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How to Write the University of Virginia Essays 2023-2024

University of Virginia has two supplemental essay prompts, one of which is optional. Although we normally encourage applicants to respond to any and all optional supplemental prompts, this one can be categorized as an “additional information” essay, which is truly optional–in fact, you should really only respond to this question if it truly applies to you.

Whether you are writing two essays or just one, we’re here to break down UVA’s prompts, so that you can feel confident your responses will showcase your best qualities, and maximize your chances of acceptance.

Read these University of Virginia essay examples to inspire your writing.

University of Virginia Supplemental Essay Prompts

Prompt 1: If you have a personal or historic connection with UVA, and if you’d like to share how your experience of this connection has prepared you to contribute to the University, please share your thoughts here. Such relationships might include, but are not limited to, being a child of someone who graduated from or works for UVA, a descendant of ancestors who labored at UVA, or a participant in UVA programs. (100 words, optional)

Prompt 2: What about your individual background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you or those around you at UVA? Feel free to write about any past experience or part of your background that has shaped your perspective and will be a source of strength, including but not limited to those related to your community, upbringing, educational environment, race, gender, or other aspects of your background that are important to you. (250 words)

If you have a personal or historic connection with UVA, and if you’d like to share how your experience of this connection has prepared you to contribute to the University, please share your thoughts here. Such relationships might include, but are not limited to, being a child of someone who graduated from or works for UVA, a descendant of ancestors who labored at UVA, or a participant in UVA programs. (100 words, optional)

As noted above, this is not a typical supplement, but is more along the lines of the prompt in the “Additional Information” section of the Common App that allows you to share how COVID-19 and/or natural disasters have impacted your academic performance. If you don’t have a preexisting connection to UVA, don’t force one by talking about how your childhood best friend’s cousin went there. Most students accepted to UVA don’t have any prior association to the school, so not answering this question isn’t going to negatively impact your odds of acceptance.

If this prompt does apply to you, however, we encourage you to respond to it, even though it is still optional for you, as you’re being given an opportunity to help UVA admissions officers better understand your perspective on their school. You don’t have much space, though, so you want to make sure you already have a clear sense of what you want to say, as otherwise your words will be gone before you know it.

While UVA may have been a huge part of your life growing up if, say, both your parents are alums and took you to football tailgates every fall Saturday since the time you could walk, that probably isn’t the case for most applicants. That’s completely fine–you don’t need to diminish your connection to the school just because your house isn’t painted blue and orange.

Rather, take a step back from the actual essay and the word count, and ask yourself honestly how your connection to UVA has shaped you. Remember, this is still a supplemental essay, so you want UVA admissions officers to learn something about you. You don’t want to say just “my dad went to UVA and his friends from college are all really great,” because that won’t teach admissions officers anything about your personality.

Rather, talk about how one of your dad’s friends played basketball at UVA, and how he was an invaluable resource for you as you weighed the pros and cons of pursuing varsity sports in college yourself. You could wrap things up by describing how, if you attend UVA, you will do your best to be similarly generous and compassionate with anyone who is even tangentially connected to the school.

There is no right or wrong answer here. Just make sure you’re avoiding clichés that could be written about any college, like how you’re glad your family is part of a worldwide alumni network, this essay won’t add anything to your application. It may be truly optional, but if it applies to you, you still want to take full advantage of this opportunity to share your personality with admissions officers. So, be honest, and explain your thoughts in enough detail that your readers learn something substantive about you.

What about your individual background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you or those around you at UVA? Feel free to write about any past experience or part of your background that has shaped your perspective and will be a source of strength, including but not limited to those related to your community, upbringing, educational environment, race, gender, or other aspects of your background that are important to you. (250 words)

Brainstorming Your Topic

This is a good example of the popular “Diversity” essay, which you may have already come across in another school’s supplemental essay package. This kind of essay requires you to do two things: highlight some particular aspect of your identity, and then explain why it’s fundamental to understanding who you are as a whole.

Before we go further, it’s important to note that this kind of essay may carry more significance for certain applicants in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action . Colleges are now banned from directly factoring an applicant’s race into their admissions decision, but they are allowed to consider race in the context of your overall background and experiences. What that means is that, if your race is an important part of your identity, you should think about focusing this essay on it, as otherwise UVA admissions officers will be legally unable to consider your race as part of their holistic review process.

If your racial identity doesn’t feel like quite the right topic for this essay, there are also plenty of other options out there. You could write about your gender, sexuality, ethnicity, or other qualities people often associate with the word “diversity,” but you can also broaden your net, and write about, to use UVA’s words “any past experience or part of your background that has shaped your perspective.”

Our past experiences and backgrounds are not just the demographic boxes we check, but also our interests, hobbies, and favorite memories. So, if you want to write about your family’s yearly camping trips during the summer, or your experience planting your own herb garden, that is completely fine, so long as those topics have been influential in making you who you are.

Finally, note that UVA wants you to write about something that “will serve as a source of strength.” That means you should focus on some aspect of your identity that makes you feel empowered. Our identities are complicated, so that doesn’t mean you need to have strictly positive experiences with this part of yourself. 

You do want your overall framing to be positive, however, as if you only talk about how frustrating it was when your herbs kept dying, UVA admissions officers may not understand how you’re going to draw strength from this experience in college. Instead, touch on your frustration briefly, and then dive into how rewarding it was for you to see them thrive after you built a short protective wall to shield them from the worst of the wind.

Tips for Writing Your Essay

In your actual response, it’s crucial that you don’t just describe what this especially important aspect of your identity is, but also explain why this quality is so fundamental to your personality as a whole. In other words, what have you learned about yourself as a result of your experiences connected to this part of your identity?

Like in any college essay, the most engaging, informative way of answering that question is by showing, not telling. What that means is rather than just saying “Being raised trilingual taught me the importance of being truly open to other ways of thinking,” describe a moment when this realization shaped your actions.

For example, maybe you once had to act as an impromptu translator at the supermarket, as a Japanese couple was having issues with their card but couldn’t communicate with the cashier. As you bounced back and forth between languages, you realized that certain things are impossible to say in exactly the same way, due to the drastic differences between Japanese and English. That in turn made you realize that language isn’t just words that passively come out of our mouths, but something that shapes how we engage with the word around us.

With the original, tell-y line, UVA admissions officers don’t get any detail about what being open to other ways of thinking means in the context of your particular life, so you aren’t doing anything to set yourself apart from other applicants who may also have this value. In the more detailed, show-y example on the other hand, readers get to see how your broader takeaway has manifested in your daily life, which helps them better understand how this aspect of your identity will help you fit into their broader campus community.

Mistakes to Avoid

The most common mistake students make with this kind of essay is focusing too much on the particular feature of their identity they’ve chosen, and not fulfilling the second goal of this kind of essay by connecting it to their broader personality. 

In the context of the above example, that might look like diving into great detail about when you learned your three languages and how long it took you to consider yourself fluent, but not incorporating any information about how this ability has shaped their worldview. Remember, UVA admissions officers want to learn as much about you as possible, so don’t just give them one piece of the puzzle. Also give them enough information that they can see how this single piece fits into the broader framework of your life.

