<p>On the front page of the Washington Post on Nov 14 is an article about increasing numbers of out-of-state students at flagship publics, primarily to get more money. The featured student failed to get into W&M. UVA and others are mentioned.</p>
<p>"Out-of-state students generally pay the full cost of their education, effectively subsidizing their in-state classmates. Since pre-recession 2007, the share of nonresident students in the freshman class has grown considerably at several flagship universities; from 34 to 37 percent at William and Mary; ... and from 35 to 44 percent at Penn State.... A broader group of colleges, including the universities of Virginia and Maryland..., offered admission to more nonresident students this year simply to shore up their numbers. The downturn made it harder for out-of-state students to pay the nonresident surcharge, so schools had to admit more nonresidents than they planned to enroll."</p>
<p>"U-Va. accepted more out-of-state students this year than last year and slightly fewer Virginians. The admission rate for Virginians has fallen from 49 percent in 2005 to 45 percent this year. But school officials note that the admit rate has declined for nonresidents, too."</p>
<p>There isn’t much UVa news there. The ratio of VA:OOS students is set by the state and it remains the same. We just had a pretty big thread about this.</p>
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I find this statement ridiculous in light of the number and variety of options for higher education that students have in this state. The higher ed system in this state is not kicking kids across borders.</p>
<p>The article says nothing about the featured student’s SAT score, to say the least, so the readers are in no position to judge whether she should have gotten in, or would have gotten in but lost her place to someone from out of state. Were the featured student in the article a boy rather than a girl, however, there’s no question that her odds of admissions would be dramatically better. The available data suggests that the real issue with William and Mary admissions isn’t that it favors out of state applicants, it’s that it favors boys.</p>
<p>that’s because more girls apply to W&M than boys and they like to keep the gender ratio equal (just as at MIT girls have a 23% chance compared to 7% for boys). Some schools consider the gender ratio importance and therefore try to keep their class balanced.
Honestly 5 or 10% is usually statistically insignificant unless the applicant is marginal</p>
<p>“One thing that amazes me is that North Carolina has a cap of 18% for out of state enrollment. I wonder if they are rethinking that.”</p>
<p>People argue about it all the time, but there is huge resistance to increasing the number. UNC has plans to grow the Chapel Hill campus to address some of the pressure, but the conflict will likely go on indefinitely.</p>
<p>The Post has a related piece 12/14 on admission differences between males and females, with a civil rights investigation to begin for several DC-area schools.</p>
<p>"Civil rights investigators will soon begin reviewing admissions data from a sampling of colleges in the Washington region to determine whether, after decades of progress toward sexual equity, female students have become so plentiful in higher education that institutions have entered a new era of discrimination against them…</p>
<p>“Civil rights investigators will request a range of data from each of the chosen schools to determine the relative academic merits of male and female applicants who were admitted, wait-listed or rejected, as well as the kind and amount of aid offered to applicants. The investigation might lead to a public briefing with witness testimony, or it could end less dramatically with only a written report. If schools cooperate, the work could be finished in six months, Ostrowsky said.”</p>
<p>The recent article mentions UVa once or twice, but is not the subject of the inquiry. Our population pretty much mirrors the US college student population overall when it comes to gender.</p>