The State of Virginia Colleges

[Anonymous]

The solution, obviously, is to apply to even more colleges. And make the problem worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, I think there are spots at state schools for VA students - many just feel anything below JMU is too crappy for THEIR child ;p

God forbid their snowflake have to consider Mason, VCU, UMW or CNU

Longwood, Radford or ODU? Oh, the horror!

This is so true. My friend was really mad/frustrated that her kid (3.0 -- FCPS) did not get into VT or JMU (non-stem). Kid/parents were not willing to consider GMU, UMW, VCU, Rad, or anything else in VA. So, they, like many others, ended up at WVU. The big-rah-rah U atmosphere was really important to them ... more than the academics or financial side of it.

To be fair, I think a lot of other states have big-rah-rah-Universities that pretty much anyone with a 3.0 and above can go to. In the case of VA, that would be GMU and VCU --- it's just that GMU doesn't have a football team or college-town aspect to it. And VCU doesn't have that dedicated sense of location/college town. So, I do understand why people really want their kids to go to UVA, VT, and JMU. But, a 3.0 isn't going to cut it... and it's crazy when parents think it should be a legit option.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, ODU has a football team...that has beaten VT several times

[Anonymous]

I wish I had studied these Virginia schools when our kids were little and invested in prepaid tuition.
We toured VCU, JMU, VT, UVA, W&M, CNU, GMU, and UMW.
Each one had great things about them.
We told our kids that they will be going instate only.
So our kids are in 2 of these schools.
We have amazing options here in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, I think there are spots at state schools for VA students - many just feel anything below JMU is too crappy for THEIR child ;p

God forbid their snowflake have to consider Mason, VCU, UMW or CNU

Longwood, Radford or ODU? Oh, the horror!

This is so true. My friend was really mad/frustrated that her kid (3.0 -- FCPS) did not get into VT or JMU (non-stem). Kid/parents were not willing to consider GMU, UMW, VCU, Rad, or anything else in VA. So, they, like many others, ended up at WVU. The big-rah-rah U atmosphere was really important to them ... more than the academics or financial side of it.

To be fair, I think a lot of other states have big-rah-rah-Universities that pretty much anyone with a 3.0 and above can go to. In the case of VA, that would be GMU and VCU --- it's just that GMU doesn't have a football team or college-town aspect to it. And VCU doesn't have that dedicated sense of location/college town. So, I do understand why people really want their kids to go to UVA, VT, and JMU. But, a 3.0 isn't going to cut it... and it's crazy when parents think it should be a legit option.

Just have to be realistic about what schools your kid can get into, right?

FWIW, there are plenty of schools out there that aren't actually that crazy expensive even OOS. Many offer merit, like WVU and Bama.

Do your research. Maybe consider starting at the community college. Plenty of kids do.

Just don't complain that there aren't spots for your kids. There are - you just don't deem the schools with spots acceptable to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, ODU has a football team...that has beaten VT several times

Twice, to be exact: 2018 & 2022.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, I think there are spots at state schools for VA students - many just feel anything below JMU is too crappy for THEIR child ;p

God forbid their snowflake have to consider Mason, VCU, UMW or CNU

Longwood, Radford or ODU? Oh, the horror!

This is so true. My friend was really mad/frustrated that her kid (3.0 -- FCPS) did not get into VT or JMU (non-stem). Kid/parents were not willing to consider GMU, UMW, VCU, Rad, or anything else in VA. So, they, like many others, ended up at WVU. The big-rah-rah U atmosphere was really important to them ... more than the academics or financial side of it.

To be fair, I think a lot of other states have big-rah-rah-Universities that pretty much anyone with a 3.0 and above can go to. In the case of VA, that would be GMU and VCU --- it's just that GMU doesn't have a football team or college-town aspect to it. And VCU doesn't have that dedicated sense of location/college town. So, I do understand why people really want their kids to go to UVA, VT, and JMU. But, a 3.0 isn't going to cut it... and it's crazy when parents think it should be a legit option.

Just have to be realistic about what schools your kid can get into, right?

FWIW, there are plenty of schools out there that aren't actually that crazy expensive even OOS. Many offer merit, like WVU and Bama.

Do your research. Maybe consider starting at the community college. Plenty of kids do.

Just don't complain that there aren't spots for your kids. There are - you just don't deem the schools with spots acceptable to you.

