And another outreach effort to offer support. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/08/16/let-love-be-the-torch-that-guides-you-new-students-at-dartmouth-other-colleges-write-to-u-va/?utm_term=.9c58e3865dc1
Whatever happens with applications, you do have to feel for all the current students, especially freshmen who are having to deal with this as they begin college.
I would like to just point out that bad things happen sporadically just about everywhere. What happened in Charlottesville was largely due to outside people. I live in small town Virginia. While I am sure some racist/prejudiced people are lurking about (as they are just about everywhere), I have never witnessed or heard of anything that represents even 1/1000000th of the type of sentiment that descended upon Charlottesville this past weekend. This is not typical of Charlottesville, UVa or the Virginia that I have known the last 20 plus years.
If people in other parts of the country are now fearful of attending UVa based on one weekend, maybe they need to re-evaluate how they look at people and interpret events.
In the last 12 months, a guy drove a car into students at Ohio State on actual campus, Cal Berkeley had a variety of nuts set fires, smash property and beat up people on actual campus. A man was shot on the actual campus of the University of Washington during a protest there.
I expect that UVA will see a marked decrease in out-of-state applications this year. Missouri is not a direct comparison but a comparison nonetheless. My daughter chose Georgetown this year but UVA was in the final three choices. I am glad now that she chose not to attend UVA. When we discussing UVA in the spring, our family was very split over whether to send her to school in a Southern state. I was on the pro-UVA side as I know (and like) Charlottesville well from working with the CFA Institute and having previously lived in DC I have seen how Northern Virginia has changed from a very redneck place to having more in common with the Middle Atlantic states. Still, I am happy that she is not living in Charlottesville now given recent events.
@londondad, Growing up in the NYC area, then going to school and starting my career in New England, I convinced myself that the South had a problem with racism and we didn’t. [I</a> was wrong](https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map). Charlottesville was targeted by the hate groups because we are a progressive city. The protesters converged upon Cville from all over the country.
BTW, Northern Virginia has long been a fantastic place with thriving culture, great schools, and wonderful people. More hate groups are based in the DC metro area than in all of the rest of Virginia, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a wonderful place. I hope your daughter enjoys her time in DC.
Perhaps applications from out of state will drop, but I don’t think it is justified. The driver of the car that hit the counter protesters was from Ohio and Heather Heyer, the victim, was local. I’d wager a high percentage of the alt-right were from out-of-state.
Charlottesville is a progressive college town. The Robert E. Lee statue was placed there 93 years ago in a completely different age. This could have happened in any Southern city. It speaks more to the history of the city than to the present.
And DC itself has a bunch of hate groups. As does California, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania. They are unfortunately everywhere. Charlottesville, UVA, and Virginia took a stand against the white supremacists. Facebook and Google have finally taken a stand against allowing hate groups on their platforms because of what happened in Charlottesville . BTW, I’m in southern Virginia so I guess that makes me a REAL “redneck.” So be it. There are worse things to be . Being a neo-Nazi comes to mind.
Hope your daughter enjoys Georgetown.
With 3 exceptions, the neo-Nazis and KKK guys who invaded Cville who have been identified so far were from out of state. One of those 3 Virginians is originally from Montana, and another was tackled by a local hippee woman on Sunday and thrown into a flower bed.
The identities so far have involved people from almost every state, including people who traveled 3,000 miles. Cville police just issued arrest warrants today for a guy from New Hampshire.
That type of info has been out there for days-that these neo -Nazis primarily came from out of state, and Charlottesville and UVA just happened to be unfortunate enough to get targeted by these nut jobs. They are threatening other cities -Boston, NYC, etc. Are parents going to stop their kids from going to colleges where these Nazis might show up? But that doesn’t seem to fit the narrative for some - who think that all the racists are from the South.
Lives have been lost, the community traumatized. I don’t even think it is that big a deal if there are less out of state applicants because of this . There will still be many more qualified applicants than there is space for. That very well might not even happen. UVA showed lots of positive images to the country this week. If it does happen, so what? Again, lives were lost.
UVA is not Missouri.
@londondad My brother went to UVA, class of 2012, and in my nineteen trips to Charlottesville I never saw anything that could convince me of city wide intolerance. I’m from Missouri, just about thirty minutes away from the university and I promise you that the way that the way UVA and its staff have handled this disaster proves that it is the exact opposite of my home state. Good luck to your daughter at Georgetown but when I apply early action to UVA this November, I’ll be doing it with nothing but love for C-ville and the Cavalier community.
A family member started his academic career at Missouri before moving on to a top 20 private. He seemed to have enjoyed his time there. Mistakes seem to have made there, but hopefully they are rebounding. And certainly, there are many/most good folks in Missouri that would stand up against hate. Charlottesville seems to have galvanized people. And started dialogues and discussions about race and religion, history, campus access and safety, how to respond to white supremacists, access to social platforms and Paypal by hate groups, etc. And that’s a good thing.
“My daughter chose Georgetown this year but UVA was in the final three choices. I am glad now that she chose not to attend UVA. When we discussing UVA in the spring, our family was very split over whether to send her to school in a Southern state.”