Where to Get Your University of Virginia Essay Edited 

Do you want feedback on your UVA essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

SAT Essays and Subject Tests Are No More. Here’s What That Means for UVA Applicants

• By Jane Kelly , [email protected]

The College Board is dropping the optional essay component of the SAT as well as its subject tests in such fields as chemistry, French and literature.

This week, the College Board announced changes to the way it administers its standardized tests to university applicants in the United States. The board is dropping the optional essay component of the SAT as well as its subject tests in such fields as chemistry, French and literature.

The board explained it was making the changes to streamline the test-taking process amid the coronavirus pandemic, which it said “accelerated a process already underway at the College Board to reduce and simplify demands on students.”

Stephen Farmer, UVA’s first vice provost for enrollment, talked with UVA Today about what this means for students applying to the University, how standardized test scores fit in with UVA’s admissions process and his excitement at enrolling the Class of 2025, his first at the University.

Stephen Farmer, UVA’s first vice provost for enrollment, said the change gives the College Board a chance to concentrate on improving the SAT and other offerings, such as Advanced Placement tests. (Photo courtesy UNC Chapel Hill)

Q. What was your first reaction when you heard the College Board was dropping the essay and subject tests?

A. I wasn’t surprised. The number of students who have been taking subject tests or completing the optional essay has been dwindling over time.

The change gives the College Board a chance to concentrate on improving the SAT and other offerings, such as Advanced Placement, that are arguably more valuable to students.

I agree with the board that the change simplifies things for students. To the extent that students feel they’re already jumping through a lot of hoops, or to the extent they feel that there are too many hoops available to them and they don’t know which ones to jump through, simplifying the choices can be helpful.

Q. What do the SAT changes mean for students interested in UVA?

A. I think the changes will have probably a very limited practical effect on the way that students apply to Virginia. I do hope the changes will help students remember there are more ways to demonstrate their strengths than just earning strong test scores.

We want to care for every student who applies. We want to see the best in them and we want the best for them. Ideally, the way that we consider students should encourage them to do things that will be in their long-term best interest. We want students to do things that will make them smarter, more creative, more curious. We want students to do things that will keep them healthy. We want them to do things that will be meaningful for themselves and their families and their communities.

We want them to do things that will be worth their time and energy. We don’t want them pursuing credentials or completing tasks just because they believe that we want them to do those things. To the extent that not having to worry about subject tests or about the essay will give them more time to focus on things that really matter, I hope that will be helpful to them.

Q. Critics say the new moves will only place more emphasis on the College Board’s Advanced Placement tests that high school students must pay to take. They say the moves do not address concerns about equity in the testing process.

A. I think that one helpful development over the last several years where the Advanced Placement tests are concerned is that more districts and, in some cases, more states have been funding the exams. That’s removing the financial barrier for students and their families. And in states where that’s happened, participation in exam-taking has increased. I think there are things from a policy point of view that communities can do and that states can do to further level the playing field. I think that’s a good thing for young people. It’s a good thing for schools and teachers and communities.

The equity issues that swirl around testing are real and they’re profound. So, for that matter, are the other inequities in education and opportunity that students and their loved ones have to struggle against every day. I don’t think there’s any single step that the College Board could take, or for that matter, that a school could take, that would completely remedy those inequities. But there are things that schools can do – how we use tests, how we interpret them – that can help minimize the inequities of testing.

Q. What are your thoughts on standardized tests in general? A. I think standardized tests are a snapshot. At their very best, any test is a snapshot taken at a particular point in time. It never describes the whole of any student – not who they are or where they’ve been and most of all, not where they’re going.

A snapshot can be helpful, but only when we remember what it is and what it isn’t, and only when we consider it alongside a lot of other information.

The real problem with testing, I think, is when people read more into it than we should. It’s important to remember that the test score is a snapshot, and in many cases, one that’s blurry and not crystal-clear. We must remember that it’s a glimpse of a complicated reality and sometimes a distorted glimpse. Remembering those things can make us better users of tests and with the right interpretation, testing can be helpful in evaluating candidates with the care, compassion and respect they deserve. But only with the right interpretation.

Q. So how should admissions officers interpret standardized test scores?

A. I think the first thing is remembering that the test is a crude instrument. A test score is an ax. It’s not a scalpel. You can’t do a lot of fine carving with a test score. One problem with testing is when people think it’s a scalpel, not an ax, and that the difference, for example, between a 1400 score and 1440 SAT score is a material difference. It’s not.

The second thing, really, is to see the test score in light of everything else that we know about the candidate. There’s no abstracting that test score from the complicated reality of a student. We have to see testing in light of everything else we know.

Q. Can you remind our readers the other factors that go into evaluating people who apply to UVA?

A. Sure. We have test scores, when students choose to share them. We have transcripts from the schools the students attend. We have the descriptions of students that counselors and teachers and others provide to us through recommendation letters. We have information about what the student has been involved in and what the student values.

We learn about students through the list of activities they share with us. We have information about how students express themselves through UVA’s application essays; what students care about, how they think, how they feel. We have information about their families, the context within which they’ve grown up and have done their work and developed their gifts and their aspirations.

We know about their communities. The neighborhoods they live in, the towns they live in, the opportunities they’ve had, the obstacles they’ve overcome. We don’t know everything about students and no one who works in admissions should ever pretend that we do. We’re always seeing through a glass darkly. But we really are trying to see and the student we’re trying to see is a whole person who deserves our respect and care, not the sum of a couple of test scores.

I think testing can be a significant part of the whole, it can help us understand a student, but it doesn’t help us understand a student on its own and it doesn’t tell the full story of any student.

Q. UVA began accepting students to the Class of 2025 with its binding early decision cycle in December. That will be followed by more acceptances during early action, typically coming at the end of January and, later, regular decision in March. Do you have any reflections on the Class of 2025, since it will be your first enrolled class?

A. The great people in the Office of Undergraduate Admission have been recruiting this class for a long time. Our colleagues in Student Financial Services are working hard to assess and meet the need of the students we’ve admitted. Our friends in the Office of the University Registrar are making sure students have what they need to register for their courses and navigate their requirements.

So, one of my reflections on this class is that I’m grateful so many good people have been working so hard to welcome this class to the University.  

But my second reflection is that I’m really grateful to these students. My first day in the office a few weeks ago, I spent some of it writing to students we had just admitted early decision. I was just thanking them for their commitment to UVA and asking them how we can help them.

We can’t ever take for granted the choice that a student makes to join us, because students have other choices. So, I’m eager to get to know our students and, to the extent that they’ll let me, I’m eager to be a part of their lives. It’s such a privilege to welcome such remarkable people and to watch them flourish and thrive and help each other thrive.

We want to recruit great students who will make each other better; who believe in each other and will treat each other well and will make each other better every day. And I’m confident the Class of 2025 will do that, just as previous classes have.

