He Turned His Detour Into a Defining Moment, Forging a Path to UVA

May 6, 2025
Karam Noori reading his acceptance letter from UVA

Karam Noori reads the letter, announcing his acceptance to the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

When Monticello High School graduate Karam Noori didn’t get into the University of Virginia in 2023, he already knew his next move.

“I’ve kind of been very involved with the community. I’ve seen a lot of people around me that are older and go to the University of Virginia, people who’ve graduated,” he said. “It’s a pretty tight-knit community, and when I see that, it makes me want to be a part of that.”

Noori achieved his goal Thursday around 1:30 p.m. at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Karam Noori holding up a new University of Virginia tee shirt

Noori plans to study biology at UVA. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

“It is with great pleasure that I write to inform you that you have been offered admission to the University of Virginia for the Fall 2025 term as a student in the College of Arts & Sciences,” reads the opening of a letter administrators handed him in a sun-filled conference room at the school.

He was all smiles, knowing he’d followed the right path.

UVA has maintained guaranteed admission agreements with the Virginia Community College System since the early 2000s, provided the community college students earn a two-year associate’s degree in arts, sciences or arts and sciences, maintain a minimum grade-point average and earn at least 45 transferrable credits.

‘Inside UVA’ A Podcast Hosted by Jim Ryan
‘Inside UVA’ A Podcast Hosted by Jim Ryan

Noori plans to study biology when he matriculates to UVA as a third-year student in the fall. His younger sister, Leen, is thinking about taking the same, affordable route from PVCC to UVA.

The siblings were born in Baghdad, Iraq. “My parents wanted me and my sister to pursue a better education,” Karam said. So the family moved to Jordan when he was 2. The public school system there was “not that great,” he said, and the cost of private school was prohibitive. After a few more moves, they landed in Charlottesville.

Noori is paying for his college education, working as he pursued his degree at PVCC and planning to keep working at UVA, bolstered by a need-based scholarship from AccessUVA.

He said he is grateful for the path from PVCC to UVA.

“I realized there were a lot of things ahead of me that I had to work on to get to my goal,” he said after learning he’d not been originally accepted to the University. “It wasn’t that my goal was gone. It’s just postponed. It was just something that I had to work for … even if it was two years later, it’s still the goal that I was hoping to achieve.”

Media Contact

Jane Kelly

University News Senior Associate Office of University Communications

Article Information

May 6, 2025

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