<p>University</a> of Virginia ranked high in US News & World Report Survey - wdbj7.com</p>
<p>NO suprise on this, not even going to click link but berkley is first right?</p>
<p>That is good and all, but UVA slipped in the national rankings this year. We may be out of the top twenty five soon nationally unless something happens. =/</p>
<p>To be fair, UVA’s “score” didn’t change at all, another university simply improved it’s position a little bit. I wouldn’t put too much weight in slipping one position, it’s not as if you see students jumping between Harvard and Princeton and Stanford based on whichever school is topping the rankings that year.</p>
<p>True, but with the way the formula is set up private schools seem to be inching higher and higher and publics seem to be slipping lower and lower. If Wake moves up 1 spot we will be relegated out of News Week’s top 25. Personally I feel and know the rankings are flawed, but it’s always nice to boast about something lol. Being in the US News and World Report top 25 is kinda like being in the top 25 for a sports poll, it’s just fun seeing that number next to the name.</p>
<p>The system is definitely designed to benefit the privates IMO. Berkeley fell one from 21 to 22. Both UVa and UCLA fell one from 24 to 25. These three schools have been the top 25 public contenders for a while now. What is troubling is that UVa has dropped each year for the past 5 consecutive years. I would agree with 110percentwahoo that if the university doesn’t look at possible solutions to rectify this, next year, UVa won’t be in the top 25. Although our family doesn’t place a significant emphasis on rankings (D turned down Northwestern which is #12 because UVa was simply a better fit), there are families with high achieving students who do allow the rankings to play a pivotal role in their decision. In short, the applicant pool as a whole will be affected if UVa doesn’t address the slip. I have no clue what the solution is though. Perhaps make admission more selective by lowering the admission rate/size of incoming class to reflect higher test scores/GPAs? Maybe…who knows! I don’t have the perfect solution, but I do hope UVa officials are discussing possible ideas to prevent the school from falling further.</p>
<p>Big Ten schools really plummeted. California publics seem to be doing better recently though. I wonder what the difference is…</p>
<p>Less high profile schools on the West coast to attract the good students out there. If you live out West your best choices are Berkley, UCLA, Stanford, Cal Tech…(this is obviously not a full list, but you get the picture). The California schools, like Berkley and UCLA, also get all their students from the top 10% of their classes instate essentially. That figure boosts them up pretty high with Newsweek. UVA places less emphasis on that figure, for example, UVA takes about 100 some odd kids from TJ a year. The mere fact 100+ of them were admitted means they all couldn’t have been top 10% students. This is not to say they are incapable of UVA (because they very much are), but it nonetheless throws off the stat. Another reason is the need to hit geographic quotas within the state. It is true that the public schools are strong in northern Virginia and the greater Richmond area, but no so true for the beach, northwest corridor and rural Virginia. Having to accept a student from Podunk Virginia over a more qualified candidate from NOVA messes up the numbers. There are plenty more reasons as to why California gets more cred, but to list more would pointless.</p>
<p>Now, to fix the situation the answer is simple, admit more out of state students and lessen the amount of instate admits. The current ratio is about 66% in 34% out. If the ratio was modified so that the class was 55% in 45% out, stats on a whole would go up considering the OOS pool is more competitive anyway. Furthermore the instate rates could be raised a tad and the OOS rates could be lowered so the OOS yield increases, meaning better students actually enter the class because of the better bang for the buck. Considering the state pays for about 6% of UVA’s operating budget, a push for a ratio change could be made by the university. Best case, the state allows it no problem. Worst case (which is the most likely), the state says no and UVA would have to break away from the state in order to get their way. UVA would never accept the worst case scenario though because Jefferson always intended UVA to be a public institution. If Virginia went private like it could (the endowment is large enough), it would betray Jefferson’s vision. Another fix would be to revamp the sciences and math departments at UVA. When people think UVA they mostly think of just business, economics, political science, history, classics or some other humanities. UVA needs to get more notable faculty to revamp the physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Schools like Berkley or other higher rated universities are amazing, not just good, at literally everything.</p>
<p>
There are no geographic quotas behind the 2/3 : 1/3 ratio mandated by the Commonwealth.</p>
<p>I do not see the state legislature changing that mandate to favor OOS students in the future. Year after year, bills are introduced (often by the same representatives) to do the exact opposite. You can monitor them on [Richmond</a> Sunlight](<a href=“http://www.richmondsunlight.com%5DRichmond”>http://www.richmondsunlight.com).</p>
<p>No i know. Thank god this isn’t as bad as what happens in North Carolina. 82% in, 18% out…and i thought there was a geographic quota for the instate portion to prevent all the instaters from being from NOVA. Thank you for the correction.</p>
<p>I think the analysis on U-Va’s website says it all: it’s about funding, not the quality of the undergraduate student body, which is just fine and getting better every year.</p>
<p>[U.Va</a>. Holds Its Ground in Top 25 of U.S. News & World Report Rankings](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=12597]U.Va”>http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=12597)</p>
<p>The suggestion that TJ students are pulling down the “top 10 percent” number is also wrong. TJ doesn’t rank their students, and the numbers reported to US News is only for high schools that do rank. </p>
<p>Finally, the rise of the UC schools is probably linked more than anything else to US News’ greater emphasis this year on high school counselor rankings and, even more importantly, on graduation rates – where virtually all of the UC schools do extremely well.</p>
<p>^ interesting read, thank you.</p>
<p>UVA also does well in Parade Magazine’s “A-List” in papers of August 22. In fact, the lead photo is of the Lawn. The list comes from HS counselors. The website is very poorly done, and the print report is easy to absorb.</p>
<p>UVA shows up as one of the top 26 “large state schools” on the website (yes, you apparently have to scroll via “Next” to get anywhere). In the print article, the first page, under the photo, has an extract of that list, with Virginia one of seven. </p>
<p>UVA entry:</p>
<p>[PARADE's</a> College AList Large State Schools | Parade.com](<a href=“http://www.parade.com/news/2010/08/22-college-a-list-large-state-schools.html?index=23]PARADE’s”>http://www.parade.com/news/2010/08/22-college-a-list-large-state-schools.html?index=23)</p>
<p>Article’s home:</p>
<p>[PARADE's</a> College AList | Parade.com](<a href=“http://www.parade.com/news/2010/08/22-parades-college-a-list.html]PARADE’s”>http://www.parade.com/news/2010/08/22-parades-college-a-list.html)</p>
<p>I have a PDF of the Parade article, if anyone is interested. I don’t think it’s complete…it’s whatever the Parade editors sent out as PR. Email me if you’d like it…deanj “at” virginia “dot” edu.</p>