2009-2010 University of Virginia Application Thread

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mvenus929 said:
What was your parent's gross income?

I haven't gotten my package yet, because my mom hasn't filled out her taxes yet, but I suspect it's going to be a weird year... she was deployed to Iraq for over half the year last year, and if her deployment to Kuwait was any indication, they don't include her pay during those months in her AGI, so it looks like she made a very small income.
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But haven't you been working as a phlebotomist? Your income will impact your EFC, and your mom's income will impact her EFC...they get added together.

As an OOSer, the maximum annual "need" grant is $17,500, I believe, so work with that number when trying to figure out how much of the COA you will need to cover with loans at a minimum. They also have an institutional loan of $10k that works like the subsidized fed loans, so you may also qualify for that, but the bottom line is that the most you should expect in terms of grants is the $17.5k, leaving you with around $45-50k of loans from various sources.
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For those that have withdrawn, who did you contact?

Looking through all my correspondences with UVA, I'm not seeing a protocol to follow.
 
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KMFDM said:
For those that have withdrawn, who did you contact?

Looking through all my correspondences with UVA, I'm not seeing a protocol to follow.
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I sent it to janet small, the one person I had the most contact with...
 
mvenus929 said:
What was your parent's gross income?

I haven't gotten my package yet, because my mom hasn't filled out her taxes yet, but I suspect it's going to be a weird year... she was deployed to Iraq for over half the year last year, and if her deployment to Kuwait was any indication, they don't include her pay during those months in her AGI, so it looks like she made a very small income.
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Around 120k to 150k range, not sure.
 
I asked this question about a month ago, and got some good responces. I figure there is probably a different population of folks on this thread now then back then so I'll ask again

-Any suggestions/warnings for people applying next year that you wish you would have known before hand? (Im OSS for what its worth)
 
surftheiop said:
I asked this question about a month ago, and got some good responces. I figure there is probably a different population of folks on this thread now then back then so I'll ask again

-Any suggestions/warnings for people applying next year that you wish you would have known before hand? (Im OSS for what its worth)
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Generally, it's cheaper to fly into DC than it is to fly into Charlottesville, but you will have to take the train, bus, or rent a car to get there. It can also be more time consuming (especially since the buses depend on DC traffic since they start downtown). Stay with a student host... it's so worth it.

Also, try to stay for the financial aid session. I wasn't able to because of my travel arrangements, and I'm regretting that now.
 
surftheiop said:
I asked this question about a month ago, and got some good responces. I figure there is probably a different population of folks on this thread now then back then so I'll ask again

-Any suggestions/warnings for people applying next year that you wish you would have known before hand? (Im OSS for what its worth)
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The financial aid info session held at the end of the interview day is optional and OK to skip...therefore you may have more time to catch an earlier flight than you might otherwise expect.

Richmond is a much easier access airport than either Dulles or Reagan, but always check flights into Charlottesville - sometimes it will surprise you.
 
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Do you mean with regards to applying and getting into the school? They seem to want people who collaborate well with others and who enjoy active lectures and student teaching for their new curriculum. For the diversity essay, don't be afraid to point out scholastic interests and hobbies that make you unique.

Otherwise, just be yourself. The interviews are relaxed and the admissions people are wonderful. The woman who gives the mini-presentation of the school is especially nice. When my interviewer asked me why I wanted to come to UVA, a large part of my answer was based on the aesthetic beauty of the school and its atmosphere, in addition to their research opportunities, facilities, P/F and 1.5/2.5 curriculum.

And I would stick around for the financial aid presentation. The guy who gives it actually manages to make it entertaining.
 
Going to be withdrawing tomorrow...it's been hard to part ways since I love Charlottesville and the UVa students that I've known. Maybe I'll make it back for an away rotation 4th year. Best of luck to all waitlisters and future applicants!
 
Once you hear one finaid presentation, you have heard them all.

UVA gives you plenty of handouts in your packet that explains the finaid process at UVA. You don't need to have that info "presented" to you.

However, anybody reading this thread should know by now that the way they estimate EFC is pretty ****ed up.
 
