@LMHLAW3 , I had one at UVa and one at Virginia Tech. Neither liked W & M ( didn’t “hate” it , just wasn’t for them). The oldest took the W & M tour, the younger one didn’t even want to do that and we didn’t push it. He had been to Williamsburg many times so there was no point in pushing a formal tour if he didn’t want to go there. It is a fantastic school, just wasn’t for them. With so many colleges out there, it is easy to move on from schools where there is clearly no interest, and focus on the schools that are the best fit and also affordable. Good luck to @cloudysmom daughter in finding that school!
Just to be clear, I believe my D’s didn’t care for UVA because our tour guide focused so much time talking about secret societies, Greek life and sports (not their interests) that they were completely turned off. It is a fantastic school and a very possible choice for my S in a few years. My 2nd D was accepted to W& M with a large merit scholarship but absolutely didn’t want to attend once she had the option of UR. Hopefully @cloudysmom your daughter will keep her options open and be willing to get beyond her heartbreak. I was there many years ago and can’t imagine going anywhere else than the college I ended up at. My younger D also liked CNU but it may have been a little too conservative for her. I have many friends who absolutely love Tech and JMU.
Yes, kids seem to love Tech and JMU. UR is such a pretty campus. Hope your daughter is enjoying her time there. My BIL went there and his dad was a long time professor there.
My daughter really likes it and is enjoying acting in some of the shows. She loved it almost from the moment we set foot on campus. The only drawback is the cost but she was able to get a wonderful scholarship. They are very generous and there are many amazing opportunities for research.
I want to thank everyone so very much for their thoughts and opinions and sharing experiences, it helps more than you can imagine. My daughter met with her AP history teacher and guidance counselor and they are helping her. She cried a little less today.
I saw on the W& M blog that they encouraged you to call and find out why you, or your child, wasn’t admitted, for closure as well as helping other applications moving forward. I spoke with our regional rep who reviewed her application before she called me. She Was very helpful & very nice. She asked me if Claudia had any further interest in W& M & if she’d ever consider transferring. I said absolutely and she said that was great because she felt Claudia would be a strong candidate for a transfer due to her high GPA, rigor of classes, AP scores. What hurt her was her lower overall ACT score. 35 on Eng & writing but 23 on math pulled her score to 29. Anyway she gave me suggestions as to how she could have the best chance of transferring so I know Claudia will want to try.
Of course I hope she’ll love wherever she goes, and we hope she gets into UR as it seems the best for 4 yrs if she ends up there, but iffy on getting in. UMW has better history/study abroad than JMU, although that seems a better school. The W& M admiss rep said it didn’t matter at all what school she went to, only her GOA there & that she gets involved.
Interestingly, she didn’t like UVA either! She was dissapointed in the campus, maybe because the grass was a foot high & our tour took us all over it anyway. Looked not well maintained although I imagine it must be. Our guide, too, spoke about sports & Greek life & she has zero interest in either! @LMHLAW3 our kids seem to be similar! What did your daughter prefer about UR over W& M!
Thank you all!
Since so many posters here have kids at VA schools, do you know what they think about other students who come from the Northeast. Do they all mix together or is there a division? I would imagine the OP’s daugter, coming from SC would fit right in.
If she didn’t like UVa, why did that even remain on the table? Time to remove schools that really are not appealing to her. If she can find and get accepted to a school she really likes (like UR), she may very well not even want to transfer.
@citymama9 ,Actually, a lot of the Virginia kids at UVa, W & M and VT are from northern Virginia . There are probably more kids from NJ, Md, NY at those schools than there would be from SC.
