Would you take Tufts, Emory, Wash U over UVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC got into Tufts, Notre Dame and UVA. Didn’t pick any of these schools - picked GT instead and we are full pay and OOS. We left the decision to DC and zipped our mouths and kept our opinions to ourselves.

What's wrong with Georgia Tech? I assume engineering? It's every bit as good and probably better and everyone knows it. In any event, once you let him apply you were on the hook. You can't have a kid apply to a school you're not willing to send him to.

That's why they kept their mouths shut. It is ok to have a different opinion from your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those privates are not more prestigious than UVA, particularly in the DC area.

Lol.....of course they are.

Nope. If you are OOS, Virginia is just as selective as those schools. And if you are in-state, it's generally assumed that a kid who does well at UVA could have gone anywhere but chose to stay in state based on economics.

If you graduate from UVA you could have just gone to community college for a year or two and transferred. Its a state college, a good one.. but not "prestigious".

Princeton accepts community college transfers. So does Notre Dame.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised people think so highly of Tufts, must be a New England bias. Even NYU has a better reputation score on US news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey guys so OP here. Thanks. Yes we have about 90K each for each of first two kids (180k for avoidance of doubt). 50k for third kid 2 years behind. So will have three in college for two years. HHI was like low 200s but last 3/4 years has been 300K. Another 170k total from two rental properties (net after taxes) we plan to sell. Could raise around 450K pretty quickly. Easily pay in state. Basically, I know for one kid she is IVY or UVA if she doesn't get in ED to an Ivy (barring merit aid). She will ED Ivy. Worth it in my view.

Issue is the second one. He is not strong enough to ED Ivy but real shot at the tier below. Going to be hard to tell him not to ED a top 20ish school. He is more than fine going to UVA or William and Mary. Will ED2 W&M if he doesn't get in to the ED choice (whichever it is--Emory, Wash U, or Tufts).

Honesty, I think Tufts and Wash U are probably low tier Ivyish. Jury out on Emory.

Loans are an option right? Pay 2 years each for each of three kids and loans for the other two. We can pay them off later for them.

I would place W&M as a better option than these--you get the reputation and the personalized relationship with faculty--unless the appeal is to go out of state. I wouldn't be SO tied to rankings like this. Tufts/Wash U is not going to give a measurable "outcome" difference than W&M/UVA--and W&M will have a similar academic style. Maybe sell your DS on an exchange program, supported internship etc. that could offset not applying ED to a school that costs so much more but doesn't offer measurably more? Or maybe encourage him to ED to a skyrocket reach (Ivy) and ED2 and EA to the reasonable (W&M/UVA)?

Agree, if I were in your shoes I would not use ED on Tufts, Wash U, Emory if UVA/W&M is the alternative. I get it, but not for those 3 schools. YMMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those privates are not more prestigious than UVA, particularly in the DC area.

Lol.....of course they are.

Um, no they're not. Take a look at the top DC law firms, for example, which are notorious for being school snobs. Their ranks are full of UVA grads -- and I mean undergrads, not law grads.

You do this as a hobby?

I worked in BigLaw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe for Northern VA, but it is pretty easy to get in UVA if you are outside the beltway/95 area. They don't take kids just from Fairfax and Richmond.

It is also easier OOS if you don't apply for FAFSA. They take those full paying families pretty darn quickly.

The admissions rate is higher in NOVA than for Virginia overall and UVA is need blind in admissions.

http://research.schev.edu/enrollment/b8_admissions_locality.asp

38% Virginia overall admissions rate
39.2% Fairfax
38.6% Loudoun
35.5% Arlington
40.4% Alexandria
40.7% Falls Church
40.0% Fairfax City


I don't know all the counties around Richmond, but here are some.

40.4% Henrico
37.5% Goochland
33.0% Hanover
41.4% Richmond
34.7% Chesterfield
32.0% Powhatan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those privates are not more prestigious than UVA, particularly in the DC area.

Lol.....of course they are.

Um, no they're not. Take a look at the top DC law firms, for example, which are notorious for being school snobs. Their ranks are full of UVA grads -- and I mean undergrads, not law grads.

