Is the UVA and Charlottesville brand damaged forever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is for our family. I consider it to be a Southern state school and would be concerned about sending a non white child there. It also enjoys a high ranking on USNews. There are pros and (imho significant) cons. If I lived in VA in state tuition might prove tempting but as a MD resident I just don’t find the school appealing especially since last August

Truly, I think you’d have to worry more about a non-white kid in Boston vs. Charlottesville.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is for our family. I consider it to be a Southern state school and would be concerned about sending a non white child there. It also enjoys a high ranking on USNews. There are pros and (imho significant) cons. If I lived in VA in state tuition might prove tempting but as a MD resident I just don’t find the school appealing especially since last August

Truly, I think you’d have to worry more about a non-white kid in Boston vs. Charlottesville.

This is actually quite true. I went to Harvard undergrad and the law school and later practiced in Boston. Charlottesville is far more welcoming to people of color than Boston.

We're talking about schools and not towns (although if we are going to talk about towns, I'd rank Cambridge well ahead of Charlottesville (which I would agree is more tolerant than some parts of Boston). If we are talking about schools, UVA is no Harvard. UVA is a school that has long prided itself on its southern fratboy culture. And everyone is in on it---the students, the alumni (especially the alumni!), its board, and even some faculty. I agree with the PP who said it is self-selecting and self-perpetuating. Kids at places like Fairfax County public schools high schools all know which smart kids pick UVA and which ones pick W&M. The ones who pick UVA are same kids who spent their lives in Vienna or McLean, but land at UVA and end up acting like they just came from drinking mint juleps on daddy's plantation. That's UVA, and until that culture is broken, it won't be a welcoming, inclusive place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is for our family. I consider it to be a Southern state school and would be concerned about sending a non white child there. It also enjoys a high ranking on USNews. There are pros and (imho significant) cons. If I lived in VA in state tuition might prove tempting but as a MD resident I just don’t find the school appealing especially since last August

Truly, I think you’d have to worry more about a non-white kid in Boston vs. Charlottesville.

Why?

Racial animosity is greater in Boston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is for our family. I consider it to be a Southern state school and would be concerned about sending a non white child there. It also enjoys a high ranking on USNews. There are pros and (imho significant) cons. If I lived in VA in state tuition might prove tempting but as a MD resident I just don’t find the school appealing especially since last August

Truly, I think you’d have to worry more about a non-white kid in Boston vs. Charlottesville.

This is actually quite true. I went to Harvard undergrad and the law school and later practiced in Boston. Charlottesville is far more welcoming to people of color than Boston.

We're talking about schools and not towns (although if we are going to talk about towns, I'd rank Cambridge well ahead of Charlottesville (which I would agree is more tolerant than some parts of Boston). If we are talking about schools, UVA is no Harvard. UVA is a school that has long prided itself on its southern fratboy culture. And everyone is in on it---the students, the alumni (especially the alumni!), its board, and even some faculty. I agree with the PP who said it is self-selecting and self-perpetuating. Kids at places like Fairfax County public schools high schools all know which smart kids pick UVA and which ones pick W&M. The ones who pick UVA are same kids who spent their lives in Vienna or McLean, but land at UVA and end up acting like they just came from drinking mint juleps on daddy's plantation. That's UVA, and until that culture is broken, it won't be a welcoming, inclusive place.

You have no idea what you are talking about and I've attended Harvard and have a DD at UVA. The undergrad experience at Harvard is a rather poor one for many students and especially for students of color. Racial animosity still exists in the cities encircling Harvard and especially in Boston. It's just a fact of living there. I disagree about the "southern fratboy culture". That UVA is long gone. My DD has never stepped foot inside a sorority or frat at UVA and never intends to. It's very easy to avoid the whole mess because the houses are on a separate street. Just don't go there. More than 75% of the students don't participate at all. They participate in the other 700 clubs and activities on campus. The "southern fratboy" reference is owned by Washington & Lee. Having now been on campus several years, I disagree with it being labeled "a southern school". It ranks no. 2 on USN&WR public university list, just below Berkeley, usually above UCLA and always above Michigan. USN &WR wouldn't place it there if it were a southern frat boy regional school. DC's friends are international. Many are from California and New York. The great majority of UVA students come from TJ and the McLean Tysons region which is hardly southern. It is not self-selecting and self-perpetuating because it is so difficult to get into. 94.6% of the accepted class of 2022 is in the top ten percent of their high school class. ACT scores average 32-25. GPA medians range between 4.14 for the lowest 25% of the class to 4.44 for the top 25%. No one just "lands" at UVA - they have to work very hard, be in the top of their class, have well-rounded ECs and top scores. And I've never, ever had a mint julep, nor has DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It a state school in the South.

