Feeling blessed to be in VA with great school options for the average kid! While D20 will be applying to a few more than these 3 schools, they remain her top 3 choices based on her stats and academic offerings/campus size & vibe.
Reach: Christopher Newport University (her #2 choice)
Match: University of Mary Washington (her #1 choice)
Safety: Radford University (her #3 choice)
UMW, CNU and Radford all offer the accelerated Masters in Education (4+1) Program which D20 is interested in. She is looking for the “not too small, not too big” campus, not too far away from home, in-state public (little to no debt). Already applied to Radford via Choice Application (rolling admissions) and plans to apply EA to UMW and CNU. Already did in person interviews at UMW and CNU. Now working to finalize essay(s).
Does anyone have any thoughts on UMW, CNU or Radford? Actual experience with attending?
While Radford does tend to have a negative rep in the northern Va crowd, it is well known for its Education program and is the least expensive of the 3. CNU impressed us with its shiny new “country club” like campus but that comes at a price - housing costs are highest out of the 3. UMW has the added bonus of being closest to home and has access to train so able to take train home to DC or elsewhere like NYC.
My sister went to Radford and she enjoyed her time there. I would go visit her a few times a year as I was in school about 3 hours away. For me, the school was a bit on the small side but it was a nice campus and a nice town. I do remember my sister and her friends would go over to Virginia Tech a lot for parties and to go to their football games since Radford doesn’t have a program. It didn’t seem like there was a lot to do from what I remember.
She lived in the Governors quad for a year then had an apartment off campus right across the street for a year before moving into the sorority apartment. She never had anything really negative about going to school there.
My close friend’s DD Judy graduated from Radford. All good for them. She has a great government job, had a great college experience, they could not have asked for more.
My BIL eschewed CNU because he had issues with its newness. I think it became a full fledged uni in the early 90s and he felt he wanted a place more established as he had dealt with new institutions as a las Student and as a father of a kid at a new high school.
I love MWC. Son and I toured it and it was as lovely as any private college. I thought the math classes hit all the marks. Location great too. Bottom line, my son did not the history of an all female school. Going through annals in the admissions office, seeing all the women names just took the luster off of the school. Made no sense, but it was enough for him. The school itself, he liked just fine.
This isn’t exactly what you asked but I’m going to suggest you take a look at Longwood. It was on my d’s radar because several favorite teachers/mentors were grads, and it was originally her safety (not sure if it’s still in effect, but they had a program where you could schedule a visit in the summer before senior year, turn in your app, take a tour, and get your decision at the end of the tour. Pretty much a given for 3.0+ and some SAT/ACT score cutoff that I don’t remember.)
Anyway, it ended up as her first choice. She wavered between education and another major, went with the other, but then got her masters at W&M School of Ed. All in all it was the best & least expensive college experience of all my kids. Worth a look.
Good rigor and a 3.0-3.2 GPA should make all three acceptances. If scores are 1200+, she can apply with these scores and get honors program at UMW/Radford, with scholarships to boot (always a boost for an “above average but not excellent” student). And she can apply without scores - she just needs to complete all possible essays as well as she can.
@O2BonCC - we actually did visit Longwood and it’s on D20’s list, just didn’t make it to top 3. She wasn’t a fan of it being so isolated. She actually already applied to their summer “priority status” application and were told she would get a decision in about 2 wks.
@O2BonCC - both my D20 and S20 applied to Longwood via their summer “priority status” application. S20 received phone call yesterday and he was accepted to Longwood! Yeah. D20 was Job Shadowing yesterday so they left her message to call back. She will be calling back later today. Fingers crossed.
I know Longwood is considered a “safety” school but you really do need a safety school as the competition in NOVA is crazy.
Excellent news, for both D & S! Great to have that in the back pocket going into senior year.
It was pretty much the opposite of what my D thought she wanted when she started the college search, but it ended up being perfect for her. Of course, who knows how many other “perfect” schools are out there!
@O2BonCC - thanks! D20 also just received her acceptance to Roanoke College (but steep price tag). Now she just needs to finish up essays and get some of her other EA apps in! Getting those essays finalized now that school and other activities have started is like pulling teeth!
For two other schools, we are only waiting on official school transcripts/recommendation letters to get sent.
@scoutmom2002 - My daughter is a junior at Mary Wash. We are OOS (NJ) and she absolutely loves it there. School was also just named #1 Most Underrated College in the US yesterday (https://www.greatvaluecolleges.net/americas-most-underrated-colleges/). Gorgeous safe campus, F’Burg is a GREAT college town - She’s 5 hours from us, but extremely happy with her choice and the value for our $. She’s in the College of Business - will have her MBA in 5 years and has had multiple internship offers. Hope this helps!
@lauraaswim - great to hear your daughter is enjoying a successful college life. My daughter is interested in pursuing the M.Ed. in 5 years! UMW is only 1 of 3 VA colleges that offer this - other two are Radford and CNU.
We are keeping fingers crossed…her BFF was in tears because she didn’t get into UVA ED. Luckily my daughter not interested in UVA (too big) and we were both realistic of her chances. She does have a reach school – W&M, but she honestly liked UMW better so we’ll see.
Hi there…
is this EA you are waiting on?
Our son fell in
Love with this school, and applied back on Nov 13th
(1 of 9 he applied to)
But this falls in
His top 3.
We struggled to find a school with strong academics, a honors program, a fabulous music major and ensembles… and Bagpiping. Yup. Hard to find it all. And he Rows…so we just kept tucking boxes at UMW. Then we visited and met with Bagpipe Director.
And our hearts started to fall in love.
4 tough hours of traffic away. But anxiously waiting to hear…
Sigh.
Will you let us know if anyone hears anything?
@BagpipersMom - nothing yet. D20 and I are admittedly getting nervous. According to their website EA apps will receive notification by January 31.
D20 did receive an email from UMW with a link to her Applicant Status Page which D20 checks often - still nothing.
I’m fearful that D20 will receive a “deferral” which means her application will be placed with the regular decision application pool and then she will only only receive notification by April 1.
D20 received her first deferral letter…from CNU yesterday. Staying positive though…deferral simply means that the college did not accept you during the early decision cycle, but they do see enough potential in your application that they would like to reevaluate it again during the regular decision cycle. A deferral is better than a flat out rejection.