Marylanders: Did you regret not choosing Virginia when it came time to apply to college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL. You act like state schools aren't in the top 25. UVA is a top 25 school.

Yes. Of large public universities. Of course the top 25 state schools are all state schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether or not in-state tuition is a factor depends on your plans for your kids. We are planning (assuming they get in) to send our kids to a top 25 school (they have a legacy shot), so we aree not considering state schools. If they end up getting into a state school and that's where they want to go, we will already have the money saved to send them (paying out of state tuition).

LOL. You act like state schools aren't in the top 25. UVA is a top 25 school.

Read the post. She didn't say that UVA and other state schools aren't top-25 schools. She said thta her kids have a shot as legacies at a top 25 school that is not a state school.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, PP. I am the one guilty of offending others with the top 25 comment. I was specifically not wanting to say Ivy, because I was not referring to an Ivy. So, I'll rephrase my post to say I am saving so my kids can go to a college that is running over $50K a year now for tuition, room and board, so if they do not get in there, or choose for their own reasons to go somewhere else, lucky me.

[Anonymous]

I am saving so my kids can go to a college that is running over $50K a year now for tuition, room and board,

I'm the VA poster above. This isn't a realistic goal for us. Hence my preference for living in VA with more in-state options. If we made more money, then we wouldn't need to make a choice between where we would prefer to live and where we choose to in order to maximize options for our children and better meet their academic needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Plus, it's much, much, much harder to get in to UVA or UNC from out of state than in-state.

This may be true when you compare state-side averages. But I've heard that it's really hard to get into UVA from northern VA, i.e anywhere within commuting distance of DC. Posters on DCUM have complained that UVA won't look at any high schools besides TJ - I have no idea whether that's true. I do know, however, that our friends from NoVA always tell us that our high-achieving DD, who is the same age as theirs but we live in MD, has a much better shot at UVA than their equally high-achieving DD.

Of course, we'd have to pay out-of-state tuition at UVA. But the point that admission to UVA is by no means a sure thing, even if you paid taxes to the state during 5 years' residency, or whatever VA requires for the in-state tuition rate.

[Anonymous]

14:53 again. When we were making the MD/DC decision 3-4 years ago, we read that UVA had reached a deal with the state under shich they could raise tuition sharply, for in-state and out-of-state, in the future. This was to keep UVA competitive with top private colleges, and to compensate for low state funding. This caused a furor at the time - does anybody know where this stands?

[Anonymous]

Posters on DCUM have complained that UVA won't look at any high schools besides TJ - I have no idea whether that's true.

This is really not true. I believe this was posted once by someone months ago and they were quoting (or maybe misquoting) an article that was clearly not accurate. I know numerous people with kids who went to various NoVA high schools who go/went to UVA. Of course getting in isn't a sure thing. Which is why I prefer to have several schools to choose from. But it is certainly true that probably a huge percentage of any NoVA high school could qualify for UVA and they can't take 50 kids from each one!

[Anonymous]

DC resident here. Tried to get my kid to look at Virginia schools because they offer a lot but she did not want to go to school in a state where it is illegal for gays to recreate some of the benefits of marriage by using legal agreements. Then the governor argued that state universities should not include gays in non-discrimination policies and the AG started investigating a respected professor's research on climate change. I have to say that after that I decided maybe she was right.

Too bad. I used to teach in Virginia and there are some great schools there but I have to know my child will be protected wherever she goes to school and I no longer have confidence that the Commonwealth of Virginia has her best interests in mind.

Not saying you should let that determine your decision, especially when Virginia schools are so good. But given that my kid is bi, it's much more central to our decision-making. Good luck with your decision!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blah blah blah blah. All of this is minutia Higher income taxes vs lower property taxes vs car taxes vs taxes on food/meds etc. Stay in DC and you have a wider selection of colleges to choose from using DCTAG.

http://osse.dc.gov/seo/cwp/view,a,1226,q,536770,seoNav_GID,1511,seoNav,|31238|,.asp

There are huge liabilities about living in DC when it comes to college. Sure we get a $10k discount on out of state tuition, but for many, if not most of in-state colleges, that discount does not make up for the difference between in state and out state tuition. For instance its $46k for out of staters at UVA and 23k for instaters. Plus, it's much, much, much harder to get in to UVA or UNC from out of state than in-state.

Agree with this. A fair number of state universities are charging much more than 10,000 more for out-of-staters.

[Anonymous]

There are huge liabilities about living in DC when it comes to college. Sure we get a $10k discount on out of state tuition, but for many, if not most of in-state colleges, that discount does not make up for the difference between in state and out state tuition. For instance its $46k for out of staters at UVA and 23k for instaters.