I’ll chime in - my DS is currently a sophomore at Christopher Newport. He was an in state applicant ED at William and Mary and was deferred and then rejected. He was wait listed at Richmond, and accepted at Gettysburg, American, and Mary Washington. He did not apply to UVA, Va Tech, JMU or VCU as they were all too big. We could not afford the privates he got into, even after merit money offered. He turned down merit money an UMW to go to CNU. The last two incoming freshman classes at CNU had the third highest GPA average of all incoming freshman classes at Virginia public universities. The acceptance rate for this current freshman class was 51%. CNU is definitely attracting very intelligent kids and keeping them, as graduation rates have also increased. The school is getting more and more competitive. I would not call it overly conservative, but it’s also not a party school. My son had a 29 ACT, a 3.7 GPA and several AP classes from a large, well regarded, non NOVA high school. He had very good extra curriculars and a compelling essay (that netted him several nice outside scholarships). It sounds like CNU would be a match for your daughter and UMW a safety. Richmond is probably a reach school.
My S16 is at VA Tech after visiting all the above mentioned schools. He is in a LLC so he can live on campus all four years if he desires. One thing you should look at is the housing after freshman year. Virtually everyone at JMU lives off campus after year #1. The rent is affordable and they seem to live in garden apartments close to campus. He did not like the commercial strip just off campus. A lot of his high school class went to JMU. He did not like the reputation as a party school. They admitted more than 80 members of his class of just under 400. Not all attend of course. He is a business major and was astounded by how shabby the business building was and it’s the only school that didn’t let him tour a dorm.
Many of his new friends at college are from out of state. I would not worry about “fitting in” at any of the VA schools, @citymama9. I think college students are grown up enough to make friends.
He really liked George Mason and really felt they were courting him. He had lunch with a department head and was accepted into honors. Mason is continually building and improving the campus. All the buildings I visited were in good repair. Off campus apartments in Fairfax would be extremely expensive but Mason claims they have dorm rooms available all four years.
At VA Tech you can join a LLC or win a lottery for a dorm room. Most second year and above live off campus. Shared off campus apartments are about $350-$700.
OP has said her daughter did not like the preppie/athletic vibe at her high school. U of R is pretty much that. I don’t know about housing but it’s available in that part of town and reasonable.
My son never visited Mary Washington but one of his great friends attends. He is an URM, IB, NHS graduate and had plenty of other offers. Fredericksburg, VA has a cute “Old Town” area that is very walkable. I’ve always liked it. It’s pretty close to D.C. There’s a commuter rail to D.C.in the downtown area. It’s more of a liberal arts school than those already mentioned so IMO it’s worth a look for OP’s daughter.
IMO you should look at transportation to and from school. My son’s roommate is from MA and could not go home until they had a week off at Thanksgiving. Tech is 40 miles from a regional airport and an hour from an Amtrak station. There is a Facebook page for car pooling and my son helps by bringing 2-3 passengers home when he comes. JMU is right up the road so I know they have the same problem.
@sevmom. It didn’t really remain on the table, just she wanted to go to the best school she could get in & if we had enough fee waivers then I figured why not try? It’s a huge reach but a great school & I think she’d like it more once she got there. She wants to go to the best academically & why it seems near impossible, I keep reading that schools often make surprising choices, and others have told me to at least try. My guess is that she probably will NOT apply to UVA but we still are organizing & gathering info. She had the flu last week, missed the entire week so got bad news when she was sick, is meeting w/ teachers to make up work & has exams this week, 4 AP classes & missing a week of those is rough, all this work when she’s very upset about W&M and trying to think of where to apply, well, it’s exhausting week. She won’t be able to get much done till the w/e on applications & many due 1/1 so we haven’t decided on all the schools yet.
@vamominvabeach We toured CNU, it was very impressive but she just didn’t like the vibe, and prefers older more historic campus, mature trees, etc. We had read a lot about how successful the school is, how, as you said, they are attracting top notch students and their reputation is rapidly getting much better, so I was hopeful but she just didn’t dig it.
I hate for her to go to a school she’s never visited but $ is an issue, we travelled so much, just last month, to W&M. We hope to go in late Feb, save up for it & tour these schools. Her APUSH teacher is from VA and knows her well, she’s his TA this yr. He feels she’ll much prefer UMW to the other similar schools & will also like UR if she can get in, we may focus on those & UJM, his mom taught there though & he likes it but feels UMW a better fit.
