University of Virginia Library

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

For admission to any department of the University, the
general conditions are the following:

1. Sufficient Age.—The minimum legal age is sixteen
years; the faculty advise seventeen or more.

2. Good Character.—This must be attested by a certificate
of honorable dismissal from the school last attended,
or by other valid proof.

3. Adequate Preparation.—This must be such as will
enable the candidate to meet the requirements for admission
to the several departments of the University.

For admission to the College, the candidate must
present a certificate or pass an equivalent examination. In
either case the amount of preparation required is measured
in terms of units.

This definition of a unit takes the four-year high-school
course as a basis and assumes that the length of the school
year is from thirty-six to forty weeks, that a period is
from forty to sixty minutes in length, and that the study
is pursued for four or five periods a week; but under ordinary
circumstances a satisfactory year's work in any subject
cannot be accomplished in less than one hundred and
twenty hours, or their equivalent. Schools organized on
any other than a four-year basis can, nevertheless, estimate
their work in terms of this unit.

Admission by Certificate

For admission by certificate, the applicant should file
with the Dean of the University not later than September
1 a Certificate of Preparation, made out on the blank form
furnished by the University. This certificate must come
from a recognized institution of collegiate rank, from an
accredited public high school, or from an accredited private
secondary school.

The candidate for admission from a public high school
must be a graduate of an accredited four-year high school.

The candidate for admission from a private secondary
school must be a graduate of the school, or must present a
certificate showing that he has completed at least the equivalent
of four years of satisfactory high-school work of
standard grade, covering at least fifteen entrance units.

In every case the candidate for admission must have the
recommendation of the principal of the certifying school.

Private secondary schools in Virginia are accredited by

the faculty of this university after inspection and report
by a committee of the faculty. The University also accredits
all four year public high schools which are fully
accredited by the State Board of Education of Virginia.
The Dean of the University is further authorized to accept
certificates from schools outside Virginia, accredited by
their own state universities or institutions of equal rank,
or by their own state departments of education, provided
the courses of study offered in such schools meet the requirements
demanded of accredited schools in this state.

If in any accredited school the number of periods given
to a study, or the length of the period, is below the specified
standard, the credit for such subject is reduced pro
rata. In the science subjects only half-credit is allowed unless
individual laboratory notebooks, properly attested by
the teacher in charge, are filed with the certificate.

Certificates of preparation from private tutors will in
no case be accepted; students thus prepared must in all
cases take the entrance examinations.

Admission by Examination

For admission by examination, the candidate must present
himself at the University in June or in September,
according to the dates given in the Program of Entrance
Examinations. The examinations are held under the honor
system, no paper being accepted unless accompanied by the
usual pledge. All candidates who take their examinations
at the times appointed are tested free of charge. In case
of delayed entrance, where the grounds of postponement
are good, the President of the University may admit the
candidate to a special examination, for which a fee of five
dollars is charged. This fee is payable in advance, and is
in no case returned.