This. I have two students at WVU, and with the scholarships WVU offered, paid slightly less than what we would have paid to send them to the schools you mention (GMU, VCU, etc.) Two of my kids also were given excellent scholarships at Alabama which would have made tuition less than those schools.

Why should we pay MORE to go to a school that is less of a good fit, just so they can be "in state?"

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:However bad you think the options are in Virginia, agree that there are many more tiers and affordable options relative to other states.

[b]UF and UGA are as good as or better than comparable Virginia options, larger, and virtually free in state

But most reading this are OOS so your point is irrelevant. UF is $46,000 OOS and UGA is $48,000 OOS. GMU (where DC went) is $13,404 tuition and $27K all in when housing is added. Add is the benefit of driving instead of flying and you can see why in-state Virginia is so popoular.

OK, but why are we celebrating Virginia for having in state options that cost 40k a year when other states manage to offer comparable schools for far cheaper

What other states? BTW USC (private) just announced it's going to $90K this fall. [b]UVA with its 35+ campuses is a great deal.

[/b][/b]



OP, I don't think you know what you are talking about. Next to California with its 9 UCs and 23 Cal States and huge community college system, Virginia is the next best thing in the United States. But the problem with the UC system is the extreme expense for OOS (most everyone reading here) and the fact that UC has tightened the reigns for admission of OOS (an a no-go for the Cal STates - they are reserved almost exclusively for Californians) and International to 10% (UVA is 26% OSS International) which makes it virtually inaccessible to anyone in the DCUM area. Even if you get in OOS, Berkeley is $73K a year.

Florida, as pointed out is more expensive for OOS.

Texas, like California, is mostly limited to in-state students The voters in that state, like California, have objected to having state schools educate so many OOS.

Maryland has, well only 12 institutions of varying quality. https://www.usmd.edu/. UMCP is a great deal but you have to get in and $56K OOS.

UVA has 35 institutions of higher learning and a generous community college transfer system that allows anyone to attend a 2-year college, live at home and transfer to their choice of Virginia 4 year institution if they meet the GPA and course requrements. Only California offers a similar system. All of the Virginia 4 year schools are cheaper than any other OOS public or private.

FWIW, GMU's board entertained a motion to increase tuition this past year. Friends on the Board voted it down. Expenses have to be covered, especially as a large number of OOS and International students are included in Virginia's school. Many Virginians would like to see UVA and others cap OOS at 10% or less like California and Texas.

DP. While I agree with your post, calling VA universities "UVA" is confusing. UVA doesn't have "35 different campuses." You mean, Virginia, the state (or commonwealth ).

What are these "35 campuses" pp is talking about? Community colleges?

I think she's saying there are 35 public universities in VA.

But, there are not.

George Mason
Mary Washington
James Madison
UVA
VMI
Radford
Virginia Tech
Longwood
Virginia State
Old Dominion
Christopher Newport
Norfolk State
UVA Wise
Virginia Commonwealth


14...right? Which 21 am I forgetting?

W&M

And Bland Xollege, the 2 year school in that is the equivalent of UVA Wise for WM. Although they have started the process to separate, I believe.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who was genuinely shocked that her son was not admitted to VT Engineering. White male at a top 5 FCPS school, with great SATs, but a 3.9W after junior year. He has been admitted to a couple of safeties, but they feel confident he will get into one of his outstanding schools (EA deferral or RD): CMU, UVA, GT or UC Davis (this was a few weeks ago, some may be out by now).

Highly educated seeming savvy parents. But, there is clearly some denial going on.

You have to base a college list on the kid you have, not the kid you wish you had. The family eliminated GMU, JMU, Pitt, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, etc as not prestigious enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who was genuinely shocked that her son was not admitted to VT Engineering. White male at a top 5 FCPS school, with great SATs, but a 3.9W after junior year. He has been admitted to a couple of safeties, but they feel confident he will get into one of his outstanding schools (EA deferral or RD): CMU, UVA, GT or UC Davis (this was a few weeks ago, some may be out by now).

Highly educated seeming savvy parents. But, there is clearly some denial going on.

You have to base a college list on the kid you have, not the kid you wish you had. The family eliminated GMU, JMU, Pitt, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, etc as not prestigious enough.

