UVa admits 7,759 for class of 2016

The University of Virginia announced Thursday that it has offered 7,759 people spots in the class of 2016.

But with applications up 18 percent overall and a new early action program in this year’s mix, officials said it’s hard to judge how many of them will actually accept that offer.

“This is one year where we’ll have to wait right until May 1 to see where we are,” said Greg Roberts, UVa’s dean of admissions.

That’s the deadline for students to send deposits, securing their attendance at the university.

The applicants averaged 1,396 out of a possible 1,600 (UVa’s highest average ever) on the math and verbal sections of the SAT. There were a total of 28,274 applicants.

The early action program meant that students who applied by Nov. 1 received a non-binding decision by the end of January. Of the roughly 6,287 early applicants, 3,187 were admitted. Roughly that many students were deferred to the regular pool, where another 672 were admitted.

“We work pretty hard in April to encourage these students to enroll,” he said.

Financial aid packages started going out last week, and all students who submitted the correct documents should receive their information by mid-April, according to officials.

Of the students who enrolled last fall, 1,202, or 35 percent, receive need-based financial aid, according to officials.

Officials are once again hoping to woo 3,360 students into the incoming first-year class, though last year they overshot the goal a bit.

“Year after year, the University attracts some of the brightest young people from Virginia, the rest of the nation, and all over the world, and this year's admitted students are no exception,” UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming many of these students to the Grounds next fall.”

UVa’s 70/30 in-state/out-of-state ratio will remain, of course.

More than 30 percent of the students admitted are from out-of-state, Roberts said, but because out-of-state students also accept admissions offers at a much lower rate, that’s necessary to retain the ratio.

Still, this year the same percentage of applicants as last year — 16 — was put on the waiting list, meaning it’ll be much larger than last year.

The most-selective program this year was the four-year kinesiology program in the Curry School of Education. Kinesiology is the study of human movement.

Other tough programs including the School of Nursing and the School of Architecture. The engineering school saw a 23 percent increase in its applicant pool this year, according to Dean James H. Aylor, ending up with roughly 4,500 applicants for 610 positions.

As a result, the incoming class is likely to be even stronger than in years past, Aylor said in an email.

“It will also probably mean that we have more AP credit and advising will be more difficult,” he wrote.

He emphasized that the school had many good applicants it couldn’t find slots for.

That brought the offer rate from 44 percent last year to 34 percent this year, according to officials

Roberts is quick to point out that, as of Thursday evening, only 1,726 students had confirmed they wanted to stay on the list, and that the number can be expected to drop.

Financial information on the admitted students isn’t available yet, so officials will be looking to see how socio-economically diverse, Roberts said.

Officials were surprised by how many out-of-state students applied to the early-action program, Roberts said. They had expected more of the applicants to be from within the commonwealth.

Other statistics about the admitted students:

95.7 percent rank in the top 10 percent of their graduating classes.

762 international students from 102 countries received offers.

987 students were offered slots in the Echols Scholars program.

116 students were offered places in the College Science Scholars program.

159 students were offered admission to the Rodman Scholars program.

45 students were offered full four-year scholarships as part of the Jefferson Scholars program.

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