Media Contact

Office of University Communications

[email protected] (434) 243-9935

Article Information

January 21, 2021

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First-year Admissions Requirements

Academic requirements for first-year applicants.

For Fall 2023, we received more than 47,000 applications for approximately 7,000 spaces in our entering class. To be a first-year applicant to Virginia Tech, you must complete:

18 units of high school coursework, including:

• 4 units of English
• 3 units of math (includes algebra I, geometry, and algebra II)
• 2 units of laboratory science (chosen from biology, chemistry or physics)
• 2 units of social science (one must be history)
• 3 additional academic units (foreign language is highly recommended)
• 4 elective units

If you have already graduated high school and have attempted 12 or more credits at the college/university level, then you should apply as a transfer applicant. If your credits were attempted or completed in high school, you are still a first-year applicant.

First-year Applicant Holistic Review

When your application is complete, it will be reviewed holistically by our admissions committee. We will look at your achievement inside of the classroom, as well as who you are outside of the classroom. This includes looking at your application within the context of your high school. The committee will consider your school’s course offerings, grading scale, and any other school-related information provided to review your academic achievement. Factors that are considered in the application review process include:

Academic Review:

• Rigor of academic program within context of school
• Grades in courses, including trends over time
• Standardized test scores (if applicable; test-optional for students entering through Fall 2025)
• Major requested on your application as we review by major at Virginia Tech

Personal Review (in alphabetical order, not reflective of order of review):

• Activities outside of the classroom like jobs, clubs, sports, family responsibilities, service, research, etc.
• Disciplinary record
• First-generation college student status
• Interest in the Corps of Cadets
• Participation in Virginia Tech pipeline programs
• Personal statements submitted through the Ut Prosim Profile
• Veteran status

Required Supplemental Information for Application Review

Academic materials.

Applicants who meet the following criteria are required to submit a Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR) after application submission:

• First-year applicants who have only attended high school or have been home-educated within the U.S. will need to submit an SRAR for review. If you choose for your SAT/ACT scores to be reviewed, you must include them on your SRAR.

Applicants who meet the following criteria are required to submit their transcript(s) during or after application submission:

• First-year applicants who have attended high school or have been home-educated outside of the U.S. at any point will need to submit their transcript(s) for review. If you choose for your SAT/ACT scores to be reviewed, include them on your application for admission or upload a score report in your Applicant Portal.

In both cases, the Applicant Portal will be a tool for submitting your academic materials. Applicants will be able to either seamlessly log into their SRAR or upload their transcript(s) and standardized test score reports (if applicable).

Standardized Tests

• ACT or SAT: Virginia Tech is test-optional for students entering through Fall 2025. On the application for admission, you will be able to select whether or not you would like your scores to be reviewed as part of your application. We do not look at the Writing section of either test. If you do not want to include test scores in the review of your application, it will not impact your admission decision. If you are required to submit the SRAR, you will provide the scores there. If you are required to submit transcripts, then you can include the test scores on your Common App for review, or upload the score report in your Applicant Portal.
• English Language Requirements: If you are applying and your native language is not English, you will need to demonstrate English language proficiency through testing. For more information, please see the international requirements webpage for details.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are not required or requested. Even if submitted, they will not be considered in the review of your application.

If there is a circumstance that you would like to share that impacted you academically or personally, we encourage you to share this information on your application in the Additional Information writing prompt on Common App. Your counselor may also write a letter of circumstance on your behalf and email it to [email protected] to be added to your application for review. Please note that this should not be used to share letters of recommendation.

For a checklist related to applying to Virginia Tech as a first-year, please visit the first-year application checklist .

Home-Schooled, Home-Educated, and Others in Non-Accredited Programs

In order to be competitive for admission to Virginia Tech, students applying from educational backgrounds other than accredited schools (including home-schooled or home-educated students whose programs are not accredited) must provide the following documentation for review by the admissions committee:

• Application for admission, including the non-refundable application fee
• Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR) that includes all coursework completed in high school
• Grades/level of performance
• SAT and/or ACT test scores, if choosing to have scores reviewed

Virginia Tech attracts highly competitive students nationwide and from over 100 countries. An increasing number of these students have unique educational backgrounds that require additional evaluation. The university administration recognizes that students from educational backgrounds other than accredited schools may not study in the traditional classroom environment and that they are unable to provide the traditional documentation needed to evaluate their academic performance. Virginia Tech believes that providing this population the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency in their college preparatory curriculum through the above-listed documentation will be beneficial to both the student and the university.

Updated July 2023

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More Virginia colleges make SAT, ACT exams optional

By: nathaniel cline - october 31, 2022 12:01 am.

Students applying for spring or fall 2023 at Norfolk State University will not have to submit SAT or ACT scores. A growing number of colleges are making the tests optional for admission.

The University of Virginia , Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Norfolk State University are among the dozens of schools in the commonwealth that have changed their policies to relax admissions exams requirements.

The test-optional trend is growing as more than 1,800 accredited, four-year colleges and universities nationally have committed to offering ACT/SAT optional or test-free testing policies for fall 2023 applicants, said Harry Feder, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), which promotes the fair and reasonable assessment of educators, students and school systems.

“I think it’s a recognition by four-year institutions that they don’t get that much additional benefit from administering this test,” Feder said.

FairTest has been tracking the trend as the number of test takers declines.

In Virginia, 194,909 test takers completed the SAT or a PSAT‐related assessment in 2022, below the 238,500 test takers recorded in 2019.

ACT test-taking also has declined in Virginia to 9% in 2022 compared to 21% in 2019.

Feder said schools that have instituted test-optional policies are seeing an increase in applications and minority applicants.

According to the American Educational Research Journal, one of the key findings from a study of nearly 100 private institutions is that the policy change was connected to a 10 to 12% increase in enrollment of first-time Black, Latinx and Native students, and a 6 to 8% increase in enrollment of first-time students who were women.

Feder also said taking away the admissions exams remove the need for students to be coached and prepared for a test with “absolutely no educational value.”

A pandemic turning point

Colleges and universities for years faced criticism over their admission processes, but the pandemic was a turning point.

After a year or more of learning loss, low-income students and some students of color were scoring low on admission exams and being rejected by colleges despite having performed well in school.

Facing criticism for turning away students on the basis of ACT and SAT scores, colleges began taking a more holistic look at applicants, said Joe DeFilippo, director of academic affairs for the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia.

But the pandemic wasn’t the only factor, he said, noting that studies have shown there will be fewer high school graduates over the next decade and competition is increasing from out-of-state institutions.

“Colleges were a little more desperate for enrollment, and I think that accelerated the thinking of ‘what do we get out of these standardized tests anyway,’” DeFilippo said.

James Madison University changed its admissions exams policies before the pandemic after finding that admissions scores were not a consistent factor in predicting potential academic success, according to Director of Admissions Melinda Wood.

Instead, the admissions exams were potential barriers for prospective students to consider the university.

She said grades in core courses were more relevant for identifying potential academic success. The institution decided to become test-optional in 2018.

