Anyone know families OBSESSED with getting into UVA, period?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really is all about the cost. I know lots of people in NOVA absolutely OBSESSED with UVA but I guarantee you, if all colleges cost the same, they would not be.

+10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably because it is a good school and much cheaper by comparison.

A lot of people can't afford to pay full freight or even 3/4 at schools like Northwestern and Cornell. Come on, you know that OP.

So, it's a conscious strategy by two parents? Mom & dad are at the dinner table after the baby goes to sleep choreographing how they're going to brainwash Lulu to fall in love with UVA over the next 17 years? When Lulu is in 6th grade and mom buys her UVA hats and mittens, mom knows she's buying those to brainwash her?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably because it is a good school and much cheaper by comparison.

A lot of people can't afford to pay full freight or even 3/4 at schools like Northwestern and Cornell. Come on, you know that OP.

So, it's a conscious strategy by two parents? Mom & dad are at the dinner table after the baby goes to sleep choreographing how they're going to brainwash Lulu to fall in love with UVA over the next 17 years? When Lulu is in 6th grade and mom buys her UVA hats and mittens, mom knows she's buying those to brainwash her?

Two of my 3 DCs currently attend UVA and this tbeir story: moved to DC area from San Francisco when my 3 children were under age 5. DH and I decided to live in NOVA rather than DC or MD for two reasons: taxes and the excellent in-state university choices. While our kids were in high school we told them we can afford in-state public, or private with merit aid. DC1 refused to apply to UVA after one visit in HS and ended up at a SLAC with a scholarship for half the tuition. DC2 visited UVA for the first time fall of senior year of HS, liked it, was accepted early action and attends. DC3 applied to colleges all over the country looking for merit money, as well as UVA (and W&M). Didn't step foot on UVA grounds even once despite the fact that DC2 is there until DC3 was accepted. DC3 now attends UVA. Far cry from your conscious strategy/brainwash theory, PP, but I'm guessing since it doesn't fit, you'll dismiss it.

[Anonymous]

It's really not just UVA. I grew up in Michigan and there were plenty of parents like this with UMich...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably because it is a good school and much cheaper by comparison.

A lot of people can't afford to pay full freight or even 3/4 at schools like Northwestern and Cornell. Come on, you know that OP.

So, it's a conscious strategy by two parents? Mom & dad are at the dinner table after the baby goes to sleep choreographing how they're going to brainwash Lulu to fall in love with UVA over the next 17 years? When Lulu is in 6th grade and mom buys her UVA hats and mittens, mom knows she's buying those to brainwash her?

Two of my 3 DCs currently attend UVA and this tbeir story: moved to DC area from San Francisco when my 3 children were under age 5. DH and I decided to live in NOVA rather than DC or MD for two reasons: taxes and the excellent in-state university choices. While our kids were in high school we told them we can afford in-state public, or private with merit aid. DC1 refused to apply to UVA after one visit in HS and ended up at a SLAC with a scholarship for half the tuition. DC2 visited UVA for the first time fall of senior year of HS, liked it, was accepted early action and attends. DC3 applied to colleges all over the country looking for merit money, as well as UVA (and W&M). Didn't step foot on UVA grounds even once despite the fact that DC2 is there until DC3 was accepted. DC3 now attends UVA. Far cry from your conscious strategy/brainwash theory, PP, but I'm guessing since it doesn't fit, you'll dismiss it.

Sounds like the more straightforward "we are cheap" approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Two of my 3 DCs currently attend UVA and this tbeir story: moved to DC area from San Francisco when my 3 children were under age 5. DH and I decided to live in NOVA rather than DC or MD for two reasons: taxes and the excellent in-state university choices. While our kids were in high school we told them we can afford in-state public, or private with merit aid. DC1 refused to apply to UVA after one visit in HS and ended up at a SLAC with a scholarship for half the tuition. DC2 visited UVA for the first time fall of senior year of HS, liked it, was accepted early action and attends. DC3 applied to colleges all over the country looking for merit money, as well as UVA (and W&M). Didn't step foot on UVA grounds even once despite the fact that DC2 is there until DC3 was accepted. DC3 now attends UVA. Far cry from your conscious strategy/brainwash theory, PP, but I'm guessing since it doesn't fit, you'll dismiss it.