Agree with this. A fair number of state universities are charging much more than 10,000 more for out-of-staters

Wrong. The $10K grant brings the out-of-state tuition price down to the IN-STATE tuition price for tons of excellent state schools. Not UVa. -- which is a big outlier, BTW -- but lots of other great state schools. The $10K was never intended to make it free to go to school in, say, Colorado or Wisconsin, if you're from DC. It was meant to level the field for in-state and DC applicants. Room and board could still be high for both kinds of students ... or not.

To pick just one example, tuition at the Univ.of Colorado at Boulder would be the same for a student coming from Petworth and a student coming from Denver. At the Univ. of Michigan, the differential between an in-state and DC student is just $2,000 a year, which is not bad and can be earned by babysitting or tutoring in one summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blah blah blah blah. All of this is minutia Higher income taxes vs lower property taxes vs car taxes vs taxes on food/meds etc. Stay in DC and you have a wider selection of colleges to choose from using DCTAG.

http://osse.dc.gov/seo/cwp/view,a,1226,q,536770,seoNav_GID,1511,seoNav,|31238|,.asp

There are huge liabilities about living in DC when it comes to college. Sure we get a $10k discount on out of state tuition, but for many, if not most of in-state colleges, that discount does not make up for the difference between in state and out state tuition. For instance its $46k for out of staters at UVA and 23k for instaters. Plus, it's much, much, much harder to get in to UVA or UNC from out of state than in-state.

My brother (with mid-late teen kids and who lives in northern virginia) says it is harder for NOVA students to get into the good va state schools then out of staters. One reason is that the best student come from no va and the colleges don't want their school to represent overwhelming one part of the state. Secondly the schools like the extra tuition from out of staters right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are huge liabilities about living in DC when it comes to college. Sure we get a $10k discount on out of state tuition, but for many, if not most of in-state colleges, that discount does not make up for the difference between in state and out state tuition. For instance its $46k for out of staters at UVA and 23k for instaters.

Agree with this. A fair number of state universities are charging much more than 10,000 more for out-of-staters

Wrong. The $10K grant brings the out-of-state tuition price down to the IN-STATE tuition price for tons of excellent state schools. Not UVa. -- which is a big outlier, BTW -- but lots of other great state schools. The $10K was never intended to make it free to go to school in, say, Colorado or Wisconsin, if you're from DC. It was meant to level the field for in-state and DC applicants. Room and board could still be high for both kinds of students ... or not.

To pick just one example, tuition at the Univ.of Colorado at Boulder would be the same for a student coming from Petworth and a student coming from Denver. At the Univ. of Michigan, the differential between an in-state and DC student is just $2,000 a year, which is not bad and can be earned by babysitting or tutoring in one summer.

ss


Not so fast. At Maryland, out of staters pay $5,000 more than in staters with the discount just for being a block over the border. That's $20k over four years. That may not mean much in AU Park but that total can be insurmountable in Petworth, Ivy City and Ivy City.

Sure, DCTAG helps you get in range of some in-state tuitions. But District students are at a huge disadvantage when competing for slots at the best state schools because so few of them are allotted for out of staters. Entrance standards are demonstrably higher for out of staters at places like UVA, UNC and Florida.


DC is unique in that has such a terrible option for public university. It's too bad because this city, with all of its brain power, should be ranked at the top of high education options.

[Anonymous]

I think if I had more than one kid I would choose to live in VA since it has so many great public options. It is true, as someone mentioned earlier, it is difficult for NoVA kids to get into the VA state schools now since the competition is so stiff. And VA does like to get the out-of-state higher tuition monies. But, the out-of-state admit numbers are very much smaller than in-state. I know UNC, one of the best ranked state schools, has a firm limit on how many out-of-staters it takes. Most end up being recruited athletes.

[Anonymous]

We picked VA in large part because of the public schools and the colleges. Northern Virginia is just as liberal as Maryland - best of all worlds.

[Anonymous]

OP, MD resident here and we probably will move either to VA or CA when our kids are in middle school. Since CA may be very likely we didn't view MD as long term into college. If you want to stay in the same house then absolutely this should be a consideration. I think VA schools are better on the testing as they had a ore rationale system in place before NCLB. MD is insane with the test prep and testing. The schools may rank higher than some of the VA schools but that just means the kids are testing better in nonsense and not necessarily learning anything.

We chose MD because we simply found more house and a bigger lot for the money and a better commute. I don't find NOVA and MD all that different from a cultural perspective but I lived in DC for 20 years so I don't have the MD vs VA thing going on. Its all a big suburb to me. I probably would think twice about moving too far out into th outer burbs of VA because if the conservatism and lack of good schools but you would be fine in fairfax, arlington and alexandria.

We're dems and to be honest if we had chosen where to live based on the color of the state, we should have gone to VA. Our vote in red state would have helped dems more than one more blue vote in a blue state.