school in virginia??

<p>It's nice to be out here again..it's been awhile! I just came back from a family reunion and was talking to some high school students in the family about college. One boy is interested in english and politics and is a very good high school soccer player interested in continuing to play in college. He would like to stay in state if possible. I am not at all knowledgeable about schools in that area and wondered if any came to mind. He would be a kid who needs money to attend and would qualify for need-based. 1530 SAT, 3.4 GPA, small number of ECS...very bright..underachiever in school. I don't think he would be interested in a huge school...</p>

<p>Any ideas?</p>

<p>Virginia has a wealth of LACs that would fill the bill quite nicely, I think. Hopefully Faline and Ariesathena will see this thread and contribute as well -- they've been a wealth of info to me as I have been looking into VA schools for my S. Off the top of my head, keeping the student population at around the 5000 mark or lower:</p>

<p>William and Mary
University of Mary Washington
Washington and Lee
University of Richmond
Roanoke
Randolph-Macon
Hampden-Sydney
Lynchburg</p>

<p>UWM and W&M are state schools, so the $$ situation will be better. With his stats, I'm not sure how much merit $$ he could expect from the most selective schools on the list (W&M, W&L and Richmond). At the others, there's a good chance that he will receive a good package. The GPA may be problematic at Richmond, W&M and W&L, but a challenging course load and an upward trend could help, as could his soccer background. </p>

<p>All of these schools have pretty active athletic programs -- W&M is Division I-AA, so scholarship money is available if he's good enough to get recruited. I <em>think</em> the rest are Division III (non-scholarship), but don't hold me to that. And even at Division III schools, while they may not have scholarships, being a varsity-level athlete could help with admissions.</p>

<p>James Madison would be good for him & probably offer him an incentive, especially with the soccer. Another public would be George Mason. As for private LACs, he should look at Lynchburg, Roanoke, Hampden Sydney, Randolph Macon and possibly Richmond. Richmond may be tougher for him, but he should consider it too. Of course, much will depend on the soccer coaches. Suggest that he fills out the recruit forms on the websites of all of these schools & register with the NCAA clearinghouse.</p>

<p>I'm a little biased, because I'll be a freshmen this fall, but I think you should look into Old Dominion University. He has the stats to get a merit based scholarship if he goes to Scholarship Day. The only requirements are atleast a 3.4, 1180 SATs, and early acceptance. These vary a little from year to year, and probably will have some adjustment for the new SATs. They will probably cover a lot of merit aid too (I got a large scholarship from them, and they still gave some merit aid).</p>

<p>All good suggestions. W&M is in-state, so it would be (relatively) inexpensive for him. It's a small school, but absolutely lovely area and it does have access (via Amtrak) to DC. It's also not out in the boonies the way that, say, Farmington is.</p>

<p>W&M, W&L, and HSC all have honour codes. </p>

<p>Rural VA (i.e. western/southwestern) has a lot of single-sex (or almost single-sex, such as VMI) schools. </p>

<p>For the soccer thing, he should contact the coaches at those schools. Many of them are so small that they can't handle good teams and keep their academics up. </p>

<p>W&L gives out about 100 merit scholarships every year - check the archives on this, because there are a bunch of CollegeConfidential kids who got them (either full or half tuition). </p>

<p>What about the schools in NoVA or DC? Or NC has Elon (which gives merit aid), Warren-Wilson, and a handful of others that I can't remember - maybe Carolyn could help.</p>

<p>UWM is instate--so very inexpensive. With 65% women, they would look kindly on male applicants. Div 3 men's soccer team. 4000-5000 kids, so smallish but not too small.</p>

<p>He could probably indeed receive a significant scholarship incentive from Old Dominion. However, ODU is not highly regarded, academically speaking, and it is a very commuter oriented school, located in an urban area that is sporatically crime ridden.</p>

<p>thanks so much for all of your help. I have forwarded these responses to my nephew...</p>

