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[quote=Anonymous]I will bring a bit of clarity to this discussion and try to get beyond the "I've never heard of that school. . . therefore it's crap" mentality of a lot of the people posting to this board who either:  a) have very little experience with colleges outside a certain bubble; and b) are too lazy to do their own research.

My DD is in her junior year in a Northern Virginia high school.  While I have not ruled out OOS and private options for her, I have drawn the line as follows:  "You may attend any Commonwealth of Virginia college or university of your choice and you will basically have a full ride courtesy of Mom and Dad.  If you choose private or OOS, then you will need to figure out how to make up the difference between the cost of in-state and cost of OOS or private."

We have visited a few of the Virginia schools - UVA, William & Mary, George Mason, James Madison University and Christopher Newport.  We have also visited a few privates, and my daughter has also attended information sessions with schools coming to her high school.

We visited CNU after visiting with William & Mary. Of course, W & M would be my DD's choice over CNU, but she put CNU in the running with George Mason.  She liked its smaller size, the campus looks a lot like the UMD College Park campus, but more compact. The facilities are excellent.  We liked the fact that the focus of the school in on undergraduate teaching.  I think this is very useful to my DD, as she is not sure what she wants to major in and I think she would thrive in the smaller environment.  The students we met - granted these were the student ambassadors giving the tour - were energetic and spoke well of the school, but then they are in the marketing business.  My impression was a good portion of the student body is from the Richmond area and fairly prep.  They would fit in at the likes of UVA, University of Richmond, Hampden - Sydney, etc.

Academically, USNWR ranks CNU as #14 in Regional Universities in the South and #5 among public schools in the same category.  JMU is *2 in the same category.  Kiplinger's ranks CNU #89 among its "best value" public universities. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni gives CNU an "A" rating for the strength of its core curriculum.   The school has an 85% freshman retention rate, so that tells you something, i.e. students don't transfer out (so they must be happy).  The majority of accepted students had avg GPAs of 3.76 and SATs of at least 1700.  The school could be more diverse - lots of white, preppy kids who trend Republican. My DD was very interested in CNU's undergraduate business program, which students must compete to join.  Students come not only from Virginia, but Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  So, yes people outside of Virginia have heard about the school.

Drawbacks - besides the diversity above - include location.  While located on the James River in Newport News and in close proximity to Williamsburg and Virginia Beach, the campus seemed set off and isolated from the larger community.  I went to an urban school, where the campus and the city blended, so for me this was a bit off. I would like to see the school do more in terms of raising its profile.  The University seems to have strong leadership in Paul Trible, who has been guiding the college from its foundation as a community college to a full fledged public liberal arts college.  For a school that is only 35 years old, it has achieved a lot.

References:  http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-find-best-colleges-value-rankings/end_page.php?school=5685; 
                   http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/christopher-newport-university-3706
                   http://whatwilltheylearn.com/a-list
                   https://colleges.niche.com/christopher-newport-university/

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