Even as the fate of binding early decision programs remain in limbo at the University and other schools around the country, 912 future members of the class of 2007 received admission offers last month.
The accepted students represent 38 percent of 2,410 total students who applied for early admission -- an increase in selectivity over last year, when 41 percent of the 2,397 early applicants were accepted, 973 students.
This year's accepted students "are at least as strong, probably stronger, than the group admitted last spring," Dean of Admissions John A. Blackburn said. He said a "modest increase in applications" also allowed for more selectivity with this round of admission.
The University has had an early admission program since 1958, said Blackburn, who arrived at the University in 1979. However, it did not become extremely popular until the mid-1990s, when early applications began to double in number.
He said last year's accepted class had the highest percentage of students who applied early at 32 percent.
"We have felt the interest and frenzy about getting in early," he said.
Jenifer Blair, dean of undergraduate admissions at Mary Washington College, said her school recently decided to eliminate the binding program it has had in place for almost 20 years, beginning next year.
Blair said, however, that the policy worked well in the past.
Early decision was "a great way to accommodate those ready to make a decision," she said. "The program served us very well for many years."
First-year Engineering student Kevin Wu echoed Blair's sentiments.
"I was fairly certain that I wanted to come here," Wu said. "And I thought I might have a better chance if I applied early."
Still, he said he regrets that because of the University's binding program, he was not able to "leave [his] options open" and consider "applying to an Ivy League school."
Doubts like the ones Wu expressed, along with what Blair said she perceived as a nationwide "frenzy" for schools to admit large percentages of their classes early, helped motivate her school to drop its binding program.
"The trend in the past few years has been for other schools to admit up to half their classes early," Blair said. The program "has become much more useful for institutions and less student-centered."
According to Blackburn, the University is only "studying" the option of moving toward non-binding early action admission and "looking to see what it might mean for U.Va."He noted that, as with Mary Washington, Yale and Stanford's recent decisions to eliminate binding early decision programs did not apply to this year's applicants.
Regardless of the outcome, Blackburn said the University takes a fair and honest approach to early admissions.
"Part of the problem with [schools like the University of Pennsylvania] is that they're exacerbating the situation by taking so many people early," he said. Last year, Pennsylvania accepted about 48 percent of its entering class early.
Although Blackburn admitted that it has been "slightly more difficult in regular decision" during the past few years, he said his office owes it to the public of Virginia to make both rounds of admission as equitable as possible.
"My staff has a very strong sense that a public university needs to be honest and fair," he said.
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