The 3.04/171 student would almost certainly get no money, but would matriculate to UVa because they are very unlikely to be accepted to any other T14 school with the possible exceptions of NU or GULC.HarlandBassett wrote:how does the timing of the 3.04/171 admit affect scholly money? (b/c i read somewhere LSs toss more money for waitlisted-then-accepted students)soj wrote:This. It seems unfair to many people that a 3.04/171 (below one median, above another, a lock for ED UVA) has a better chance of getting into UVA than a 3.82/169 (below both medians, most likely WL at best). Like top30 said, UVA is not the only school that does this, though.top30man wrote:Nothing is bad, but people get frustrated with how numbers oriented it is. To achieve their medians with a large class they rely on splitter ED applicants. You are almost automatically admitted if one of your two numbers is at or above median. However, pretty much every T14 is numbers focused to a degree.spicyyoda17 wrote:For those of us new to this game, what is it about UVA admissions that is so bad?
I know I sound like a broken record, but what bugs me the most about UVA is just how pervasive their gaming of the rankings is. I understand that all schools do it to a degree, but UVA does it from before students are accepted (read: giving out fee waivers like candy to anyone who so much as asks) to after they graduate. For instance, UVA relies on ED splitters and reverse-splitters to fill a large part of their class for the sole reason of preserving their medians. They have a 2-week turnaround for ED applicants after we have heard forever about how schools read each application as thoughtfully and thoroughly as possible. The whole reason they do this is because they want to be the first T14 people apply to so they can manicure their medians as best as possible.
Then, when a student is borderline or on the WL, they actually call them to gauge their interest in UVA, so they don't waste an acceptance (thereby lowering their yield) on someone who may be unlikely to come. I don't know of any other T14 that does this, though there could be one or two.
And finally, on the back end, they hire (at least according to the most recent class data on LST) nearly 20% of their graduates for school-funded jobs to avoid having them listed as unemployed. Now, I know other schools do this, too, but IIRC, UVa had BY FAR the most of all the T14s.