Yikes! Someone has not been reading the naviance charts or getting good advice from HS counselor if they thought a 3.9W should scoff at the schools listed in the last sentence!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia ranks fourth nationally for K-12 education. You guys seem to forget that ALL of Virginia has VERY strong schools, from Bristol up to Roanoke over to Virginia Beach up to Winchester. Admission into Virginia's colleges and universities isn't just about you in NOVA. Your kids are competing against the students of ROVA (Rest of Virginia) who are very strong, as well. You dismiss them as invisible. But come application time, they are there and they are getting into all the schools. I can see how it's a wake-up call.

LOL, ROVA...that's a good one. Just remember anything south of Fredericksburg is a bunch toothless rednecks.

I live in an area you would scoff at as a "toothless redneck" area. Our oldest's grad class last year had plenty of graduates going to UVA, VT, W&M, JMU, VCU, etc. Others went out of state to NYU, U of Chicago and other big-city schools. With scholarships. Our kid got all the same college postcards your kids did. Education is the ticket to the bright lights, big city for a kid when you come from a small town or more rural place. The kids out here are working their tails off, and they're smart, with good manners. We moved here from NOVA. We have plenty of helicopter mothers here too, taking their HS students to SAT prep and to weekend robot design championships. Also remember that the governor's schools like TJ are all over Virginia, they are all over the state. Class sizes are smaller out here, and -- here's the kicker -- teaching is still a highly-valued profession. Teachers are respected as a pillar of the community. The teachers works with the parents. That is a huge thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia ranks fourth nationally for K-12 education. You guys seem to forget that ALL of Virginia has VERY strong schools, from Bristol up to Roanoke over to Virginia Beach up to Winchester. Admission into Virginia's colleges and universities isn't just about you in NOVA. Your kids are competing against the students of ROVA (Rest of Virginia) who are very strong, as well. You dismiss them as invisible. But come application time, they are there and they are getting into all the schools. I can see how it's a wake-up call.

LOL, ROVA...that's a good one. Just remember anything south of Fredericksburg is a bunch toothless rednecks.

I live in an area you would scoff at as a "toothless redneck" area. Our oldest's grad class last year had plenty of graduates going to UVA, VT, W&M, JMU, VCU, etc. Others went out of state to NYU, U of Chicago and other big-city schools. With scholarships. Our kid got all the same college postcards your kids did. Education is the ticket to the bright lights, big city for a kid when you come from a small town or more rural place. The kids out here are working their tails off, and they're smart, with good manners. We moved here from NOVA. We have plenty of helicopter mothers here too, taking their HS students to SAT prep and to weekend robot design championships. Also remember that the governor's schools like TJ are all over Virginia, they are all over the state. Class sizes are smaller out here, and -- here's the kicker -- teaching is still a highly-valued profession. Teachers are respected as a pillar of the community. The teachers works with the parents. That is a huge thing.

Quota is the big deal there. They have a cap on number of students from “the great state of Northern VA” as they called it back when I was applying. It’s the big fish in a little pond that helps the more remote areas of VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia ranks fourth nationally for K-12 education. You guys seem to forget that ALL of Virginia has VERY strong schools, from Bristol up to Roanoke over to Virginia Beach up to Winchester. Admission into Virginia's colleges and universities isn't just about you in NOVA. Your kids are competing against the students of ROVA (Rest of Virginia) who are very strong, as well. You dismiss them as invisible. But come application time, they are there and they are getting into all the schools. I can see how it's a wake-up call.

LOL, ROVA...that's a good one. Just remember anything south of Fredericksburg is a bunch toothless rednecks.

I live in an area you would scoff at as a "toothless redneck" area. Our oldest's grad class last year had plenty of graduates going to UVA, VT, W&M, JMU, VCU, etc. Others went out of state to NYU, U of Chicago and other big-city schools. With scholarships. Our kid got all the same college postcards your kids did. Education is the ticket to the bright lights, big city for a kid when you come from a small town or more rural place. The kids out here are working their tails off, and they're smart, with good manners. We moved here from NOVA. We have plenty of helicopter mothers here too, taking their HS students to SAT prep and to weekend robot design championships. Also remember that the governor's schools like TJ are all over Virginia, they are all over the state. Class sizes are smaller out here, and -- here's the kicker -- teaching is still a highly-valued profession. Teachers are respected as a pillar of the community. The teachers works with the parents. That is a huge thing.