Lol....exhibit A of the typical myopic, provincial UVA booster. There’s a big world outside of DC little fellow, you should explore it one day.

You might want to learn to read. The poster said that those privates are "not more prestigious than UVA, especially in the DC area." Hence my follow-up reference to DC law firms. Although, I should add, you'll find UVA well represented in elite law firms throughout the US as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey guys so OP here. Thanks. Yes we have about 90K each for each of first two kids (180k for avoidance of doubt). 50k for third kid 2 years behind. So will have three in college for two years. HHI was like low 200s but last 3/4 years has been 300K. Another 170k total from two rental properties (net after taxes) we plan to sell. Could raise around 450K pretty quickly. Easily pay in state. Basically, I know for one kid she is IVY or UVA if she doesn't get in ED to an Ivy (barring merit aid). She will ED Ivy. Worth it in my view.

Issue is the second one. He is not strong enough to ED Ivy but real shot at the tier below. Going to be hard to tell him not to ED a top 20ish school. He is more than fine going to UVA or William and Mary. Will ED2 W&M if he doesn't get in to the ED choice (whichever it is--Emory, Wash U, or Tufts).

Honesty, I think Tufts and Wash U are probably low tier Ivyish. Jury out on Emory.

Loans are an option right? Pay 2 years each for each of three kids and loans for the other two. We can pay them off later for them.

What's most obvious about your posts is that you've never actually had a kid go through the college admissions process and have no real appreciation of how hard it is or how much of a crapshoot it is at the schools you are talking about. You should brace yourself for disappointment not only on merit aid but also on what schools each of your kids are actually going to get into.

And if you're even considering taking out loans you're compounding the error. Loans for six years of private school tuition? Interest rates aren't low, you know. Insane

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe for Northern VA, but it is pretty easy to get in UVA if you are outside the beltway/95 area. They don't take kids just from Fairfax and Richmond.

It is also easier OOS if you don't apply for FAFSA. They take those full paying families pretty darn quickly.

The admissions rate is higher in NOVA than for Virginia overall and UVA is need blind in admissions.


But the admissions rate tells you little about how hard it is to get in. Compare rigor of courseload, SAT scores, and GPA. That's what tells you is hard.

[Anonymous]

So much for UVA in state admissions being "easy." These numbers are on par with all but the very top schools, and of course the OOS numbers are Ivy level.

http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2019/03/unofficial-admission-statistics-for-uva.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much for UVA in state admissions being "easy." These numbers are on par with all but the very top schools, and of course the OOS numbers are Ivy level.

http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2019/03/unofficial-admission-statistics-for-uva.html

No one said that, and they won't enroll those numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those privates are not more prestigious than UVA, particularly in the DC area.

Lol.....of course they are.

Nope. If you are OOS, Virginia is just as selective as those schools. And if you are in-state, it's generally assumed that a kid who does well at UVA could have gone anywhere but chose to stay in state based on economics.

If you graduate from UVA you could have just gone to community college for a year or two and transferred. Its a state college, a good one.. but not "prestigious".

Princeton accepts community college transfers. So does Notre Dame.

Rarely not as a practice live UVA does to keep their ranking up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much for UVA in state admissions being "easy." These numbers are on par with all but the very top schools, and of course the OOS numbers are Ivy level.

http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2019/03/unofficial-admission-statistics-for-uva.html

That's only for Fall admits. If you look at the Spring admits or transfer students... not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much for UVA in state admissions being "easy." These numbers are on par with all but the very top schools, and of course the OOS numbers are Ivy level.

http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2019/03/unofficial-admission-statistics-for-uva.html

That's only for Fall admits. If you look at the Spring admits or transfer students... not even close.

Transferring is easier at virtually every school. And UVA doesn't offer spring admission to applicants straight out of high school.

Zing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much for UVA in state admissions being "easy." These numbers are on par with all but the very top schools, and of course the OOS numbers are Ivy level.

http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2019/03/unofficial-admission-statistics-for-uva.html

Numbers were much easier in the early 1990s for my cohort. Good luck, suckers.