Acceptance rates drop at Virginia's top public universities
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Virginia's high school seniors have a fairly good chance of getting into most of the state's public four-year universities, but it's getting harder for them to get into the state's most selective schools.
- That's per an Axios review of the latest stats from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
Why it matters: Fall is college application season for high school seniors.
The big picture: The last few years have turned the college admissions process on its head.
- More universities in-state and beyond have dropped standardized test requirements and legacy admissions, adopted more holistic approaches to evaluating candidates, added guaranteed admissions for qualified applicants, waived application fees, and started accepting the Common App.
- Those big-deal changes, most of which took place since 2020, have made it easier than ever for prospective students to apply to college, and they're doing so in big numbers, especially at the state's most selective schools.
- Meanwhile, students nationwide are increasingly eyeing out-of-state schools, and many schools are eager to accept them for the increased tuition they bring, Stateline reported.
By the numbers: Just under 270,000 first-year students applied to Virginia's 15 public four-year universities for the 2023-24 school year — a 25% increase over applications for the 2020-21 school year and 100,000 more applications than the schools received a decade earlier.
- Nationwide, four-year colleges saw a 28% increase in applications last year compared with 2019-20, Forbes reported.
Zoom in: In Virginia, first-year applicants seem to be focused on three of the state's four most selective schools — UVA, JMU and Virginia Tech — all of which have reported record-breaking application numbers every year since the pandemic.
- UVA saw nearly 60,000 first-year student applications last year, including over 15,000 in-state applications;
- Virginia Tech had just over 52,000 prospective freshman apply, including more than 19,000 in-state students;
- JMU also saw over 19,000 in-state students apply and a total of around 40,000 undergrad applications — an 104% increase over 2021.
- William & Mary, among the state's most competitive schools, had significantly fewer applicants than the other schools last year — 17,548 — but still reported a 25% increase in applications since 2020.
Yes, but: Those application surges translate into dwindling acceptance rates for all students, per an Axios review.
- JMU accepted 68.2% of in-state applicants last year, compared with 70.5% in 2019.
- Tech accepted 47.3% of in-state applicants, a drop from the 64% it accepted in 2019.
- William & Mary accepted 39.3% of its 7,156 in-state applicants versus 46.9% during the pandemic.
- And UVA, which remains the state's most selective school, granted admission to just 31.2% Virginia students, down from 36.6% in 2019.
Still, if you're applying to college this year, there's some good news. Eleven of Virginia's 15 public four-year universities had an acceptance rate of 80% or higher for in-state students last year.
- All but one of those (VMI) had an 80% or above acceptance rate for the last three years.
- Four schools — VCU, Radford, ODU and UVA Wise — have accepted more than 90% of applicants every year since 2020.
What we're watching: For the enrollment numbers following last year's landmark Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action.
- UVA, the first Virginia university to share detailed admissions data, saw Black first-year students decrease by about 1% this year while its Latino population increased by around 2%, Radio IQ reported.
- Data for all schools is expected in November.