“The move to test-optional opened doors for students who may not have otherwise considered applying to JMU,” Wood said.

Since JMU adopted the policy, she said fewer students have elected to submit test scores for consideration. The director said 27% of this year’s applicants provided a test score with their application materials.

Northern Virginia Community College does not require admissions exams, but instead encourages students to seek testing options they see fit for various class levels.

NOVA said admissions exams, including the SAT and ACT, are applied to assess college readiness instead of determining college acceptance. The General Education Development and Virginia Placement Test are other placement options.

“NOVA is an open access institution, which means any person 18 years of age or older who holds a high school diploma or equivalent can enroll in classes,” the school wrote. “We’re proud to offer equitable access to our associate degree and certificate programs.”

Members of the higher education community recommend students research admissions requirements because they vary between colleges.

For example, if a student’s grade point average or class rank meets the minimum requirements at some schools, then SAT or ACT scores are not required to be submitted. Homeschooled or international students, however, are required to take admissions exams regardless of their GPA.

Challenges still loom

Higher education institutions have studied the impact of test-optional policies.

Kelly Slay, an assistant professor of higher education and public policy at Vanderbilt Peabody College, researched how the changes have affected admission officers, who told Slay they are finding it difficult to place students without scores from admissions exams.

Slay did not respond to a request for comment but told the Hechinger Report that admission officers described the experience as “chaotic” and “stressful.”

“One of our key findings were the tensions that were emerging around these test optional policies,” Slay told the Hechinger Report. “There’s a struggle on how to implement them.”

Feder said there are other ways to determine a student’s acceptance based on his conversations with admission officers. K-12 assessments , interviews and extracurricular activities are some ways schools look beyond exam results.

“I don’t think they’re a great reflection of what students are ready for and what they’ve already studied because, for one, it’s easy to bomb a test, no matter how much you’ve studied,” said Grace Madison, a homeschooled student in Alexandria.

Madison, who wants to be a teacher at a time when Virginia is exploring ways to hire more educators amid a teacher shortage, found a school that meets their requirements of affordability and proximity, but traveling to take in-person tests remains a challenge.

The 18-year-old has two blind parents, is fearful of contracting the coronavirus while living with family members who are immunocompromised and suffers from a chronic pain disorder known as fibromyalgia while walking on a limited basis with a cane.

Madison said it’s a challenge for students in situations like theirs to be admitted into college.

“If it were easier to get into college, we’d all like to be teachers and we’d love to do that,” Madison said. “It would mean the world to me if some of those schools dropped those testing requirements because they’ve been a hurdle for a lot of marginalized students like myself for years.”

This story was updated to correct Grace Madison’s pronouns.

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Nathaniel Cline

Nathaniel is an award-winning journalist who's been covering news across the country since 2007, including politics at The Loudoun Times-Mirror and The Northern Neck News in Virginia as well as sports for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. He has also hosted podcasts, worked as a television analyst for Spectrum Sports, and appeared as a panelist for conferences and educational programs. A graduate of Bowie State University, Nathaniel grew up in Hawaii and the United Kingdom as a military brat. Five things he must have before leaving home: his cellphone, Black Panther water bottle, hand sanitizer, wedding ring and Philadelphia Eagles keychain.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom , the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 4 tips for writing stellar virginia tech essays.

College Essays

Are you hoping to be part of Virginia Tech's next matriculating class? If so, you'll need to write strong Virginia Tech essays to supplement your application.

All Virginia Tech applicants are required to answer four short answer questions as part of their application. In this article, we'll break down what the Virginia Tech essays are and what the admissions committee is looking for in your answer.

Why Does Virginia Tech Require Applicants to Answer Essays?

Virginia Tech requires all applicants to answer four short answer questions. If you're applying to the Honors College, your answers will also be shared with the Honors College admissions committee. You don't need to answer any separate questions as an applicant to the Virginia Tech Honors College.

The Virginia Tech essays are designed for the admissions committee to get a better sense of who you are, both as a student and a person. The short answers questions ask about your character, leadership, and goals. The admissions committee will use your answers to better understand you as a person—who are you? What do you care about? How will you fit in on Virginia Tech's campus?

It's important to put some serious effort into your Virginia Tech essays so that you represent yourself well to the admissions committee. These essays are your chance to present a well-rounded version of yourself that makes the admissions committee say, "We have to admit this student!"

What Are the Virginia Tech Essays?

Virginia Tech requires that every applicant answer four short answer questions. These short answer questions are just that—short! Each has a word limit of 120 words. Let's take a look at the 2022-2023 essay questions:

#1: Virginia Tech's motto is "Ut Prosim" which means 'That I May Serve'. Share how you contribute to a community that is important to you. How long have you been involved? What have you learned and how would you like to share that with others at Virginia Tech?

#2: Resilience is defined as the ability to adapt and learn from a difficulty. Reflect on a time that you have exhibited resilience. What growth did you see in yourself after this experience?

#3: Share a time when you were most proud of yourself either as a role model or when you displayed your leadership. What specific skills did you contribute to the experience? How did others rely on you for guidance? What did you learn about yourself during this time?

#4: Describe a goal that you have set and the steps you will take to achieve it. What made you set this goal for yourself? What is your timeline to achieve this goal? Who do you seek encouragement or guidance from and how do they support your progress as you work on this goal?

Virginia Tech Essays, Analyzed

Now that we know what the Virginia Tech essays are, let's break down how to answer each one as best as possible.

Since the Virginia Tech essays are so short, the key is to be super targeted in your responses. For each prompt, we'll break down what the essay is asking and how you can tailor your response to make sure it's what the admissions committee wants to hear.

Essay Question 1

Virginia Tech's motto is "Ut Prosim" which means 'That I May Serve'. Share how you contribute to a community that is important to you. How long have you been involved? What have you learned and how would you like to share that with others at Virginia Tech?

This essay question is asking about your involvement or service with a specific community. The admissions committee is looking for you to demonstrate a genuine commitment to a cause —what the cause is doesn't matter as much as the fact that you genuinely care about it.

To start, think about the communities that are important to you. This could be your family, neighborhood, school, place of worship, a club, etc. Then think about how you've worked to have a positive impact  there. Finally, consider the lessons you've learned from helping the community that you'll bring with you to Virginia Tech. 

You should pick a community that you've made real, lasting change at. Don't choose something that sounds the best if you haven't actually done a lot for them. For instance, if you were a member of your school's Habitat for Humanity club but didn't actually attend very many meetings, don't talk about how meaningful it was to build houses for disadvantaged people just because you think it sounds nice. Any insincerity in your application will be very obvious.

Essay Question 2

Resilience is defined as the ability to adapt and learn from a difficulty. Reflect on a time that you have exhibited resilience. What growth did you see in yourself after this experience?

This second question can seem intimidating—you'll need to reflect on a tough time and analyze how you grew as a person because of it.

