Anyone know families OBSESSED with getting into UVA, period?
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Anonymous
You don't know private college/universities are now $65K to $72 K per year? I have no idea why they offered my daughter (both) $28K exactly as President's Scholar. They bought the scores from the college board and contacted her directly. The list was for women living in our zip code who had scored over 32 on the ACT. When DW told them it was actually a 34, there was a rustling of paper and then they upped the amount of the "full freight" scholarship. And they upped it again to $28K when she got a 36. They sent emails and called long after she had picked UVA. They wanted her score to increase their "range" of ACT scores so they could turn that into the ranking services and up their LAC a few points on the scale. |
Anonymous
Didn't work for us. DD got into Ga. Tech. We did call to see if they would give any loans, grants or try to match UVA instate. They wouldn't. FAFSA didn't give us anything even though we have two in college and a third on the way. So DD went to UVA. The premier southern schools don't play that game anymore. They have plenty of xlnt students applying from the north and no longer need the geographical boost. Also, they are all much more focused on bringing in international students. |
Anonymous
PP here who moved from SF with three DCs, including two at UVA. My kitchen is 29 years old, with broken cabinet hardware, chipped Formica countertops and composite "wood" flaking under the sink. We have one car for a family of 5 and it is 14 years old. Yeah, I'm really living the high life at the expense of my poor children who "had" to go to UVA. |
Anonymous
+1. UVA mom caught in a lie. |
Anonymous
Well you are saving a lot of money ...what $29k ish per kid. |
Anonymous
If your DD had a 33 on the ACT she could have gone to Alabama for $0. 30+ is almost $0. https://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
Actually, she would have been a Presidential Elite Scholar at Alabama but note they cover only one year of dorm and they conveniently gloss over the food part. Then there's airline fees, cars, insurance, etc., that all adds up. (we don't have those costs at UVA). But why would she want to go to U of Alabama in the first place? She got into Princeton, Ga Tech, Ga Tech, Cal Tech and Purdue, all for aerospace engineering. The fees for all of these except for Va Tech and UVA are prohibitive. FAFSA doesn't provide us with anything so we are a donut hole family. DD received the minimum federal loan of $5500. The rest has to come from somewhere out of after tax dollars. Ga Tech wouldn't match instate UVA (one used to be able to play those games with financial aid with southern schools but not with Ga Tech), so she went to UVA where she is very very happy. And no I'm not someone obsessed with UVA - I've never even met anyone OBSESSED with UVA - I'm just very grateful it was there for us when the time came. |
Anonymous
Another UVA parent here. Our kitchen is 22 years old and actually has formica. Our cars are 15 years old. But we make too much money for anything beyond the standard $5500 student loan according to FAFSA. We've got two in VA universities right now and could not be happier, especially since one is thinking grad school. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
+ 1. You should see my kitchen. The whole house for that matter is a wreck. |
Anonymous
We are saving $37,500. The privates DS wanted were $63,500, not including airfare and travel. UVA was $26,000 when DS started. No financial aid offered except for the minimum federal loan of $5500. |
Anonymous
I understand choosing UVa over other higher ranked out of state schools because of the cost. We are in the same boat. And my kid is on track to be able to get into all the Va schools so we were leaning towards UVa as well. But recently, my student said he might be interested in engineering and now, as we do more research, we are seriously leaning towards Va Tech. There really seems to be no debate on which is s better program. What was your reason for going to UVa engineering over Va Tech? I am sincerely interested in your reason(s) because it does seem odd to me to pick a lower ranked school over a higher one that you got into but again, from everyone I've talked to including many engineers, Va Tech seems to clearly have the better program. I would just like to hear a different side, if there is one. |
Anonymous
