This is rarely true in undergrad programs, unless the college or university has a foreign language program. However, language fluency helps very much if you’re going to do undergrad primary research – you’ll be limited if you don’t have that if you’re studying a non-English-speaking culture. Language requirements are universal in graduate programs (1-2 languages minimum, depending on field), so people who anticipate going into a history Ph.D. program would be wise to study languages in college. You don’t usually have to have those languages for admission, but you will for Ph.D. candidacy. However, it doesn’t sound like OP is interested in that route.
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If your parents’ requirement is top 20 or commute from home (to NVCC), if you end up doing the latter, is there a four year school to transfer to after two years at NVCC within commuting distance?
Thank all of God’s goodness that if you maintain a 3.4 GPA at NVCC (+take a few other courses), you are guaranteed transferrable to UVA (similar to how the California students are guaranteed UCSB). That’s where my whole T20 or bust thing came from (if NVCC wasn’t guaranteed, I wouldn’t even consider it).
Would you be permitted to live in Charlottesville, or would you have to commute from NOVA? UVA, while a great school, is not a T20.
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Not true. It’s #10.
In baseball.
But yes all kidding aside not top 20 so in many ways the premise of the thread is laughable.
It’s one of many fine schools though.
I suppose that your parents have a social circle, perhaps people they admire or look up to. If any of those are used to American upper middle class habitus, they’ll realize that all these kids are going away to a 4-year college (yes, I know Nova CC is excellent but among upper middle class people in Northern Virginia, it’s always going to be a second choice compared to UVA, W&M, VTech, GMU, JMU, LACs in PA and the Northeast -depending on the family- especially if the offer comes with Honors College admission and scholarships, which you’d forego by attending NoVa.)
You can’t convince them, of course, you’re their child… but let other parents create some the social pressure. It’ll be harder for them to justify keeping you at home if they realize that’s not a “done thing”. If, each time an adult asks, you answer something like “I hoped to go to George Mason, Elon, or Dickinson (*), but my parents would like me to attend NoVaCC”, you can be sure some will wonder out aloud.
(*pick NON famous colleges to let it sink it’s the 4-year, residential nature of the college, not the fame of the name in Northern Virginia).
IRL, most American students commute… EXCEPT middle to upper middle class, strong students. The expectation for them is that they’ll live on campus. If you don’t, you’ll have grades but no resume: most study sessions take place after dinner (and you’ll be expected to attend some of them, especially for group work); office hours and writing center hours will be after class (unlike teachers who may stay after class to talk with you or give you an appointment at 3:30pm, professors leave the classroom at the set time and don’t hang out; they have set times, called office hours, that students wih questions are supposed to attend). Clubs and activities also take place late and those are all-important ways for you to establish leadership. Networking takes place in the evening (your parents wouldn’t care and may frown at this) because you don’t live on your own, you live as part of a campus community - or not. It molds and trains young people to live independently but also to be part of that community, making you worthy of the name on that diploma. That’s why virtually all top colleges are residential.
Taking classes and getting good grades is only a small fraction of the US college experience and thus a small fraction of what employers expect to see before they decided to try you for an internship or, ultimately, to get a job. Through office hours, you get to know your professors. In turn, they may think of you for an opportunity they hear about or a club you should join. You join the club and get to develop leadership skills. You meet with the people from the club and … (etc)
As long as you maintain a good college GPA (3.5+ is very good, 3.0 is your benchmark), everything that goes on around classes (community, leadership, experiential learning…) matters a lot, some would say matters more. That’s why CC-> UVA is a good option but it will never be as good as attending a 4-year college, even one less well ranked than UVA.
BTW wrt these good grades: serious students are expected to use the library, which often closes at midnight for a reason.
College is not high school. It’s supposed to be your full-time job, you’re supposed to be there all day, every day.
In short, you will be on campus till 10 or 11pm every night then have to drive home. Don’t bring it up yet but think about it. Your parents may imagine sending you to Nova will continue the pace that they know from HS. It won’t, and if you try to emulate high school habits rather than college habits you’ll be in trouble academically and professionally. It’s a hard transition for parents but if they hear it from peers it may begin to percolate.
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I almost never do these chance-me threads, but this was a fun one to read through so what the heck.
My only feedback is:
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pay attention to the advice clarifying that LACs, presented elsewhere as an alternative to Top 20, is also a reach, target and safety proposition. There is a Top 20 in that category too.
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LAC ED would of course help your chances on the margin, but at many of them it’s not the lift the higher admit % would imply because of the overwhelming number of athletes who take up those spots. Asian male might give you a leg up in, say, New England LAC circles, but I would guess it doesn’t rise to the level of a real hook.
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I may be the only person who agrees with you on your CC plan. Certainly not the worst idea I’ve ever heard. UVa is a very, very well respected national brand and a great place to attend college and it happens to be your home state flagship. Of course you should apply. I’d be interested in @Catcherinthetoast 's view on this, but I think UVa is a target school for at least some firms. By reputation, their Commerce post-bac program is quite successful in placing students. I would expect some correlation with their undergrad programs but don’t know. To put your plan in some context, I’ve been aware over the years of several kids out west who have gone the CC x-fer route to get into the University of Washington and, in Cali, UCB and UCLA. But, yes, you won’t have the four year experience. It’s entirely up to you whether that matters or not. Just know you’re not the only person who’s done it.
You have a good sense of humor and come off as a bright young man. Stay gold Pony Boy.
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Love the “Outsiders” reference or was it the inside game Robert Frost poem?
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Love this!
ETA: just saw @Catcherinthetoast post. In this instance I’m hoping for that iconic cult 80 s book/movie reference… but I’m such a RF fan I won’t be disappointed if I’m wrong.
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Definitely Outsiders!
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Both.
The quote is from Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio) to Poayboy Curtis (C. Thomas Howell)
But alludes to an earlier scene where Johnny quotes Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
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