Located only 12 miles outside of Philadelphia, PA, Villanova University is the only Augustinian Catholic university in the United States and was founded by members of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842.
The school is named after Saint Thomas of Villanova, and its strong ties to Catholicism remain evident to this day through the freshman requirement to take the Augustine and Culture Seminar and its predominantly Catholic student body.
Villanova University is made up of six schools and colleges that serve both graduate and undergraduate students.
Currently, 6,700 full-time undergraduate students and 3,500 graduate and law students are studying at the university.
Nearly all of the faculty at the school have the highest possible degree in their fields, and the school has had eight National Science Foundation Career Grants awarded to members since 2017.
The 2019-2020 year saw the university provide $17.5 million in funding for research to students and faculty members.
Since 2017, over 150 students at the school have earned national recognition by receiving Rhodes or Fulbright Scholarships, and the university reports that the average starting salary for students leaving with an undergraduate degree is $65,000.
Villanova is environmentally conscious, has eight LEEDS-certified buildings on its campus, and plans to achieve climate net neutrality by 2050.
The school’s long history and academic record make it an appealing option to many students as they consider their options for education after high school.
In order to have the best chance of being accepted into their first-choice university, many students will choose to apply to Villanova University through its Early Decision process.
Villanova Early Action & Early Decision Acceptance Rate
Villanova University accepts 25% of students accepted via early action.
Villanova also accepts about 58% of students who apply via early decision.
Drawing from the same data set, the whole class’s acceptance rate was 31% in 2020, and the school received 1,054 applications for Early Decision admission.
Villanova has recently seen a large spike in applications for admission, with an increase of 30% over a five-year period.
This spike in applications has led to a corresponding drop in the school’s acceptance rate, falling from approximately 50% in 2014 to 23% in 2022.
With such a sharp drop in the school’s acceptance rate, it comes as no surprise that the academic and personal backgrounds of the students who have recently been accepted as freshman are very impressive.
Of the students admitted to Villanova University in 2022, the middle 50% range of grade point averages was 4.17 to 4.56.
For the same group of applicants, the middle 50% range of ACT scores was 32 to 35, and the middle 50% range of scores on the SAT was 1430 to 1520.
Along with impressive grade point averages and scores on standardized tests, 84% of the students who enrolled into Villanova in 2021 were in the top 10% of their high school classes.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, freshman applicants have been granted the opportunity to choose whether or not to submit standardized test scores, and the percentage of applicants admitted to the school who chose to submit either ACT or SAT scores in 2022 was 43%, according to the same source.
Students will continue to have the option to submit standardized test scores for the testing cycle in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.
Villanova EA & ED Decision Date
Early Action decisions will be provided by the 20th of January, Early Decision I decisions will be provided by the 15th of December, and Early Decision II decisions will be provided by the 15th of February.
Regardless of which early admission process a student chooses, all early applicants will know Villanova’s decision well before regular applicants learn about theirs on the 1st of April.
The university offers its Early Action admission program in order to serve students who are satisfied and confident of their admission potential early in their senior year, but who have not made final decisions on the school that they would most prefer to attend.
Early Decision I applicants will also be confident of their likelihood for acceptance and know that Villanova University is the school for them, while Early Decision II applicants are confident that they wish to attend Villanova but wish to have a little more time to prepare their applications than Early Decision I applicants do.
As Villanova University has three early admission processes, it also has three decision dates for early applicants who have also applied for financial aid.
Students who have applied for the Early Action process will learn of their financial aid decision while Regular Decision applicants learn of their decisions on the 1st of April.
Early Decision I applicants who have also applied for financial aid will learn the school’s decision on the 15th of December, and Early Decision II applicants seeking financial aid will receive their decision on the 1st of March.
Since the prospect of paying for an education from a prestigious university such as Villanova can be stressful to many students and their families, learning the school’s financial aid decision early in a student’s senior year will be a great relief to many students and their families.
As with learning of the school’s financial decision earlier rather than later, any student who has applied and been accepted through one of Villanova’s three early admission programs can rest easy for the remainder of their senior year as they contemplate the next phase of their education.
Villanova EA & ED Application Deadline
The three application deadlines for early admission into Villanova University are November 1 for Early Action applicants, November 1 for Early Decision I applicants, and January 15 for Early Decision II applicants.
Any student who wishes to apply for early admission into Villanova would be wise to mark their calendars early in order to allot plenty of time to obtain and complete the substantial amount of documentation and application materials that the school requires.
Along with the application deadlines for the school’s early admission processes, prospective students have a number of other important dates to add to their calendars.
Included among these important dates are the deadlines for financial aid applications and the deadlines for enrollment deposits to be paid to the school.
Early Action applicants who wish to apply for financial aid must submit their applications no later than the 1st of December, and, assuming they are accepted to the university, they must pay their enrollment deposits by the 1st of May.
Students who choose to apply through the Early Decision I process are required to submit their applications for financial aid no later than the 15th of November and must make their enrollment deposits by the 7th of January at the latest. For students who apply through the Early Decision II process, applications for financial aid are due for submission on the 15th of January and the school’s enrollment deposit must be paid by the 1st of March.
While the number of deadlines for applications to Villanova University is considerable, any student who is contemplating applying for early admission into the school knows that managing these will be well worth the effort once they have been accepted and enrolled into this noteworthy institution of higher learning.
How to Apply to Villanova for Early Action or Early Decision
Villanova University reviews all applications, including Early Action and Early Decision, holistically in order to gain an overall understanding of the applicant’s academic history and personal background.
All students apply through the Common Application and are required to submit multiple essays, high school transcripts, and at least one letter of recommendation. The university also charges a fee of $80 which can be waived upon verification of financial need.
The essay requirement consists of the essay required by the Common Application as well as two essays specific to Villanova University.
The first of the two Villanova essays gives applicants the opportunity to demonstrate their views and experiences of the world by choosing from one of five prompts, and the second essay for Villanova asks students to describe the reasons they want to attend the university and how they plan to contribute to the university’s community.
Along with the writing supplements, students must have a counselor submit their high school transcript(s) through the Common Application.
Villanova requires that students also submit a letter of recommendation from a teacher who can attest to the student’s academic and classroom performance.
In an effort to make sure the application process is as fair as possible, Villanova will only accept one teacher letter of recommendation, but students do have the option to submit an additional recommendation from a counselor.
Students who apply through the school’s Early Action or Early Decision II plans are further required to have their counselors submit their early senior grades as soon as they are available.
This requirement extends to deferred Early Action applicants and deferred Early Decision I applicants.
Applicants have the option to submit standardized test scores, although they are not currently required. The school also instructs students who wish to apply for financial aid to do so at the same time they submit their applications to the school.
