Virginia parents do not have many good in-state options

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maryland parents often complain about the lack of instate public options other than UMCP.

Guess what, Virginia is not that much better in my opinion.

Yes, Virginia has UVa, W&M and VT.

But Virginia is more populous than Maryland and W&M undergraduate enrollment is tiny. In addition, more Maryland parents are willing to send their kids to private colleges like many other parents in Northern states.

VT limits the number of in-state admission to get more OOS kids. So what if your kids don’t get in UVa, VT or W&M? That’s the big issue for many parents.

JMU is considered as the next best option. And I do think it’s a fine school and its business program is a solid choice. But what if your kids want to major in engineering or hard scinece? JMU doesn’t even have a proper engineering school (college of integrated science and engineering is not a real engineering school in my opinion).

GMU offers decent engineering and CS programs but not everyone in Northern Virginia wants to go to a school in Fairfax.

Too many good and ambitious Virginia kids don’t get in UVa, W&M, and VT. I think this is why there have been increased interest in some of OOS public school (pitt, IU, UDel, UConn, Tenn, Alabama, etc. ) among Virginia parents.


I don't know any Virginian who has applied to these schools or attended them. Many apply to Pitt for rolling admissions, getn in and then turn it down when they get in REA EA ,RD to other schools as we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia has much better options than a lot of states.

Seriously. We are so incredibly fortunate to have all of these options, not to mention several that the OP didn't even mention - UMW, CNU, etc.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP. The good schools kids want to go to are too hard to get into. They’re also expensive for in-state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol. Literally. I mean, it isn't California but it is flat out ridiculous to say Virginia does not have good in-state options.

Honestly, the only people who are unhappy about Virginia's in-state options are the few percent who are on the margins of getting into UVA. My kids aren't going to be applying to UVA, but they'll have at least a half dozen other schools to choose from in Virginia. All at a very reasonable cost, too.

Many kids prefer VT over UVA, but don't get in - so the same could be said for them. UVA isn't everyone's top choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VA parents with subpar kids REALLY need to stop complaining about UVA admissions. If they doubled the size of the school or limited OOS enrollment so your kids could get in it wouldn’t be the same school AT ALL. There are plenty of other perfectly fine in state options. Leave the elite to the elite.

Oh my. Sure - whatever you say!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just an aside, OP... I DO get it. I wish there was a traditional college big-state U that pretty much admitted everyone with a 3.0 and above. That's the missing piece in VA. We have VT and UVA -- but they have become so selective that even a 4.0 student cannot expect to be admitted to VT. And forget about UVA.

Isn't that basically JMU? It's got an 80% acceptance rate, and fits the archetype of the school for kids who are a step down academically from the state flagship.

DP. The acceptance rate last year was 78%, and will probably be lower this year. And that doesn't even take into account what school you're applying from. Many NOVA students are finding it harder to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Richmond is private, not public.

But there are lots more....VCU, CNU, ODU, Radford, VMI, UMW. Not sure what more OP needs.

Some are very selective, some not selective at all and some in between.

+1. VA has some of the better state schools around. What the OP wants, I suspect is more schools at the UVA/W&M/VaTech "ranking". They could not imagine sending their kid to GMU, JMU, VCU, ODU, Radford, Mary Washington, etc.

MD has UMD and then it drops to UMBC (266) and then Towson (459)

UVA is 55 and VaTEch is 106 (These are college simply rankings, so you merge all LA, SLAC, regional universities into one ranking). JMU is 258, GMU is 244, VCU 455.

It's a no brainer---VA has much better options for in state than MD.

Just use USNWR rankings, like everyone else. No one uses "college simply."
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Other states have XXX State Univ. and Univ. of XXX.

Most states have a flagship and a land grant. In VA, this is VT and UVA. W&M, VCU, JMU and GMU are pretty good bonus schools and better than most states' "directional" schools. They are all in the national USNWR rankings.

My "subpar" kid (4.0W and 34 ACT) only applied to JMU instate (other VA schools made no sense for his major) and chose it over UMD, which offered a nice scholarship. The other subpar kid went to an OOS land grant. It cost about as much as W&M in-state. If she had wanted to go in state, only VT had her major. Not EVERYONE wants to be an engineer.

1. I hope you're being sarcastic about "subpar" - those are excellent stats.
2. I have two non-engineering, non-STEM students at VT. Engineering is only about 20% of the school. Lots of other majors are offered.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia also has W&L, URichmond, VCU, etc., all of which (with JMU and GMU) are arguably better than all of Maryland's non-College Park schools.

W&L and U of R are private. Neither is better than JHU or St. John's or the USNA.

[Anonymous]

With VT now being in the top 50 in the US news, expect it will get only worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But Virginia is more populous than Maryland and W&M undergraduate enrollment is tiny. In addition, more Maryland parents are willing to send their kids to private colleges like many other parents in Northern states.

I was willing to give you the benefit of your opinion until you used this as a "data point". You have no idea where MD parents, on the whole, are willing to send their kids. I live in NoVa, if I went off just the people around me, I'd posit that more VA parents are willing to send their kids to private high school and those kids can go to college anywhere they are able to get into. It's ridiculous.

Gee.

You are the one who is ridiculous. Parents in Northeast and MD sends more kids to private than parents in South including Virginia.

See the below link (page 43). Marlyand is a smaller state but has more private students than Virginia.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6213b2n5

Who cares? That's not what the subject of this thread is.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With VT now being in the top 50 in the US news, expect it will get only worse.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP. The good schools kids want to go to are too hard to get into. They’re also expensive for in-state.

How is $37K a year at UVA expensive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Richmond is private, not public.

But there are lots more....VCU, CNU, ODU, Radford, VMI, UMW. Not sure what more OP needs.

Some are very selective, some not selective at all and some in between.

+1. VA has some of the better state schools around. What the OP wants, I suspect is more schools at the UVA/W&M/VaTech "ranking". They could not imagine sending their kid to GMU, JMU, VCU, ODU, Radford, Mary Washington, etc.

MD has UMD and then it drops to UMBC (266) and then Towson (459)

UVA is 55 and VaTEch is 106 (These are college simply rankings, so you merge all LA, SLAC, regional universities into one ranking). JMU is 258, GMU is 244, VCU 455.

It's a no brainer---VA has much better options for in state than MD.

Just use USNWR rankings, like everyone else. No one uses "college simply."
DP

True. USNWR has UVA at 24. UMD at 46. We are blessed to have these institutions close by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I count about 39 public colleges or universities here (including community colleges) here. If you can't make that work (especially with the UVA guaranteed transfer agreement) then there is something wrong with you. We are blessed to have so many options in Virginia, especially with the obscene costs of OOS and privates (some at a whopping $93K a year now). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_Virginia

Something wrong with me (us)!

OK!! Go spend $78K a year!

Spending $44 at UMD.

UMD is $60K for OOS Virginians.

Merit aid