<p>UVA has a terrific soccer team that they fill entirely with in state talent. Several national team players are graduates of this program.</p>
<p>If he is sure about wanting to stay in state it makes the soccer angle of this search much much easier. First, if he is a D1 level player the local schools will most likely contact him directly ... if he has not been contacted by local D1 programs by the fall of his senior year the odds of ending up on scholarship are probably pretty slim. The D3 schools sound like a great opportunity for academics and soccer and the in-state list is short enough that he can investigate all of them ... I'd suggest he contact the coach at each D3 school in which he is interested ASAP (using the contact form on their web page). After he starts the conversations with the schools he will quickly have strong indicators of how he fits in academically and athletically.</p>
<p>I have three children in Virginia schools, so I'm a volume consumer. From personal experience:</p>
<p>JMU: Great enthusiasm and campus spirit. Not an academic powerhouse, but a good education. My D graduated from there this May. I have never, ever heard of any unhappy students at JMU. Drawback: It's a large (16K) university--something you wanted to avoid. National Football Champions in their division, by the way.</p>
<p>UVA: My S1 is entering his third year there. UVA is a school with a great history and great traditions. Students at UVA feed on this, and it creates a strong bond with the university. Alumni giving is huge, and construction is greatest among the many Virgninia universities I have visited. UVA's modernization is even more ambitious. UVA is also large, however, about the size of JMU. UVA is a "match" , however, given the stats involved. Jefferson practically created the concept of "liberal arts" at UVA (instead of divinity studies). </p>
<p>Small? My S2 has chosen 5000-student Christopher Newport University, in Newport News, VA. Now, a 1500+ SAT will tower over the average 1150 at CNU, but will qualify for the CNU "leadership program" (an impressive little nook in itself). CNU is rising fast in SAT scores and academic challenge. (Up 200 points in the past few years--the fastest in the nation, they claim.) S2 looked at Longwood, VCU, ODU, and other smaller schools, and chose CNU. D3 sports, and I believe they include soccer. </p>
<p>W&M and UMW are great schools, and a good match with those stats, but I can't offer personal experiences George Mason is a rapidly-rising school which has an impressive symbiotic relationship with the high-powered NOVA suburban population.</p>
<p>It's been a while since the OP posted. I'll be happy to elaborate, but this may be all moot.</p>
<p>RB</p>
<p>readbeard, I would disagree with you that UVa is a "match" school with a 3.4 gpa. Sure he has a great SAT, but that is at the bottom of the list of considerations at UVa. I would put UVa closer to a reach and JMU or Mary Washington at a "match".</p>
<p>I think I can add some much-need perspective on this topic.</p>
<p>First off, the University of Richmond is one of the best colleges in Virginia. As for its academic peers, I would consider them to be Wake Forest, Boston College, Davidson, William & Mary, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Duke, UVA and W&L. As for Darthmouth, I am not too familiar with the school so I cannot comment. By the way, I think the school is modeling itself after Princeton, so students will see some similarties between the two schools. But the issue of "peers" is rather trivial. The point is, the school is excellent.</p>
<p>I recently read an article entitled "Richmond Students Rank With the Ivies" by a former Cornell professor. It was very enlightening. He taught the same (exactly... textbooks, tests, etc) course at both Cornell and Richmond. Richmond students did 10% better. So that tells you something.</p>
<p>But I am afraid a 3.4 GPA is [probabaly not good enough (or atleast at the bottom of the scale) for UR, UVa, and W&M. But VA has losts of other great schools, or so I understand.</p>
<p>I've got more information about peer group, too. U of R recently did some studies to update and broaden its view of its peers. They did two different analyses, using variables like student profile, alumni giving rate, faculty salaries, completion rates, aid, percent of degrees conferred in certain fields, value of endowments, etc. The point of the exercise is to see what institutions are really and truly similar to yours on objective measures, regardless of anecdotal information, cross-application, and historical ideas of "peers." </p>
<p>They came up with a list of true peers and aspirational peers that way. The list may include colleges which are surprising to those of us who have long known Richmond, but objective measures suggest they are, indeed, similar to Richmond or similar to what Richmond aspires to be.</p>
<p>Hampden-Sydney offers very generous awards to those in its honors program.Contact the soccer coach.The campus is gorgeous.Good luck.</p>
<p>hoedown, Who are the peers?</p>
<p>On page 1 of this thread several parents discussed what they heard UR say their peers were, although I think some of them were aspirational (Post #17, I think). I'm comfortable discussing their rough methodology for getting there, but not their findings, since this stuff was shared with me in a professional context. They didn't share all of their findings, at any rate. I don't mean to sound coy; I just don't know what is for public consumption.</p>
