What Schools are Worth Paying For Over UVA In-State Tuition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also make the case for Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, and Pomona. It is hard to replicate that level of high caliber intensity at most colleges.

Just Amherst and Williams

Swarthmore and Pomona are more selective than Amherst and Williams and both have better STEM programs and access too.

Swarthmore also has an engineering degree, and Pomona has the added benefit of being in a totally different part of the country--both of which are qualities that might be worth paying the extra $$$ for.

Southern California in the middle of nowhere - yeuck - and I grew up out there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child wants to pursue engineering, UVA is not a great choice. I can think of tons of schools - GA Tech, UIUC, Michigan, Purdue, UT, Wisconsin, northwestern. UVA is not even a top 25 program. [/quote]


You are wrong. And my UVA aerospace engineering student is now doing grad work at Princeton. https://engineering.virginia.edu/news/2021/02/uva-engineering-recognized-among-top-schools-multiple-rankings

What’s wrong? UVA is NOT a top 25 program.

[b]




You are quite wrong. Read and learn. https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-virginia-ma. there are many other evaluations that put UVA at 25 or above.

[Anonymous]

I have not read all of the pages so presumably someone has already said this, but many, many colleges would be worth this IMO so long as it does not strap you financially. I believe in the high quality of education at UVA but it is 2/3rds students from VA so that alone would make it worthwhile to go elsehwere - obviously I’d feel the same about UCLA, Michigan, etc.

[Anonymous]

My in state UVA kid just got home from spring break travel with her best friends who are from Massachusetts and Colorado. Her roommate (not one who went on trip) is also from Massachusetts. She almost never sees anyone from her high school but she does run into her cousin from NY often.

It’s is definitely not HS 2.0 and there is quite alot of diversity, even among VA residents. In fact my DD does not have any close friends who even live in NOVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a UMC family we can fortunately afford to send our son to whatever college he likes the most, but from a practical standpoint if he was to get an offer from UVA what schools might be worth to pay for over the in-state discount?

Based off of US News' Peer Assessment Scores (2022 Edition):

Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Penn, Duke, Northwestern, Brown, Cornell, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, MIT, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, & Bowdoin.

Virginia has the same "peer assessment score" (4.3) in US News as Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Carleton College, Middlebury College, & Davidson College.

I understand what you're trying to say, but you're missing the mark. First, you can only compare the peer assessment scores of universities versus universities and colleges versus colleges. That's how the US News survey works.

Second, just because the peer assessment score of a private college is higher than UVA doesn't mean it's worth paying double the price or more to attend.

Where are Berkeley and Michigan? Both have PA scores above 4.3

Berkeley has a PA score of 4.7, second only to HYPSM, tied with Columbia and Hopkins, above every other school

For undergrad??? He no

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents gave me the cash and asked if I wanted to spend it on a private school or if I wanted it for a downpayment after graduation. I went instate and purchased my first home after graduation with that money. I had roommates who paid the entire mortgage.

My sister also chose instate but then used the money to start a business after graduation.

Faced with the decision, I don't know that many kids would choose the private college. I had gotten into a few good schools, but not ivy league, so maybe the calculus would have been different if it was Harvard vs a downpayments.

Because every kid has parents that offer them the luxury of such choices! You are so smart! /s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have not read all of the pages so presumably someone has already said this, but many, many colleges would be worth this IMO so long as it does not strap you financially. I believe in the high quality of education at UVA but it is 2/3rds students from VA so that alone would make it worthwhile to go elsehwere - obviously I’d feel the same about UCLA, Michigan, etc.

This is such a stupid comment. Virginia has nearly 9 million people and is the 12th largest state in the country in terms of population. It's also an extremely diverse state racially and economically. The idea that a school that has fewer students from a single state is necessarily more diverse is silly. What you're really saying is that NO state school is worth going to because most of the students attending the school are from the same state. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they want engineering, Purdue out of state is about the same as instate UVA.

Yes. Purdue is very affordable, even out of state. Purdue’s engineering program is the 9th best in the country. UVA is 37th. Purdue would be the easy choice.

UVA is 25

Not in engineering. It's 42nd, as has already been linked here.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a UMC family we can fortunately afford to send our son to whatever college he likes the most, but from a practical standpoint if he was to get an offer from UVA what schools might be worth to pay for over the in-state discount?

Based off of US News' Peer Assessment Scores (2022 Edition):

Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Penn, Duke, Northwestern, Brown, Cornell, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, MIT, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, & Bowdoin.

Virginia has the same "peer assessment score" (4.3) in US News as Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Carleton College, Middlebury College, & Davidson College.

I understand what you're trying to say, but you're missing the mark. First, you can only compare the peer assessment scores of universities versus universities and colleges versus colleges. That's how the US News survey works.

Second, just because the peer assessment score of a private college is higher than UVA doesn't mean it's worth paying double the price or more to attend.

Where are Berkeley and Michigan? Both have PA scores above 4.3

Berkeley has a PA score of 4.7, second only to HYPSM, tied with Columbia and Hopkins, above every other school

For undergrad??? He no

For undergrad? He yes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have not read all of the pages so presumably someone has already said this, but many, many colleges would be worth this IMO so long as it does not strap you financially. I believe in the high quality of education at UVA but it is 2/3rds students from VA so that alone would make it worthwhile to go elsehwere - obviously I’d feel the same about UCLA, Michigan, etc.