@OspreyCV22 Thank you, all good points! I think VTECH is out as they didn’t have the history program she was looking for or the study abroad programs. She is a history/art history double major with a possible minor in French.
She wants to live on campus at least thru junior year if not all 4 yrs so very good to know about JMU! That doesn’t sound so great. And I didn’t realize the airport issue. I think we can still drive & get her if she’s there but that’s probably the farthest away that could happen. Charleston is sorta near I-95 so running up to Richmond or Fredricksburg would be fine. She is also considering GMU but thought it might be too urban. We just have to delve into this deeper in a few days when all this make up work is behind her.
And why do you all call me OP, lol? What does that stand for!?! Oppressive parent? Lol
The Virginia schools , like UVa , W & M , and VT have about 30 % OOS students so there are plenty of OOS students around. And some of the Virginia students have moved around and lived elsewhere (government, military, etc,). My VT kid had kids from Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, California, South America, etc. on his freshman floor . They all seemed to get along. His apartment mates as a sophomore and beyond were from Md, Georgia, and New Jersey. They meet in the dorm or in classes and form friendships, just like at any school .
I did not find JMU “shabby” at all but did not tour the business building. Any kid I know that has gone there has been very happy there. Of course, no school will be for everyone.
What about College of Charleston? They have art history, history, instate rates?
GMU is not urban but is fairly modern. It is kind of in its own place in a suburban area of Fairfax. More of a self contained type of thing . Honestly, I would let the AP teacher influence you only so much, especially if he is steering you to Virginia public schools. He is not paying the tuition!
@sevmom - oops - I’m not a very experienced poster here – I think I got CA location from post#4, which was by a different person from OP who is from SC.
I just wanted to throw George Mason into the mix, both for OP and anyone else not from Northern VA reading this thread: I think Mason’s reputation suffers from the “it’s within 30 minutes from where I live” , but at least according to SAT/ACT scores, it seems on par with JMU.
To reveal my bias - both my husband and I are UVa alums; my personal experience is limited to four grad classes I’ve taken at Mason about 5 years ago, and looking for a “fit” school for my own S17. He is looking primarily at LACs but avoiding preppy/sporty vibes and no or few frats to avoid big party scene. So that ruled out our alma mater without even visiting -ha ha.
But a few years ago, my son’s school took a campus tour of Mason with about 15 high school freshmen/sophomores. At my suggestion, we contacted about 7 departments to see if they could provide a 30-minute mini-tour of their building for a smaller group of these freshmen/sophomores in high school. To my surprise, every one of the 7 departments said yes, and only the history tour was by a grad student - the others were all led by professors, including 2 heads of department (biomedical engineering, and theater). The adults who chaperoned the students compared notes, and we were uniformly impressed by the professors we met that day; the ongoing research and internship opportunities we learned about were very impressive.
So, fast forward 3 years, and we encouaged S17 to learn about Mason’s Honor College; he has applied and we are still waiting for result - but DH and I believe the combo of honors classes, advising, and the residential living/learning dorm for Honors sounded great, and the smaller number of students living on campus make the school seem far less overwhelming to S17, who would prefer something much, much smaller than the 20,000+ state school.
Never considered UVa, VA Tech, nor JMU (though, given posts on this thread, maybe we should have tried to find out about JMU honors college). S17 didn’t care for UMW, and we really only looked at Christopher Newport “on paper” - it didn’t seem quite the right fit either, though likely better than UMW.
William and Mary is still potentially on his list, though it is bigger than he would prefer. It’s embarrassing to have such riches in great state schools, but to find ourselves thinking that none of them seem like best fit for our son.