Fortunately, this doesn't need to be an all-out catastrophe that happened in your life. Anything that you found a challenge but were able to overcome and learn from is fair game. For example, you could discuss not making the school basketball team, even though it was your dream to play on it, then deciding to rededicate yourself to practicing so you wouldn't let this failure define you. 

Your goal isn't to impress the admissions committee with the most tragic tale they've seen, but instead to show how you learn and grow from challenges.  So, as you're writing, keep the actual description of the setback short and focus most of your response on how you showed resilience because of it.

Essay Question 3

Share a time when you were most proud of yourself either as a role model or when you displayed your leadership. What specific skills did you contribute to the experience? How did others rely on you for guidance? What did you learn about yourself during this time?

This prompt wants to know two things: first, have you taken on the responsibility of leading other people? Second, what did it teach you about yourself?

The admissions committee wants to know that you don't shy away from mentorship roles and growth opportunities. You don't have to be president of a club or captain of a sports team to demonstrate leadership. Perhaps you took on the role of project coordinator for a classroom project or are section leader of a few instrumentalists in the band. The size of the role isn't as important as the scope of your influence—how did your choices and actions influence others as well as your perception of yourself?

The question also specifically asks you to explain how you relied on others for guidance, so be sure to make it clear that you weren't just making decisions unilaterally. In this essay, you want to show that you're capable of making decisions, but also that you're capable of cooperation and self-reflection.

Essay Question 4

Describe a goal that you have set and the steps you will take to achieve it. What made you set this goal for yourself? What is your timeline to achieve this goal? Who do you seek encouragement or guidance from and how do they support your progress as you work on this goal?

The final Virginia Tech short essay question assesses your commitment to growth. Notice that the question asks about a personal goal—that means you don't have to pick something lofty or world-changing. You just have to pick something that resonates with you.

Maybe you decided to wake up 30 minutes earlier every day so you can meditate or do yoga before school. Maybe you made it a goal to complete all of your essays two days before they were due so you could revise your work. Maybe you made it a goal to try a sport this year when you normally hate sports.

Whatever your goal is, you want to demonstrate that you're capable of self-reflection and of positive growth —that you're constantly assessing how to better yourself.

You also want to show humility in this prompt—that you can rely on or ask for help from others when you need it. The admissions committee doesn't expect that you'll have all the answers yourself. They want to see that you can collaborate with and learn from others when you need to.

Tips for Answering Your Virginia Tech Essays

Follow these general tips for making sure that your Virginia Tech essays are as strong as possible.

#1: Demonstrate Growth and Self-Reflection

Virginia Tech places a strong emphasis on service and self-reflection. These qualities are reflected in the choices of essay topics.

You should demonstrate these qualities in your answers. Show that you're constantly working to better yourself. Demonstrate humility and understanding. Virginia Tech wants students who will grow on their campus—not ones who will matriculate already thinking they're perfect.

#2: Be Honest and Sincere

All of the experiences that you outline in your Virginia Tech essays should be real—they need to have actually happened to you.

It can be tempting to lie about or exaggerate your experiences to make them seem more impressive. Don't do this!

First of all, lying on your application is a major ethics violation and can get you in some pretty serious trouble if you're caught.

Second all, insincerity will be super obvious. The admissions committee reads thousands of applications every year. They can easily sniff out people who are lying. Be as honest as possible in your Virginia Tech essays and remember—they WANT to hear about how you've grown.

#3: Proofread!

It should go without saying, but your Virginia Tech essays should be the best examples of your work possible. Don't just write your essays and be done with them. Take the time to formulate an answer and then go back and edit it. Make sure to proofread and run your work through a spelling or grammar checker to ensure it's polished.

#4: Get a Second Opinion

Getting a second opinion on your work can be a helpful way to assess whether your Virginia Tech essays are demonstrating your best qualities. Ask someone to read your work who really knows you, so they can tell you whether or not you're underselling yourself or missing a key feature of your personality that the admissions committee should know.

That being said, there's a fine line between getting a second opinion and plagiarism. It's okay to ask for someone's opinion on your work. It's not okay to steal their ideas and pass them off as your own. Make sure you're doing the former, not the latter.

Recap: Responding to the Virginia Tech Essay Prompts

The Virginia Tech essays are designed to show who you are as a student and how you'll fit in on Virginia Tech's campus.

• Be honest and sincere.
• Highlight opportunities you've taken to grow and change.
• Edit and proofread your work to make sure it's as strong as possible.
• Lie or over exaggerate to make yourself seem better.
• Steal anyone else's ideas.
• Sweat the short answers too much. They're important, but they won't make or break your chances at admission to Virginia Tech.

What's Next?

Want to know how to make your extracurriculars stand out even more? Check out this guide to four amazing extracurricular activities and learn why they're so impressive to colleges.

Thinking of applying to other great schools like Princeton , Brown , or Columbia ? Then be sure to check out our guides to learn how you can write amazing essays for these schools' supplements.

Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females.

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Virginia State University Requirements for Admission

Choose your test.

What are Virginia State University's admission requirements? While there are a lot of pieces that go into a college application, you should focus on only a few critical things:

• GPA requirements
• Testing requirements, including SAT and ACT requirements
• Application requirements

In this guide we'll cover what you need to get into Virginia State University and build a strong application.

School location: Petersburg, VA

Admissions Rate: 94.5%

If you want to get in, the first thing to look at is the acceptance rate. This tells you how competitive the school is and how serious their requirements are.

The acceptance rate at Virginia State University is 94.5% . For every 100 applicants, 95 are admitted.

This means the school is a nearly open admissions school. They accept nearly all students, so for the most part, you just need to submit an application to get in. But if you don't meet all their application requirements, you'll be one of the very few people who gets rejected.

We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies . We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools , from state colleges to the Ivy League.

We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.

Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

Virginia State University GPA Requirements

Many schools specify a minimum GPA requirement, but this is often just the bare minimum to submit an application without immediately getting rejected.

The GPA requirement that really matters is the GPA you need for a real chance of getting in. For this, we look at the school's average GPA for its current students.

Average GPA: 2.85

The average GPA at Virginia State University is 2.85 .

(Most schools use a weighted GPA out of 4.0, though some report an unweighted GPA.

With a GPA of 2.85, Virginia State University accepts students with below-average GPAs . You might have a mix of B's and C's in your high school record. It's best to avoid D's and F's, since application readers might question your commitment to studying and ability to succeed in college.

SAT and ACT Requirements

Each school has different requirements for standardized testing. Only a few schools require the SAT or ACT, but many consider your scores if you choose to submit them.

Virginia State University SAT Requirements

Many schools say they have no SAT score cutoff, but the truth is that there is a hidden SAT requirement. This is based on the school's average score.

Average SAT: 920

The average SAT score composite at Virginia State University is a 920 on the 1600 SAT scale.

This score makes Virginia State University Lightly Competitive for SAT test scores.

Virginia State University SAT Score Analysis (New 1600 SAT)

The 25th percentile SAT score is 820, and the 75th percentile SAT score is 1010. In other words, a 820 on the SAT places you below average, while a 1010 will move you up to above average .

