Online Transfer Chat Later Today

This afternoon, from 4PM-6PM EDT, we’ll host an online transfer chat.  Stop in to ask questions about the admissions process. We should also have a couple of current students who transferred to UVA in the past participating.  They’ll answer questions about transitioning to UVA.  We will not “chance” anyone.  By that I mean, please do not give your stats and ask us to give us your chances.  

To join us, please go to http://admission.virginia.edu/chat and wait for the grey box to pop up.  Enter a username, click “Connect” and enter the rooms.One room will be for admissions questions. One room will be more Student Life oriented. 

We hope you'll join us!  

Five Days Until October 1

I am preaching to the choir here, but I wanted to send a little reminder that that deadline is just around the corner.  Ask your last minute questions here :)

Order Your Transcripts Early, Spring Applicants

It goes without saying that the deadline for Spring 2013 application is less than a month away.  If you are planning to apply, but you haven't done it yet, that's OK.  Go ahead and order your transcripts now.  We require the high school transcript (or GED report) and ALL college transcripts.  That means every single college you have attended.  We require all of them. Many registrars' offices will take 2-3 weeks to send a transcript, so start working on it now.  We'll match up your transcripts once we get your application or vice-versa depending upon how you proceed.  With decisions coming out in late November/early December, we won't wait for fall grades to do our review.  This means your transcript is ready to go.  Alright, I think I've gotten my point across :)  

A Few Words about Foreign Language

Time and time again, we meet with students who don't know that foreign language is a part of the degree for most UVA grads and therefore something you should begin before you transfer.

Foreign Language is a part of our liberal arts core.  Whether you are an English major, Physics major, Studio Art, Psychology or German major, you must take it before or during your UVA career.   I've heard some students say they were advised not to take it before UVA. This is sadly incorrect. You will put yourself in a better position when you begin foreign language coursework prior to entering the university.

The Guaranteed Admissions Agreement requires it before you come to UVA.
Foreign Language is not necessary for Engineering, Architecture or Nursing applicants.

Remember, you can easily find the requirements for your school of interest here: http://www.admission.virginia.edu/transfer/requirements

The key to many VCCS course requirement questions!

As you sign up for classes, I think you'll find this post very useful.  In the spring, we posted an amazingly helpful document on our website for prospective transfers from the VCCS.  Being a power point file, it's not perfect, but it certifiably maps out a plan for you and your prospective major if you are applying to the College of Arts and Sciences. 

To get to the document, go to our transfer site and click on "Transfer Course Requirements" on the left-hand side. Then under "Important Links" on the right, click on "VCCS Transfer Requirements by Major."

It spells out exactly what VCCS courses you should take to fulfill your College of Arts and Sciences area requirements and puts you in the best position for your major.  Below I've included an example of the Biology pre-reqs.  Go to our website for a more legible view :) 

Spring 2013 Application Now Available!

It's hard to believe, but school begins for most of you in less than a month.  It's time to look towards the next application cycle.  To start your application, go to www.commonapp.org and put UVA down as one of your schools.  The deadline to apply is October 1, 2012.  Decisions will be posted in early December.  There is no wait list for this process.

We accept applications for the spring for the College of Arts and Sciences,  and the Urban Planning and Architectural History programs in the School of Architecture.

Fall 2012 Transfer Class is Complete

As I said earlier on, there has been no movement on the wait list this week.  We've tied up our loose ends and with that, the fall process for transfer is complete. I want to thank you for your patience and attention to the blog. 

Today, we will email all students remaining on the wait list to officially tell you this news. In an effort to be environmentally friendly, we will not mail letters.

I know this may be disappointing news, but hopefully it brings some much needed closure to the process. Soon, we'll start discussing the spring 2013 process for new visitors to the blog and those of you that are eligible for application.

As always thank you for asking great questions, but above all, thanks for your patience and understanding.

