<p>Thursday's (11/16) Washington Post Metro section (Fairfax. Arlington, Alexandria edition) on page B2 states: "Northern Virginia parents resent the notion that state universities will take only so many of their children to save spots for downstate students whose academic achievements might not be as high"</p>
<p>Maybe this "notion" is one answer to a recent thread lamenting UVA not getting its academic due. It would be nice if the UVA PR set the record straight with the Post. (assuming this notion is false and there is no quota limiting NoVA students).</p>
<p>that article is so appropriate to me, that is the view of the nova-ers interviewed coincide with mine (though i hate to admit it)... needless to say i'm from nova..</p>
<p>so.. get me out of virginia tech and put me somewhere that feels more like home, probably charlottesville ;)</p>
<p>At Governor's School I met many intelligent people from throughout the Commonwealth. It is probably true that in some places in VA higher academic whatever must be met to make one "competitive" in the context of their admissions pool. However this is due to the fact the more programs are offered by those school systems, the families of these kids who must achieve higher are more affluent, etc, making it so that the best kids CAN get those stats or whatever. Many of the people I met, given the same oppurtunities, performed to the same levels despite the fact that at home they might not be able to take 16 AP classes. If they came north or to some other parts of Va, they would still be in the high achieving group. </p>
<p>Basically I think it is still fair. It would be completely unfair to penalize people based on what educational oppurtunities they have available. People's achievements are evaluated in the context of their resources. While I doubt there are quotas they still have to keep a general balance. But they do that from taking academically high achieving students from throughout the state who have taken full advantage of the resources available to them. You can't just ignore the oppurtunities you're given and then whine about how it's harder for you than someone without the oppurtunities, whose behavior demonstrates that they would have taken full advantage.</p>
<p>Even within NoVA, there are major differences in the opportunities for students if one stays within the public school system. Interesting discussion and one thing I had hoped was some insight into whether or not there was such an informal quota system. On the grapevine, I had heard there was but that it was "fair" in the sense that it applied to all schools, not just areas.
The points made about not being penalized for limited opportunites is valid as my child's NoVA high school ( remember the Titans) could not compare with Thomas Jefferson (which was barred anyway to City of Alexandria students) in terms of caliber of advanced classes , elite student selection, etc. In some ways the SATs even it all out but as I have posted in many threads here: diversity is good, whether it is conservative/liberal, NoVA /RoVA, etc/etc. I saw benefits to my child's going to a high school with real diversity and if a "quota" system helps UVA, then fine.</p>
<p>However I know the party line at UVA and most universities has to be that "no one factor" is determinative - no cutoffs for SATS, no specific AP classes, no quotas, no anything that could result in a legal challenge to being guilty of a practice "with discriminatory adverse impact". Which if true would make all of the "what's my chance" posts irrelevant ;) (don't get me started on that again -)</p>