Is UVA's reputation declining?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It’s frustrating that a small number (one?) of trolls can start and prolong asinine threads like this. I can’t imagine that anyone who has been reading this board over the last week is now convinced by these trolls that UVA is a pedestrian has-been or never-was. Multiple threads contain clear posts explaining that this is, obviously, far from true. Enough already.

It makes you wonder about the mental and emotional well being of some of the people here.

You could question that rather than consider maybe there is some truth in what they are saying. Up to you.

What truth? Most of the claims are just snark without substance. And I’ve seen troll posts just on this thread get deleted twice now. Hardly normal, well-adjusted behavior.

It is true that peer institutions, large public flagships, have improved relative to UVA and that the relative college landscape is a lot more competitive than it was previously. Colleges like U of Florida are now considered peers to UVA.

Florida is not a peer to UVA.

UVA is in a three way tie at #24 so it is ranked #24-26 while U of Florida is ranked #30. According to USNews.


They are absolutely peers and could switch places next year.

UVA is not really top 25 currently because of the tie, it falls somewhere below #27 and above #23 according to US News. Being ranked #24 along with multiple other schools is bogus.

I concur with this. For those who consider U.S. News rankings, I'd say that U.Va. places among the top 26 in its category.

Actually, it is ranked at 26 which is outside of top 25 thus top 50 not top 25.

[Anonymous]

Pretty sure a lot of this is sockpuppeting, especially the posts about UVA 25-26 followed by quick agreement.

Not sure if it’s the same dude, but someone (college student/recent college graduate) has been on these boards for several years (I have too because I have several kids in quick succession attending college) with a very identifiable pattern of starting threads about UVA, responding to others in a signature manner, and sockpuppeting their own posts to suggest widerspread agreement. These posts are typically strident, oftentimes short, sometimes allege racism or old southern culture, bad STEM, not elite, etc. It’s their grudge, and obviously a painful one to hold on for so many years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure a lot of this is sockpuppeting, especially the posts about UVA 25-26 followed by quick agreement.

Not sure if it’s the same dude, but someone (college student/recent college graduate) has been on these boards for several years (I have too because I have several kids in quick succession attending college) with a very identifiable pattern of starting threads about UVA, responding to others in a signature manner, and sockpuppeting their own posts to suggest widerspread agreement. These posts are typically strident, oftentimes short, sometimes allege racism or old southern culture, bad STEM, not elite, etc. It’s their grudge, and obviously a painful one to hold on for so many years.

You are a sock puppet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Directly comparing UVA and Michigan acceptance and yield rates have a contextual problem. In Michigan, UMich is the only excellent public school, thus it attracts all the state’s brightest students wanting a public education. In VA, the brightest instate students who want to attend a state public are divided between UVA, W&M, and in the case of engineering/CS, Virginia Tech. Given that context, VA splits their instate applications, admits, and yield; Michigan does not. Similarly, if OOS students want to attend an elite VA public, the applications, admits, and yields are split between UVA and W&M. That’s not the case for Michigan. All are great schools.

I am an admitted UVA booster, but your analysis is completely off base. UVA’s in-state yield is actually very high, not withstanding the existence of William and Mary and Virginia Tech. Its out of state yield is much lower than Michigan’s, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure a lot of this is sockpuppeting, especially the posts about UVA 25-26 followed by quick agreement.

Not sure if it’s the same dude, but someone (college student/recent college graduate) has been on these boards for several years (I have too because I have several kids in quick succession attending college) with a very identifiable pattern of starting threads about UVA, responding to others in a signature manner, and sockpuppeting their own posts to suggest widerspread agreement. These posts are typically strident, oftentimes short, sometimes allege racism or old southern culture, bad STEM, not elite, etc. It’s their grudge, and obviously a painful one to hold on for so many years.

If you would like insight into this, I can speak for myself at least. I wrote one recent post in this topic (and, I believe, one much farther back). As I stated, I'd regard U.Va. as a top-26 school in its category if I were considering U.S. News as an information source. Similarly, in terms of the sports analogy introduced, I'd regard two athletes who shared a gold medal as the top two performers in that event on that day. This simply represents a form of data interpretation. That noted, it's not likely I would've posted at all if someone hadn't thrown around the word "dumbest." As for the intent behind the rest of this topic, I'll defer to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA alum here, and I don’t think its reputation has declined.

What has changed is that those who can afford out of state are not prioritizing UVA attendance or have just stepped out of the race. They aren’t stressing themselves out when a perfectly reasonable OOS flagship will still get their kid where they want to go, and with a more fun high school experience. It’s not fair that college costs are so high, but that is what I see at DS’s high school.

