We're almost there!

We're excited and almost ready! Decisions will be released today after 5pm (EDT). 

Tonight, you'll receive an email making this announcement as well. Remember that in order to see your decision, you’ll have to go to your SIS account.  You received an email with these instructions when you submitted, but I will detail them again below. All decisions will be posted online, but physical letters will only go out to admitted students.

DO NOT CALL THE OFFICE TO ASK FOR YOUR DECISION.

Again, to view your decision online, log into your account in the U.Va. Student Information System (SIS) using your U.Va. computing ID and password.  You can access your SIS account and retrieve your password here. You need to scroll down on the page to click “View Decision” to see your decision.

We (in undergraduate admission) cannot assist you retrieving your username and password.  If you need assistance in accessing your account (lost or forgotten ID/password), please contact the U.Va. help-desk at (434)- 924-HELP or toll-free at (866) 469-4866. 

The online decisions give you limited information – Offer, Wait List, or Not Offered. 

We do not email decisions. Detailed information for offered students will arrive in the mail next week.  I will also give some basic statistics next week as well. Please do not overwhelm the system by opening multiple windows. Take your time and use one window.

In order to streamline the comments, we will create separate posts for your individual inquiries after decisions are released.  

Stay the Course

As we get closer to May 1, we wanted to wish you all good luck towards the end of your semester.  Classes will be ending soon and exams will be the final caps on this term for you.  Keep those grades up, or work hard to improve your grades if there's room to do so.  It is extremely important for everyone to do this -no matter your admissions decision.  As I've said in some comments, it is not looking like we'll release this Friday, but we will be done by May 1.

This is your last day to apply for financial aid!

The subject line sums it up. This is your last chance to apply for financial aid.  Don't miss out on the opportunity to make UVa more affordable for you.
 
For more information, go to this great website hosted by Student Financial Services.
http://sfs.virginia.edu/new/undergrad/transfer

Do you periodically check the email address you gave to us?

In this day and age, the we do almost 100% of our communication via email.  We want to tell you what's going on at UVa, what's going on with our process and we want to be here for you in case you forgot to submit parts of your application. Yes, we can be flexible at times.  Sometimes snail mail gets lost as well.  Let us communicate with you.

**It is really important that you check the email address that you put on your transfer application.**

If you would like to change your email address in our system, let us know.  This address is also very important when it comes to financial aid and setting you up for orientation.  Until you become a UVa student, we very much rely on what you gave us on your common application.  Thanks for helping us help you!

All the latest from Peabody

-Many of you many not have received your Student Information System (SIS) username and passwords if you applied over the weekend.  There was a glitch with the upload from Common Application to our side.  This will be fixed overnight.  After that time, you should receive confirmation from us.

-There will be a missing parts email going out to 160 applicants today.   These 160 students did not submit the writing supplement that I mentioned in my last post. They will be given a short turnaround to go in and complete the application.

-Please allow 7-10 days for your transcripts to be matched up to your application if you applied within the last two weeks.

-We have also found 100 people who did not enter in their high school information.  If this is you, please write to transferadmission@virginia.edu with the following information.

Your Name, Date of Birth, High School, High School Address and the dates in which you attended.  If you attended two or more high schools, please include this information as well.   We require your high school transcript or GED score report if you decide to apply with us. 

Submitting a Complete Application

I hope that most of you have started on your common application.  It is not something you want to leave until the last minute.  It can trip up even the most conscientious of applicants.
 
As you may know, you need to submit three parts in order to complete our entire application.  That's 1) the basic application, 2) the supplement application, 3) the application fee.  We won't see anything on our end until you submit all three parts via www.commonapp.org.  You might think they are linked together, but they are not.  It seems that a lot of people think they've submitted all three parts because they've paid, but this is not always the case.  The most common mistake with our first-year applicant pool is that they submitted the basic and the application fee, and somehow overlooked the writing supplement.  Don't let this be you.  Follow through after you submit your three parts. And if you have trouble when attempting to submit, please contact the Common Application Help Desk directly.

