FAQs

We are test optional for the Fall 2024 and Fall 2025 cycles and have no preference between the SAT and ACT.

Early Decision applicants can expect decisions on or around December 15th. Early Action applicants can expect decisions by February 15. Regular Decision applicants can expect decisions by April 1. Keep an eye on the admission blog and our social media accounts for updates!

If you are selected as a QuestBridge Finalist (by QuestBridge) and wish to rank UVA as one of your college choices, your QuestBridge application will be forwarded to UVA’s Office of Undergraduate Admission. In addition to the QuestBridge application, however, there are a few other things we’ll need (like the UVA Supplement available through our online portal and your official high school transcript). 

For more detail about application requirements (and more QuestBridge-related FAQs), check out the UVA page on the QuestBridge site.

The laws governing domiciliary status - that is, whether a person is considered a legal resident of Virginia - are set by the state legislature. If students wish to be considered legal residents for the purposes of admission and tuition, they must answer the residency questions on our application. For more information, please see the Office of Virginia Status website.

The admission committee may admit, deny, or defer early applications. If an applicant is deferred, their application will be placed in the Regular Decision pool and reviewed once mid-year grades have been received.

Students admitted via the QuestBridge College Match are guaranteed full financial support with grant-based aid for all four years at UVA. UVA’s financial aid guarantees to meet 100% of demonstrated need for all domestic students, even those who do not receive the Match.

For more on the QuestBridge process at UVA check out the UVA page on the QuestBridge site.

While prospective students are welcome to visit for an information session and tour, we do not offer interviews.

We do not allow applications to multiple schools or programs. Select the school/program that most interests you at this time, knowing that you are able to change schools as a student at UVA.

Admitted first year students are required to submit a final high school transcript by July 1. Admitted transfer students must submit a transcript for their most recently completed academic term. If there is a significant grade decline since the time of admission, the student will be notified through their UVA email address. In some cases, students will be required to submit an explanation for the decline in grade(s) in writing. Additionally, some will be asked to meet with an admission dean to discuss the grade decline. Afterward, an admission committee will reconvene to discuss the case. Each case is considered individually. While rescinding an admission offer is rare, it is one possible outcome. We strongly encourage students to continue to work hard in the classroom and perform at the level that earned them an admission offer so they do not put their enrollment in jeopardy.

The same procedure is used for students who commit a disciplinary infraction, in or outside of school.

We do not have a preference for one type of course. We suggest that students take advantage of advanced course options at their high school, regardless of the type of curriculum available.

You may write to the Dean of Admission, Greg Roberts, to request a change of school.

Yes. You are eligible to receive an application fee waiver if:

• You are enrolled in or eligible to participate in the federal free or reduced price lunch program.
• You have received or are eligible to receive and SAT or ACT fee waiver.
• Your annual family income falls within the income eligibility guidelines set by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
• Your family receives public assistance.
• You are enrolled in a federal, state, or local program that aids students from low-income families (e.g., GEAR UP, TRIO such as Upward Bound or others).
• You live in a federally subsidized public housing, a foster home or are homeless.
• You are a ward of the state or an orphan.
• You have received or are eligible to receive a Pell Grant.
• You can provide a supporting statement from a school official, college access counselor, financial aid officer, or community leader.

Students who do not meet any of these criteria but would like to request a fee waiver based on extenuating circumstances should contact the Office of Admission.

We generally give credit for scores of 4 or 5 on AP exams and 5, 6, or 7 on Higher Level IB exams. There are some exceptions to this and practices can vary from one school to another. The Undergraduate Record has specific information about AP and IB credit.

We will send you detailed information about the waiting list process, including statistics about past years.

We will not fill our class during the Early Decision process. We hope that you will submit your application when you feel it is in a strong position. Remember that Regular Decision applicants will have grades from the first semester of senior year in their files before we finalize our decisions.

Yes! You can use the transfer credit analyzer to see how credit from different colleges is treated when transferred to UVA. 

You can accept your offer of admission by paying the non-refundable admission deposit in your applicant portal.

We don't have a minimum GPA. We don't have a minimum SAT score.

As strange as these answers sound, they're both true. A cumulative GPA only reveals so much; it says little about the difficulty of a student's course load, or whether a student's grades have improved over time, or the level of grade inflation (or deflation) in a student's school. If we established a firm minimum GPA, a point below which no applicant would have any chance of being admitted, we'd miss a fair number of students who might make UVA a better, stronger place.

The same is true for SAT scores. Most people who work in admission at highly selective universities believe that standardized testing is a useful but imprecise instrument. Setting an absolute minimum would be asking these tests to do something they weren't designed to do.

Of course, our applicant pool is broad and deep, so most admitted students have excelled in school and scored well on the SAT or ACT (see our Profile for more information). But remember that we don't have set minimums for either and we try hard to take into account all of the information we see in each application.

We are a paperless office, so you should submit your part of the application online and use your applicant portal to submit updates after the deadline. Counselors and teachers may choose to submit documents online or by mail.

Students offered admission to the College of Arts and Sciences may apply for UVA London First or UVA Valencia First. For more information, see the UVA Global First website.

No. While we maintain a 2/3 majority of Virginia residents in our student population, there are no restrictions on how many students we may admit from a particular school, town, county, or region.

We require one recommendation from a teacher of an academic subject so that we can learn more about your school performance. While you are welcome to submit an extra recommendation, we prefer letters that provide insight into your classroom style.

Members of the UVA community may submit recommendations using this form.

We've extended our current test-optional practice for two years. If you're applying for admission for Fall 2024 or Fall 2025, you'll have the choice of sharing or not sharing results from the SAT and ACT. Whichever path you choose, we'll consider your application with care and respect, and you won't be disadvantaged because of the choice you've made.

We have pledged to maintain a 2/3 majority of Virginia residents in our student population, but 2/3 of our applicants tend to come from out-of-state. As a result, our offer rate for Virginia residents tends to be much higher than the rate for out-of-state students. Last year, we admitted 28% of the Virginia residents and 17% of the non-Virginians. You can see data from previous years on the Office of Institutional Assessment website.

We do not accept resumes, research abstracts, or writing portfolios. The application provides space to tell us about your most important honors and activities.

Students will choose whether or not to be test optional when they submit their Common Application. You have until the application deadline to change this decision. 

A legacy is a student whose parent, step-parent, or adoptive parent has a degree from UVA. Legacy status is acknowledged in our review process. Legacies residing outside of Virginia pay the out-of-state tuition rate.

To change your decision plan (Early Decision, Early Action, or Regular Decision) or your school choice, you must email undergradadmission@virginia.edu by 5 PM Eastern on November 15th for Early Decision and Early Action or 5 PM Eastern on January 15th for Regular Decision. If requesting a school change, you will be required to submit the supplemental essay for the school to which you are switching. After these dates, your application will be considered as it was submitted.

Students who want their test scores considered for EA or ED admission must choose to do so by the application deadline, then have until November 22 to self-report their new scores in their applicant portal.

No. When we read your application, we will not use previous contact as a factor in our review.

The application prompts applicants to provide the information we need to make a decision.

For applicants submitting test scores, it has been the Office of Admission’s long-standing policy to consider the best test scores submitted by applicants. We use the top score from each SAT section across all administrations of the same exam. We hope you will submit all of your scores knowing that we will recombine the sections to get the best possible set of scores. If reporting an ACT score, report the composite and sub-scores as they appear on your official score report without any recalculation.