Here's the breakdown of SAT scores by section:

SAT Score Choice Policy

The Score Choice policy at your school is an important part of your testing strategy.

Virginia State University ACT Requirements

Just like for the SAT, Virginia State University likely doesn't have a hard ACT cutoff, but if you score too low, your application will get tossed in the trash.

Average ACT: 17

The average ACT score at Virginia State University is 17. This score makes Virginia State University Competitive for ACT scores.

The 25th percentile ACT score is 15, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 19.

ACT Score Sending Policy

If you're taking the ACT as opposed to the SAT, you have a huge advantage in how you send scores, and this dramatically affects your testing strategy.

Here it is: when you send ACT scores to colleges, you have absolute control over which tests you send. You could take 10 tests, and only send your highest one. This is unlike the SAT, where many schools require you to send all your tests ever taken.

This means that you have more chances than you think to improve your ACT score. To try to aim for the school's ACT requirement of 15 and above, you should try to take the ACT as many times as you can. When you have the final score that you're happy with, you can then send only that score to all your schools.

ACT Superscore Policy

By and large, most colleges do not superscore the ACT. (Superscore means that the school takes your best section scores from all the test dates you submit, and then combines them into the best possible composite score). Thus, most schools will just take your highest ACT score from a single sitting.

We weren't able to find the school's exact ACT policy, which most likely means that it does not Superscore. Regardless, you can choose your single best ACT score to send in to Virginia State University, so you should prep until you reach our recommended target ACT score of 15.

Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and ACT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.

SAT/ACT Writing Section Requirements

Currently, only the ACT has an optional essay section that all students can take. The SAT used to also have an optional Essay section, but since June 2021, this has been discontinued unless you are taking the test as part of school-day testing in a few states. Because of this, no school requires the SAT Essay or ACT Writing section, but some schools do recommend certain students submit their results if they have them.

Virginia State University considers the SAT Essay/ACT Writing section optional and may not include it as part of their admissions consideration. You don't need to worry too much about Writing for this school, but other schools you're applying to may require it.

Final Admissions Verdict

This school offers nearly open admissions, which means they give almost every student an offer of admission. To be safe, you should aim for a 820 SAT or a 15 ACT or higher . If you can achieve this, you're pretty much guaranteed a spot in the incoming class.

Admissions Calculator

Here's our custom admissions calculator. Plug in your numbers to see what your chances of getting in are. Pick your test: SAT ACT

• 80-100%: Safety school: Strong chance of getting in
• 50-80%: More likely than not getting in
• 20-50%: Lower but still good chance of getting in
• 5-20%: Reach school: Unlikely to get in, but still have a shot
• 0-5%: Hard reach school: Very difficult to get in

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Take your current SAT score and add 160 points (or take your ACT score and add 4 points) to the calculator above. See how much your chances improve?

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There's a lot more to PrepScholar that makes it the best SAT/ACT prep program. Click to learn more about our program , or sign up for our 5-day free trial to check out PrepScholar for yourself:

Application Requirements

Every school requires an application with the bare essentials - high school transcript and GPA, application form, and other core information. Many schools, as explained above, also require SAT and ACT scores, as well as letters of recommendation, application essays, and interviews. We'll cover the exact requirements of Virginia State University here.

Application Requirements Overview

• Common Application Not accepted
• Electronic Application Available
• Essay or Personal Statement Recommended for all freshmen
• Letters of Recommendation 2
• Interview Not required
• Application Fee $25
• Fee Waiver Available? Available
• Other Notes

Testing Requirements

• SAT or ACT Required
• SAT Essay or ACT Writing Optional
• SAT Subject Tests
• Scores Due in Office July 1

Coursework Requirements

• Subject Required Years
• Foreign Language
• Social Studies

Deadlines and Early Admissions

• Offered? Deadline Notification
• Yes May 1 Rolling

Admissions Office Information

• Address: 1 Petersburg, VA 23806-0001
• Phone: (804) 524-5000
• Fax: (804) 524-5055
• Email: [email protected]

Other Schools For You

If you're interested in Virginia State University, you'll probably be interested in these schools as well. We've divided them into 3 categories depending on how hard they are to get into, relative to Virginia State University.

Reach Schools: Harder to Get Into

These schools are have higher average SAT scores than Virginia State University. If you improve your SAT score, you'll be competitive for these schools.

Same Level: Equally Hard to Get Into

If you're competitive for Virginia State University, these schools will offer you a similar chance of admission.

Safety Schools: Easier to Get Into

If you're currently competitive for Virginia State University, you should have no problem getting into these schools. If Virginia State University is currently out of your reach, you might already be competitive for these schools.

Data on this page is sourced from Peterson's Databases © 2023 (Peterson's LLC. All rights reserved.) as well as additional publicly available sources.

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For Mother's Day, a Virginia mom's stunning discovery reminds her of God's loving presence

J ust ahead of Mother's Day this year, the husband-and-wife team of SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, co-founders of the Godwinks brands and based in Massachusetts, shared an endearing personal story of family and faith with Fox News Digital.

It's among the stories they're writing for a forthcoming book. 

"We all need more light. We need more positivity. We need family and faith , hope and strength — that's what these stories are all about," the couple told Fox News Digital by phone. 

FOR PATRIOTIC AMERICAN MOMS ON MOTHER'S DAY, HERE ARE 6 GREAT GIFT IDEAS 

SQuire Rushnell is the New York Times-bestselling author of 12 Godwinks books, six of them co-authored by the pair. 

The couple are executive producers of the popular Hallmark "Godwink" movie series, and their first film for Netflix, "Rescued for Ruby," premiered as the network’s No. 1 family movie worldwide — grabbing over 100 million viewers in its first 365 days. (It recently ranked as the top "dog movie" of all time on Netflix.) 

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Enjoy this piece from SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt published here by special arrangement — and in celebration of Mother's Day this weekend for mothers and families everywhere. 

Mary Alexander of Virginia sat cross-legged on the floor of the closet, lost in sadness.

When she’d gotten up that morning, she had the mistaken notion that diving into the drudgery of cleaning out a closet would be a fitting distraction from the sorrow that had again crept over her.

Yet another Mother’s Day was approaching since she lost her youngest son, Jason.

GRIEVING DURING MOTHER'S DAY: 5 TIPS FOR NAVIGATING THE FIRST HOLIDAY AFTER LOSING A MOM  

She felt the twinge of disappointment.

Once again, she wouldn’t be receiving Mother’s Day cards from both her boys this year, a special experience she’d enjoyed for so long.

Her other son Brian, who had lived in Norway for several years, never forgot — and his sweet card had already arrived. She was so appreciative of that.

It was the missing card from the missing son that broke her heart.

As far back as she could remember, Jason had always made a fuss over Mother’s Day.

His cards as a child were always carefully handcrafted. Then, as a young man, he’d endlessly search the shop racks for a card expressing just the right sentiments to touch his mother’s heart.

