U.Va accepts record-low 19 percent of 50,962 applicants for Class of 2026

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Mon Mar 21, 2022, 05:40 AM - Edit history (2)

News

U.Va accepts record-low 19 percent of 50,962 applicants for Class of 2026

Accepted numbers of Black, Native American, Asian and Hispanic students all increased from last year

By Zach Rosenthal
March 20, 2022

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions extended 9,522 regular decision offers for the Class of 2026 Friday evening, accepting a record-low 19 percent of applicants. ... Out of the 50,962 total applications submitted through early action, early decision and regular decision rounds this year, 32 percent applied during the regular decision cycle, while 61 percent came from the early action cycle and 7 percent applied during the early decision cycle. Last year, the University extended offers to 9,898 students, a 20.6 percent acceptance rate.

Of offers to students that applied domestically this year and who indicated a race on their application, 52 percent of offers were made to students of color — a record percentage for the University. Last year, 41 percent of accepted students were applicants of color.

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The College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science both accepted fewer students than they did in 2021, while the School of Education and Human Development and the School of Nursing accepted more students than they did the previous year. ... This year, the College accepted 7,038 applicants and Engineering accepted 1,969 applicants, while last year the schools accepted 7,207 applicants and 2,230 applicants, respectively. ... The School of Architecture accepted 230 applicants, identical to the 230 accepted last year. The School of Education accepted 104 applicants, 15 more than last year, and Nursing accepted 169 applicants, 29 more than last year.

Of the students accepted, 13.5 percent are African American — up from 9 percent last year. The number of Asian and Hispanic students also went up, with 19 percent of offers going to Asian students compared to 18 percent last year and 10 percent of offers going to Hispanic students compared to eight percent last year.

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[NQAS]

1. Acceptance percentage is an idiotic statistic

Universities have no control over how many apply. That’s driven in part by college ratings, which are stupid, and overall PR.

The acceptance percentage is driven by how many students the universities can accommodate, regardless of how many apply.

[Effete Snob]

3. It does seem kind of silly

They also have to deal with the fact that quite a few students won’t show up. Every now and then, a college will guess the “invited” vs. “actually coming” ratio and end up having to stuff freshmen into any space they will fit.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. The other thing is that students apply to vastly more

colleges than they used to. Instead of two or three, or at the most four, they are now applying to seven or eight or more.

[More_Cowbell]

4. The Common Application has a lot to do with that

It's so easy now, once a student has done the Common Application, to just shoot it to another school.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Yes. That's a huge factor.

I've long thought that the highly selective schools ought to just set whatever their minimum requirements are, and then do a lottery of all qualified applicants.