<p>ChrisTKD writes “UVA is the flagship university in Virginia so many parents would like for their kids to be able to attend.” Well, you know what they say-“You can’t always get what you want , but if you try sometime, you get what you need.”</p>
<p>Reading all these comments it seems that UVA is the only school that is worth attending in the state of Virginia. </p>
<p>Why is that? Does it have to do anything with its selectivity? I wonder…</p>
<p>@wahoomb - nice one</p>
<p>UVA is a top-notch university in the nation. It is not just a state university.</p>
<p>Out-of-state students not only help the University financially but also contribute to diversity and quality of the student body.</p>
<p>I personally wish UVA accepts more Out-of-state so that more bright students from all over the world can compete for admission.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Lee Seidner,this article may follow him around for awhile. If you google him, the article already comes up as well as a blog talking about how entitled he sounds. However,what also comes up is that he is a section leader in the Marching Virginians,the Virginia Tech band.Somehow,I can’t picture him rooting for UVa at the VT-UVa game at Lane Stadium. This article may very well be the result of bad reporting as much as anything. He thought he should have gotten into UVa,was disappointed ,tried to get off the waitlist. All normal stuff. The article makes no mention that he is currently very involved in the VT community,possibly happy there,etc. Maybe he has been able to make lemonade out of what he initially perceived as lemons.That would have been a much better message to this story. But I guess that doesn’t sell papers.</p>
<p>Wahoomb writes “Reading all these comments it seems that UVA is the only school that is worth attending in the state of Virginia.”</p>
<p>The comments are posted in the UVA thread so one would expect that the comments would be specifically in reference to UVA. I attended both Va Tech and UVA and IMO they are both worthwhile institutions. I also like William & Mary but do not have any direct experience.</p>
<p>I was not only referring to the comments found on this thread, but also in the WashPo article and in general, people are very narrow-minded when it comes to thinking about the university that they want to attend in the state of Virginia (let’s be honest, for all of you who went to high school in NOVA, you know that most of those who didn’t get into UVA went to Virginia Tech, regardless of their major). Getting into the University of Virginia is a prized commodity precisely because it is selective. If you take the selectivity out of the equation, people will no longer have the appetite to be accepted. I’m not saying that by increasing the enrollment of Virginians will decrease its selectivity, however, UVA will not be known at an international level if most of its students are from Virginia. I’m a graduate student at Stanford and people from the West Coast either confuse UVA with UofA or have not heard of it. What will happen if the 20 first years from California (I don’t know the exact number) become 5 over the next year because of this mandate? UVA will become a regional school that will be known from Arlington to Roanoke. Those who are so aggressive about increasing the enrollment of Virginians will be saddened when their degrees no longer carry that national cachet they so wanted.</p>
<p>It seems like adding less out of state and international students to our schools like UVa, Wiliam and Mary and Virginia Tech at this point would be backtracking. They are all considered national universities and certainly need to continue to accept well qualified OOS and internationals to maintain a national and global focus. My sons at UVa and Virginia Tech have enjoyed the mix of instate, out of state and international kids. The campuses can only be enhanced by diversity.</p>
<p>As a current UVA student, I strongly agree with you!!
Thank you.</p>
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<p>As bold as it may be, I’m going to put myself in front of the firing squad and say selectivity will indeed go down if the number of in-state students increase and OOS students decrease. </p>
<p>What makes a school be classified as “selective”? Typically, it’s low acceptance rates paired with a high yield. Unquestionably, Virginia’s high schools are among the very best in the country and produce super high-achieving kids. The thing is, Virginia only has so many of these kids, and most *** are *** being accepted to UVa. If the number of IS students increased while the number of OOS students decreased, I guarantee the SAT averages, GPA, etc. would decrease (even if slightly). </p>
<p>As for the OOS pool, they’re currently willing to pay 40+K for a public school experience because UVa is so selective. I’ll be brutally honest and admit if UVa wasn’t in the top 25, we probably would have encouraged our D to choose one of her alternatives such as Northwestern. The OOS kids do contribute greatly to the prestige of the university. Many of my D’s OOS friends had great choices last April: Vanderbilt, Cornell, Duke, and even Dartmouth, but they chose UVa. If UVa’s rank continues to drop, the school will lose some of these uber-achieving OOS kids, and as a result, the drop will continue; thus, the school will become less selective.</p>
<p>This thread certainly has been an interesting one. My final thoughts on this are just simply from the perspective of an in state mom. The universities in Virginia should not have to change what they feel is right for their schools because a few legislators and parents are disgruntled. They should receive enough funding from their respective state to admit the students that they feel would best represent their school. Now, if they can admit a few more students- in state or out- like UVA is doing, w/o impacting their school, that should be up to them to try. </p>
<p>I sent my child to college for an education and to grow: academically, socially, emotionally.
