Gathering application materials while home for the holidays

Hopefully, final exams are over for you and you can rest easy. If you are applying for fall 2016, you'll remember that one of the required documents is your high school transcript.

Just a quick tip: while you are home over the break, or taking some downtime away from home, take the time to contact your high school when it's back in session in January.  You can order your high school transcript and have it sent to our office even before you've applied. This will give you a nice start in submitting your entire application.

Have a great holiday everyone!

Are you a student at Reynolds Community College?

Did you miss the college fairs in the Richmond area last month? Want to learn more about UVa? Well, come out to the Transfer Information Night sponsored by the Parham Road campus of Reynolds Community College. Last year, our rep had a good showing of high school students and this year, we'd like to see more transfers.

For more information, go here:
http://www.reynolds.edu/who_we_are/media_center/documents/Transfer_Night_flyer_2015.pdf

We'll see you out there!

Spring 2016 Transfer Decisions

All transfer decisions were posted online last night.  Remember that you have to check your SIS account to get your decision. You'll find information about this in your UVa confirmation email. We will post all decisions online, but we will only be mailing letters to admitted students.  A student is either offered or not offered.  There is no wait list process for spring admission.

Do not call the office to ask for your decision.  We do not give out decisions over the phone. To get to your account, go here and click on the "SIS Login."  If you don't remember your account information, check your submission confirmation email, then seek out the help information on the left-hand side of that same page.  

About 15% of applicants were admitted. If you were not admitted, you might have the opportunity to "roll over" your application for fall 2016 consideration.  Please follow the directions in your online letter.  NOTE: This option is not available for students who are entering their sixth semester at a four-year institution (this is not a community college) next spring.  Unfortunately, these students are no longer eligible to come to UVa. 

Best of luck to everyone!

Visiting the University

We just wanted to put a little reminder out there that you can visit Grounds at any time.  We have information sessions and tours almost daily and we'll have our fall transfer open house on Friday, November 6th.  This event will allow you to hear from current students(former transfers) and faculty about what it's like to be a UVa student. This is particularly important for those of you who applied for spring admission.  If you are admitted on December 1, you have two weeks to make your decision. We do not have transfer admission admitted students days and as you can imagine professors and students are very busy during that time preparing for final exams.  It's best if you visit in November, if you need that visit to make your decision. Note that visiting will not play a role in your admissions decision.  Some of you live very far away and that wouldn't be fair to those who couldn't get here.  It is merely an option if you've been thinking about coming to take a look.

Review of Applications for the Spring semester

Eligible Schools for Spring Admission
Remember that in the spring, we only take a limited number of students to a limited number of schools.  We only admit for the College of Arts and Sciences, Architectural History and Urban and Environmental Planning.  If you plan to study other fields like nursing or engineering, etc, please hold off and apply for fall 2016 admission. http://www.admission.virginia.edu/transfer/admissions

The GAA does not work for the spring admission
The Guaranteed Admission Agreement is only available for fall applicants, and only applies to VCCS applicants wanting to study in the College of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and the RN-BSN program. But again, this is not available for spring transfer.  No need to click the button now.

Good luck with those last-minute applications!

Let's recap the Common App Forms

Hopefully, we're getting new viewers to the blog.  I want to draw your attention to the information on the right side of the blog.  This is information pertaining to the most common questions we receive.  We fear that not everyone reads it and felt it would be a good time to talk about the Common App forms.  Some of your other transfer institutions will require these.  We do not. Unfortunately, because the Common App is common, we cannot take these down from your application. Here are the guidelines:

1) The College Report is NOT REQUIRED
2) The Secondary School Final Report is NOT REQUIRED


That said, ALL college and ALL high school transcripts are required.
3) The Mid-Term Report is RECOMMENDED. If you decide to send it, send it after mid-terms which will likely be after the deadline, and that's just fine.
4) The Academic Evaluator Recommendation is RECOMMENDED.

Good luck!

Just a couple more weeks

As you can tell, our spring application deadline is just around the corner. Many of you have already done so, but if not, you should start gathering your required materials (transcripts, test scores) and your optional materials (recommendations) now.   It can take weeks to get your transcripts, so the sooner you get them, the better.  Remember to list ALL of your previous institutions and all of your current courses.

Seeing that you all are the first students applying this cycle, what questions do you have from the common app? It can be a little confusing and checking in here can help many others like you.

Listing all institutions on your application

Well, it appears that we have a little over a month until applications for spring admission are due. We just wanted to post a reminder for you when completing the common application.

It is a requirement for you to list EVERY SINGLE institution you have attended on the common application.  That's high school (if you were home-schooled, list it) and each and every college or University you've attended. Do not skip over these sections.  Even if you first went to college ten or twenty years ago, we will need the transcript and we'll need you to write it on your application.  For better or worse, we have access to a database which tells us what colleges/universities you attended, and if you make an omission, we could consider it a violation of our honor code.  I think many students mistakenly skip over this part, but we urge you to move slowly through the application so it doesn't happen to you. 

Preparing for the fall semester

Well, technically, it's still July, but here in the office we are already talking heavily about the fall. We hope you're enjoying the last few weeks of summer. As you prepare to return to school (or maybe this is your first semester of college), it's important to be aware of the pre-requisite courses necessary for transfer to UVa. We realize there are courses you'll need to take at your institution, but it's important to overlap, or incorporate what we're looking for as well.