Wait list News: Version 2.0

At 3pm today, we sent out offers via email to about 20 students.  We are offering to students who applied to Architecture, Engineering and Arts and Sciences.  Most of these will come from the College of Arts and Sciences.  Our method of communication is via email, but these students can also check their SIS accounts whereby the decision will be changed to offer.  Instructions on important deadlines for depositing will be in the email. Check your spambox or junk folder, but please do not call the office if you do not get an email or if your decision hasn't changed.

The wait list is still open for all schools.  In fact, my sense is that we may make some offers for Commerce and Nursing in the future. I just want you all to prepare for the completion of the process. We hope to have all of this wrapped up by the end of June.  Like I said in the last post, I will announce it on the blog when the process is finished. You'll also receive an email.

Wait list News

This evening we will make some offers from the waitlist.  We are offering to students in Nursing, Commerce, Engineering and Arts and Sciences.  All told, it will be about 80 students.  Most of these will come from the College of Arts and Sciences.  Our method of communication is via email, but these students can also check their SIS accounts whereby the decision will be changed to offer.  Instructions on deadlines for depositing will be in the email. Please do not call the office if you do not get an email or if your decision hasn't changed.

This does not mean the waitlist is closed.  After hearing from this crop of students, we will look at our numbers and see if we can offer to more students.  It can be a long process and historically, it doesn't wrap up until the end of June or early July. I will announce it on the blog when the process is finished.  Hang in there everyone.

Transfer Deposit and Wait List Reminders

I thought I'd kindly remind the admitted students that the deadline to deposit is tomorrow evening at 11:59pm EDT.  If you have decided to turn down your offer of admission, please let us know on your SIS account.

I also wanted to remind the wait listed students that if you want to be considered for the wait list, you must click the button that tells us you want to remain on the wait list.

I will tell you when we'll begin moving to the wait list.  This likely won't start up until early June, but we are not bound to any particular date.  Plus, we are awaiting the arrival of your spring 2012 grades.   Again, I will announce it here when the process begins.

More Information for the Admitted Students

Hopefully by now, everyone has been able to check their decisions.  About 30% of transfer applicants were admitted.  It is without a doubt, still a competitive process.  The smallest percentage was 14% for the Curry Kinesiology and Speech Pathology programs.  The largest percentage was 34% for the College of Arts and Sciences. 

If you have decided to attend UVA, submitting your deposit is the first step.  Sending your final transcript is the second step.  After that, it’s out of the admission office’s hands.  Slowly, but surely, you’ll start to receive information from student financial services, orientation, housing, dining, the dean of students, your schools and perhaps other sources. 

You will sign up for courses and see an advisor at orientation - transfer orientation dates begin July 19, and the dates are listed here -  http://www.virginia.edu/orientation/?page_id=25.

Many McIntire and Architecture (some Education) admits will find inserts/enclosures in their letters.  These will give you detailed steps on becoming a part of these schools. For instance, you may be asked to take summer courses.

You can see how some of your courses will transfer by taking a look at the transfer credit analyzer - http://es-sazwebdmz.eservices.virginia.edu/asequivs  Credit will evaluated in preparation for summer orientation.

More on the Wait List

Once again, if you want to be considered again, be sure to click the button on your self-service page that will allow you to "Remain on the Wait list."

In order to show continued interest in UVA, you may email or mail us a letter that expresses your continued interest.  You can also send a recommendation, but this is not at all required.  What is most important is that you send us a transcript containing your spring grades if you are in school this semester. 

Just over 500 students were placed on the wait list.  2350 students applied and  around 700 were admitted.   I’m not going to give individual statistics for each and every program, but know that most of these students come from the College of Arts and Sciences because that’s where we get most of our applications and where we have the most spaces.   We normally build in space to take students from the wait list across all schools, but in the event that the classes become full, we won’t go to the wait list.  This happened with Engineering last year.  We have tried to prevent that from happening this year, but you just never know.  I love it when we can offer to students on the wait list, so I really hope we can do it.   