<p>Fair enough...I have a son at UVA and a 12th grader who is looking. We visited Richmond....my best guess is that it was at about the level of Wake....not Duke, UVA, Davidson,etc. I may be wrong.</p>
<p>oldman and hoedown, I'd agree with you regarding peers and aspiration; a number of kids from our high school have gone to Richmond in the past two years and they have been very middle of the road students for the most part; would not even have applied to Duke etc--generally good kids though and some are doing very well at UR.</p>
<p>mattmom, Thanks for the input....I don't have a good feel for what the student body is like there.</p>
<p>I think I can add some additional perspective here. </p>
<p>The issue of peers is rather subjective. If you are looking at schools in Virginia, UVA is the most similar (academically) to Richmond. In terms of admissions, there are no definates I know many people who have been rejected by UR and accepted by UVa., and the other way around. If you are looking at nation-wide schools, Boston College and Duke stand out. I know that lots of people are not familiar with Richmond, but if you look at the numbers this really is true.</p>
<p>Sdizzle, I have to disagree. I'm not trying to be a Duke troll, but the "numbers" show that Dukes 25-75 numbers are 1330-1520, with a 25% acceptance rate. Richmond's numbers are 1240-1390 with a 42% acceptance rate. And even in-state I would argue that William and Mary is more similar to UR than UVA is. William and Mary's numbers are 1260-1440 with a 34% acceptance rate. And William and Mary is, I think, more similar to UR than UVA in terms of size, etc. These are all very good schools, but I keep reading Richmond make these statements about their "peer groups", and I just don't see it. A school like Furman is much more of a peer.</p>
<p>^ Remember that admissions statistics are just one facet of the giant web of information that colleges are analyzed on. Having said that, I do respect your opinion. By the way, I am not sure if you are familiar with statistical theory, but schools with broad name recognition (like Duke) often get applications from people who are way underqualified. This makes the college appear more selective than it already is (although only slightly), so the percetages are not a good way to measure a school's quality since they are subjective, inconsistent variables at best.</p>
<p>Sdizzle -- No argument from me on the low reliability of admission rates. One school in particular I know of has been very agressive in encouraging applications from people that they are virtually certain to reject. Pretty sadistic, if you ask me. But it is a number that is readily available and does give at least some information (albeit taken with a grain of salt). To go back to my original point, the main problem I have with UR and its "peer group" statements is that they have used what I believe are inaccurate peer groups to justify a HUGE tuition increase that, IMHO, has a good chance of backfiring on them. The biggest criticism of the Ivy League schools is that, as excellent as they are, they are insanely overpriced. Is that really an Ivy League element that UR wants to emulate? I do admit to some sour grapes here -- similar to cangel, UR was on my S' radar screen. It would have been a reach, but not a lottery-pick kind of reach. Unfortunately, due to their tuition increase I told S that it just didn't make sense to keep it on his list. His best chance of admission would have been ED, and I simply can't allow him to apply to such an expensive school on an ED basis.</p>
<p>I'd recommend Mary Washington and Christopher Newport. If a small school is important, then ODU, JMU, GMU, UVA, etc won't qualify. W&M would probably need strong ECs to make up for the GPA. Also, as some others have said, there is probably money available, and placement into an honors program at both of those, as well as a chance to play soccer.</p>
<p>If the player isn't on a Division 1 schools rader now, they probably aren't that interested in him (imo).</p>
<p>All the U of R students I know got money. 1 is paying the same amount as a state school, 1 is on sports scholarship, and 1 is on a full ride merit scholarship (got into W&M and UVA also)... actually i Know another one as well and I'm not sure what her money situation is.</p>
<p>Iderochi, UR is very generous with financial aid. The average need met is 98%, and with the tuition increase, it is aiming at 100%.</p>
<p>UR may be generous with finaid but you still need to qualify for it. DS was accepted there (WL at W&M, didn't apply to UVA due to its size) and received NO finan aid offer at all. They seemed to think we could afford their new prices. Well, if we wanted to take all savings and spend it in one year, maybe. I would be curious just how many students turned down their offer due to the lack of finaid, so the students you know are there because they got it. Instead DS is going to Mary Washington, another nice fit, size, and with the "First Year Experience" program he's going into, it sounds a lot like several of the private LA schools where he was accepted. Plus, with the VA prepaid educ program, he's covered for the next four years. It's the way our family looked at it.</p>
<p>Are you sure you filled out a FAFSA? Or filled it out correctly, if you did?</p>
<p>By the way, UR doesn't determine your need comepletely. The federal government uses the FAFSA to come up with an Estimatic Family Contribution (EFC).</p>
<p>This year, 296 people were judged to have need. 293 were offered aid, and 238 had 100% of their need met.</p>