Virginia parents do not have many good in-state options
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Anonymous
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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. |
Anonymous
| 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. |
Anonymous
| Virginia has much better options than a lot of states. |
Anonymous
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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. |
Anonymous
| LOL, come to Massachusetts and then talk to me |
Anonymous
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UVA Richmond JMU W&M George Mason Va Tech VCU Christopher Newport ODU Washington and Lee Liberty Mary Washington Radford Bridgewater Averett Hampton Sydney Longwood Norfolk State UVA -Wise Eastern Mennonite Hollins Roanoke Bluefield VA State Hampton Univ Emery and Henry Randolph Macon Regent Lynchburg Univ Southern Va Univ Ascent College VA Union Sweet Briar Shenandoah Univ Ferrum Univ Marymount Mary Baldwin VA Wesleyan |
Anonymous
| OP is welcome to their opinion, of course. But then, there is also reality. Since engineering was mentioned, see the programs available at VCU, ODU, and VMI. And there are some targeted engineering programs at some of Virginia’s HBCUs, Norfolk State University and Virginia State University. And at small privates like Randolph-Macon. |
Anonymous
| VCU is excellent if your kid wants to be a dr. My son is very interested in their BS/MD program. |
Anonymous
NP. Another NOVA parent. I agree with OP. Yes. You rattled off a bunch of schools most of which are private with enrollment of around 1,500. DS is currently at UMD studying CS. Accepted to WM and WL at UVA. Didn't bother with Tech considering the admission process referenced by OP. Child number 2 is not as strong academically, but will be reluctantly applying to Radford and ODU. Wants to attend in the Carolinas. |
Anonymous
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I am in Maryland. VA has WAY more public options
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Anonymous
JHU? |
Anonymous
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Blah. My kids have the stats for UVA, WM, VA Tech.
I would much rather have them attend any of those than UMD. I really hate College Park. |
Anonymous
Northeast including Massachusetts is all about private schools. Even Maryland has Johns Hopkins. Virginia has a couple of good private SLAC but zero nationally known medium or large size private college. |
Anonymous
yeah, if we start including private schools, then JHU has to be there too. And why not Georgetown, AmericanU, GWU, which are all geographically close (or even closer) to Montgomery County than JHU? Should this discussion be MD public v. Va public? |
Anonymous
Yep and I'd rather JMU, GMU and VCU than UMBC and ODU and dCNU and MWU and Radford over Forstburg State. At every level of school from UVA down, Virginia has multiple schools as good as if not better than Maryland. The only thing that we're lacking is a flagship large enough to absorb all qualified applicants like Ohio State or Georgia, but so is Maryland |