We will begin to look at the wait list in late May and as I said we usually don't "close" it until mid-late June.  The reason for this is that your grades are rarely available before the middle of May and we have to see how many admitted students deposit.  

On the Waiting List for fall 2012?

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

If you are interested in staying on the wait list, pretty please make sure you click the button to “remain on the wait list.”  If you don’t do this, we will not review you again in the future.

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 mid to late June.

Most importantly, we need to see your transcript listing your Spring 2012 grades in order to make a final decision.  Trust me.  You’ll want to do this, but only after exams and after all of your grades have been posted.  To do this, please use the same address that appears on the right panel of this blog.

If you are offered admission from the wait list and need to have financial aid information in order to make your decision, we will work to help you with this.  Again, you can only help yourself by submitting the right paperwork – FAFSA, CSS Profile and tax return information.

Not offered admission?

It is most certainly a hard task to make a place for this, but as a selective institution, we cannot possibly admit all of our great applicants.  Please be considerate of each other’s feelings, emotions, reactions and the like.  We do not have an appeals process, but depending upon the length of time you have been in school, you may be eligible to apply again in the future.

Offered Admission for fall 2012?

In order to bring structure to the commentary that will come to the blog, I’m creating separate posts for each decision. Please be respectful of your fellow commenters and UVA.   I will delete unpleasant and offensive commentary.

**Feel free to ask questions here if you’ve been offered admission**

As I said before, your status page is pretty basic.  The admissions deposit which goes towards your first tuition  for the first semester is $400.00.   Below your “letter,” you should see buttons for accepting or declining our offer of admission.  Clicking “YES” will not completely secure your spot in the class. You will need to pay in order to set it in stone.  You can pay with a credit card (we don’t accept VISA) or with an e-check. You’ll have until May 15^th to put down a deposit.  If you decide not to come to UVA, please decline our offer on that same page. This will make for a cleaner wait list phase.

We do not have admitted students’ days for transfers, but you are welcome to visit before you have to make your decision.   I can address questions about orientation and housing next week.  I’ll let you know when financial aid awards begin to go out. These are only posted online.

Make sure to apply by April 30 if you are interested in need-based financial aid.  As I posted a little while ago, no exceptions will be made with this deadline. If you haven’t completed the FAFSA, your CSS Profile and submitted your tax information, then I guess you have some homework to do for this weekend.

Today's Email

You should have seen an announcement email in your inbox today. I’m excited to announce that we’ll be releasing decisions online today at 5pm(EST). This email does not contain your decision. Read on.

It seems most of you are very much on top of your SIS accounts, but just as a reminder, this is where you can check your decision.  The new tradition (started last year) continues of only mailing letters to admitted students.  These letters will go out on Monday.

DO NOT CALL THE OFFICE TO ASK FOR YOUR DECISION.  WE WILL NOT GIVE IT TO YOU.

Again, to view your decision online, just log into your account in the UVa Student Information System (SIS) using your UVA computing ID and password.  You can access your SIS account and retrieve your password here.  Oh, here is a tip. Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page to see “View Decision" come 5pm.

If  you need assistance with accessing your account (lost or forgotten ID/password), please contact the UVa Help desk at (434) 924-4357 or toll-free (866) 469-4866.

The online decisions give you limited information - Offer, Waitlist or Deny. We do not email decisions.   Detailed information for offered students will come in the mail next week.

Thanks for your patience! 

We are alive :)

Hello everyone.  I haven't posted in a while because there are no new updates and I wanted to make sure that financial aid post was front and center.   We are indeed working hard to get decisions out by May 1.  Yes, unfortunately, all we can promise is May 1.  If we are ready and able to release decisions earlier, I will let you know here.  We wouldn’t want to give you a date, have something catastrophic happen on our end, and then not be able to deliver.  As always, thanks for being patient.  Stay warm and dry!  That is, if you're on the east coast.