<p>In its first full year, AccessUVA, the Universitys financial aid program, is making its mark by increasing the economic diversity of the student body. Essentially, any in-state or out-of-state student who comes from a family of 4 w/ a household income of $37,500 a year or less will basically attend UVa for free.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's a great new program that should attract a lot of great new students. On another note, I think that as a school, we are definitely underrated in US News. Although US News shouldn't be the only method by which students pick a school, often times it is. I think the school should really try to look at how US News ranks schools and focus its capital in those areas. One of the categories I believe is financial aid and I think this a great program to address that issue.</p>
<p>Yeah, it'd be nice if UVa wasn't at the bottom of the list of public universities that enroll low-income students... What was it last year, <5%? That's a sin! I don't think that's what Casteen wants as his legacy.</p>
<p>Actually, it's 8%. Though UVa is a public school, for some reason it's always attracted more affluent students. Yes, it's true that President Casteen isn't too happy about it since he himself came from a poor background, but it's not that UVa isn't admitting poor students. They're just not applying. Now with AccessUVA, where you can receive a stellar education for free, more disadvantaged students are applying.</p>
<p>Globalist, 4%, or 8%, it's still shameful! "The Universitys goal was to increase the percentage of entering students from low-income backgrounds from 4 percent to 5 percent in the first year; instead, that group will make up 6.2 percent of this falls first-year class."</p>
<p>"They weren't applying." Perhaps this was affecting Law, but not the entire institution. If so, then why weren't they applying? UVa has been listed as the "Best value" in education by US News for many years now. It's a recruiting issue. The number has been steadily falling year after year. It's a systemic issue in admissions. It shows what can happen to enrollment when admissions eval students based solely on a number, i.e., GPA or SAT... It's also a well known fact that UVa also recruits based on a family's potential to contribute.</p>
<p>What's shameful is that most schools don't offer a free education to all its poor students. I'm happy that UVa is one of the few schools doing that.</p>
<p>Re. recruiting rich students, actually, that's not true. UVa admissions is need-blind and doesn't look at your family's wealth when it comes to admitting you. In fact, they don't even see your family's income. (I know. I volunteered for the Admissions Office when I was in school.) Yes, there have been rare cases where a student was admitted because of his/her family's extreme wealth, but every school has done that from Berkeley that all the way up to Harvard. </p>
<p>Yes, UVa has been listed as a "Best Value," but poor kids weren't applying (partly because they still couldn't afford it. "Best Value" is based on the cost when measured against the benefit of that degree. Even some very expensive elite private schools have been called "Best Values.") Whatever the case, ever since UVa's inception, it has attracted the Southern aristocracy, and that's still the case now - perhaps it's because of its Jeffersonian history and traditions or the Ivy League ambience of the place, which tend to attract the more affluent. I mean, how many public schools do you know have been the national champion in polo for 3 consecutive years? (Alas, we lost to Cornell this year.) Even up here in NY, we have an annual alumni polo match between UVa and Yale. </p>
<p>Whatever the case, in an effort to live up to the Jeffersonian ideal of educating everyone who's smart enough to get in, UVa is doing what most public and private schools aren't doing by giving a free great education to the most disadvantaged. President Casteen who himself comes from a poor family was a beneficiary of this ideal, and he wants to ensure more students will benefit as well.</p>
<p>So yes, this will affect the school, and for the better.</p>
<p>Also, in an article from USA Today that I kept, it reported that:</p>
<p>"At the nation's 146 most selective colleges, only 3% of students come from the lowest socioeconomic quarter, it says; 74% come from the top quarter.</p>
<p>And the gap has widened: Wealthy kids are increasingly displacing middle-income students, according to a study of selective institutions by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA." </p>
<p>The UCLA study shows that first-generation college students often considered the most disadvantaged increasingly are concentrated in the least selective institutions, such as Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, Miss., where nearly 95% of students receive Pell Grants. </p>
<p>At a time when a bachelor's degree from the most elite colleges is seen as an entree to the best graduate programs, influential careers and leadership roles in society, some worry that higher education has strayed from Jefferson's vision.</p>
<p>The "pursuit of excellence depends on opening wider the gates of opportunity," former Princeton president William Bowen said in a speech last spring at the University of Virginia. "The fundamental question is whether these elite institutions should today be considered engines of opportunity or bastions of privilege."</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Well, I can say that UVa wants to be an engine of opportunity. So, as you can see, UVa is not alone is having less poor students, but at least it is doing something by working to attract more of them and by helping them to attend for free.</p>
<p>Actually, UVa has gone from a need-blind admissions to need-aware with AccessUVa. Yes, their actions are honorable, but how they got here isn't. They are also funding AccessUVa on the backs of students via tuition increases over the next 5 years. </p>
