<p>Hey Shoe, I just tested your theory. Here are the results for FFX candidates to VaTech on SAT alone.</p>
<p>Langley with a free lunch subsidy of <1% has an average accepted SAT of 1961
Marshall, (4 miles away) with a free lunch subsidy of 17-18% has an average accepted SAT of 1843.</p>
<p>Note these are 2006 admission numbers. I will bet they went up a little for 2007 but I just pulled the paper 2006 stuff rather than log in to the 2007numbers.</p>
<p>Point being that the regional reps know the schools profile and make adjustmenst for ppl who cant afford test prep. Love em or hate em these folks are pros.</p>
<p>uva could most certainly fill a class with ffx kids alone. my guess is that uva is 1/3 oos, 1/3 nova, and 1/3 rova (if you havent read that article, google it -"NoVa and RoVa: Welcome to a State Of Disagreement"). basically, uva has to have county quotas, or else the entire 66% WOULD be ffx kids:</p>
<p>the ppl i have met here at uva... well oos and ffx are comparably smart. the rova kids, well, some of them are as smart as the ffx kids, and some of the ones who arent even manage to get better grades, but the trend is that their good grades are not a result of their natural smarts but rather their amazing work ethic. and you have to wonder if those kids should have gotten in over ffx kids who are much smarter than they are. :\ i guess then you should wonder about the oos breakdown... you just cant win. i absolutely adore my friends from "rova" they are some/all of my closest friends. but as an oos-er i whooped their sat scores by hundreds of points. i also cant talk for engineering "rova" kids- as i havent ever met one.</p>
<p>Thanks for that article. Hilarious!
I get the impression you don't love the NoVa kids.</p>
<p>hmmmm... I have to at least partially agree with Hazelorb on this, but let me bring up another point.</p>
<p>There is more to being a good student than intelligence alone. For a long time, I was that kid that was "really smart" but just didn't do ANYTHING in school, and I got terrible grades. Now, how does that make me better than my sister, who isn't really naturally intelligent, but studies hours and hours a day to get very good grades. Could I get the same grades as her without lifting a finger? probably, but that doesn't mean that a work ethic isn't required to get far in life. UVa doesn't want to graduate a class of lazy geniuses, they want a class that is going to represent them the best once they graduate, and hard productive workers are going to do that better than anyone else.</p>
<p>Of course, I am NOT, in any way, implying that ffx kids are lazy, I believe its quite the contrary. Theyare in a competitive area and have to work very hard to get ahead. Good for them, but kids in RoVa don't have close to the amount of opportunities that kids from NoVa have. There are parts (like Hampton Roads, where I am from) where there are many opportunities that aren't nova, and we also send a ton of people to UVa, but it is so difficult to judge someone whos high school only offers 3 AP's who hadn't cared about the SAT until junior year (rural va) to someone whos high school has 15 classes beyond AP level and who has been training for the SAT since middle school (NoVa, and to some extent Richmond (Maggie Walker) and HR).</p>
<p>Its unfortunate that Virginia has such a dichotomy in its education programs, but I have a feeling many states are like this. In the end, is it fair? I would say yes and no. Yes, the University has an obligation to the taxpayers of Virginia to let in a majority of instaters, and a diverse group of instaters. I dont feel bad at all for the OOS students that get rejected because the standards are so much higher. They dont pay taxes to support the school, their family hasn't paid taxes to support the school. They have an obligation to the taxpayers. I do feel at least somewhat bad if an ffx kid gets rejected for someone less intelligent than a rova kids, but life isn't fair. Is it fair that many rova kids grew up in middle-of-freaking-nowhere, Va where academic opportunities are sparse? nope.</p>
<p>I must say though, I have noticed that there seems to be an inherent gap the flat out IQ of nova kids and rova kids.</p>
<p>That IQ gap could be the result of opportunity which contribute to overall IQ imo. There are some mighty kooky parents in NoVa who leave no stone unturned. My Dr told me she was gonna make her kid take an SAT test per week all through middle school ( just finished 7th grade) and she has him working as an intern @ NIH with a friend with the idea being he'll be published in HS. The goal is MIT.</p>
<p>As far as instate is concerned I think that state U's in Va should be a bit more protective of instaters right now since there is a baby boomlet. Chapel Hill for example has an instate requirement of 85% and Cali is pretty high too. As you say the state U's first obligation should be it's own citizens and not OOS folks. Right now and through 2013 they should adjust those numbers to accomdate those boomlet kids. UVA is the #2 budget item in the state with only roads/transportation being ahead of it. Students shouldn't need to be practically perfect to get into the states flagship school. Sorry for the OT mini rant, you accidentally struck a nerve.</p>
<p>i agree with all of the stuff you all have said. i think having all of the different work ethics and iq-levels or whatever you want to call it makes everyone more well rounded - the kids who work hard make the lazy ones do their part, and the smart kids make the ones who work hard keep working hard. big circle.</p>
<p>it must be really frustrating for adcoms is all i can think.</p>
<p>ps. i lived in ffx until 3rd grade... i think i hold the process against the "rova" kids more actually. when i was at orientation i met a girl who had straight a's but had gotten a 2 on the ap calc exam... i mean how does that even work out? how did that girl get in over all of the kids with 4s and 5s from nova, let alone all of the oos-ers? and she got in early. what can i say.</p>
<p>but i do like how it all turned out - i love my class, and there is reason i wanted to go uva over an ivy or whatever, i like being able to work as hard as i choose and get decent grades. a place like chicago would have killed me. i like that when i work hard (which at uva dont get me wrong i have to work nice and hard sometimes), i have the brains to get the top score, and that even when i dont work hard there are still people who get worse grades than me. if that makes sense.</p>
<p>FFX is blah to me. I disliked most people in my school and their obnoxious parents. Everyone is so stuck up here. One girl (a valedictorian no less) cried after the AP Calc test. I hate people like that. It's just a test. Another Valedictorian won the faculty award even though all she did was complain about everything and everyone at the school. lol I sound so bitter...guess I just didnt like high school very much.</p>