University of Virginia Student Support Guide: Advising, Mental Health, Insurance and Campus Safety

The University of Virginia (UVA) has rebuilt several of its student support systems in the past few years, from how first-year students are advised to how the university handles campus safety. This guide summarizes the main services new undergraduates, including international students, should know about as of November 2026, with links to the offices that run them.

Academic advising: Advising Fellows and Engagements

The College of Arts & Sciences, where most UVA undergraduates start, overhauled its pre-major advising in 2024. Instead of being assigned to a faculty member with limited advising training, first-year students are now advised through the Engagements curriculum, the first-year seminar sequence, often by full-time Advising Fellows who teach those seminars and work with small cohorts. Each Fellow advises about 70 students a year (UVA College of Arts & Sciences, August 15, 2025).

Full rollout: from 2025–26, all first-year students in the College except Echols Scholars and students studying abroad are advised by their Engagements instructor. The Advising Fellows team grew to 26 members, advising two-thirds of the incoming class, with trained faculty advisers covering the rest.
Results: in a survey of nearly 1,900 first-year students, satisfaction with advising rose to 84% in 2025 (89% for students assigned to Advising Fellows), up from 55% among first-year students in 2024.

Mental health support

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS): students who pay the comprehensive health fee with their tuition can use CAPS at no additional charge. Walk-ins are available Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and students can call CAPS 24/7 at 434-243-5150 about an urgent mental health concern (UVA Student Health and Wellness, CAPS).
TimelyCare: CAPS partners with TimelyCare to give UVA students 24/7 virtual mental health care at no cost, including on-demand “TalkNow” sessions and scheduled counseling. Students do not need insurance to use it and sign up with their @virginia.edu email (UVA Mental Health Services, TimelyCare). Because it is virtual, it can be useful for international students who want to talk to someone outside office hours or while away from Charlottesville.

Health insurance

All UVA students, domestic and international, who are charged the full comprehensive fee must meet the university’s health insurance requirement. Outside coverage must be comparable to the UVA-sponsored student health plan; students either enroll in that plan or submit a waiver, and if Student Health finds that a plan is not comparable, the student is enrolled in the UVA plan and billed for it (UVA Student Health, Insurance for International Students). International students should check the current criteria before buying a plan from home, since many home-country policies do not qualify.

Campus safety

After the November 2022 shooting in which three students were killed and two were wounded, UVA made a series of changes to its safety and security protocols (UVA Today, November 13, 2025):

Alerts: all students, faculty and staff are now automatically enrolled in UVA safety advisories and alerts, and the university created a UVA Alert page and shelter-in-place and “Run, Hide, Fight” guidance online.
Training: Active Attacker Response Training is a requirement for all UVA students.
Threat assessment: an Office of Threat Assessment is staffed by a licensed forensic psychologist, a clinical psychologist and two other specialists, with a University Police liaison.
On Grounds: more public-safety ambassadors, better lighting and wider camera coverage, and construction of a new public safety building with a dedicated Emergency Operations Center.
Student EMS: in 2025, a student and an emergency medicine professor received a $254,000 Jefferson Trust grant to set up a student-run emergency medical service to shorten emergency response times on Grounds (UVA Today).

For how alert systems and the federal Clery Act work at U.S. colleges in general, see our guide to campus emergency alerts and the Clery Act.

Getting involved and building skills

Student organizations: see our guide to UVA student organizations and the activities fair.
UVA Speaking Center: re-established with Jefferson Trust funding, it offers free consultations to help students practice presentations and build confidence in public speaking (UVA Today, October 2025), which many non-native English speakers find useful.

UVA at a glance

Rankings (Forward Pathway ranking database): No. 26 in the 2027 U.S. News Best National Universities ranking (also No. 26 in 2026).
Enrollment (IPEDS, fall 2025): 26,409 students, including 2,543 international students; 17,885 undergraduates, of whom 886 are international.
Admissions (IPEDS, fall 2025): 58,951 first-year applicants and 9,909 admitted (about 17%).
Cost (IPEDS, 2025–26): out-of-state undergraduate tuition $57,261 plus $4,330 in required fees; in-state tuition $19,472 plus $3,646 in fees.
First-year retention (IPEDS): 98%.
Leadership: Scott C. Beardsley, former dean of the Darden School of Business, became UVA’s 10th president in January 2026 (UVA Today).

More admissions and cost data are on Forward Pathway’s University of Virginia school page.

References

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