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Marylanders: Did you regret not choosing Virginia when it came time to apply to college?
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Anonymous
| Ok, I know that is kind of a provacative question. We live in the District and are considering a move to either MD or VA. We are leaning towards MD for various reasons, but some friends have told us that we will regret it when it comes time (in 8 years) to pick a college. According to them, VA state colleges are much better. With 3 kids, we are certainly hoping to find a way to send out kids to a good school without breaking the bank... |
Anonymous
VA colleges take a huge % out of state. Out of state Virginia Tech is only about 30,000 while many private colleges are $50,000 plus. I believe as a resident of DC you get $10,000 off so that puts you at $20,000. Why move? |
Anonymous
| I would think it would be worth $20,000 or so not to have to drive over the bridge and not to have to live in a gun state. |
Anonymous
|
Check out the difference between in-state and out. And VA has tons of choices. UVA, Tech, W&M, JMU, etc.
I say this as someone who went out of state (not a Va school) and loved my school, but hated the pricetag. Of course, since almost everyone on this board assumes their kid is headed to an Ivy, does it really matter? |
Anonymous
|
I don't think you're going to get a balanced and well reasoned response to your question here. For whatever reason, I think the board is heavily skewed towards MD and DC residents. Meaning the preponderance of people live there as opposed to VA, and/or really seem to dislike VA. (See the 'gun' commenter for proof...).
I do think it is something valid to consider since VA does have a much larger pool of very good colleges than MD, and it isn't just about getting accepted, but about paying in state tuition. VA does also have very good public schools, depending on the areas you're looking for. Anything else mentioned on here will just turn into yet another tiresome VA vs MD debate. Both clearly have their merits. |
Anonymous
| I agree you're not going to get an unbiased answer here. MD and VA are so different that the things that make people choose them are nearly polar opposites. I do not claim to be any different: I believe the trade-off in VA is low taxes for atrocious public services and retrograde public policy (that seems to get worse every year); no amount of money in the form of tax or college savings would make me live there. So, of course, I would say: move to MD or stay put! |
Anonymous
|
We live in VA and one reason we don't move to MD (despite my job being in MD and our uber liberal leanings) is the availability of so many in-state choices for college. But DH and I both went to large state universities and consider it to have been an excellent choice. Our plan for our kids is state universities. If they want to go to go to an Ivy or small liberal arts college and get in and get aid, well then that's great. But our plan for them is UVA, Tech, W&M, JMU, etc. While these schools do take a lot of out of state kids, the majority of enrollees are VA residents.
I also prefer the way that FCPS does GT services vs MoCo, which is important for meeting my kids needs now, not just in the future. And just from reading this board it seems like a lot more public school parents are upset with how MCPS handles the state testing vs how VA does it. I don't know what the inferior services are that the PP refer to. We have lived in many states and the services we get in VA seem superior to most places. Commuting to DC is very doable from many places. Commuting into PG County for me is much more challenging. While I disagree with some of the choices that FCPS makes, I do think it is a good thing that they don't think money is limitless and you can continue to offer all services to everyone without the money to pay for it. I do freely admit to cringing almost every time the AG opens his mouth..... |
Anonymous
| I am the PP who commented about services, and I meant the county-wide trash and police services. It seems that there are more incorporated towns in MD with their own police forces and far fewer areas where people have to contract for their own trash removal. Perhaps that's true closer to the city in VA as well; I just have heard so many people crow about how low their taxes are when they move to VA and then bitch about snow, leaf and trash removal or (lack of) timely police response, with no awareness that these are directly connected. It's not the choice so much as the complaining that gets me; if you're choosing not to pay for things, at least don't then sit around and bitch about what you're not getting. |
Anonymous
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Blah blah blah blah. All of this is minutia Higher income taxes vs lower property taxes vs car taxes vs taxes on food/meds etc. Stay in DC and you have a wider selection of colleges to choose from using DCTAG.
http://osse.dc.gov/seo/cwp/view,a,1226,q,536770,seoNav_GID,1511,seoNav,|31238|,.asp |
Anonymous
There are huge liabilities about living in DC when it comes to college. Sure we get a $10k discount on out of state tuition, but for many, if not most of in-state colleges, that discount does not make up for the difference between in state and out state tuition. For instance its $46k for out of staters at UVA and 23k for instaters. Plus, it's much, much, much harder to get in to UVA or UNC from out of state than in-state. |
Anonymous
| As a MD resident I admit I am somewhat envious of the in-state offerings in Virginia, but Md has good options too, I like living in MD, and I can't really see organizing my entire life around the possibility of going to an in-state school in Va. |
Anonymous
Ditto. |
Anonymous
| Whether or not in-state tuition is a factor depends on your plans for your kids. We are planning (assuming they get in) to send our kids to a top 25 school (they have a legacy shot), so we aree not considering state schools. If they end up getting into a state school and that's where they want to go, we will already have the money saved to send them (paying out of state tuition). |
Anonymous
LOL. You act like state schools aren't in the top 25. UVA is a top 25 school. |
Anonymous
| Both UVA and UNC are top schools on any list. Maryland is much better than it was 20 years ago. All in, you must about $200k or more saved to pay for a top 25 school these days. They are all between $45k and $55k this fall. That's just the school tuition, room and board. Doesn't include travel, books etc. |