I haven't been platinum for 15 years though-- I started at $100/year after graduating and have been doing 2-3 years at a level, then bumping to the next level. Then rinse and repeat to slowly climb the ladder. So the giving year ending 3/31/17 was only my 2nd year as a Platinum Hokie. If you take my alltime contributions to calculate an average, it works out like I was a high Silver the whole time. My selection time was 5/23 at 9:45 AM.

The formula change significantly impacted me. I went from a rank of 1,600 for 2016 to 3,700 for 2017. So, I was jumped by a lot of longtime Silver and Golden Hokies who could still select $800 seats.

I'm fine with how it all went and understand the process ... the thing that I was most surprised by was that I dropped so much in ranking. I thought the formula change would be pretty neutral to me. Boy, was I wrong. There are a lot more longtime donors than I realized.