By Jason Bacaj
Efforts to streamline the application process have paid off with what one admission official suggests may be the most diverse and strongest class admitted to the University of Virginia.
In the first year that students were able to identify themselves in multiple ethnic categories, 907 applicants checked at least one category, up from 770 members of the Class of 2012. SAT scores rose by about 10 points from a year ago, and the number of incoming students ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class grew by nearly a percentage point.
A total of 3,308 students accepted admission. That’s nearly half — 49 percent — of those who received offers. UVa expects that about 60 students will drop out of the class before the official census in October, bringing the class total close the target enrollment of 3,240.
More than two-thirds of incoming first-year students are from Virginia, a number that grows to nearly 70 percent when transfers are included. Those numbers reflect one of the few effects of the recession on the incoming class. Tuition for out-of-state students is more than twice that for in-state students.
The stagnant job market might play a factor in a shift of interest to engineering among the Class of 2013, Greg Roberts, dean of admission, noted. The combination of the recession, promotional work by the School of Engineering & Applied Science and environmental and green building work done by the school have led to some students switching to the engineering school from the College of Arts & Sciences before classes have even started.
One incoming first-year student, Syed Khurshid from Exton, Pa., said he chose the School of Engineering and Applied Science in part because of the economy. He plans to try a double major with engineering and commerce, even if it takes more than four years.
“It’s an evergreen [industry],” Khurshid said.
Another student, Sean Thompson of Front Royal, said he chose the engineering school because of its reputation. Kimberly Beachum, from Norfolk, said being a woman in engineering puts her in a good position for a job after graduation.
In a fitting tribute to former admissions Dean John A. “Jack” Blackburn, who died from cancer in January, the number of students from diverse economic backgrounds increased. An estimated 205 students have qualified for full need-based aid, according to UVa.
UVa’s admissions office revamped the application process with wholesale changes in how potential students apply, how the applications are reviewed and how the applications are tracked, according to Jeannine Lalonde, senior assistant dean of admission.
For the first time in school history students were able to apply through the Common Application, a standardized first-year application used by almost 400 colleges and universities across the nation, according to the Common Application Web site.
Students can track their application status electronically through a new student-information system launched last August, Lalonde said. The admission office stopped printing out online applications and is now reviewing the files online, cutting down on time spent pulling and putting away files. With these changes UVa might have the most technologically sophisticated application review system in the country, Roberts said.
“It’s hard to describe how significant a change to our internal operation [this] is. In some ways it’s like going from a rotary phone to an iPhone,” Roberts said.
In a nod to the economy, Lalonde mentioned that one unintended benefit of the switch to a paperless, online review process is that, in addition to saving time, money is saved too.
“If every school in the commonwealth went to a paperless process I can’t imagine how much money that would save just in paper and toner,” Lalonde said.