Which caters to nova and various parts of NY and NJ.

70% of students are in-state and as much as you’d like to dream that they all hail from NOVA a significant percent are just good old VA hillbillies, rednecks and country folk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It a state school in the South.

Which caters to nova and various parts of NY and NJ.

70% of students are in-state and as much as you’d like to dream that they all hail from NOVA a significant percent are just good old VA hillbillies, rednecks and country folk.

Oh dear, you poor thing! How dreadful it must be to have to hobnob with nice kids from Norfolk or Richmond or Roanoke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is for our family. I consider it to be a Southern state school and would be concerned about sending a non white child there. It also enjoys a high ranking on USNews. There are pros and (imho significant) cons. If I lived in VA in state tuition might prove tempting but as a MD resident I just don’t find the school appealing especially since last August

Truly, I think you’d have to worry more about a non-white kid in Boston vs. Charlottesville.

This is actually quite true. I went to Harvard undergrad and the law school and later practiced in Boston. Charlottesville is far more welcoming to people of color than Boston.

We're talking about schools and not towns (although if we are going to talk about towns, I'd rank Cambridge well ahead of Charlottesville (which I would agree is more tolerant than some parts of Boston). If we are talking about schools, UVA is no Harvard. UVA is a school that has long prided itself on its southern fratboy culture. And everyone is in on it---the students, the alumni (especially the alumni!), its board, and even some faculty. I agree with the PP who said it is self-selecting and self-perpetuating. Kids at places like Fairfax County public schools high schools all know which smart kids pick UVA and which ones pick W&M. The ones who pick UVA are same kids who spent their lives in Vienna or McLean, but land at UVA and end up acting like they just came from drinking mint juleps on daddy's plantation. That's UVA, and until that culture is broken, it won't be a welcoming, inclusive place.

Psst...read the thread title, smartie.

BC grad --> HLS here, and I completely agree with PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our Black high school senior son is not applying, and we completely back his decision. The school has long had a Southern white boy prepster thing going on, which excluded those not in its retro circle. But now that culture seems to have spawned support the current mess. There's long been a self-selecting dynamic between UVA and William and Mary. That seems to have accelerated in the past year.

I'm sure that UVA can eventually figure out how to change its culture, but it hasn't done so thus far. For now, my son and our family are staying away.

You are literally an idiot, spouting nothing but the simplest of narratives.

If your son is no brighter than you, he’d have very little chance of being admitted.

You sound like a racist. And most racists are insensitive.

That's interesting. I wonder if this comment would have been perceived as "racist" if the person to whom s/he was replying had not mentioned s/he was black. Or maybe you're suggesting the response needed to be softened or somehow worded differently because they did know the person was black?

+1 this was a weird response. Is PP racist purely by means of calling someone who happens to be black an idiot, after they expressed a one-dimensional and simplistic viewpoint? Hm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It a state school in the South.

Which caters to nova and various parts of NY and NJ.

70% of students are in-state and as much as you’d like to dream that they all hail from NOVA a significant percent are just good old VA hillbillies, rednecks and country folk.

Oh dear, you poor thing! How dreadful it must be to have to hobnob with nice kids from Norfolk or Richmond or Roanoke.

Neither I nor my DC would have ever thought of applying to UVA in part because we have no interest in attending a large state school and in part because we have no interest in attending a college that draws 70% of its student body from a single state.....very insular and provincial. But obviously that appeals to some.

[Anonymous]

Re: the Boston conversation. The Spotlight team at the Boston Globe did a huge series on racism in Boston. The reporting has its own website. It’s incredible.

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/spotlight/boston-racism-image-reality/

[Anonymous]

Interested in the side discussion about Boston. Boston has a population of around 700,000. There are around 150,000 students and around 40,000 people who work for these universities and colleges. Only 54% of the population of the city is white. I guess I assumed it would be safe for my Asian kid based on these numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is for our family. I consider it to be a Southern state school and would be concerned about sending a non white child there. It also enjoys a high ranking on USNews. There are pros and (imho significant) cons. If I lived in VA in state tuition might prove tempting but as a MD resident I just don’t find the school appealing especially since last August

Truly, I think you’d have to worry more about a non-white kid in Boston vs. Charlottesville.