London – I’m politely calling Bravo Sierra on this. I highly doubt the "southern " thing had anything to do with your kid’s decision to pick Gtown.
It is a big deal to send your kid to southern UVA, but Gtown (which draws so many of the exact same kids as cross-applicants and cross-admits) only 100 miles away is AOK? Come on.
FYI slavery was legal in VA, DC and rebel-leaning MD at the time of the Civil War. Plenty of confederate statues located in all three places. The Cville march could just as easily been held in Baltimore, where there is a statue of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson (which was removed just the other day) located a half mile from the Hopkins campus. Would your kid have been comfy going to Hopkins?
FYI Gtown’s founder (Bishop John Carroll) was a slaveholder just like TJ and GW were. And there was lots of tobacco grown on plantations in MD back in the day. Including by other members of the Carroll family.
Would your kid have been comfy going to Duke or Vandy or Emory or Tulane? I bet the answer would be yes.
I’m saying your kid picked Gtown over UVA because of all the normal reasons – size, private vs. public, academic rep, net price, urban vs. rural, Catholic vs. secular.
If your kid is smart enough to get into Gtown and UVA, I’m not buying that the rest of your family would think such dopey things. : )
Northwesty: Yes, few geographic areas can claim complete innocence on the slavery issue. Delaware didn’t free their slaves until they were forced to, by a Constitutional Amendment AFTER the Civil War. William Penn had slaves when he came to Pennsylvania. New Jersey still had some slaves at the start of the Civil War. Slavery was only ended in DC because the federal government bought the slaves’ freedom during the war. Many people in NYC and New England were making profits off of the slave trade or the transportation of them across the Atlantic.
One of Mr. Jefferson’s great achievements was to enact a ban on the importation of slaves into the US. The voyage across the Atlantic was one of the most brutal aspects. He tried to get that ban into effect for 40 years before he suceeded when he became President.
By the way, HBO’s Vice News had a second episode today about Cville and UVa. It is a mostly postiive story about an African-American first year student and the attitudes of herself and her parents to the events of last week.
As a Northern VA parent of a black son, we have extremely mixed feelings about applying to UVA. My son will apply but I’m not sure if he’ll attend if accepted. We were visiting UVA 2 weeks before the riots. Even as we were driving to Charlottesville he felt unsettled because he felt like we were driving straight into “Confederate Country”. It is a top state school and hard to ignore if you’re in-state with high stats and a minority but there is something about the area that is unsettling for black students. We will see.
LMHLaw3 - thanks for your comment. I am so sorry, and as a white american/uva grad/virginia resident so distressed about these racist provocateurs and I am sorry it happened and how it must affect the psyches of black Americans. It’s disgusting that elected “leaders” quietly cultivate their support or support from sympathizers in our system today. I do know a first year african american student who just entered this fall and is LOVING UVa - understanding that this is a universal American struggle - the racist American legacy - but sees UVa as a place to affect change - and they have dived in and been welcomed with open arms by their fellow students, white roommate, etc. UVa has the same issues as anywhere in America though yes - in Virginia as a former capital of confederacy there is this history and the complex history of Jefferson being more fully considered now as well (however awful American racism happened virtually everywhere in our country). Cville just happened to have a city council trying to remove confederate statues, and racists who chose to make it the target of these nasty provocations - most of them from out of state actually. This is not Charlottesville or UVa - these are progressive open minded communities overall - but of course there are small minded and jerks anywhere in this country. I do not feel it is at all a majority - or anything particular about the University founded by Jefferson. I hope your son will attend if he gets in and come and be part of the American change and solutions that we so desperately need.
Thank you UVAParent2022 for your comments and encouragement. We still have some serious concerns but it isn’t against UVA or Charlottesville so much but the fact the the leader of this Nationalist group vows to come back to UVA again and again. He also is a graduate of UVA. I know many people who have attended or attend now who are very happy but they are all white. I’m more concerned about what could happen to my son off campus.
That fool is going around the country trying to stir up trouble at many universities, including Berkeley, Ohio State and U. of Cincinnati. It will be hard to avoid him at any location.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/his-kampf/524505/
He also has a degree from Duke. I choose to blame Duke for him.
He started college at Colgate, then went to UVA after the first year. Actually has a master’s degree from University of Chicago, then went to Duke for a doctorate but did not finish. He seems to fancy himself an intellectual and finds it “fun” to debate and stir things up. He grew up in Dallas Texas and went to an all boys prep school . His family is wealthy and also owns property in Montana (and the residents there want nothing to do with him). He is headed to the University of Florida next to stir up trouble. He certainly has his 15 minutes of fame.
http://www.nbc29.com/story/36551369/study-charlottesville-rally-drew-participants-from-35-states
The Nazis came from 35 states to protest in Cville. They came because it is a tolerant and diverse community - representing everything they hate.
If there are parents commenting here that still feel “unsettled” or have concerns, that is unfortunate , but understandable. If those concerns cannot be allayed, luckily there are many other wonderful schools out there. We all want our kids to feel comfortable at their chosen schools. Best of luck in finding the right school for your children, whether that is UVA or another fine school.