The way every school calculates EFC is ****ed up. I don't think that any school actually expects your family to contribute what they come up with. UVA just gives you all of the numbers to explain why you're receiving what you're receiving.
 
i was so PO-d when I got my EFC, my mom is a single mom supporting my 15 year-old sister and 80 year-old grandmother on a 50K salary and they thought she could contribute 15K. However, I did get the full 14,500 in-state grant and the 10K subsidized institutional loan, which I didn't realize was "generous" till i read through this thread...yikes!
 
Are you getting huge chunks of your tuition waved at other schools? It seems like a number of people are angry because they consider UVA's finaid office to be presumptuous and off-base with their EFC number. Lots of schools just give you a loan package and leave it at that without showing you the numbers they've used to derive what you get. I could understand if other schools were regularly cutting 20K off of peoples' tuition costs, but UVA wasn't; that just doesn't seem to be the case.
 
justinbaily said:
Are you getting huge chunks of your tuition waved at other schools? It seems like a number of people are angry because they consider UVA's finaid office to be presumptuous and off-base with their EFC number. Lots of schools just give you a loan package and leave it at that without showing you the numbers they've used to derive what you get. I could understand if other schools were regularly cutting 20K off of peoples' tuition costs, but UVA wasn't; that just doesn't seem to be the case.
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You are correct that people, myself included, are unhappy with the way the EFC is calculated. Ultimately, what matters is the relative cost of UVA vs other schools.

However, as an instate resident, I am also pissed off that UVA hands out big merit scholarships, many to OOS applicants, and based on what I have seen, to people who don't have stats or profiles any stronger than mine. And the instate resident COA is very high - higher than most state schools I have seen - and they have been regularly jacking up the tuition - big jump this year, and big increases projected in the next few years. My complaint, I guess, is that I feel that UVA should do more to lower the cost of attendance for instaters.

One final complaint about Charlottesville as a place to live: the cost of housing here is high for such a small town, and the quality/price of the housing and safety of the neighborhoods within walking distance of the UVA Med Ctr is poor, but living any farther away requiring use of a car is no good because the parking situation at the med school is horrible.

And in case you missed it or are unaware: the areas around the med center can be fairly unsafe - there was a home invasion on Wertland Street yesterday, and 8 students were robbed at gunpoint. This is one of the dirty little secrets about living on or near the Corner...http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/n...aken_down_at_gunpoint_in_home_invasion/56031/

Lest anyone assume I have a case of sour grapes here, I have made a proactive choice to attend a school I prefer, in a location I prefer, with a student body I meshed with better, and with clinical experiences I prefer, at a fairly significant increase in cost over UVA. I do have issues with the treatment of instate applicants / matriculants at UVA on cost, and I have serious issues with the housing situation in C'ville, plus I have problems with the year of mandatory rotations at various locations around the state, all influencing my decision to punt UVA.
 
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justinbaily said:
Are you getting huge chunks of your tuition waved at other schools? It seems like a number of people are angry because they consider UVA's finaid office to be presumptuous and off-base with their EFC number. Lots of schools just give you a loan package and leave it at that without showing you the numbers they've used to derive what you get. I could understand if other schools were regularly cutting 20K off of peoples' tuition costs, but UVA wasn't; that just doesn't seem to be the case.
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It is the case for me.
 
flip26 said:
However, as an instate resident, I am also pissed off that UVA hands out big merit scholarships, many to OOS applicants, and based on what I have seen, to people who don't have stats or profiles any stronger than mine.

And the instate resident COA is very high - higher than most state schools I have seen - and they have been regularly jacking up the tuition - big jump this year, and big increases projected in the next few years. My complaint, I guess, is that I feel that UVA should do more to lower the cost of attendance for instaters.

One final complaint about Charlottesville as a place to live: the cost of housing here is high for such a small town, and the quality/price of the housing and safety of the neighborhoods within walking distance of the UVA Med Ctr is poor, but living any farther away requiring use of a car is no good because the parking situation at the med school is horrible.