<p>To say "low-income students aren't applying" is an excuse and an over-simplification of the issue. This certainly is a blemish on the records of Casteen and Blackburn. It appears UVa's newly chartered status won't help this issue either.</p>
<p>The fact that UVa is a public university makes one take a further double take. UC Berkley: 22k enrollment, 32% low income students. UCLA: 25K enrollment, 35% low-income...etc. If Cali can do it, why can't Virginia?</p>
<p>In any case, true or not, the lack of socioeconomic diversity at UVa certainly paints it as an elitist institution. Frankly, it's an embarrassment</p>
<p>Spyderman, I'm not going to apologize for UVa's student body. Since there isn't a prestigious nationally-known private university in VA, it is the first choice in VA among those with brains or money. (If you live in VA and you're smart, most likely you're going to go to UVa. UVa has around a 70% yield among in-state students). If Virginia attracts both those types of people, and those are the people who apply, then how could UVa admit kids who aren't applying? </p>
<p>What UVa is trying to do is to actively reach out to everyone, make sure an excellent education is not out of reach for those who can't afford it, and say, "Hey, everyone's welcome here." Being a very involved alumnus, I meet groups of kids who are socio-economically, racially, and geographically diverse, and they love it at UVa. I personally know students who don't have that much money, and they feel that UVa's been there for them financially.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that UVa isn't just looking after the poor, it's also reaching out to the middle class. UVa caps the amount of loans that its middle-class students will have and offers them grants/scholarships beyond that. Berkeley and UCLA do not. I don't know of any other public school doing that. </p>
<p>Also UVa doesn't force its students into work-study programs, because it realizes that time at college should be spent studying and discovering rather than working. I don't know any other public school doing that either.</p>
<p>Okay, let me explain my thoughts clearer. Damn, I have to go to work now.</p>
<p>While UVa has traditionally had a history of being a Southern gentleman's school on par both socially and academically with the Ivy League schools, it has (in the last 30 years) implemented major programs to be inclusive of students of all backgrounds. UVa has increased the number of its minority students to now a quarter of the student body. The University even has one of the highest percentages of black students in the country - with the highest graduation rates of black students (as well as all students) among all public schools. </p>
<p>Now, UVa has turned its sights toward cultivating economic diversity. The UC System has had a long history of huge governmental support, which has allowed its tuition to remain low from the very beginning thus attracting poor students. The state of Virginia in contrast hasn't always been supportive of higher education. Thomas Jefferson had to fight for every penny he got from the state in order to establish UVa. The initial funding of UVa was so low that it was more expensive to attend the University of Virginia when it opened than Harvard. Thus, from its very first days, a certain type of student was drawn to UVa, which until 1970 (like Yale) was all white and all male. Since the inclusion of women and minorities, UVa has changed for the better. </p>
<p>Again, UVa finds itself with low funding from the state, but despite this fact, the University is committed to strong recruitment of poor and middle-class students. You can fault UVa for having a low number of low-income students, but I think it's important to look at the history of the University and the significant strides it has taken. </p>
<p>Like all great institutions should be, UVa is a work in progress, bettering itself every year.</p>
<p>Globe, UVa certainly has a strong and vibrant history. The falling socioeconomic trend that has occured at UVa over the past three to five years is alarming. In fact, I recall seeing UVa's enrollment of low-income students around 12-15% only a few years ago. </p>
<p>Offering up a free education to low-income students in the form of grants is a great solution and will attract many. Although, I was saddened to see that this will be at the expense of rising tuition rates. </p>
<p>While this is a quick fix, the administration needs to look at the internal systemic issues that created this situation. </p>
<p>Perhaps admissions has been placing too much emphasis on academic stats, i.e., GPA and SAT, and not on life situations that may have contributed to one's situation. It appears these students have been overlooked. </p>
<p>Lets face it, not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth.</p>
<p>You're right. There were more low-income students 10-15 years ago, but also back then UVa had a lot more funding from the state to help off-set the cost of a UVa education. Since then we're talking about a drop in state funding from 25% to 8% in 20 years. The only way UVa has been able to cover the huge loss of funding is by raising the cost of tuition, which in turn has squeezed out lower income students. Now, UVa is trying to do the right thing by offering lower income students an opportunity to study at Virginia at little or no cost.</p>
<p>To be honest, if the state of Virginia wants more poor students to attend UVa, it should do a better job funding UVa so that it doesn't have to charge students more to attend. </p>
<p>To me what's truly shameful is that for a public school, UVa receives only 8% of its operating budget from the state. UVa gets more money yearly from its alumni and its endowment than the state of Virginia.</p>