Good safety schools for those who like W&M?
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Anonymous
| UNC-Asheville? Claims to be NC version of a public, liberal arts school. OOS Tuition plus R&B is about 35k. Looks like a fair amount of merit. Although located in Western NC, it's evidently left leaning. 75th percentile SAT is 1250. |
Anonymous
Excellent suggestion. On par with CNJ. We looked at UNC-Asheville as a safety for our high stats kid. Didn't apply but we were impressed. It's certainly a better option than a second tier private at twice the price . . . |
Anonymous
This is a good safety suggestion--UNC Asheville is gaining popularity and the town is gorgeous (and has a long artsy history). Given how competitive--and research focused--UNC has been becoming, NC families interested in quality of undergraduate education have been looking more and more to it as an alternative. That said, just like UNC OOS is capped so you have to be much stronger. |
Anonymous
Who do you know on the admissions committee who told you that? Otherwise you have zero way of knowing. VT is a selective school. If your kid doesn't get in it means there were better applicants, not that the school thought you were too good for it. |
Anonymous
Is UNC Asheville suitable for a conservative student? |
Anonymous
| I don’t know—certain slacs like Kenyon and all that, I guess. But W&M isn’t a slac and it is really trying to emphasize that it’s a university, not a college. Closest thing that comes to mind is Wake Forest without a med school. But WF would not be a safety. It’s just tough to understand how to categorize W&M. So I have no idea. |
Anonymous
You're overstating this. Yes, there's a cap but there's not nearly the same OOS demand as Chapel Hill. UNC-Asheville accepted 84 percent of applicants last year and even with that had a decline in enrollment of 6.6 percent -- the largest of any UNC campus. A decent application from OOS is going to get the nod. |
Anonymous
| Washington and Lee- basically a SLAC, but with some professional programs- seems like a slight safety and a similar type school |
Anonymous
I didn't know about recent enrollment decline, so you're probably right (and I did agree it's a good safety suggestion). But I also don't think we ever got stats from OP so we don't know if there kid likes W&M but it's a far reach or if it's close and they want to be cautious. If the former, for it to be a true safety, they should be over the 75th percentile. |
Anonymous
Got it. Also, just FYI UNC-Asheville's Common Data Set says that it "considers" state residency in evaluating an application, which means it's only a minor factor. (In order, the Common Data Set asks colleges to describe how they weight admissions factors on the following scale: Very Important, Important, Considered and Not Considered. UNC-Chapel Hill, in contrast, says state residency is Very Important. |
Anonymous
It might not affect most of the people on DCUM, but W&M's effective cost for low and lower middle income is among the lowest in the state if not the lowest. As part of the agreement with the state for increased autonomy, the institutions had to create a plan to increase access for lower income students, and W&M (and UVA also) did it in part by increasing grant aid for lower income students. As mentioned, tuition has been held constant for in-state students for 4 years now. I'm not sure about room and board, though. |
Anonymous
|
If a VA resident, University of Mary Washington, Christopher Newport. If OOS, College of Charleston (honors college) would be a great safety.
I can’t imagine a student who likes W&M being interested in a number of the colleges named (including even the ones I named). Op you know your kid, but my guess would be that a kid who sees W&M as their too choice, esp if s/he is an OOS applicant, would prefer an actual LAC as a safety, hopefully one where they could get merit aid. I second the suggestion to look at some of the PA LACs like Dickinson and Gettysburg. |
Anonymous
On a stats basis, W&L is as selective (if not more selective) than any other school in Virginia. Richmond is also selective, but is probably somewhat less selective than W&M, probably more on grades, so it might be an option. If you are in-state, you can also get the TAG. |
Anonymous
For some reason, LAC has a bad connotation with certain groups despite the fact that most of the the undergraduate students at many of the most selective universities (Harvard College, Yale, Princeton, etc. down through UVA and its College of Arts & Sciences) are effectively in liberal arts programs. |
Anonymous
don't have a dog in this race, but in my DC's class, kids who were clearly lower ranker, lower GPA, lower SAT, were accepted and higher stats (top 5-10%) were wait listed. It is clear that those lower ranked students are not "better applicants", they are simply the applicants who were more likely to actually go to VT. |