And in case you missed it or are unaware: the areas around the med center can be fairly unsafe - there was a home invasion on Wertland Street yesterday, and 8 students were robbed at gunpoint. This is one of the dirty little secrets about living on or near the Corner...http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/n...aken_down_at_gunpoint_in_home_invasion/56031/
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1) I get what you're saying, but I assume that they know what they're doing and have access to more information than we do in making those decisions. Also, because we're on a public form, we don't know the profiles of every student selected for those large merit scholarships, or if they go to mostly OOSers or ISers. So far it looks like two people have posted that they received merit scholarships, and one of them is IS and one of them is OOS, so I don't know if we can accurately extrapolate anything from that. Their average MCAT score is 38.5, so it's not like the admissions office is handing them out to just anyone. I sympathize with you though because I have similar stats as well. I was a little bit surprised that ksmi didn't get one.

2) I agree that IS tuition is high relative to other state schools. I don't really blame UVA for that, and I am still happy that, even without the need-based grants, the COA is 10-15K cheaper than schools like Emory, NYU and Georgetown. Based on the MCV COA, UVA is only 6K more expensive, which I'm glad to pay for the upgrade in facilities, reputation and research opportunities. Obviously we would all like to be paying UNC's and UTSW's IS tuitions while attending a top-tier school, but at least Virginia residents have the option of going to a great institution at a discount relative to similar private schools.

3) I'm coming from an area that is of comparable size that has way higher rent prices and about the same level of crime, so I was actually pleasantly surprised by how cheap housing, food and utilities were. I can see why some people have a different opinion.

SirSpicious said:
It is the case for me.
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Then I stand corrected.
 
justinbaily said:
1) I get what you're saying, but I assume that they know what they're doing and have access to more information than we do in making those decisions.
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My main point is that I think UVA, as a state school, should do more to lower the COA for instaters first. A more honest EFC would be a start, and a greater commitment to covering need, would be nice. Instaters already have to scrambled to get accepted - half the class is OOS. I have no real problem with that, but I do think the COA for instaters, given the fishy way they do EFC and need analysis, is ****ed up. It just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
 
flip26 said:
My main point is that I think UVA, as a state school, should do more to lower the COA for instaters first. A more honest EFC would be a start, and a greater commitment to covering need, would be nice. Instaters already have to scrambled to get accepted - half the class is OOS. I have no real problem with that, but I do think the COA for instaters, given the fishy way they do EFC and need analysis, is ****ed up. It just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
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It's pretty clear that given their high IS tuition relative to VCU and EVMS that they really aren't a state school...I think their aspirations are more national than state. They clearly don't have the best relations with the politicians in Richmond for them to be charging IS students 10K+ more than VCU and EVMS.
 
onb2014 said:
It's pretty clear that given their high IS tuition relative to VCU and EVMS that they really aren't a state school...I think their aspirations are more national than state. They clearly don't have the best relations with the politicians in Richmond for them to be charging IS students 10K+ more than VCU and EVMS.
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UVA takes very little funding from the state, yet that is the very reason they give for jacking up the tuition (that state funding has dropped and will continue to drop).

The law and business schools operate like private schools, too. Many believe that UVA will privatize in the next 20 years - accept zero state funding - the problem with that is that all UVA employees are state employees, and get state benefits, and the greatest resistance to privatizing would come from the employees.
 
onb2014 said:
I think their aspirations are more national than state.
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I agree. They seem much more interested in creating a diverse class of students who are likely to disperse throughout the country's large medical centers than in producing physicians who are going to work in the state. Based on the number of people who raised their hands when asked if they were interested in teaching/academic medicine as a career at second-look--it had to have been at least 85-90% of those in attendance--it seems like they want those sorts of students rather than people who, e.g., plan to work with under served rural populations.
 
flip26 said:
I have problems with the year of mandatory rotations at various locations around the state.
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I thought that it was a maximum of ~5.5 months (i.e., 22 weeks), with a minimum of 3. That's less than half a year. Also, surgery at the Salem VA is apparently pretty great, and the Inova and Roanoke sites are major clinical locations.

