The University of Virginia, or UVA, is one of the most selective public universities in the country. The acceptance rate, though, is a bit misleading. As a public university, UVA prioritizes in-state applicants. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029, then, is an average of two difference rates of acceptance: the higher in-state acceptance rate and the much lower out-of-state acceptance rate. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 but the in-state acceptance rate was 11%, and 29.5% for Early Decision applicants. For out-of-state applicants, the regular decision acceptance rate was 9% and Early Decision was 21%.
This difference between in-state and out-of-state applicants comes into play again on the waitlist, as UVA has to maintain a prescribed ratio between in-state and out-of-state students. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s easier to get in as someone who lives in Virginia than for someone who lives in Florida. What determines what UVA admissions needs is based on who has committed by the May 1 decision date. In this post, we’re going to give you the tools you need to improve your chances of admission off of the waitlist regardless of where you are applying from. First, though, let’s look at some more numbers.
If one averages out the number of students admitted off of the waitlist annually from 2017 though 2024, the result is about 211 students. However, simply taking that number is extremely misleading. Some years, waitlist admissions spiked (like 915 in 2020) while in others it plummeted (like 7 in 2022). Over published admissions cycles, the average number of students admitted off of the waitlist was 272, but that doesn’t mean that the total for the following year won’t be fewer than a dozen.
What we can predict about the UVA waitlist, though, is that they will communicate with you through the process. UVA has a strong record of communicating proactively with waitlisted applicants, guidance, insight, and regular updates. They to talk over the online noise, , that they say is often incorrect. So, if you go searching or scrolling and the advice you are seeing is from a recent applicant or purported expert, but doesn’t cite the clear information UVA admissions provides, you should probably disregard it. We, for the record, are completely immersed in the UVA admissions resources — and we know what works.
We help strong students stand out on the UVA waiting list. Contact us to learn more.
Once you’ve received a waitlist offer from UVA, there are four steps you need to take if you still want to stay in contention for admission to the university. These steps are not optional. While there are opportunities to make them your own, going rogue will not help you — and will often hurt your chances of getting in. Yes, someone your parents know may have gotten into UVA two decades ago after standing outside the admissions office with a boom box, but it is not 2006 and that will only serve to get you escorted off campus by security. Instead, make the rules work for you.
Step One: Join the Waitlist
The first step is to actually join the waiting list. Being offered a spot on the UVA waitlist is not the same as being on it. In order to join the waitlist, you need to respond to the form or link in the waitlist offer you received. Do that quickly, but don’t freak out if it takes you a few days. The UVA waitlist is not ranked at all, and it’s most certainly not ranked based on offer response time.
Step Two: Pick a College
Once you are officially on the UVA waitlist, you need to pick a different college or university for you to move onto the campus of this fall. This may feel like a moment of defeat, but it isn’t. Even professional athletes operate with a back-up plan, and you can always aim to transfer to UVA after a year or two somewhere else. What you shouldn’t do, though, is miss the May 1 deadline to place a deposit at a school that accepted you. You will not hear from UVA before May 1, so letting that deadline pass would be and would not impact your odds of getting into UVA.
Step Three: Update UVA
The next step is to remind UVA how awesome you are and how much you love their program. UVA does want to hear an update from you, and they have clear directions on how you can best provide that to them. “We welcome new information the admission committee can review should we be able to make more admission offers later this spring,” but they do not want you emailing a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI). Instead, the update should be uploaded through the applicant portal as a PDF. What should be in the update is pretty simple, but it’s important to get it right.
The LOCI is called a Letter of Continued Interest because it should be a literal letter. It should also be one page, size 12 font, and with standard margins — no tiny font and skinny margins to cram more words on the page allowed. These are the four sections your letter needs to have:
Open: Again, this is a letter, so you’ll be starting it like one. “Dear UVA Admissions,” or the name of your regional representative if you have previously communicated, is the best way to begin. Follow this with three sentences. First, introduce yourself, your status as a waitlisted applicant to the Class of 2030, and your prospective major. Next, you need to say that UVA remains your first choice and that you will enroll enthusiastically if accepted. This needs to be said even if you are joining another waitlist for a school you’d actually like to go to more, or if you aren’t sure if you’d accept a UVA offer if it eventually came.