<p>As for ODU, you can access the crime stats here: <a href="http://jasper.ts.odu.edu/apps/odupolice/home.nsf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://jasper.ts.odu.edu/apps/odupolice/home.nsf&lt;/a>
It's not as bad as people are led to believe. There is also an escot service that runs 24/7 to pick up people when they feel unsafe. There is a large population of students who live on campus, and it continues to grow as the university adds on upperclassmen apartments like the University Village.
As far as not being highly regarded academically, it's not an ivy league but it does pretty good.</p>

<p>George Mason is another possibility.</p>

<p>There is a parent on the boards whose D got a scholarship to Richmond and some sort of guarantee of law school acceptance there (should she meet certain qualifications).</p>

<p>University of Richmond is a very good LAC in Virginia.</p>

<p>U. of Richmond is also 42K a year, if that matters. DS was accepted there with similar stats but decided against it in favor of UMW (and saved us mucho). A friend of ours plays soccer at Richmond and loves it. It is a Div I school, I think for all sports, but may be wrong. Roanoke is Div 3, but very generous with merit aide (was close enough to state costs to be in serious contention).</p>

<p>Choff is correct -- UR has dramatically increased their tuition. From $31K to the aforementioned $42K. Richmond stated that they did this to bring it into line with it's peer group. The problem is, it listed its peer group as schools such as Duke and Dartmouth. That doesn't make sense to me. It is a very good liberal arts college. Well, technically it's a university, but I understand that USNEWS will rank them as a LAC next year. Ranked as an LAC, I would guess (strictly IMHO) they will be in the 25-35 range with schools such as Bucknell, Sewanee, Lafayette, etc. $42K seems way out of line.</p>

<p>FYI:
GMU has 30,000+ students
Tech has 25,000+ students
ODU has 20,000+ students
JMU has 16,000+ students</p>

<p>lderochi - daughter dropped UR from her list because of, let's face it, laziness, the merit scholarship applications required a lot of extra work as compared to Rhodes. We 'rents were glad though, as much as we love Richmond (used to live there), we didn't think it was THAT much better than Rhodes, for example, and the financial shortfall would be much greater.
I don't know what the UR trustees were thinking, although for some reason, I thought the peer group that they were trying to emulate was Wake Forest - anyone know what Wake's tuition is?</p>

<p>For the OP, I think W&M would be a good in-state possibility, as well as Mary Washington - if he wants a smaller school and is in NoVa, how about some of the Maryland LACs, like St. Mary's?</p>

<p>In the letter we received, UR wanted to compare with peer institutitions like Wake Forest. Will be interesting to see how many applied for 05-06. Perhaps their Robins and other donor funding has stopped...</p>

<p>dudedad and cangel I misspoke about Dartmouth. The peer group was actually listed as Duke, Vanderbilt, Georgetown and Colgate. Better, but still pretty darn ambitious and ultimately I don't see how the comparison holds up. For one thing, Duke, Vandy and Georgetown are National Universities. Colgate is a better comparison, but I think at this time, it is considered a bit higher ranked than UR. I'm not bashing Richmond, I think it is a very good school -- I just think their tuition increase has made it far less of a value for the average, middle-class family when compared to comparable schools. UR is stating that they will cap loans and work-study at $4000 with all other need coming in the shape of grants, but I remain skeptical. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The press release I had says:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Trustees approve tuition increase</p>

<p>The Board of Trustees voted in October to set the 2005–06 total cost of attendance for entering first-year and transfer undergraduate students at $40,510, an increase of 26.9 percent from the current academic year. Returning undergraduate students will see a 5 percent increase to $33,510.</p>

<p>Total cost of attendance includes tuition, fees, room and board. Recognizing that currently enrolled students and their families already had budgeted for their college expenses based on the existing tuition rate, the board decided to exempt them from the larger increase.</p>

<p>To ensure that a Richmond education remains affordable, the board dedicated a sizeable portion of the additional tuition revenue to continuing its policy of meeting 100 percent of a student’s demonstrated financial need. That policy, which began in 2002, places a $4,000 cap on loan and work-study funding per year with the balance of demonstrated need met with need-based grants that do not have to be repaid.</p>

