Is Georgetown worth it over in-state UVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my mind, if you get into UVA instate, you may rationally choose an Ivy (other than Brown, obviously), Stanford, MIT, or Cal Tech instead. That's it, though.

Or Amherst, Williams, or Swarthmore

This. There are many schools that are "better" than UVA and worth the extra money, assuming you have it, which many UMC people do if they've been saving all along like they should have.

What about Emory, WashU in STL, or Vandy?

Well I personally would pay for those but we have the money so it's an easier decision for me to make.

Heck no, no, no, no, no is the extra money worth those overrated places. Maybe one of the top three slacs. But slacs ain't where it's st these days.

If you have the money though and aren't doing anything else with it, why not? They're good schools where you will get small class sizes and more attention from professors than at a huge state school.

[Anonymous]

Unless you've got deep pockets, or are going into a *very* specific program that Georgetown smokes UVA at, there's no way that Georgetown is worth 140K over UVA.

[Anonymous]

I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that GT's law school is worth paying a premium for, but not general undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Uvalaw is ranked higher than Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you've got deep pockets, or are going into a *very* specific program that Georgetown smokes UVA at, there's no way that Georgetown is worth 140K over UVA.

Only middle to upper middle class people say this. GU is an incomparably different experience.

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my mind, if you get into UVA instate, you may rationally choose an Ivy (other than Brown, obviously), Stanford, MIT, or Cal Tech instead. That's it, though.

Or Amherst, Williams, or Swarthmore

This. There are many schools that are "better" than UVA and worth the extra money, assuming you have it, which many UMC people do if they've been saving all along like they should have.

What about Emory, WashU in STL, or Vandy?

Well I personally would pay for those but we have the money so it's an easier decision for me to make.

Heck no, no, no, no, no is the extra money worth those overrated places. Maybe one of the top three slacs. But slacs ain't where it's st these days.

If you have the money though and aren't doing anything else with it, why not? They're good schools where you will get small class sizes and more attention from professors than at a huge state school.

I'm not saying that UVA is everyone's cup of tea. Yes, if someone is not comfortable with UVA and money is not an issue, any of those great schools you mentioned will do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like every college thread on dcum, insecure UVA moms have taken it over. Yes, your kid's public college is soooooooooo great! Give it a rest.

I know several UVA moms. They all seem quite secure and confident to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why people argue about this. It's so meaningless. If you have the money, then let her go to Georgetown. If you don't, then don't. If you have the money already, it's worth it. It's not worth it if you have to take out > 50k loans. Simple.

This is the truth. Parents saying they let their kids go to a much more expensive school because it makes their kid happy or "fits" them is crazy. Both are good schools. One costs a lot more money. If an extra $150,000 for college is no big deal than you have a choice. Otherwise there is no choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why people argue about this. It's so meaningless. If you have the money, then let her go to Georgetown. If you don't, then don't. If you have the money already, it's worth it. It's not worth it if you have to take out > 50k loans. Simple.

This is the truth. Parents saying they let their kids go to a much more expensive school because it makes their kid happy or "fits" them is crazy. Both are good schools. One costs a lot more money. If an extra $150,000 for college is no big deal than you have a choice. Otherwise there is no choice.

This. If you have the money you have the money. If you need the money for retirement, UVA is perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think something like 100 kids each year from my daughter's high school go to UVA. UVA is high school 2.0 for upper middle class common wealth kids.

Does your daughter go to TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^this doesn't include transfers.

A: "My daughter's high school sends 100 to UVA every year."

B: "TJ is the only school that sends 100 to UVA per year."

A: "I was including transfers"

Stop being hyper-literal. There are dozens of schools that send 30 40 70 of kids each year to UVA. A teen in Fairfax can step on campus and know HUNDREDS of kids at UVA. Some people love that; I think that's high school 2.0.

Uh no, there are not dozens of schools that send 30 40 70 kids each year to UVA. The top two schools are at 106 and 45...

Not that PP, but kids know other kids from the class above them, the class below them, various sport leagues and activities. Even if an individual HS class only has 45 kids it still might seem like a lot of people they know on campus.