His references to how much he has enjoyed meeting kids from different parts of the country and learning about their lives have been pronounced. He was worried about going to “High School Part II” at VT and although it is very IS oriented, there are enough OOS kids to make it acceptable to him. It is critical that the state of Va. doesn’t deny in state students a chance to meet and learn from their OOS peers by reducing their OOS numbers. One learns a lot from the experiences they share with others.</p>
<p>In New Jersey 87% of the students that attend Rutgers are from the State. At TCNJ 95% of students are from NJ. For that reason MANY of NJ’s top students leave the state. They leave because they want an experience that includes meeting people from outside NJ. In addition neither of those Universities would be considered as nationally recognized as UVA. I would venture to say that NJ has both public and private school systems (HS) on par with those of NOVA. That might be evidence to consider that if you take away the experience of meeting OOS at UVA or any of the other fabulous VA schools you are going to cause the top VA students to feel the same as the NJ students feel now. And you will end up with the great “brain drain” that NJ has. Those are the kind of articles we read in our papers.</p>
<p>Thank you for your perspective and your example about New Jersey,Mamalumper. I would hate to see a bill like the ones that seem to be continually proposed in Virginia ever pass. You could mandate that Virginia schools take 95% Virginia students and there would still be disgruntled students and their parents complaining if the student did not get into their first choice school. Our Virginia schools are popular for many reasons , including having a good mix of students from both all parts of Virginia as well as many other states and countries.</p>
<p>There certainly are tons of out of state UVa students who settled afterwards in Va and pay lots of taxes to the state. I know many of them. That is a reverse “brain drain.”</p>
<p>Also, UVa officials have made it clear that they receive very large amounts of donations each year from out of state alums that are necessary to maintain the quality in the face of rapidly decreasing funding from Va.</p>
<p>UVA used to accept a higher percentage of in-state students and we all thought that UVA was a fine institution of learning. UVA earned its reputation over decades and won’t be negatively affected by an increase in in-state students from 67% to 75%. I don’t think anyone is advocating 95% in-state. UVA, William&Mary and Va Tech are all attractive in-state schools not only for the quality of the education but also for the in-state rates. It is so much more expensive to attend an equally good out-of-state university. The price differential puts much more pressure on students to get into one of these institutions.</p>
<p>ChrisTKD, Times are changing. In order for UVa to continue to compete nationally and globally, it’s got to protect and grow its’ brand. It has to have a good mix of all kinds of students,including OOS and international to continue to attract the best and the brightest.As has been stressed by many already, if price is a concern, we are very lucky to have many fine options for our Virginia students if the student is not admitted to UVa.</p>
<p>“It is so much more expensive to attend an equally good out-of-state university. The price differential puts much more pressure on students to get into one of these institutions.”</p>
<p>Because if a student doesn’t get into UVA, W&M and Virginia, s/he WILL be forced to leave the Commonwealth to receive a quality education. </p>
<p>Sorry JMU, VCU, GMU, VMI, etc, your schools offer a sub-par education and the children of Virginia will have to flee should they be forced to attend one of your institutions. </p>
<p>RIDICULOUS</p>
<p>Of interest, by contrast, may be the fact that UCLA is 93% in-state and is much more highly ranked than UVA in the Time 200 world rankings. So much for needing beaucoup OOS students. UVA should keep its NOVAs!!</p>
<p>UCLA only has an instate acceptance rate of 21%. Whereas UVa is 45%. NOVA residents are upset with a 45% rate could you imagine if it was as low as UCLA.</p>
<p>1) California is the size of the East Coast. 2) UCLA and UC Berkeley are world-renowned institutions. Their graduate programs and professional schools are super strong across the board and have world-wide reputations. 3) UVA is a very good undergraduate institution, one can’t say the same thing about its graduate school programs (with the exception of the law school and business school)</p>
<p>PS: UCLA admits a higher percentage of out-of-state students (about 30%). I would lol at the reaction from VA state-legislators if this were the case.</p>