college process

[Anonymous]

My oldest is going through the college application process. At this point she (and her friends) are receiving their acceptance / rejection notices. There does not seem to be a fair system, or in fact any system, that these decisions are based on. We are from the West coast and felt like we knew where we stood in terms of public and (some) private schools. We are in Northern Virginia and focused on VA state schools. Where does an average to above average child fit into higher education in VA?

[Anonymous]

From what I have heard from my neighbors, UVA, William and Mary and Virginia Tech are the top 3 state schools. After that, James Madison, Mary Washington, and George Mason are in the the mix.

[Anonymous]

you can go on these schools websites and get an idea of their average SAT test scores and the ave. GPA of incoming freshman, or of their acceptance rates.

Princeton Review and US News and World Report also do rankings of all colleges.

You could also talk to your kid's school guidance counselor about in-state schools (with your kid!) and see where they might fit in.

Also, visit the schools!

Of course there is a college acceptance decision process for all of these schools. If you're at the point of receiving acceptance letters though, it's pretty late in the game to start figuring this stuff out. Senior year is tough, that's all I know.

[Anonymous]

VCU is another good VA school for average to above average students.

[Anonymous]

My experience has shown that kids from No. VA are imposed tougher standards than the rest of the kids in VA applying to state schools. This is especially true of George Mason University. GMU especially misrepresents itself to high school kids in No VA. We have found the admissions process to be less than ethical at GMU.

[Anonymous]

Ditto PP. We had a poor experience with George Mason. Our daughter ended up at Mary Washington and could not be happier. Check out Mary Washington U. if you want your child to stay close to No Va. Admissions at Mason has some issues.

[Anonymous]

What does "less than ethical" mean?

[Anonymous]

GMU markets itself to No Va schools by telling the high schoolers that they don't weigh heavily on numbers when in fact they do. That is all that matters in the admissions process for GMU. In turn, GMU gets lots of applications, can send out lots of rejections, and appear more attractive in various college rating scales. You need to have a higher SAT and GPA to be competitive for GMU if you are coming from Northern Virginia then any other location in VA. The Admissions Dept tells high school students SAT is only a "day in their life" and portrays a human approach to the application process when it is anything but. That is not honest.

[Anonymous]

I don't think GMU is a particularly good school anyway. But manipulating admissions numbers to boost their standing is poor practice.

[Anonymous]

GMU has been working hard the last few years to "improve" their stature, and they've been taking advantage of recent demographic changes (lots o'applications) to "upgrade" their student body. Perhaps they aren't doing this gently. Perhaps "shoe-ins" 5 years ago just don't cut it now, and this is hitting younger siblings hard. I personally haven't heard of anything inappropriate going on.

[Anonymous]

The fact is GMU is down in enrollment. They are suffering from cuts in their budget because of their underenrollment. I am a high school guidance counselor and I can assure you GMU has made some confusing choices to date and is loosing a strong group of supporters because of their inconsistencies. At a minimum GMU does not know who butters their bread......at a maximum, they are lost in a goofy basketball high.

[Anonymous]

George Mason is not committed to teaching on an undergraduate level. They are looking to make their name in research. George Mason has failed in its attempt to educate undergraduates. GMU is FUBAR. It really could be a great local resource. It is not.

[Anonymous]

Lots of good comments from PPs.

However, I believe that most colleges and universities leave it up to the individual departments to decide acceptance or rejection. So, depending on how competitive the particular department is that your daughter is applying to it may be a case of comparing apples and oranges. She may have an easy time being accepted as "undecided" as opposed to, say, "accounting" which is super competitive (hypothetically speaking).

Definitely W&M, UVA, and VT are good. I know there were some negative comments about GMU, but again, depending on the dept. it isn't so bad. For example, I understand GMU's law school, teaching dept., and nursing or quite decent.

[Anonymous]

George Mason in Fairfax has never been a tough to get into school. Now I am hearing they make it tough for Northern Va. kids to get in. I am hearing that there is NOT a great deal of support for kids once they get in. George Mason is more interested in their research achievements and has no interest in the undergraduate experience. If you come from Northern Virginia, it is easier to get into UVA, William and Mary and VT than it is GMU. What's up? I am a high school guidance counselor and have seen George Mason make some odd decisions in the past few years. Is there a correlation between basketball wins and the admissions choices?? Perhaps. Is George Mason having trouble defining itself and not looking at the big picture? Having lived in Fairfax all my life, I am concerned that GMU is at serious risk. My concerns lies in the viability of GMU once the population of high school students has stabilized.

[Anonymous]

Hi. I am a producer with CNN. I am doing a story on Howard County pregnancy notification policy change. According to the reversed policy, school officials are obliged to notify parents if they learn that the student is pregnant. (Even if the student does not want to tell the parent). People who oppose the policy say it limits students' privacy rights and it will actually discourage students from coming forward about their pregnancies. People who support the policy say parents have a right to know. School board says it is a liability issue for them. They don't want to be hold liable if something goes wrong. I would love to interview a parent on camera who lives in Howard County and has been or will be affected by the policy. Please email me at [e-mail]

Many thanks