MOTHERS SHARE STORIES OF THEIR LIVES, PLUS TIPS AND INSPIRATION, IN ‘LOVE, MOM’ BY DR. NICOLE SAPHIER

The thought of it filled her eyes with tears. 

She forced herself to pivot back to the task at hand.

"How can you lose a son who’s only 39 years old?" she asked herself rhetorically while pulling old papers and magazines from a large cardboard box that had occupied too much space for too long.

"And how could the same mother who nursed that child never know that he had an oversized heart?"

Again she searched her conscience. Was there something she could have done to prevent her son’s death?

Her urge to lose herself in tears was momentarily crowded out by a happy thought. She pictured Jason that final time he came over for Wednesday dinner , which he did every week almost without fail.

Remembering his boyish blush when she teased him — calling him "her bachelor son," "my 6-foot-6’ gentle giant" or "her baby" — made her smile.

She also loved his sensitivity. Since his older brother could only get back to the U.S. at Christmas, Jason seemed to expand his attentiveness to his mother, as if to help compensate.

Mary Alexander remembered her youngest son's sweet countenance that last evening.

As he was about to leave her that night, she had the urge to hug him extra tight, a little bit longer.

Then, inexplicably, she burst into tears. 

She quickly chastised herself. After all, she would see him again ... next Wednesday. Right? That’s what she told herself. 

GRATITUDE OVERSHADOWS GREAT LOSS, SAYS AUTHOR OF BOOK ABOUT LOSING WIFE TO CANCER

But her mother’s intuition became a tragic reality when she heard the knock on the door at 4 a.m.

She peeked out and saw four police officers standing there. Knowing it couldn't be good news, she screamed for her husband, Neil.  

An officer explained that Jason had been to a concert with friends. He told the others he was tired and wasn’t feeling well, so someone escorted him to the car to lie down. That’s where he was found. A massive heart attack had taken his life.

Only later did an autopsy discover that Jason had an enlarged heart.

Sitting on the floor of the closet, replaying the memory of the police officers speaking in guarded voices and recalling her sudden sense of collapsing, she again felt tears straining to rise from the back of her throat. 

She forced her lips tightly together, trying to hold them at bay.

Frustrated, she roughly shoved the box, but it was too heavy. It didn’t budge. She yanked out handfuls of old magazines, slamming them onto the floor.

Again reaching into the box, she felt something. She lifted it up — and it stopped her in her tracks.

It was an unstamped envelope, addressed in a child’s handwriting, to the local newspaper.

Thirty years had passed since either of her boys had written in that childlike manner.

She wondered: So whose handwriting is it? 

She opened the envelope. It was a newspaper contest asking for an essay that would complete this statement: "My mother is the best mom because ..."

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

Dumbfounded, Mary slowly read the child’s words before her.

"She’s always there when I need her the most. Even though I can make her real angry sometimes, she always understands because she’s so caring and understanding ... That’s why she’ll always be No. 1 to me, and her family."

And then she saw the name of the signer. 

It was from her son, Jason.  

He was 12 years old when he wrote that message.

In a mixture of melancholy and joy, Mary’s tears dripped down her cheeks. She realized she was holding a treasured gift that had arrived via special delivery, by the hand of God.

While sitting on the floor of her closet, Mary’s unspoken prayer was answered. She would get Mother’s Day cards this year from both her sons, from Jason as well as from Brian.

She began contemplating the wink from God — what we call the "Godwink." 

Jason had never mailed his entry to the newspaper, probably due to lacking a stamp. 

MOTHER'S DAY: THE BEST ONE-LINERS AND LIFE ADVICE I'VE EVER GOTTEN FROM MOM

But if he had, that little envelope never would have been sitting at the bottom of the box, waiting for his mom to find it, at just the right moment on Mother’s Day weekend, 30 years later.

She giggled at the idea that Jason, at that moment, was undoubtedly at God’s side ... and both were looking down, giggling right along with her.

Godwinks are left at everyone’s doorstep. We encourage you to open the door... and open your gift.

Anyone can learn more about the Godwinks projects at www.godwinks.com . 

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle .

Original article source: For Mother's Day, a Virginia mom's stunning discovery reminds her of God's loving presence

West Virginia's Homeowners Rescue program halts new applications

by Gianna Dapra

The West Virginia Homeowners Rescue program is no longer taking new applications. Once the money is out, the program will be gone for good.

OHIO COUNTY, W.Va. — The West Virginia Homeowners Rescue program is no longer taking new applications.

Once the money is out, the program will be gone for good.

The West Virginia Housing Development Fund has given out more than $40 million through the pandemic-funded program to help keep a roof over the heads of 6,500 West Virginians, helping to pay taxes, utilities, repairs and more.

“For the past 2 years, we have been accepting applications and processing them as they come in,” said Jessica Greathouse, special programs manager, West Virginia Housing Development Fund.

“We have reached the application capacity and committed all the funds that we have available."

Every county in the state has received help, including Ohio, Brooke, Marshall, and Wetzel counties, where more than 314 households were helped, and $1.4 million has been used for assistance.

The team will now only process the 1,500 applications that have already been submitted.

“If you are a viewer and you've submitted an application but it hasn't had a final decision yet, we are still working on that, and it's going to take us a few months to get through the remainder of the applications," Greathouse said.

Ten million dollars is still left for those who have submitted, and once it is gone, the program will come to a complete end.

"We have been saving homes from foreclosures, saving homes from being sold on the courthouse steps for past due taxes," Greathouse said.

But don't fear. If you need help, the WVDHF still has options.

"They can help them determine what the best path forward is for their mortgage and also help with their finances to figure out how they can best move things around to pay their bills to stay housed," Greathouse said.

For more information, click here .

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David Wallace-Wells

The campus protests signal the end of an era for the democrats.

By David Wallace-Wells

Opinion Writer

The colleges had a choice; in most places, they chose to escalate.

At Indiana University, a police sniper was stationed on the roof of a building; at the University of Virginia, they dispersed protesters with pepper spray; at U.C.L.A., it was with rubber bullets; at the University of Texas, Austin, they arrested dozens of students on pretexts so flimsy that the local district attorney threw out all the charges within 48 hours, and then they returned for a second round of arrests a week later.

The two mass arrests at Columbia bookended the rapid escalation: When New York City police officers swarmed the green on April 18, there were hardly any similar encampments anywhere else in the country, and it would have been reasonable to think that campus unrest had peaked back in the fall, but by April 30, when the nation’s largest police force entered occupied Hamilton Hall, something like a national protest movement had sprung up in just two weeks. By May 2, according to The Appeal , a nonprofit criminal-justice news site, there were at least 100 encampments in nearly 40 states, and more than 2,000 protesters had been arrested. In proudly defending the mass arrests in New York, Mayor Eric Adams did not focus on trespassing or the disruption to campus life. What he emphasized instead was the urgent need to literally police an ideological threat. “These are our children,” he said, “and we can’t allow them to be radicalized.”