Saying that you will enroll is not legally-binding, and it’s not unethical to later not follow through. Rather, it’s like applying for a job. If you let it be known that you aren’t really all that committed to a certain role, it’s extremely unlikely that the hiring manager will give you the position. They would want to hear that you are passionate and committed, so that’s what you are going to do here, too. It is, in short, the waitlist game.
The final sentence of the opening is where you set the intention for this letter. Yes, they know it is a LOCI, but it’s still important to say that you’ll be providing important updates to your application and sharing why you are so excited about the (prospective major) program at UVA.
Update: Next, you need to update UVA. “But nothing big has happened since I pressed submit!”, is not an excuse. There is something that has happened that is relevant to your academics, your prospective area of study specifically, or the extracurricular you emphasized in your application in the time since you applied. It may not be an award or impressive-sounding recognition, but those aren’t actually the kind of updates that go a long way with the UVA admissions team. They want to hear about your pursuing a passion further, supporting peers in new ways, and contributing to the community around you. Aim to give between two and four updates that are a few sentences each. If your GPA has improved since you applied, that should certainly be one of the updates along with asking your school to send your updated grades (which they should be doing regardless, but it’s worth making sure).
Reinforce: Next, you need to remind UVA why you love them. They have your initial application, so you don’t need to repeat anything that you said there. It can be helpful, though, to add additional details about what it is, specifically, about the UVA program that you are excited about. We advise students to mention a professor that they hope to study under or support in their research, and another program that is on campus or nearby that would jump to join.
If UVA is able to give your application further consideration for a spot open in the first-year class, one of the primary ways in which they will be assessing it is academic fit. “The applicant pool as having ten parts, in-state and out-of-state for the five different academic entry points,” so it’s extremely important that you not only pinpoint your area of interest, but also the program within the College of Arts and Sciences, Architecture, Engineering, Nursing, and Kinesiology that you are most interested in.
Close: Remember, this letter is short. After the update and paragraph reinforcing your interest in UVA, you’ll likely be at nearly a full page. The conclusion, then, will be another short three-sentence paragraph. Start by thanking the admissions team for their time and continued consideration. Follow that with a sentence reinforcing that you will enroll if accepted. The final sentence should offer a positive outlook, saying how excited you are to (hopefully) join in a particular tradition or gather with new friends in a favorite spot on campus.
Sign off with “Sincerely,” or something similarly formal, and then give yourself a day or two to edit before submitting.
Once you have submitted your LOCI and checked to make sure that your updated grades have been sent, there isn’t much more to do to increase your chances with UVA. They do not accept additional letters of recommendation, and students on the waiting list to visit. If you have specific questions about the UVA process or program, they are very willing to be helpful, but they will not provide explanations as to their reasoning when they waitlisted your application.
Step Four: Wait it out.
Last year, for the Class of 2029, UVA admission to a tiny number of students for a specific program, Kinesiology, on May 2nd. A larger cohort of students on the waitlist received offers by June 10th last year.
If offered a spot at UVA, you will only have to respond. In the meantime, Virginia students set on UVA — but sitting on the waitlist — should consider the option, which places students at UVA Wise, a college in Southwest Virginia, for a year. If you achieve certain academic benchmarks at Wise, you are invited to transfer to UVA in Charlottesville.
Getting into UVA off of the waitlist is a long-shot, and little of it depends on you. If they don’t have spots in the first-year class that remain unfilled after May 1st, there isn’t anything you (or they) can do about that. What you can do, though, is to make sure that if a spot becomes available, your application is one of the first they reach for.
Getting into UVA off of the waiting list is hard. We make it easier. Email us to learn more.