Time for Another Open House

Our next open house is this Friday, February 7 at 10AM.   Let's hope for great weather and certainly warmer than what we're seeing this week. You will hear from current students and faculty about the application and transition process to UVA. See the schedule below.  The day will begin in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom and progress from there.  Please register for the event here. Read the entire page and then click on "Register" on the bottom left.   This registration process will instruct you to open a myUVA account if you don't already have one.

Open House Schedule of Events:

10:00am - 10:45am: Transfer Information Session
11:00am - 11:45am: Presentations Given by Individual Schools
12:00pm: Walking Tour of Grounds

The day should end between 1:30-2PM. 

We hope you can join us!

What is a Secondary School?

When filling out the Common App, your basic application will ask for a list of all schools which you attended in the past.  It is imperative that you list each and every college you attended.  Yes, it's true.

In addition, you have to list your secondary school. Many applicants are confused by this term.  It is not one that we use often, but you should know that your secondary school is your high school.  Many students who applied for spring put their college in this spot.  This is not a college or university; it's a high school.

Spring Tuition Deposit Payment Issues

For you spring admits, we are aware of the difficulties surrounding payment of the tuition deposit.  Our information technology group is working very hard with our third-party payment vendor in order to get this bug fixed.   This situation is far from ideal. Please hold tight and I'll let you know when things are up and running.  Thanks for your patience everyone!


UPDATE:  The issue should be resolved by 6pm tonight.  Please let us know if you can complete the transaction, or if you're having trouble getting through.  

Spring 2014 Transfer Decisions

All transfer decisions will be posted online this evening at 5PM EST.  Remember that you have to consult your SIS account to get your decision. You'll have 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, 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 2014 consideration.  Please follow the directions in your online letter.  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.

The Fall Transfer Open House is this Friday

Some of you may have received an email from us and some of you may have spotted our website earlier this month. Our next open house is this Friday, November 1 at 10AM.   Looks like it will be a beautiful day. You will hear from current students and faculty about the application and transition process to UVA. See the schedule below.  The day will begin in the Newcomb Hall Theater and progress from there.  Please register for the event here. Read the entire page and then click on "Register" on the bottom left.   This registration process will instruct you to open a myUVA account if you don't already have one.

Open House Schedule of Events:

10:00am - 10:45am: Transfer Information Session
11:00am - 11:45am: Presentations Given by Individual Schools
12:00pm: Walking Tour of Grounds

The day should end between 1:30-2PM. 

We hope you can join us!

College Fairs at NVCC Campuses

If you are a student at the Northern Virginia Community Colleges, and you missed our information sessions last week, you can catch us at the following college fairs. 

*Woodbridge Campus - Tuesday, October 22 - 10:30am-12:30pm
*Annandale Campus - Tuesday, October 23 - 10:30am-12:30pm
*Alexandria Campus - Thursday, October 24 - 10:30am-12:30pm

*The Manassas fair occurred a couple of weeks ago. 

Deadline Day

As you know, today is the deadline for the spring application!  The Common App is beautiful and bulky.  Don't wait until the last minute to apply!

As long as you apply on time, we'll accept transcripts after the deadline, but those should get here in the next few days. 

That Pesky Registrar's Report

For those of you who have started the application, you might have seen the following prompt to enter your registrar's information.  This is new on common app this year.  Unfortunately, we do not require the form.  So, in turn your registrar may not fill it out.  If they don't complete it, it will not affect your chances of admission.  The only thing we want to see from the Registrar's Office is your transcript.

The High School Transcript

For our last installment in this series, let's talk about the high school transcript.  The high school transcript (or GED score report) is required for every applicant, no matter how old you are and no matter how many college courses you've taken.  Even if you're planning on getting an associates, or maybe you already have one... the high school transcript is required.  Squash those rumors.  We have seen diligent applicants who graduated from high school 20, 30 years ago get their transcripts. It's more possible than you might think.