<p>Richmond is the only university in Virginia, and one of fewer than 40 universities in the country, to meet 100 percent of undergraduate students’ demonstrated need and offer a “need-blind” admission policy. Applying or qualifying for need-based aid is not a factor in Richmond’s admission decisions.</p>

<p>Tuition at Richmond is the primary revenue source for annual operations, as it is at most private universities. Although the University’s endowment is sizeable, it accounts for only 27 percent of the institution’s total operating budget. While the ongoing Transforming Bright Minds campaign is expected to secure financial support for many institutional priorities, its success will have only a marginal impact on the University’s annual operating budget.</p>

<p>The additional tuition revenue will allow Richmond to accelerate many of its strategic initiatives that will greatly enhance the undergraduate experience and directly benefit students. These initiatives include increasing the amount of need- and merit-based scholarships, hiring additional faculty in a variety of disciplines, updating technology resources throughout the campus and re-engineering classrooms to better facilitate discussion-based learning. Other initiatives include renovating or expanding existing buildings such as the science center, library, business school and dining hall, as well as constructing new facilities.</p>

<p>When the tuition increase is implemented, the total cost of attending Richmond will be comparable to other selective private universities with which Richmond competes for top students, including Duke, Vanderbilt, Georgetown and Colgate.</p>

<p>“For the past several decades, the University of Richmond’s tuition rate has been comparatively low and does not accurately reflect the high quality of our faculty, academic programs and campus resources,” says Otis D. Coston Jr., rector of the Board of Trustees. “We are in the process of building one of the nation’s great universities, and increasing tuition revenue will provide the resources needed to propel Richmond to the top echelon of academic excellence. We have a responsibility to our students and the nation to provide the highest quality educational experience within our reach.”</p>

<p>The vast majority of Richmond alumni supports this position. In a 2003 alumni survey, 95 percent of respondents said it was important for the University to pursue its vision to “become one of the finest small private universities in the nation.”</p>

<p>Prior to the trustees’ vote on the tuition increase, President William E. Cooper met with the Alumni Association Board to brief its members on the issue and seek their input.</p>

<p>“After careful consideration of all of the facts, the Alumni Association Board strongly endorsed the tuition proposal,” says Board President Bob Seabolt, R’77. “We are pleased to have been consulted prior to the decision, and we look forward to dialogue in the future on issues critical to the University’s future.”

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The actual tuition figure for Richmond is $34,850 -- the $42,000 figure is the estimated total cost. For comparison's sake, tuition at the other schools mentioned (from USNWR):</p>

<p>Wake $28,310
Duke $30,720
Georgetown $30,338
Vanderbilt $28,440
Colgate $31,440</p>

<p>In comparison, the tuition at some of the schools that I think are truly peers of UR:</p>

<p>Bucknell $30,730
Lafayette $28,625
Sewanee $25,580
Furman $24,408
Centre $21,800</p>

<p>cangel -</p>

<p>Wake's tuition, fees, room and board are $38,000 for this year's incoming freshmen.</p>

<p>Iderochi-</p>

<p>A very good book IMHO, Barron's Best Buys in College Education has Richmond listed in the 2004 edition. The criteria, as I recall, is the comprehensive fees for everything won't exceed $35,000 per year. They priced themselves out of this "value" market...</p>

<p>Again, I don't know what the trustees were really thinking unless they plan to convert that money to merit/need aid for "middle class" students. It was a big a turn-off for folks like us, who I would consider Richmond's prime recruiting ground - upper middle class Southern families who will be full freight payers or merit aid recipients (doctors are notoriously some of the most miserly folks around).
Maybe they are trying to increase need-based aid for bright students from NoVa - looks like they would run smack into UVa, and lose, with that policy.
They were doing a fair amount of facility work when we visited in summer 04, but not that much different than other schools we visited - the Robitussin money must of run out! Wonder how they fared in admissions this year?</p>