If you go to our website at http://www.admission.virginia.edu/transfer and click on "Transfer Course Requirements" on the left-hand side, you'll see some very helpful introductory information.  Once you click through to each school -- the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Architecture, etc -- you'll see a list of exactly what you need to take.  Follow this closely.  If you would like to see how your schools courses might transfer, you can use our transfer credit analyzer.  This will show most of your institutions and many courses.  Do not fret if courses you have taken do not appear on the analyzer.  It doesn't necessarily mean that they won't transfer, but our registrars will evaluate the credit once you've paid your deposit.

Again, enjoy the rest of your summer.  The next time we write, the Common App will be up and going (opens August 1) for those of you applying for spring admission. 

Offering from the Wait List

In early June, we made offers to a few nursing applicants and some students in the engineering school.  Today, we will make the bulk of our offers in the College of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Architecture and Batten.  We'll offer to about 80.  Most are in the College.

These decisions are announced through email, so check the email account you noted on your application. Check your junk mail too.  The decision will be posted on your SIS self-service page and that is where you'll pay your deposit.  In order to keep the process moving, you will have a short window to deposit.  Your email will give specific details. In addition, an offer letter will be sent via snail mail.

If you need an extension on your deposit deadline because you need to know your financial aid situation before you deposit, please reply to the email you received. We will not give you an extension if you did not submit the FAFSA and CSS Profile by the deadline of April 1. 

Please stay tuned for further updates.

Send in Spring Grades

For those of you on a semester system, your finals have ended or will end very soon. If you're an admitted student or a student on the wait list who wants to be considered again, please send your transcripts. Either way, we need to see if you finished strong.  Remember that your college will not send these grades automatically.  You'll need to put in a request. Happy late spring!

A Few Next Steps

This is a short compilation of the questions you've asked over the past few days.  I've answered some of them in the comments sections of the last three posts.  I think you'll see that this process requires patience, but slowly, you'll get the information you'll need. 

Wait List

There are 400+ students on the wait list.  Currently, 300 have agreed to remain on the wait list.  I’m not going to break it out school by school, but most offers will come from the College of Arts and Sciences, and some from engineering.  After May 15^th, I will let you know if we are moving to the wait list and for which schools.  Those accepted from the wait list will be emailed or phoned.  We won’t accept anyone without your most recent grades. You must send an official transcript, just as you did with your application.  I can’t say how many students will be admitted.  On average over the past few years, it’s been 80-100 students. It really depends on how the class is shaping up.

You may send a letter of continued interest through the mail or by email to undergradadmission@virginia.edu or uvaapplicationinfo@virginia.edu.  They both funnel to the same place.  Additional recommendations are not required.  Again, your academic (grades) and social (disciplinary issues) standing are most important during this stage.  

After Being Admitted

Financial aid awards will be posted online in the coming days; some may receive it as early as Tuesday, May 4^th, but for many it will take some time.  Please keep an eye on your to-do list to make sure you’ve turned in all requested documentation.

For information on housing, please go to http://www.virginia.edu/housing/faq.php?faq_id=transfer

Orientation information should be emailed to you (if you’ve deposited) by the end of the week. 

Estimated fees can be found here - http://sfs.virginia.edu/cost/15-16. You are an entering second or third year student. 

On the Wait List?

You may use this post as an umbrella to make comments or ask questions about the wait list.

If you are interested in staying on the wait list, please make sure you click the button labeled “Remain on the wait list.”  If you do not do this, we will not review you again in the future.  The page stays the same after you click the button in case you change your mind at a later date. 

After the admissions deposit deadline of May 15, we’ll begin to look to see how many students we can take off the wait list.  These numbers vary from year to year and unfortunately, it can be a long process. We hope to make our decisions by the end of June. Offers are usually made in waves.

How do we make these decisions?  Most importantly, we need to see your transcripts listing your spring 2015 grades.  In short, send us your final transcript. Trust me. If you want us to look at your file again, send it along.  You’ll want to do this, but only after your exams are completed and ALL of your grades are posted.  You’d be surprised how many people send us blank transcripts. To send this transcript, please use the same address that appears on the right panel of this blog. Ideally, you would want to get these to us by the first week of June, but there is still time after that period. We know there can be extenuating circumstances. If you were not taking classes this spring, feel free to send a note/email/letter of continued interest.

The wait list is divided by school – Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Nursing, Batten, Commerce, Kinesiology.  So, you are only on a wait list for that particular program.  It is not ranked.

If you are offered admission from the wait list and need financial aid information in order to make your decision, we will do our best to help you with this.  If you post here, please be considerate of each other’s feelings, emotions, reactions and the like. We will delete any inappropriate commentary. Good luck all!

Not Offered Admission?

This is the toughest part of our year.  We wish we could admit all of the wonderful applicants who have applied.  The reality is that we only have so much space, making admission highly selective.  We want you to be proud of your accomplishments and proud of the fact that you stuck your neck out and applied to transfer from your world to a whole other world. This decision is not a declaration of your personal worth or who you are.  It might sound cliche, but one must keep these events in proper perspective. 

                        

We do not have an appeals process, but depending upon the length of time you’ve been in college and your desired UVa school, you may be able to apply again in the future. You’ll need to complete a new application. Spring 2016 applications(available beginning on August 1) will be due October 1.  If you post here, please be considerate of each other’s feelings, emotions, reactions and the like. We will delete any inappropriate commentary. We wish you the best of luck.