I'm not trying to argue the point; just trying to see if I have an accurate understanding of the away rotations for the core clerkships.
 
justinbaily said:
I thought that it was a maximum of ~5.5 months (i.e., 22 weeks), with a minimum of 3. That's less than half a year. Also, surgery at the Salem VA is apparently pretty great, and the Inova and Roanoke sites are major clinical locations.

I'm not trying to argue the point; just trying to see if I have an accurate understanding of the away rotations for the core clerkships.
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Honestly I am not sure. I always heard it as half your 3rd and 4th year rotations, but maybe it is only half the 3rd year, so maybe your numbers are more accurate. Regardless, it is disruptive, and some of the housing situations you are placed in are pretty substandard or undesirable...

Bottom line is that I am not interested in doing ANY rotations outside of Charlottesville, no matter how they spin the experience. I was simply listing all the factors that led me to drop UVA so that nobody would think it was because I didn't like the way they computed EFC...
 
Just to be clear, I know there was no deposit to accept a spot back when we were accepted, but is there any deposit or anything we need to do to hold our spot past May 15th?
 
onb2014 said:
Just to be clear, I know there was no deposit to accept a spot back when we were accepted, but is there any deposit or anything we need to do to hold our spot past May 15th?
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no
 
Good. I was wondering about that myself after someone posted a thread about forgetting to mail in their tuition deposit to GWU.
 
Withdrew my acceptance yesterday. Wishing y'all the best of luck!
 
I looked over the basic outline of events they gave us concerning our first year, but does anyone know if they've posted the exam schedule anywhere?
 
Steeler7588 said:
I looked over the basic outline of events they gave us concerning our first year, but does anyone know if they've posted the exam schedule anywhere?
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From what it sounded like, we don't have an exact schedule... we just have miniexams throughout the class, then a big exam at the end. Of course, I'm probably totally misinterpreting what they said.
 
mvenus929 said:
From what it sounded like, we don't have an exact schedule... we just have miniexams throughout the class, then a big exam at the end. Of course, I'm probably totally misinterpreting what they said.
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Nah, that sounds right - I was just wondering if we had access to when those miniexams would be. I'm trying to plan when I can go back to my undergrad for football games, haha. I'm going to miss SEC football.
 
ThatQuestionGuy said:
What basic outline of events?
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http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/academics/calendar/cal-10-1.cfm

Monday, August 9 & Tuesday, August 10 - Scheduled Activities
Wednesday, August 11 - Cells to Society, An Intro begins at 8:10 am
Thursday, August 12 & Friday, August 13 (noon) - Cells to Society, An Intro
Friday, August 13 (noon-2:30) - Activities Fair in Jordan Lobby
Friday, August 13 - White Coat Ceremony at Cabell Hall & reception (4:00 pm)
Monday, August 16 - Molecular & Cellular Medicine classes begin at 8:10 am (Jordan Hall 1-5 or new building)
Wednesday, August 18 - Library Tours (assigned times 1:00-5:00)
Wednesday, August 25 - Workshop on Time Management (1:00-2:00) Jordan Hall 1-5
Sunday, September 26 through Sunday, October 3 - Fall Break
Monday, October 4 - Classes resume
Saturday, October 16 (9:00 in Old Med School Auditorium) - Family Day
Saturday, October 16 - lunch reception at the Med Alumni House (noon-2:00) - Family Day
Sunday, November 21 through Sunday, November 28 - Thanksgiving Break
Monday, November 29 - Classes resume
Saturday, December 18 - Examination
Sunday, December 19 through Sunday, January 2, 2011 - Winter Break
Monday, January 3, 2011 - Classes resume at 8:10 am
Sunday, February 27 through Sunday, March 6- Late Winter Break
Monday, March 7, 2011 - Classes resume at 8:10 am
Sunday, May 15 through Sunday, May 22 - Spring Break 1
Monday, May 23 - Classes resume at 8:10 am
Sunday, June 19 through Sunday, August 7 - Summer Opportunities & Break (7 wks)
Monday, August 8, 2011 - Classes resume at 8:10 am
 
