The University released regular admissions decisions for the Class of 2021 on Wednesday. There were over 36,800 applicants — about 4,400 more applications than 2016 — and an overall acceptance rate of 27 percent, according to data from the University’s Office of Undergraduate Admission .
The University’s overall acceptance rate dropped 2.9 percent from last year’s rate of 29.9 percent.
The acceptance rate for in-state and out-of-state students was 39.1 percent and 21.9 percent, respectively.
Offer rates lowered across all of the schools compared to last year, with decreases of about three percent for the College, Curry, the Engineering School and the Nursing School, and of about five percent for the Architecture School.
The mean SAT score increased 21 points, from 1398 in 2016 to 1419 this year, and over 93 percent of students were ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class.
“I applied to U.Va. initially because of the reputation it has as being one of the best schools in Virginia,” said Sydney Collins, a high school senior from Alexandria. “[But when] I spent the night there with a friend, I saw the school in a completely different light — not the preppy school that everyone pins it as — and began to love it more and more.”
The prospective Class of 2021 has a diverse range of students, with representatives from all 50 states and 89 different countries. This demonstrates a large improvement from last year’s class, which only accepted students from 46 of the 50 states and 75 countries.
Low-income and first generation college students also received more offers from the University this year, and about 34.6 percent of the accepted applicants are members of a minority group.
“These citizen scholars represent the very best of their generation,” Dean of Admissions Gregory W. Roberts said in a release. “We look forward to welcoming them to Grounds and introducing them to the U.Va. community.”
“Just touring [the University] this summer made me just even want to go there more because I could really see myself on the campus and just with the people that go there. I want to study media studies so I really liked the program that they had and everything,” said Maddie Hazzard, a high school senior from Alexandria. “And it’s not too far from home, but it’s still a good distance.”
According to a blog post written by Assoc. Dean of Admission Jeannine Lalonde on Notes from Peabody, those who were not accepted and placed on the waitlist should not lose hope quite yet.
“The numbers can change dramatically from year-to-year,” Lalonde wrote. “We took 42 students off the waiting list in 2015 and made 402 waiting list offers the next year.”
This year, 16 percent of applicants were offered places on the waitlist — slightly more than the 15.4 percent of applicants offered spots on the list last year.
Accepted students have until May 1 to make their final decision and make a deposit to solidify their place in the University’s Class of 2021.
Correction: The photo caption previously referred to "the prospective class of 2017." It has been updated to reflect the correct year of the incoming class.
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