Nothing you shared in that winded response explained how the family was OBSESSED with uva. Have you met a UVA fanatic family? They are completely bonkers in their obsession and focus on their kids going to uva.

[Anonymous]

This has been going on for decades. In the early 1990s, I got into two Ivies and UVA from my big box FCPS high school. I got sneered at by parents whose son was going to UVA for choosing one of the Ivies over UVA. It was jealousy, most likely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get OPs point because I have known families in ES who are obesessed with UVA for their kids, which is a fine goal. We can't pay full freight out of state either. Our kids will go in state or get merit money.

But your kid might grow up to be an engineering major, and VT would be a better school for them. Or you have a kid who would do better at a smaller school like WM, or just prefer the atmosphere there. Or the kid has a niche that makes VCU better, like their art program or direct admit medical program. 3rd or 4th grade is really young to have decided that UVA is the one or only option for your kid and to tell them that all the time. But the parents, who are not are UVA alums, are UVA or die.

I do not get that mentality. Because in VA, UVA is not the best school academically in every discipline or for every kid with the academic strength to get in. It's hard to see WM for as a disappointment a nerdy humanities major who like the vibe or VT as a disappointment for the Engineering school. But some parents do.

I'm one of these UVA obsessed people and I think you're reading too much into it. I and I assume most others would not be the least be disappointed if my child turned down UVA for W&M. The reason I focus on UVA instead of W&M is because it is larger and has more opportunities so I assume they won't reject it because it lacks a specific major, but I don't see it as any better overall than William and Mary.

The quality of the students is very similar. It's just a matter of fit. For me, W&M undergrad, with its smaller size, and then UVA for grad school worked out the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you think Virginia is bad, you should check out states where the flagship is in the SEC.

Missouri, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird that you expected her to be more impressed with your child getting into Northwestern and Cornell. That's a great accomplishment by your child, but so is her child getting into UVa so I'm not sure what relevance your child's admissions has to her excitement over her child's admission.

Because Cornell and Northwestern are demonstrably superior schools.

[Anonymous]

Where are these parents OBSESSED with UVA? I have a DC there now. She is incredibly happy, as are we, the in-state parents. She was fortunate to get in but had many other fine offers. She has many friends at UVA. Not one of his friends or their parents is OBSESSED with UVA.

We've had children in private school, public school in McLean. I've been active in the community and PTAs. I've never yet met someone OBSESSED with UVA, even though my daughter now attends? Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has been going on for decades. In the early 1990s, I got into two Ivies and UVA from my big box FCPS high school. I got sneered at by parents whose son was going to UVA for choosing one of the Ivies over UVA. It was jealousy, most likely.

These folks in their bubbles -- even successful persons -- don't even comprehend Ivies; they've never stepped foot on one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been going on for decades. In the early 1990s, I got into two Ivies and UVA from my big box FCPS high school. I got sneered at by parents whose son was going to UVA for choosing one of the Ivies over UVA. It was jealousy, most likely.

These folks in their bubbles -- even successful persons -- don't even comprehend Ivies; they've never stepped foot on one.

This. A lot of people in NOVA aren't that familiar with the Ivy's outside of HPY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been going on for decades. In the early 1990s, I got into two Ivies and UVA from my big box FCPS high school. I got sneered at by parents whose son was going to UVA for choosing one of the Ivies over UVA. It was jealousy, most likely.

These folks in their bubbles -- even successful persons -- don't even comprehend Ivies; they've never stepped foot on one.

This. A lot of people in NOVA aren't that familiar with the Ivy's outside of HPY.

I should also mention that outside of the Northeast a lot of people don't know what schools make up the Ivy's. My friend thought that Stanford was an Ivy League school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I should also mention that outside of the Northeast a lot of people don't know what schools make up the Ivy's. My friend thought that Stanford was an Ivy League school.

I'm not sure most people in the Northeast know. I think "Ivy League" has become shorthand for "old, private universities with very low admission rates." That makes some not-Ivys swankier than Cornell, with its land grant colleges. When people talk about attending Cornell, I don't think they're imagining kids in the ag school or College of Human Ecology.