There is a different side and it may surprise you. Our children think they really really want to study, say, reservoir engineering. They have all the SAT II test scores and math AP classes to prove they might be good at it. We, the parents, then want to secure the best appropriate school for that particular interest. Unfortunately, most of our colleges and universities are geared this way nowadays so the essay and application must demonstrate a keen interest in the intended major. When we went to college it was appropriate to pick a LAC and then dabble around for two years only to try out three different major (the average at my SLAC) and pick sociology or religious studies and graduate and hope to land a job or go on to grad school. That thinking is long gone. The admissions office wants to see a focused student who will take advantages the school has to offer and run with it. So we, the parents, run around and find all the best schools for reservoir engineering and have DC apply to them. But when happens when your 18 year old gets on campus and after a year changes his or her mind? I would like to think that our children can still take a variety of courses and change their mind should they find their heart is really not in reservoir engineering but in, say, politics and the law. You can do that much more easily at UVA (although your child will still be admitted to the engineering school and must declare and officially shift out of the major by April of the first year) than at VA Tech. I loved Va Tech on tour. DC loved Va Tech. She had a horrible first tour at UVA. We spent most of junior year wondering if she would make it into the engineering school at Va Tech because they were saying you needed a 4.0 and we were uncertain about GPA and test scores. We toured three times at Tech and went to "engineering day". We worried that the engineering 101 class would weed her out. Then we debated about applying ED for engineering or undeclared at Va Tech (I don't know if that has changed) but Va Tech itself discourages ED applications but DC was so sure she wanted engineering. . . . . So senior year comes around and DC decides not to apply to Va Tech because it is ED (and solely because it was ED) but wound up getting into his SCEA and public tech schools all on EA which were significantly ranked better than Va Tech. She was nominated for the Jefferson Scholarship so went down to UVA to compete for that and loved it! (shows you how one bad tour can be so wrong). And she got into UVA on EA. So, ultimately it came down to out of state premier tech schools vs. UVA -- and all for engineering. She loves UVA and picks it. The irony is that she never applied to Va Tech on RD. She was in love with the school before she ever shows up. And guess what? She took our suggestions to heart about trying out econ., history and politics and by April of first year - the day before she needed to declare to shift out of engineering, she called us and said he had changed her mind, had spent several days over at UVA's law school and wanted to be a econ/history/poly-sci type. And that was fine with us. Then she had to file the necessary paperwork to get out of the engineering major. So the "different view" is that your child might change his mind. iI you are 100% sure that your child wants to be an engineer, then, yes, I think you should look strongly at Va Tech, Cal Tech, Ga Tech, Purdue, etc. If, however, there is the possibility your child may get into the major (and the engineering 101 class at Va Tech is brutal) and change their mind to something non-tech, then UVA or William & Mary offers more flexibility. I hope this has been of some help. I do think it's wrong that our 18 year olds are forced so young to decide on careers but that's the way the system is geared now. My message is simply that your child may change their mind so keep that in mind. Our child came very close to being a poly-sci major at Ga. Tech, which really doesn't make any sense and was $65K a year. UVA gave her the opportunity to try out a number of fields of study and that was very beneficial. There are a number of threads here that you can look up comparing the engineering programs at UVA vs. Va Tech. I imagine you've read them. UVA has a fine engineering school but Va Tech and Purdue, etc. have real wind tunnels and all the bells and whistles. I hope this view has been helpful - I haven't seen it discussed much on DCUM (maybe because by the time your student is at college, you are exhausted and never post back "Hey my kid changed her mind!" but it does happen!). Post back if I can answer any other questions. BTW some of the other Va schools also have terrific engineering programs but I would put Tech at the top. Talk to Va Tech about ED if they still have that program. An acceptance would significantly help the anxiety of senior year but when we looked at it, the admissions officer discouraged it saying they wanted to see first term senior grades (and finished with an A in calculus). It's difficult to get into the Va Tech engineering program so be sure to have backups in order. BTW our daughter got into all the schools she applied to EA or SCEA (deferred). She and her friends did not get into any of the schools to which they applied RD. I do think the schools are cherry-picking through the EA, ED and SCEA programs. |
Anonymous
| UVA over Tech for engineering for the dating pool. |