Anyone know families OBSESSED with getting into UVA, period?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"demonstrably superior" LOL - only on DCUM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Two of my 3 DCs currently attend UVA and this is their 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.

Not the OP, but her (his?) point is not that everyone whose kids attend UVA is obsessed with it, or that everyone in Northern Virginia is obsessed with it, or that obsession with a state school is unique to Virginia.

And I do know people who are obsessed. Small but weird group.

[Anonymous]

Northwestern has the top journalism program in the country - UVA's undergraduate business program is better. It really depends on the program.

The social scene is very different too. Both are Top 25 schools, but otherwise not really comparable.

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of boarding school friends that went to Cornell & are slightly obsessed with the big red, or whatever. But at least that's justified; it's an Ivy, waspy, elite.

Uva is none of those things, it's a cattle call frat factory, so the obsession just seems low bar.

[Anonymous]

Strangely, all three of my kids passed on UVA for various reasons. I was a UVA double alum (undergrad and law) and DH was a law school alum.

My oldest wanted to be a nuclear engineer and got a full ride to Tennessee, which has a strong nuclear engineering program and a built in relationship with DOE's Oak Ridge Laboratory.

My second wanted to go to a women's college and got a scholarship that made Smith cost about the same as UVA. She loves it and it's is a much better fit for her.

My third is a liberal arts student with an interest in international relations. He wants to do peace corps. He's at William & Mary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"demonstrably superior" LOL - only on DCUM

And in reality. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I know a pleasant woman in grad school who attended the College of Human Ecology. She wore an oversized Cornell sweatshirt almost every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, compare the cost of attendance for UVA to Northwestern or Ivies and then get back to me.

+1 how is it possible for someone to be so sheltered and tone-deaf?

+1

There is a large DCUM contingent who cannot seem to grasp that the college search for many of us is all about cost, regardless of how high a performer the DC in question may be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, compare the cost of attendance for UVA to Northwestern or Ivies and then get back to me.

+1 how is it possible for someone to be so sheltered and tone-deaf?

+1

There is a large DCUM contingent who cannot seem to grasp that the college search for many of us is all about cost, regardless of how high a performer the DC in question may be.

Exactly. Attending a top-25 university for $25K/year is just not going to happen unless you go to UVA (or, of course, if you live in CA and go to a UC). We live in MD so I don't really have skin in the game but regardless, it is an incredible deal and I can see why people act that way about UVA.

[Anonymous]

I unfortunately work directly next to a woman who not only graduated from UVA but also *studied abroad* gasp! She is insufferable. And well into her 40s. That's what I think of when I think of UVA grads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I unfortunately work directly next to a woman who not only graduated from UVA but also *studied abroad* gasp! She is insufferable. And well into her 40s. That's what I think of when I think of UVA grads

So you are generalizing about millions and millions of people based on your experience with one.

I think that says more about you than it does UVA grads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I unfortunately work directly next to a woman who not only graduated from UVA but also *studied abroad* gasp! She is insufferable. And well into her 40s. That's what I think of when I think of UVA grads

Guess I should ask where you went to school and generalize people from that institution as well. You sound pretty insufferable yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It's "Ivies."

[Anonymous]

Where ARE these crazy UVA obsessed families? I've never met one.

[Anonymous]

I’m not a UVA person, but from a distance it doesn’t seem to be a fit for the introverted type who are more likely to stare at their shoes than look you in the eye. For a preppy kid, however, there is no better public school and probably no better school in the Top 25 other than (possibly) Vanderbilt and USC. Gonzaga and Landon send a lot of kids to UVA. GDS and Sidwell, not so much. That speaks volumes.