The University released early action application decisions for the Class of 2030 Friday, offering admission to 7,151 students from a total of 57,495 applicants — a 12.4 percent admission rate, which marks a 3.7 percent decrease in admission rate from last year’s EA cycle. Out of the larger pool, the University admitted a record number of early action applicants — a six percent increase in admitted applicants from the 2024-2025 application cycle’s 6,746 admitted early action students.
The early action application is a non-binding admission option in which students may apply to the University by Nov. 1 without submitting senior grades and receive a decision from the University by Feb. 15.
In the 2024-2025 application cycle, 6,746 students were offered admission out of 41,885 total applicants — a 16.1 percent acceptance rate.
Out of the 57,495 early action applications, 13,445 were in-state and 44,050 were out-of-state. Both application pools marked a significant increase in applications, with in-state applications increasing by 19.6 percent and out-of-state applications increasing by 43.7 percent since the 2024-2025 admissions cycle.
The University released decisions for the 2025-2026 early decision application cycle Dec.12, in which it admitted 1,225 students out of an applicant pool of 5,108 — a 24 percent acceptance rate, or approximately double the EA admission rate.
This year marked a large jump in the number of early action applicants compared to previous years. The last five application cycles saw a steady increase in total applications, with an average growth of 10.8 percent each year across the five year span. But this year’s application cycle saw a 37.3 percent increase from last year in early action applicants. This is largely due to the unprecedented jump in out-of-state applicants which rose by 13,405 compared to last year.
As outlined by the Virginia state legislature, the University must maintain a two-thirds majority of Virginia residents in the student population. As a result, Virginia residents see higher offer rates than those applying out-of-state. In the 2025-2026 early action application cycle, Virginia residents saw a 22.8 percent acceptance rate while only 9.8 percent of out-of-state applicants were given offers. The in-state acceptance rate decreased by 2 percent, and the out-of-state acceptance rate decreased by 3.6 percent from last year’s application cycle.
According to UVAToday’s data, 5,261 early action applicants were offered admission to the College of Arts and Sciences, 1,604 to the School of Engineering and Applied Science, 133 to the School of Architecture, 81 to the School of Nursing and 72 to the Department of Kinesiology.
Furthermore, the University deferred 8,480 early-action applicants — a deferral rate of 14.7 percent. These students will receive decisions by April 1 along with the students in the final admission cycle — regular decision.
A key change to the application process to the University has been the removal of the supplemental essays for all the schools except for a single creative prompt for the School of Nursing. Up until the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, applicants answered multiple creative prompts in addition to submitting their Common App essay. Following a 2023 Supreme Court ruling which outlawed race based affirmative action in college admissions, the creative prompts were removed and a sole supplemental essay prompt was introduced for an applicant to write about an aspect of their background that would be a source of strength for them at the University.
However, after the 2024-2025 admissions cycle, the University removed the supplemental essay asking about an individual’s background to help reduce stress and anxiety of high school students during the college application process, according to University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling and the creation of the supplementary essay, students in the 2024-2025 admissions cycle showed minimal demographic change.
The regular decision applications — the last admissions cycle for the Class of 2030 — were due Jan. 5. Regular decision applicants can expect to receive their decisions by April 1. Accepted applicants from the early action and regular decision cycles can then accept their admission offer by submitting a non-refundable deposit by May 1.
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