This is such a stupid comment. Virginia has nearly 9 million people and is the 12th largest state in the country in terms of population. It's also an extremely diverse state racially and economically. The idea that a school that has fewer students from a single state is necessarily more diverse is silly. What you're really saying is that NO state school is worth going to because most of the students attending the school are from the same state. Ridiculous.

Agreed. Michigan has 10 million people and approx 1/2 of undergrads are in state. It’s also located in the 2nd largest state in area of the eastern US. Most northeastern states are not very large, so geographic distinctions between them are silly. I guarantee you the largest concentrations of undergraduate students at most privates are kids who live within 500 miles of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they want engineering, Purdue out of state is about the same as instate UVA.

Yes. Purdue is very affordable, even out of state. Purdue’s engineering program is the 9th best in the country. UVA is 37th. Purdue would be the easy choice.

UVA is 25

Not in engineering. It's 42nd, as has already been linked here.
DP

Many of the elite/better schools have Engineering programs that are ranked considerably lower than their overall ranking. Top schools should have top departments in all disciplines that they are teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they want engineering, Purdue out of state is about the same as instate UVA.

Yes. Purdue is very affordable, even out of state. Purdue’s engineering program is the 9th best in the country. UVA is 37th. Purdue would be the easy choice.

UVA is 25

Not in engineering. It's 42nd, as has already been linked here.
DP

UVA is 25th in the nation across the board. And ranks third in the nation for national public universities. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/uva-6968/overall-rankings#:~:text=your%20college%20needs%3F-,University%20of%20Virginia%20Rankings,about%20how%20we%20rank%20schools..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a UMC family we can fortunately afford to send our son to whatever college he likes the most, but from a practical standpoint if he was to get an offer from UVA what schools might be worth to pay for over the in-state discount?

Based off of US News' Peer Assessment Scores (2022 Edition):

Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Penn, Duke, Northwestern, Brown, Cornell, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, MIT, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, & Bowdoin.

Virginia has the same "peer assessment score" (4.3) in US News as Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Carleton College, Middlebury College, & Davidson College.

Lol what is the value of a “peer assessment” score?

Somewhat like a prestige ranking. Prestige is very important to management consulting firms.

UVA does extremely well for management consulting recruiting. According to https://www.peakframeworks.com/post/consulting-target-schools, the undergrad schools that send the most kids to top consulting firms are:

1. Harvard (no surprise)
2. UPenn (mostly Wharton)
3. UMich (go Blue!)
4. Yale
5. Stanford
6. Duke
7. Princeton
8. MIT
9. Berkeley
10. Northwestern
11. Columbia
12. UT Austin
13. UVA
14. Dartmouth
15. Notre Dame
16. Vanderbilt
17. UChicago
18. Brown
19. Georgetown
20. Georgia Tech (honestly a bit surprised by this)

Not surprised at all about Georgia Tech. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1085366.page

Schools that don't go to the "other schools" pile for McKinsey:

Ivy League
Top flagships: Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UT-Austin, Georgia Tech
Limited number of other privates: MIT, Stanford, U Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, WashU, Notre Dame, Emory, Georgetown - that's it, that's all, no more.

If you don't want your DC going to school in flyover country, you can eliminate some of these save for MIT, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown, and Emory. Emory loses cross-admit battles with both UVA and GT by 20% and 22% margins, respectively, according to Parchment. Georgetown's peer reputation score is lower than UVA's, albeit by only 0.1 (UVA tied with Vanderbilt, CMU, GT; Georgetown tied with WashU, Emory, Notre Dame, UNC), and its dorms have a serious black mold problem, so it's probably not worth the 40k premium (soon to be 50k due to tuition hikes). So if we eliminate those two schools, we're back to exactly where we started: Ivies, MIT, Stanford, and Duke. Comes out the same way every time if you're logical about things.

Parchment is useless as no one uses the site anymore. Also the management consultanting ranking posted is only for MBB not any of the big 4 and beyond. Georgetown and Emory are better schools than UVA but not better enough for the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My in state UVA kid just got home from spring break travel with her best friends who are from Massachusetts and Colorado. Her roommate (not one who went on trip) is also from Massachusetts. She almost never sees anyone from her high school but she does run into her cousin from NY often.

It’s is definitely not HS 2.0 and there is quite alot of diversity, even among VA residents. In fact my DD does not have any close friends who even live in NOVA.

+1. It's an ignorant joke line that the kids who didn't get in or weren't even contenders to apply used to say. But it stopped being "true" if it ever were when it got so difficult to get in. My high school sent only two kids to UVA - the valedictorian and the salutatorian - and they never saw one another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they want engineering, Purdue out of state is about the same as instate UVA.

Yes. Purdue is very affordable, even out of state. Purdue’s engineering program is the 9th best in the country. UVA is 37th. Purdue would be the easy choice.

UVA is 25

Not in engineering. It's 42nd, as has already been linked here.
DP

UVA is 25th in the nation across the board. And ranks third in the nation for national public universities. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/uva-6968/overall-rankings#:~:text=your%20college%20needs%3F-,University%20of%20Virginia%20Rankings,about%20how%20we%20rank%20schools..

I guess that’s great to brag to your friends. My kid goes to the 25th best school in the country. For engineers hiring engineers, your kid is not getting the job over the other 41 schools that are ranked higher. Engineering ranking matters to people who hire engineers and to other engineers in your field.