Did everyone receieve the email about the class having too many students still enrolled? I think that they really underestimated how appealing their new facilities and curriculum would make them.
 
justinbaily said:
Did everyone receieve the email about the class having too many students still enrolled? I think that they really underestimated how appealing their new facilities and curriculum would make them.
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Yep, that's a big number overenrolled. Looks bad for waitlisters, sorry guys
 
justinbaily said:
Did everyone receieve the email about the class having too many students still enrolled? I think that they really underestimated how appealing their new facilities and curriculum would make them.
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Yeah, and it's not just a slight overenrollment, that's a lot of people they defer or withdraw. With a sick building and better curriculum opening for us, you'd think they would've played it a little more cautious, anticipating more demand than in previous years. Hopefully waitlists at other schools start moving a lot and they have a number of people interested in deferring.

I'd say there's a 1% chance they have any waitlist movement. Not looking good, for those of you waiting.
 
how many overenrolled?

Steeler7588 said:
Yeah, and it's not just a slight overenrollment, that's a lot of people they defer or withdraw. With a sick building and better curriculum opening for us, you'd think they would've played it a little more cautious, anticipating more demand than in previous years. Hopefully waitlists at other schools start moving a lot and they have a number of people interested in deferring.

I'd say there's a 1% chance they have any waitlist movement. Not looking good, for those of you waiting.
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They said they target admissions to have a class size of 148, but are comfortable with a class size up to 160 and there are currently 189 people holding their spot at UVA. I don't know if you can get ~30 ppl to defer, that seems kind of ambitious.
 
...41 over their target, 29 over their maximum. As Steeler pointed out, their GPA/MCAT statistical model doesn't seem to have anticipated the new level of demand for the school. I would be shocked if people came off of the waitlist this year.
 
jasmine112 said:
They said they target admissions to have a class size of 148, but are comfortable with a class size up to 160 and there are currently 189 people holding their spot at UVA. I don't know if you can get ~30 ppl to defer, that seems kind of ambitious.
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Do you think they will start forcing people to defer?
 
That doesn't sound legal. I would assume that it has to be voluntary.
 
ThatQuestionGuy said:
Do you think they will start forcing people to defer?
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I think that anybody holding a UVA acceptance plus any others is probably subject to a quick hook.

They probably anticipate losing some of the overage to people who get in off waitlists elsewhere.

But ultimately, like an airline that overbooks, they will have to offer financial inducements to people who are willing to defer.

Finally, for anybody who wants to defer for some lame reason, they will probably accept it...they may let people defer for no reason at all...
 
justinbaily said:
That doesn't sound legal. I would assume that it has to be voluntary.
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I wouldn't recommend holding more than one acceptance at this point to anybody - the could terminate your acceptance with very little or no warning.
 
ThatQuestionGuy said:
Do you think they will start forcing people to defer?
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oh i don't think they can do that, but i do agree with flip that they may have to start offering financial incentives for deferral to get enough people to do it. I just feel its very late to expect people to defer, since many master's program deadlines have passed and jobs are so difficult to come by...
 
jasmine112 said:
oh i don't think they can do that, but i do agree with flip that they may have to start offering financial incentives for deferral to get enough people to do it. I just feel its very late to expect people to defer, since many master's program deadlines have passed and jobs are so difficult to come by...
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And even though they say they are "comfortable" with a class of 160, they may need to get "comfortable" with a slightly larger class than that in case people do not defer. I don't think they can force anyone to defer, but if you are holding more than one acceptance at this point, they could possibly drop you - frankly, all we can do is speculate on the actual rules RE May 15 and multiple acceptances - they may have more leeway to drop people because of their predicament.

I think you could drive a pretty hard bargain as far as financial inducement for future tuition...
 
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Crap, this probably doesn't bode well for us getting ready to apply, a bunch of seats in the class will already be taken :(

Additionally, they will probably way overcompensate and just originally accept the number they can actually hold and then just wait-list everyone else
 
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