UVA vs. Northwestern
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Anonymous
Times have changed. With NU at $81K a year and UVA at $31K (we paid $16K last year because DD was off campus), in-state options are far more attractive, especially after some families' savings were decimated by COVID and jobs lost. We banked the difference and can now afford to send DD to Oxford. The UVA professors wrote amazing letters of recommendation for her. https://news.virginia.edu/content/record-number-uva-scholars-receive-fulbrights-0. |
Anonymous
Yes, I know and I agree. It's a trend I've noticed on this board that some who have never escaped the DMV bubble think Northwestern is some regional school. I have lived all over the country and can say Northwestern is consistently viewed as a more prestigious and attractive school than UVA. |
Anonymous
If you ask people in the DMV area to compare any school with UVA, you will find a significant number of UVA boosters. It does not matter it is Northwestern, Chicago, Cornell, Brown, Penn or another school. X school vs UVA UVA > X school |
Anonymous
Which is utterly strange because UVa is a fantastic school in its own right. Be confident in that. I never see Michiganders or Californians foaming at the mouth claiming that UM is better than, say, Duke, or Berkeley is better than Stanford. |
Anonymous
There are reasons you don't see that. First of all, California is a large state with a fantastic system. Those in California want to attend those schools as do the students in the adjacent states. Californians have gotten upset that their tax monies are not getting their kids into the UC system so the no. of OOS students has been reduced to 18% to placate the voters. The top Californian schools are huge, i.e. UCLA and Berkeley, so there isn't the impossible situation of trying to be one of the 4,000 who get into UVA. California also has three tiers: the UC schools, the Cal State Schools and the xlnt community college program. California also has the xlnt privates: Stanford, USC, Chapman, etc. etc. Californians and Michiganders tend not to post on this board. Everyone in the neighboring states want to get into their schools because they have every poor state systems, if any. U of Michigan, too, is enormous too compared to UVA. UVA is a fantastic financial bargain for the lucky few at tuition of $16K a year. Compare that to SLACs now at $81K. Virginians want their kids to be one of the 4,000. Every year the stats of accepted students keep jumping so many parents (myself included) are told at the meeting with the high school counselor that there is simply no way DC is going to get into UVA so don't even bother trying. They do this when they show you the Naviance chart. If your public high school counselor is not going to support your child's candidacy to UVA there's no point in trying. This leaves many parents who have paid taxes for decades to support the system feeling bitter, Many of those posting had children who didn't have the stats to even apply, or kids that were turned down, or were, themselves, applicants and didn't get in. The stats for enrolled (accepted stats are higher) students for the 2020-21 year was an astonishing 4.48 GPA for 75th percentile, a 1490 SAT and a 34 ACT. Median is a 4.34; 1420; 33 and the bottom 25th a 4.20, 1330 and 30 ACT. For NOVA students, you need to aim to the 75th percentile and be in the top ten percent of your high school class. This annoys a lot of parents. Our local representative introduced a bill to increase the no. of seats from our NOVA district by 100. Of course it never made it out of committee but s/he did it to placate the voters. UVA received 41,000 applications for the 4,000+ slots last year. This year the ED and EA applications have jumped 35% and 15% respectively. RD will probably also show a big jump because many families were hit hard by COVID. Nearby neighboring states (active here on this board) are envious of the Virginia system and want to get their kids in but they have to meet OOS standards which is high and the cost increases every year for OSS. Hence, the UMD v. UVA crowd. Even legacies at UVA are furious that their high-stats kid did not get in (I know a few children of triple legacies that didn't get int). There just aren't enough slots. Finally, I think if you really look at the posts you won't see UVA boosters. What you will see is that someone takes a swipe at UVA and the UVA students or parents correct the assertion, often using facts. Finally, you need to take into consideration that UMD is a rival even though VT is technically UVA's rival. So a lot of UMD students post here. |
Anonymous
This is all well and good but if you try to claim that UVA is a superior school to Northwestern, you'll be shot down every single time. |
Anonymous
I never said that. I don't know anything about Northwestern. |
Anonymous
| ^^ I'm responding to 12:54's comment about supposed UVA boosters on this board. I'm explaining the rivalries and the anger that many Virginians and non-Virginians feel because they can't get into a school that their tax dollars pay for and why that differs from other state schools that 12:54 mentions. |
Anonymous
 
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Anonymous
"The top Californian schools are huge, i.e. UCLA and Berkeley, so there isn't the impossible situation of trying to be one of the 4,000 who get into UVA." Your logic doesn't hold up. California has almost 5X as many people as Virginia. Berkeley and UCLA combined have about 3.7X as many undergraduates as UVA. (63K vs 17K). Even if you adjust for different OOS percentages (15% in California vs. 30% at UVA), the spots per capita at UVA are not lower. If your point is that it is more difficult to be admitted to UVA from NOVA than from other areas of Virginia, you should also consider that the UC takes extraordinary measures to boost diversity as well. |
Anonymous
+1. Although why we've strayed so far from a conversation about UVA and Northwestern is beyond me. UVA is great, but UVA boosters really need to realize that their relentless hand-wringing actually lowers many people's opinions of the school on this board. Northwestern > UVA if you're OOS. If you're in-state, you can justify the cost for Northwestern if DC is aiming for a consulting or finance role, or if you get enough fin aid to put them through the journalism school where it's #1. Otherwise, UVA is the more fiscally responsible option of the two for IS students. |
Anonymous
Yes, if parents aren't willing to pay for OOS tuition, then all of the in-state schools look much better.
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Anonymous
I'm just going to throw this back into the mix because you frigging idiots are just a gaggle of useless morons...amusing but a still a bunch of useless morons with a dearth of brain cells, just own it. |
Anonymous
For most, it has nothing to do with willingness. We saved and saved but we still can't afford $81K in after tax dollars (almost $150K for us), x 4 years x 2 kids. We would have to make 600K to pay for one child to go to Northwestern. For two, it's $1.2 million. So don't lol until you've walked a mile in my shoes. |
Anonymous
Why are you continually bombarding this thread even after saying that you "don't know anything about Northwestern" ? We get it, you chose UVA in-state. Gold star for you! Times like these I wish we could just close a thread... but part of me also loves seeing just how crazy DCUM threads can get. Lol! In sum, Northwestern is a better and more prestigious school than UVA in most regards. Northwestern is ranked #9, while UVA is ranked #26. (I am only invoking rankings to bring some ordinal orderliness to this winding war of words.) HOWEVER, if you are a Virginian, UVA is a very compelling alternative. Everyone happy now? |