Each spring season, thousands of admitted students flock to Charlottesville wondering whether they can see themselves on Grounds for the next four years. The sounds of the Cavalier Marching Band and the clamor of families filing into folding chairs on April mornings echo the University’s welcome — Days on the Lawn.
Since the early 1990s, the University Office of Undergraduate Admission has collaborated with DOTL student co-chairs to organize DOTL, an event connecting potential new students with each other and the University community. While many undecided students utilize DOTL to guide their final college decision by May 1, it is also highly attended by students who have already committed to the University. The program consists of four separate day-long glimpses into life on Grounds, and with roughly 80 student volunteers and admission interns each DOTL, it seeks to authentically represent the student experience from the perspective of those who live it.
The University will host this year’s DOTL from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 10, 13, 18 and 20. Admitted students and their families begin by watching performances of the Cavalier Marching Band and various a cappella groups on the Rotunda steps. After a few announcements and welcoming remarks from a current student, Nicole Hall, senior associate vice president and dean of students, Greg Roberts, associate vice provost for enrollment and admission and Associate Dean of Recruitment Rachel Schlachter, attendees head to academic information sessions based on their intended school at the University.
In the afternoon, programming becomes more flexible. Admitted students can tour facilities such as the Aquatic and Fitness Center, drop by an “Ask a Hoo” stand outside Peabody Hall with any questions for current students and attend a student social on the Peabody Lawn, among other activities.
Hayley Judge, DOTL student co-chair and fourth-year College student, said that contributing to this University tradition is a full-circle experience for her. It was at her own DOTL as a senior in high school, Judge said, that she realized she had found her place at the University.
“Days on the Lawn is not just a show-and-tell,” Judge said. “Some admitted student tours are just show-and-tells — it’s like, ‘Here's this and here's that.’ … But Days on the Lawn really allows you to immerse yourself in the whole experience and feel what it's like to be a student here.”
Jaden Kline, undergraduate admission intern and third-year College student, shared a similar sentiment about the event’s focus on current students’ daily lives. He said that admission interns get a lot of say in the DOTL planning process, allowing them to tailor the experience to admitted students’ priorities.
“It's not what professors think we should do, it's not what the deans think we should do, it's not what the admission counselors think we should do,” Kline said. “It's what the students would like to see — everything we do is driven towards the student experience.”
In addition to helping people decide whether the University is the best fit for them, DOTL is a time for both admission deans and admitted students to relax after the whirlwind of application season. Schlachter has been with the University Office of Undergraduate Admission since 2017, and she emphasized that admitted students should feel very proud of their invitations to join the class of 2030 amidst a record-breaking year of applications. Over 82,000 people applied to the University this cycle — nearly double the entire population of the City of Charlottesville.
“It's a day for celebration and excitement,” Schlachter said. “The college application process is stressful for students, and we have now spent months reading their applications. It's so fun when we get to meet with students who we might have seen at a college fair or a high school event in early fall. Now, they're admitted to U.Va., they're interacting with us and they might say ‘yes.’ That's super exciting to us.”
Planning logistics for the celebratory event starts a year in advance — with securing space on Grounds, parking spots and shuttles taking top priority. The Office of Admission selects its DOTL dates around high school spring breaks in Virginia, so the University can maximize attendance.
Schlachter noted that while admitted students have always valued academics, recent classes have sought more scholastic specificity. This trend is part of why DOTL devotes the entire morning block of programming to school-specific information sessions, enabling students to inquire about their unique academic goals.
“In the time that I've been here, there's always been a strong connection to academics, but we've seen it shift more and more towards students wanting to know exactly what they can do here,” Schlachter said. “They want to double major. They want to do research right away. They want to study abroad. They want to make sure they can get an internship at this company or that company. [Students today] tend to be really forward-thinking players.”
To provide admitted students with authentic answers to their many questions, DOTL also includes an “Ask a Hoo” booth. Admitted students and their families are encouraged to drop by midday to get any information they may need about the University experience straight from the source — current students.
“I think being able to share that perspective with students is something you're not able to get on a [standard] tour [or] an online pamphlet,” Kline said. “But you will be able to get [that] when you talk to students who are invested in you, in your family and in your experience of figuring out what college looks like for you.”
A key opportunity for current and admitted students to interact with one another in a less formal setting is the student social in the afternoon. Outside Peabody Hall and over light refreshments, DOTL volunteers and staff encourage admitted students to attend without their families so that they can connect with their future classmates. Suraj Gangar, DOTL student co-chair and fourth-year College student, said that the student social event is his favorite part of the day.
“[Coming into college] can be intimidating, but I feel like the student social breaks all those fences and barriers down,” Gangar said. “It's only incoming students, and [they] can talk just about what you like to do in high school and what you want to do at U.Va.”
Kline echoed Gangar’s praise for the student social, during which current students strive to break the ice and spark conversation among attendees. Kline said that sometimes, being “as awkward as possible” is just what admitted students need to cut the tension and connect with their future classmates.
While some student social conversations stick to small talk, others are deeply influential for everyone involved. As someone staffing DOTL, Kline recalled talking to a former high school classmate who had to decide between multiple schools, which the two were able to discuss in detail.
“I was like, ‘Well, what's keeping you from U.Va.?’ and he said, ‘Honestly, it's just really close to home, and I don't know if I feel it is far enough away for me to really be independent and grow as a person,’” Kline said. “Then I was like, ‘WelI, I can tell you about all the growth that I have been through.’ So I started explaining all my major changes, the ways I have changed socially, the friends I have made and the activities I bought into.”
According to Kline, this peer-to-peer connection and genuine appraisal of nuanced aspects of life on Grounds gave this admitted student confidence in his difficult decision between the University, Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“[He] and I started looking at each other and getting emotional … and then I walked with him over to the table with his parents where he put down his deposit to go to U.Va.,” Kline said.
Whether attendees have a particularly fruitful discussion like this one or simply make a few new friends at the social, Judge said that interacting with their future classmates at DOTL helps admitted students understand the University’s culture and the day-to-day life for students. The student social also holds a special place in Judge’s heart since she met her first-year roommate attending the event four years prior.
“When I was choosing what college I wanted to go to, it was very much not just about what the campus … and the buildings looked like or how highly-ranked the programs were,” Judge said. “For me, it was really important to get a feel for my fellow classmates and see if I could see myself attending school with those people.”
From lasting connections to information about the many academic avenues offered on Grounds, DOTL showcases what life on Grounds could be like for admitted students. Whether or not admitted students decide that this experience is right for them, the DOTL team takes pride in knowing that they add clarity to the process.
“I love telling my tour groups that … my goal of this tour that I give is that at the end of this, you know what your college experience should or should not look like — and what you want it to be,” Kline said. “That's exactly what Days on the Lawn is for.”
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