additional prerequisites that need to be satisfied before you are accepted for the program. Since I am transferring after one year of community college, do these additional prerequisites apply in my case ?
Thanks