Cornell is cheaper because we are NY residents and she was admitted to a grant school. We will have to debrief her when she comes home tonight.
Days on the Lawn was snowy and cold yesterday. But a great event. Tough decisions!
We have a tough decision too. The Echols program and students sounded amazing at DOTL. But is it worth paying OOS tuition when we also have the option of Berkeley and UCLA in-state? If the choice is UVA Echols with a plan to graduate in 3 years to save money (which appears very feasible given the flexibility inherent in Echols) or doing the regular 4 year course at UCLA or Berkeley (without the same perks), what would you choose? Major would be PoliSci with a long term goal to work in DC.
Twoin18 : I’d recommend your kid take a serious look at UVa’s Batten School of Public Policy. It is well funded (because of an endowment from the founder of the Weather Channel), with small classes and excellent profs. It is easy to get the classes you want, and it is very practical education, with many small group projects. My son really liked it, and was recruited in Dec. of his 4th year to work in an interesting position in the headquarters of a prominent federal agency, where he really likes the work. It is a competitive application process during the student’s 2nd year. However, I do not believe their curriculum can be finished in 3 years.
@Charliesch Thanks for the input. He has thought about the accelerated Batten MPP, which you can do as 2+2. But our sense is that accelerated MPPs aren’t as highly regarded as those you do after having gained some work experience. And at the moment he is uncertain about whether he wants a practical focus or a research focus, although potentially he is leaning towards the latter. Also he has an offer from GWU Elliott with a Presidential scholarship if he truly wanted a job and internship-focused degree.
@twoin18 if the major would be polisci and to work in DC, I would personally pick UVA. First, even though they are all public schools, Berkeley and UCLA are HUGE. UVA is not. UVA has approx. 3700 incoming freshman. Berkeley 5500 and UCLA 6,000. That is alot of students. Has your child visited Berkeley or UCLA. Many don’t like the surrounding city of Berkeley. Anyhow, to me that is easy, espeically with wanting to work in DC, UVA!!!
At each of the internship fairs I have been to at UVA, a lot of the companies/firms present were seeking interns in the DC area. For example, there have been representatives from each of the major DC think tanks (from what I can recall).
That makes perfect sense so should not be a surprise. Many UVa kids are East Coast, so DC and New York, etc. are popular destinations. But for those from other areas of the country, there are grads everywhere. And many of the big companies have multiple offices in many locations.
After attending DOTL, UVA came off the list. As we are OOS, we were looking at it from perhaps a more critical eye to be sure it’s “worth” the $60,000 price tag.
We were disappointed that very little detail was presented at the CAS information session to highlight what makes UVA special. (The Info session from Junior year, as a prospective student, was much more detailed.)
In comparison to private schools’ accepted students days where the info was presented in overwhelming detail, UVA just fell short. Other schools discussed opportunities about internships, research, recruitment, double majors, advising before class registration, pre-health and pre-law advising, career services, etc. We hoped to see a staff member to help with some of these questions after attending the CAS info session but didn’t see representatives from any of the colleges. There was one admissions officer who was helpful but we would have liked to talk with someone in CAS (or pre-law, or Advising or any department really.)
The facilities were crowded: we sat on the floor of a gymnasium for the opening session and the Resource Fair was held in two small rooms. It was a rainy day but for a school of that size they should have a better Plan B. Not a great first impression.
Student volunteers were incredibly helpful and could answer most questions. I know many students are happy there, so there is probably something great about it, but it was not shown to us on DOTL.
Good luck to your daughter. Hope she has a wonderful time wherever she ends up!
We’ll be attending DOTL next week, hopeful we’ll have a better experience. We are deciding between UVA and a private school. Academically they are pretty much equals, but the private school seems to have more resources and opportunities in terms of advising, research and career services. On the other hand, UVA offers the campus life and school spirit that son cherishes and the private school can’t provide. Tough decision.
We loved DOTL, especially the information about the Echols program, and S18 knew he could be very happy there. He found “his people” amongst the Echols scholars. It definitely outranked W&M and GWU, which we revisited on the same trip. Unfortunately in the end we just couldn’t justify the OOS cost compared to in-state tuition (and an Alumni scholarship) at UCLA, which he chose over Berkeley.
Best of luck I kind of assumed at the very least the Echols program gave a nice scholarship. Best of luck at UCLA, my neighbor’s son also just chose it over Michigan!
Echols program does not give any scholarship. Unfortunately UVA does not give Merit awards, but is still and amazing school and so worthwhile IMO.
Its funny, but we had the exact opposite reaction to our DOTL experience. We had gone to UNC Chapel Hill and left totally unimpressed, and loved DOTL. Some of the questions you mentioned were covered in the parents break out session. I asked the advising question at DOTL, and at UNC, and DOTL personnel answered it directly. UNC never did. We had some unanswered questions, went over to Peabody Hall and found someone very willing to help us out. I have had f/u questions for financial aid and global programs and I have received detailed answers Every single staff and student we met was friendly and helpful. My only regret is that we didn’t have more time. We actually went back the following Friday for a lunch and spent time wandering around and checking out dorms, which we didn’t have time to do the first visit. Note that we had never visited the school before. Best of luck in your choice.