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University accepts 8,971 for Class of 2018

Admissions office, Sullivan target low-income students

	<p>The University&#8217;s admissions office, located in Peabody Hall (above), released its second round of admissions decisions last Friday.</p>

The University’s admissions office, located in Peabody Hall (above), released its second round of admissions decisions last Friday.

The University sent out its second round of admissions decisions last Friday, inviting 4,391 regular decision applicants to join the Class of 2018.

According to the University’s admissions blog “Notes From Peabody,” the admissions office read a total of 31,042 completed applications. Combined with the early action decisions which were released in January, a total of 8,971 students have been offered a spot in the incoming class.

As of Wednesday morning, 501 of the students offered admission had accepted a position at the University in the fall — 160 of whom were admitted this past Friday.

Admitted students have until May 1 to accept or decline the offer.

“By the first of May, we should have the vast majority of the class set,” Dean of Admission Greg Roberts said.

After that date, the final class is still subject to variation based on the number of spots available to waitlisted students.

“We’ll see if we need to go to the waitlist, and certainly some students who [submit their] deposit come off the waitlist at other schools,” Roberts said. “So the final numbers aren’t really counted until October, when the students are here and fully enrolled.”

After admissions decisions are sent out, the admissions office remains in contact with accepted students to provide information about the University and financial aid.

“We’re in continual communication with the admitted students, but we don’t want to pester them,” Roberts said. “There’s a fine line between giving them the information that we think will be helpful to them and bothering them with too much of a presence.”

The University typically alters the information sent to students by academic interest, though it also makes a special effort to reach out to first-generation college students or low-income students. Although numbers are still in flux, the Office of Admissions has seen an increase in the number of first-generation college students applying this year, Roberts said in a later email.

“[First-generation and low-income students] might not be as savvy with this process, so we do go above and beyond and reach out to those students a little bit more,” Roberts said.

As a part of the University’s outreach campaign, Sullivan sent letters to principals at Virginia schools where more than 50 percent of students received free or reduced lunch. The letter invited principals to Grounds in the hopes they would visit and subsequently encourage their students to apply, Roberts said. As an additional means of outreach, Roberts said the Office of Admission is also looking into the possibility of sending text messages to help students as they apply for financial aid this year.

The University hopes to enroll approximately 3,600 first-year students for the upcoming fall semester.

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