They may not even know the 45 from their school though, and maybe a handful from other schools. My DC went to a big university with 18 kids from her high school class. Similar numbers in surrounding years. So about 70-80 there at any one time, plus kids from other local schools. DC was friends with some of the 18, and some of the others, but maybe sees 10 of them on any kind of regular basis. Between dorms, Greek life, specialty academic program, etc there are plenty of opportunities to meet other people and DCs friends are from all over the country.

Np. The problem with going in state is that a lot of people use college as an opportunity to reinvent themselves. It's much easier to do that if you go away to school. I won't say it's impossible but it's harder to do when you're only 2 hours from home and you occasionally come across people who have known you since elementary school or even just your dorky freshman high school phase. Someone on your floor, in your chosen sorority, in classes. It stifles individual self expression.

Now is it worth an extra $30k a year to enable your kid to recreate themselves? Depends entirely on how much money you have.

I'm the poster above who posted about my DCs university with lots of kids from her high school. About 20 kids from DCs high school class went to Cornell and about 10 went to Georgetown (several of them were faculty kids). How is that any different really than a group going to UVA (unless it's TJ with 100). People don't consider Cornell to be high school 2.0. My DC goes to a school of 25k+ undergrads and ended up running into a kid she went to daycare with. These kinds of things are going to happen no matter where you go. But I don't think my DC feels like it's a continuation of high school (or day care) in any respect, even if she keeps in touch with a few friends from high school on campus.

New poster here. I lived in PA and NY and went to school in Boston. Many of my friends went to Penn State, Rutgers and SUNY. When you go to a state school, your school has more students from your home state and you tend to mesh with people who are similar to you. It isn't exactly being a townie because UVA and Penn State are both excellent schools. The experience is different though than if you went away to Stanford, Boston University, Georgetown or NYU where students come from all over the country and world. I had no friends that were from my home area in college. My closest friends were from Germany, Taiwan, Canada, California and Florida. The experience is just different.

I do sometimes envy my friends who went to state schools. They seem to have some strong bonds. They live relative close to where they grew up. Their kids see grandparents often. They still see childhood friends.

I live in VA now. Parents live in NY. Best friend lives in PA. College and grad school friends scattered around the world.

I so agree with this. The majority on this site seem to value moving away, and meeting people from other areas. Sure it's exciting to meet people from different areas, but then you find yourself in a situation where your close friends don't live near you or even each other for that matter. Even if you attend a state school and eventually move away, you at least have a "home base" of close friends that you can come back and see and easily get together with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your social circle. In upper income areas going to UVa is meh... it's all about bragging about kids at an elite private or out of state public e.g. Michigan, Berkeley.

+1 In-state public colleges are basically middle class feeders. The wealthy send their kids out of state to broaden their horizons, typically to private colleges. It's not difficult for a normal upper middle class kid to get into a state flagship.

True.

+ 2

Fwiw, we are saving as much as we can with the motivation of being able to send our kids to their first choice private school.

This is insane. Of course it's difficult for "normal" upper middle class kids to get into UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least one of the arguments people are making for G'town over UVA doesn't really apply to this situation IMO. If one of my goals was to broaden my kid's horizons, I certainly wouldn't think sending him across the river to Georgetown was the way to do it.

exactly. my vote would be neither. let the kids go away for college.

FCPS grad who went to Georgetown--I lived on campus and saw my parents just as much as my other friends did--holidays and summers. A benefit that Georgetown has that UVA doesn't is the access to internships all over the city. Finance, non profits, healthcare. Those internships often lead to an easier time getting a job after graduation.

Geesh. Your parents were less than 20 miles away and they didn't pop in on the occasional Saturday and take you out to lunch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my mind, if you get into UVA instate, you may rationally choose an Ivy (other than Brown, obviously), Stanford, MIT, or Cal Tech instead. That's it, though.

Serious question: Why do you hate Brown? My kid was rejected and really, really wanted to go there. Just curious. We thought it was a great school.

People trolling & using stereotypes they think are clever and 'in the know'. Some of the wealthiest / most powerful people in NYC/DC attended Brown.

But my guess is that their kids weren't academically stellar.