This is actually quite true. I went to Harvard undergrad and the law school and later practiced in Boston. Charlottesville is far more welcoming to people of color than Boston.

We're talking about schools and not towns (although if we are going to talk about towns, I'd rank Cambridge well ahead of Charlottesville (which I would agree is more tolerant than some parts of Boston). If we are talking about schools, UVA is no Harvard. UVA is a school that has long prided itself on its southern fratboy culture. And everyone is in on it---the students, the alumni (especially the alumni!), its board, and even some faculty. I agree with the PP who said it is self-selecting and self-perpetuating. Kids at places like Fairfax County public schools high schools all know which smart kids pick UVA and which ones pick W&M. The ones who pick UVA are same kids who spent their lives in Vienna or McLean, but land at UVA and end up acting like they just came from drinking mint juleps on daddy's plantation. That's UVA, and until that culture is broken, it won't be a welcoming, inclusive place.

You have no idea what you are talking about and I've attended Harvard and have a DD at UVA. The undergrad experience at Harvard is a rather poor one for many students and especially for students of color. Racial animosity still exists in the cities encircling Harvard and especially in Boston. It's just a fact of living there. I disagree about the "southern fratboy culture". That UVA is long gone. My DD has never stepped foot inside a sorority or frat at UVA and never intends to. It's very easy to avoid the whole mess because the houses are on a separate street. Just don't go there. More than 75% of the students don't participate at all. They participate in the other 700 clubs and activities on campus. The "southern fratboy" reference is owned by Washington & Lee. Having now been on campus several years, I disagree with it being labeled "a southern school". It ranks no. 2 on USN&WR public university list, just below Berkeley, usually above UCLA and always above Michigan. USN &WR wouldn't place it there if it were a southern frat boy regional school. DC's friends are international. Many are from California and New York. The great majority of UVA students come from TJ and the McLean Tysons region which is hardly southern. It is not self-selecting and self-perpetuating because it is so difficult to get into. 94.6% of the accepted class of 2022 is in the top ten percent of their high school class. ACT scores average 32-25. GPA medians range between 4.14 for the lowest 25% of the class to 4.44 for the top 25%. No one just "lands" at UVA - they have to work very hard, be in the top of their class, have well-rounded ECs and top scores. And I've never, ever had a mint julep, nor has DC.

Just because your kid has figured out ways to duck our hide from frats doesn't mean they don't exist and doesn't mean they don't dominate the school's culture. And just because you can point to a school, Washington and Lee, that's worse on southern frat boy culture, doesn't mean that the culture doesn't also dominate UVA. And it's pretty silly to tout how national and international UVA is. The state has capped out of state attendance, and the admissions office's big focus in building diversity is to get more non-NOVA students admitted. It's a nice budget option for Virginia residents, but don't think that it's cleaning up its act post-Charlottesville nightmare. It hasn't. They've got their culture and they're keeping it.

[Anonymous]

State school that's not very good at any of the most difficult majors.

[Anonymous]

I!m one of those redneck kids from rural Virginia who attended UVA. I spent 7 years there in the 80s and 90s attending college and grad school, never had a mint julep or anything to do with frats, and graduated with a diverse group of friends. I don't understand why a protest by a group of out of town racists over Charlottesvilles decision to change the name of a park and remove a statute of Robert E. Lee reflects negatively on UVA. I suppose I must be too stupid to understand this since my two degrees are only from a southern university, though perhaps my third graduate degree from a well known overseas university counts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I!m one of those redneck kids from rural Virginia who attended UVA. I spent 7 years there in the 80s and 90s attending college and grad school, never had a mint julep or anything to do with frats, and graduated with a diverse group of friends. I don't understand why a protest by a group of out of town racists over Charlottesvilles decision to change the name of a park and remove a statute of Robert E. Lee reflects negatively on UVA. I suppose I must be too stupid to understand this since my two degrees are only from a southern university, though perhaps my third graduate degree from a well known overseas university counts?

DCUMers, meet the alumni! LOL

Move along now. Nothing to see here.