Almost as soon as the horrifying news of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks reached the United States, the country, and especially its media, treated college campuses as a significant front of the brutal war it initiated. This attitude is several kinds of narcissistic, but in its way it is also only natural: Campus conflicts are both more proximate and more personal than the war itself for many Americans; the initial Hamas attack was gruesome, and the Israeli response has been extreme, intensifying the always fraught domestic politics of the United States’ relationship with Israel, and the spectacle of college protests, which inevitably mix political fervor with adolescent grandiosity and hints of potential generational change, seems almost designed to generate discourse about kids these days.

But what has transpired in the aftermath of the first crackdowns on campuses — as protests and counterprotests have grown more intense, with some universities seeking to negotiate with increasingly militant student leaders but most calling the cops instead — is also not just a story about the war in Gaza or a new generational divide. It is also a case study in the dynamics of escalation, and I’d like to emphasize three stories, each related, that may help explain the pattern.

The first is the militarization of American police forces and the rise of what Radley Balko has called the “warrior cop,” especially after Sept. 11 — a period in which, it is important to remember, the United States has gotten vastly safer but during which law enforcement has nevertheless gotten far more martial, in its weaponry and gear, its tactics and training and its outward-facing “thin blue line” language, as well.

The second is the recent turn against all forms of protest, by law enforcement and the public, in the aftermath of the mass climate change marches of 2019 and the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. Over the past five years, significant legal restrictions on protest have been turned into law globally . Nearly half of American states have also imposed limits; several states have even passed bills granting immunity to drivers who run over protesters, and New York Democrats have proposed a law that would define road-blocking protests as “domestic terrorism.”

But we also hear more and more from critics who believe that any protest that simply inconveniences others has crossed a line to become counterproductive or offensive. Last week, President Biden scolded college students for pitching tents on their quads, warning that “dissent must never lead to disorder” and asserting that “order must prevail.” The House had just passed a bill that could restrict criticism of the state of Israel by labeling it as antisemitic, Nancy Pelosi previously called on the F.B.I. to investigate protesters, and there are some hints that such investigations are ongoing.

And the third is the breaking apart of the ideological alliance, which held relatively firm for about a decade and a half, between the liberal-establishment values of the country’s institutional elite and the progressive values of the country’s social-justice voices. This strange and unstable coalition of left-of-center groups and institutions held for more than a decade and a half, first under Barack Obama — who seemed to many to embody a new kind of radical establishment — and then under Donald Trump — who inspired a desperate alliance of big-tent resistance liberalism. The alliance always seemed a bit hypocritical to some skeptics on the left and many critics on the right, but it also represented the basic grammar of liberal power through the long 2010s. If in 2013 or 2019 you were in charge of, say, Harvard or Facebook or the Creative Artists Agency or Pershing Square Capital Management or The New York Times, it was tempting to believe that you were not just acting as a force for self-advancement and elite reproduction but also delivering social justice in your work and affirming, even advancing, the progressive arc of history.

After Covid and Biden’s election and the arrival of an anti-woke backlash among a certain class of American elites, that ideological coalition began to splinter, and it is now much harder to pretend that those two sets of values are natural complements or even two halves of a liberal cultural hegemony. This challenge was confronted by the country’s elite universities late last year, when criticism about how campus administrators had handled anti-Israel demonstrations grew into a larger debate about diversity, equity and inclusion and the structure of the self-styled meritocracy: Would the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard and M.I.T. choose to conduct themselves as avowedly elite institutions, concerned primarily with elevating their own status and the privileged standing of their students, or instead as a democratic force, devoted to reshaping the American leadership class toward criteria other than who performed best on the SAT?

For a time, these goals hadn’t appeared to be in such obvious tension, at least according to the people committed to balancing them, who offered visions of a diversified but meritocratic elite as though they were postcards from an inevitable-seeming virtuous future. But in recent years it has come to seem less workable to have it both ways, and now two of the three college presidents who testified before Congress in December have been forced to resign under the pressure of that tension. Minouche Shafik, Columbia’s president, testified last month and may soon be on her way out, as well, unable to bridge the gap between the school’s protest-friendly faculty members and its apparently horrified donors or to inoculate the school and its administration against criticism from the likes of Mike Johnson and Elise Stefanik, who just a few years ago would have seemed completely irrelevant figures in any such campus saga.

This is not just a story about college students and universities, elite or otherwise, especially given that many school administrators have effectively de-escalated protests with negotiation . The same pattern has unfolded in the corporate world, with what was near-universal commitment to environmental, social and governance principles, producing in relatively short order a widespread backlash and walk-back, similar to the recent turn against D.E.I. initiatives. There is a growing rift between the Democratic establishment and activist factions, social media companies have retreated from their efforts to shape and define the public square, and legacy media organizations have tried to recalibrate their ideological positioning after going too far, especially in 2020. The diploma divide hasn’t stopped growing, with well-educated Americans voting for Democrats by huge margins, but the ideological content of those elite commitments has begun to shift. The war on woke may be fizzling out , but it has already left its mark .

It’s not yet clear what this might mean for the country’s electoral politics. To trust the polls, few Americans seem to care all that deeply about the war in Gaza, despite wall-to-wall coverage of the war itself and the protests about it, and in a YouGov survey more people said the responses by colleges to those protests had been “not harsh enough” than “too harsh.” As November pulls closer into view, the old desperate anti-Trump coalition may temporarily solidify again, despite warnings from the left that Biden’s support for Israel’s war may yield mass abstention among young voters. What follows the election is in many ways unsure, but neither outcome seems all that likely to revitalize that resistance coalition, which already looks less like a postcard of the future and more like a prepandemic time capsule.

Beyond elections, cultural politics matter, too, of course, as do the shape and orientation of institutions, and while America’s elite universities are not exactly tilting right, their pretense toward progressivism has been dropped with remarkable speed. Just six years ago, Columbia devoted a semester-long program and a three-day conference to honoring the school’s mythic 1968 protests, and its then-president, Lee Bollinger, called the decision to call in the police to break up that student occupation “a serious breach of the ethos of the university.” Perhaps it is a sign of simple institutional hypocrisy that Bollinger’s successor, one presidential term later, seems so much less ambivalent about deploying actual force against the school’s students, however outrageous or unruly. But it’s also a sign of the times and how they’ve changed.

Further Reading

New York magazine turns an entire issue over to the staff of The Columbia Spectator to cover the protests and crackdown. (The Spectator editors also weigh in here .)

Abdallah Fayyad writes in Vox about those colleges that tried to de-escalate (and why more made the other choice).

David Pozen of Columbia Law on what has been revealed about American universities by their responses to campus dissent.

Lois Beckett of The Guardian speaks with Annelise Orleck, a former head of Dartmouth’s Jewish studies department, about her violent arrest.

Branko Milanovic, an economist from CUNY’s Graduate Center, on “ universities as factories .”

In The Chronicle of Higher Education, the N.Y.U. historian Thomas Sugrue writes about “college presidents behaving badly.”

Columbia’s Adam Tooze reflects , in his Chartbook newsletter, on the “state as blunt force” and his “impressions of the Columbia campus clearance.”