UVA OOS cost is at a similar level to private schools. That means it is competing with the applicants in-state public options, which will be lower cost. It also means UVA is competing with private colleges at a similar list price, and in many instances, those privates may offer better aid packages (e.g. higher grant vs. loan). Other OOS publics are also offering much more merit aid. So there is a lot of competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure a lot of this is sockpuppeting, especially the posts about UVA 25-26 followed by quick agreement.

Not sure if it’s the same dude, but someone (college student/recent college graduate) has been on these boards for several years (I have too because I have several kids in quick succession attending college) with a very identifiable pattern of starting threads about UVA, responding to others in a signature manner, and sockpuppeting their own posts to suggest widerspread agreement. These posts are typically strident, oftentimes short, sometimes allege racism or old southern culture, bad STEM, not elite, etc. It’s their grudge, and obviously a painful one to hold on for so many years.

+1. Also some comments got deleted yesterday for sock puppeting. Genuine weirdos here.

[Anonymous]

UVA's reputation is actually quite strong; it's ranked #24 overall and #4 among public universities by US News.

The low out-of-state yield isn't a reflection of how much OOS students value UVA; it's because UVA is so competitive that many accepted students have multiple great options. In fact, the high number of applications, including from OOS, shows that UVA is highly regarded.

For in-state students, UVA has been enhancing its support systems, though these might not always be apparent. Perhaps some perceptions are based on past experiences rather than current realities.

[Anonymous]

UVA like many other “highly” ranked schools is merely a victim of its own success. DCUM parents went to UVA and other ranked schools in the 80s and 90s when it was 3 to 10 times easier to gain admittance. There wasn’t the rampant grade inflation there is today and 1/3 or more of a high school class did not graduate with a 4.0+ GPA and 10 or 12 AP classes.

Test prep was in its infancy and a 1500 SAT wasn’t the minimum bar that it is today. Parents get frustrated when Larla and Larlo can’t follow in their footsteps and naturally UVA or [insert school] isn’t what it used to be. Typical and expected reaction.

This will all begin to straighten out as we reach and enter a period of declining college age kids competing for limited spots creates more realistic acceptance rates.

Until then hurt feelings will be a matter of course.

[Anonymous]

Decline? Nonsense. Expensive for out of state clearly, but show me a state school with a higher median SAT than UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Decline? Nonsense. Expensive for out of state clearly, but show me a state school with a higher median SAT than UVA.

UVA is test optional, which makes its median SAT meaningless.

[Anonymous]

UVA is a top 30 college and competes against other public flagships like UNC, U of Florida, Rutgers, and Maryland. They are one of the better publics however the other colleges are catching up fast.

[Anonymous]

Since the specific question here is is UVA’s “reputation” declining, it’s worth noting that UVA’s “reputation” score in US News has remained steady over the years and solidly in the top 25 and closer to 20. Its most recent score of 4.3 out of 5 is 4th among state schools (Berkeley, UCLA and just below Michigan), is tied with Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, and is above UNC, Rice, Wash U, Notre Dame and Georgetown (all at 4.2). UVA’s score 10 years ago was also 4.3.

Maryland, in contrast, is now at a 3.8. Ten years ago it was 3.6. This score is tied with UC-Irvine, BU, BC and Tufts and just behind other state schools including Washington,
Purdue, Ohio State, UC-Davis, Illinois, and of course William & Mary. UVA is ranked well above all of these schools.

So it may be on the up and up, but Maryland is still well behind UVA in terms of “reputation.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA alum here, and I don’t think its reputation has declined.

What has changed is that those who can afford out of state are not prioritizing UVA attendance or have just stepped out of the race. They aren’t stressing themselves out when a perfectly reasonable OOS flagship will still get their kid where they want to go, and with a more fun high school experience. It’s not fair that college costs are so high, but that is what I see at DS’s high school.

UVA OOS cost is at a similar level to private schools. That means it is competing with the applicants in-state public options, which will be lower cost. It also means UVA is competing with private colleges at a similar list price, and in many instances, those privates may offer better aid packages (e.g. higher grant vs. loan). Other OOS publics are also offering much more merit aid. So there is a lot of competition.

PP here. I was thinking about this from a VA in-state perspective, but I agree with you that the case is even stronger for OOS students. I do think students with money from states with not as strong public options still like UVA, but I believe the cost isn't worth it for them.

[Anonymous]

If you look at the public universities where kids from top NYC privates and the NE boarding schools are attending it is always UVA and Michigan and an occasional kid to Berkeley or Texas or Vermont. Sometimes a UNC and maybe a UCLA. That's it. They're not going to UGA, UMD, Virginia Tech, Florida etc. Never.

This holds true this year. Spend sometime looking at the Instagram sites.

Now, one can argue that the other publics provide just as good as an education as UVA and Michigan but these schools still have the "brand" cache among people who have options and care about brand.