Anyway, sorry to have gone on so long, but I wanted to give Mason some recognition because it seems to be on par with JMU with different strengths and weaknesses, and should probably be considered by anyone in-or-OOS who is hoping for VA (but looking for the next tier of schools below UVa, W&M, and Va Tech).
OP = Original Poster. Too lazy to page back and figure out your name.
VT would not be my choice for a history major either. It’s a polytechnic college. They do have plenty of study abroad programs though, just maybe not in her program.
There are also a ton of smaller private liberal arts colleges in VA as well. They give great merit aid; enough to make them cheaper than in state tuition. There’s a tool on the front page of this site called “college match.” You should try it. It turned out to be very accurate for my son.
@CoyoteMom We looked at George Mason for our younger son. He was accepted there in the Volgenau Engineering School. He got into Virginia Tech so went there instead but my H is an engineer and thought Mason’s program seemed solid. Son also went to volleyball camps at Mason and enjoyed those. It is definitely a very good school.
Virginia Tech is much more than a “polythechnic college.” It is most well known for engineering but has very good programs in all kinds of things. But, it does not sound like a good fit for cloudymoms daughter.
cloudymom. lots of kids at many schools do not live on campus more than the first year or two. That is common , unless you are are looking at schools that have a strong residential college type setup.
I did not mention before, but my sister although many years ago, applied to WM OOS (NJ), got WL, but she also called and spoke to the admin people. Found out she was very competitive, but just not enough spaces. They told her to go to her second choice, do well and apply as a transfer…they basically told her “do well, and we’ll take you as a sophomore.” What happened? She did just that. She went to Rutgers (our state flagship), got a 3.8 her freshman first semester, applied as a transfer and got in. Went to summer school at WM to get a feel of the school and meet some people (including her now husband of 20+ years). All worked out great. She met people, loved the school as much as she did before, got a few extra credits and now never ever talks about Rutgers. She is proud to be part of the Tribe. If this is her dream school/great match, if she goes probably anywhere and does well and continues the conversation with WM I think she’s got a great shot at ending up there even if she didn’t start off there. Of course, as a JMU alum I think that would be a great launching pad for her given her interests and ease of ability to transfer between VA state schools. WM will respect her grades at JMU and her desire to transfer. She’s not the only one who got rejected first time around from this school! If you want to PM me to talk more about specifics, please go ahead.
@kkmabo That tactic still seems to exist with some schools- we don’t want you now but ask us how we can help you transfer later. My younger kid got that initial response from VT, despite SAT’s above their 75 th, great EC’s but lower GPA. He ignored it. He moved on, was going to go to JMU but VT took him off their waitlist but he almost stuck with JMU. You will never know how life would have worked out if your sister had stuck with Rutgers.
To clarify, son did not ignore the email from the VT admissions dean. He responded and thanked him for the transfer info. But, he was prepared to go to JMU and would have been happy to do so .
@cloudysmom
Would your D consider College of Charleston or is that too close to home?
Agree with other posters that Elon and JMU could be good match schools for her. If she likes ‘pretty’ campuses and a strong sense of community, GMU may not be for her.
As for UR, it seems to get more competitive every yr. I think the ACT math score is going to hurt her at UR, so ED2 is really the best chance there. Has she taken any math SAT subject tests? Maybe she could try and take that in Jan in case she gets deferred. It she scores well, could offset the ACT score.
@cloudysmom “What hurt her was her lower overall ACT score. 35 on Eng & writing but 23 on math pulled her score to 29.” This is a bit shocking that a potential history major would be rejected over a Math ACT subscore! Anyway, this does confirm the popular opinion that some public Universities’ evaluation processes can be arbitrary and overly numbers-based. I know that your daughter is still a bit upset but this should hopefully give her some confidence that other schools that are more holistic may focus on more relevant parts of her application. On this note, definitely apply to Davidson, which I think is a fabulous school and still has a higher acceptance than similar quality northeastern liberal arts colleges. Lastly, are there any test optional schools on her potential list other than Wake Forest, which I think you thought was too much of a reach?