Quota is the big deal there. They have a cap on number of students from “the great state of Northern VA” as they called it back when I was applying. It’s the big fish in a little pond that helps the more remote areas of VA.

DP. There are lots of areas south of NOVA that are anything but remote. I get it, I was raised in NOVA to think we were the only place on earth that mattered, or at least the only place in Virginia. And then I got to college and was struck by how much more interesting and real kids from other places were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, I think there are spots at state schools for VA students - many just feel anything below JMU is too crappy for THEIR child ;p

God forbid their snowflake have to consider Mason, VCU, UMW or CNU

Longwood, Radford or ODU? Oh, the horror!

This is so true. My friend was really mad/frustrated that her kid (3.0 -- FCPS) did not get into VT or JMU (non-stem). Kid/parents were not willing to consider GMU, UMW, VCU, Rad, or anything else in VA. So, they, like many others, ended up at WVU. The big-rah-rah U atmosphere was really important to them ... more than the academics or financial side of it.

To be fair, I think a lot of other states have big-rah-rah-Universities that pretty much anyone with a 3.0 and above can go to. In the case of VA, that would be GMU and VCU --- it's just that GMU doesn't have a football team or college-town aspect to it. And VCU doesn't have that dedicated sense of location/college town. So, I do understand why people really want their kids to go to UVA, VT, and JMU. But, a 3.0 isn't going to cut it... and it's crazy when parents think it should be a legit option.

Just have to be realistic about what schools your kid can get into, right?

FWIW, there are plenty of schools out there that aren't actually that crazy expensive even OOS. Many offer merit, like WVU and Bama.

Do your research. Maybe consider starting at the community college. Plenty of kids do.

Just don't complain that there aren't spots for your kids. There are - you just don't deem the schools with spots acceptable to you.

This. I have two students at WVU, and with the scholarships WVU offered, paid slightly less than what we would have paid to send them to the schools you mention (GMU, VCU, etc.) Two of my kids also were given excellent scholarships at Alabama which would have made tuition less than those schools.

Why should we pay MORE to go to a school that is less of a good fit, just so they can be "in state?"

As I said, research

You don’t have to stay in state. There are options.

Fwiw, Radford and ODU are possibilities for our child…as is Slippery Rock in PA and Northern Michigan. Due to a new major, we might be adding SUNY-Fredonia. We also considered Stockton (NJ), UNC-Greensboro, WI-Stevens Point, Rhode Island College, Bridgewater State (MA), Akron (OH), SEMO and Illinois State. (No, my kid doesn’t have a shot in hell at the top tier VA schools)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia ranks fourth nationally for K-12 education. You guys seem to forget that ALL of Virginia has VERY strong schools, from Bristol up to Roanoke over to Virginia Beach up to Winchester. Admission into Virginia's colleges and universities isn't just about you in NOVA. Your kids are competing against the students of ROVA (Rest of Virginia) who are very strong, as well. You dismiss them as invisible. But come application time, they are there and they are getting into all the schools. I can see how it's a wake-up call.

LOL, ROVA...that's a good one. Just remember anything south of Fredericksburg is a bunch toothless rednecks.

I live in an area you would scoff at as a "toothless redneck" area. Our oldest's grad class last year had plenty of graduates going to UVA, VT, W&M, JMU, VCU, etc. Others went out of state to NYU, U of Chicago and other big-city schools. With scholarships. Our kid got all the same college postcards your kids did. Education is the ticket to the bright lights, big city for a kid when you come from a small town or more rural place. The kids out here are working their tails off, and they're smart, with good manners. We moved here from NOVA. We have plenty of helicopter mothers here too, taking their HS students to SAT prep and to weekend robot design championships. Also remember that the governor's schools like TJ are all over Virginia, they are all over the state. Class sizes are smaller out here, and -- here's the kicker -- teaching is still a highly-valued profession. Teachers are respected as a pillar of the community. The teachers works with the parents. That is a huge thing.

Quota is the big deal there. They have a cap on number of students from “the great state of Northern VA” as they called it back when I was applying. It’s the big fish in a little pond that helps the more remote areas of VA.

DP. There are lots of areas south of NOVA that are anything but remote. I get it, I was raised in NOVA to think we were the only place on earth that mattered, or at least the only place in Virginia. And then I got to college and was struck by how much more interesting and real kids from other places were.

Richmond, Norfolk/VA Beach area, Charlottesville are other bigger areas.