If you attended high school outside of the U.S., we require a translated transcript.  Most applicants use WES or the World Education Service, This can take time, so start working on it as soon as possible, be you a spring or fall applicant.

If you graduated high school recently, we are still closely looking at your high school record.  Typically, the longer you've been in college, the less we'll look at your high school record.

Order those transcripts now. Check it off of your mental to-do list early. You can send them even if you have yet to apply.  We'll gladly hold onto it until your application is submitted.

Foreign Language for UVA

When we meet transfer students, they are often surprised that we look for foreign language from the applicants who are interested in the "College" of Arts and Sciences, the McIntire School of "Comm"erce and the Curry BA/Master of Teaching program. This has always been a part of the degree programs and you will do yourself a great service by taking these courses before you come to UVA.  In fact, the Comm school expects you to have them before you get here. The GAA absolutely requires it.  But, the bottom line is that we look for it from all applicants to these schools.

You may take the courses through the 202 level and in some cases, you can take an AP or an SAT Subject exam to satisfy the requirement.  For a list of how to satisfy language through testing, go to: http://college.artsandsciences.virginia.edu/requirements/competency/#foreign

Standardized Testing

I am turning the page and looking towards the application cycles for spring and fall 2014.  My next couple of posts will address components of the application that students seem to miss or fail to address until it is deadline time.  First up, standardized testing.  We like standardized testing for our transfers.

We require standardized testing of most of our applicants.

-The SAT or ACT or TOEFL (for students whose first language is not english) is required for ANYONE applying under the GAA (no matter how old you are, no matter how many credits or associate degrees you have, and no matter how long you have been out of high school)

-The SAT or ACT or TOEFL is required for anyone who graduated from high school less than five years ago.  That's 2008-2012 for spring 2014 (2013 HS grades cannot apply for spring) applicants and 2009-2013 for fall 2014 applicants. Applicants are rejected simply because they are missing this required document.

-We accept the TOEFL or IELTS for students whose first language is not English.  We're looking for a 90 (100 for Commerce) or above on the TOEFL or 7.0 or above on the IELTS.


**Plan your testing schedule to fit in with application deadlines.  We'll accept the October SAT/TOEFL/IELTS test for spring 2014 and as late as the March date for the SAT/ACT/TOEFL/IELTS**

The Wait is Over

We have closed the waiting list.  You should receive an email this evening and this is our final decision.

We know that the wait can be exhausting, so we appreciate your patience and understanding. This will come as a disappointment for many of you, but on the wee little bright side, the wait is over. 

Thanks again for your interest and your attention to the blog.

The deadline for spring admission is less than three months away. Stay tuned.

Signing off for now...

The Next Wave

The next wave of offers will be released within the next 24 hours.  This will be about 40 applicants from the College, Engineering and the Batten School of Public Policy.  There are plenty of Virginians and out of staters in this batch, as there were in the first wave.  Keep in mind that more Virginians apply during the transfer process. This is the opposite for first-year admission.  More out-of-staters apply during that process. We are coming towards the end, but it's not over yet.  Again, I will announce it here if there are more offers or if the waitlist is closing for any school.  We hope to have this wrapped up by the end of the month or beginning of July.   

New News

Breaking news.  Our first major wave of Arts and Sciences and Engineering offers will go out tomorrow.  We have already offered to a tiny group from the architecture school and the commerce school, but these lists are not yet officially closed. We will also offer to some on the nursing waiting list tomorrow.  In all, somewhere around 75-80 decisions will be turned to offers.

These offers are announced through email, so check the email account you entered on your application. Check your junk mail too.  In order to keep this moving, you will have 48 hours to deposit.  Go back into your SIS self-service page and there you can pay your $400 deposit. 

Good luck!