Reply to UNC vs UVA (OOS)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Obviously between the two schools I would pick whichever is the in-state. No question about that.

Now if both are OOS, these factors should be in the consideration:

1. U[b]VA is more like a private school. As matter of fact UVA was considering at one point fully becoming a private school. With that kind of school vibe in mind, you get the idea that it will be more like Brown, Dartmouth type.[/b] Very different from some other state schools at the extreme, like UIUC, Purdue, Michigan, etc, which are huge but research strong, less emphasizing on undergraduates. UNC is somewhere in the middle between UVA and those large state schools. UVA has an enrollment of 16,777 and UNC 19,117, according to usnews. Both are in preferred size compared to the other humongous state schools.

2. [b]Endowment rather than state funding[/b]. UVA depends on state funding much less than UNC. You know how state budget fighting works every year. It creates a lot of uncertainty in university funding. You may have a nice senior research program this year and suddenly next year it may be in limbo.

3. A brutally research heavy school can bring opportunities to undergrads and can bring apathy toward undergrads as well. The research heavy state schools typically have many young research faculties in the middle of establishing themselves in their careers. Their first concern is their own research output (that's why the schools are very active in research), and they have their eyes much more on their research assistants (graduate students) than undergrad teaching. There is just that tendency that many f these faculty members teach bad courses as their minds are not on the minimumly required undergrad teaching responsibilities, if any. So you may really want to reconsider if too much a research heavy is a good thing for you.

4. Ratio of out state students vs in state. This is why typically private schools are better than state schools in this regard. An overwhelming number of in state students spells less competency in student selection for the school.

[/quote]

Someone here keeps throwing out this endowment stuff.   Endowment is great, but you have to be realistic with the numbers.  We're talking about undergraduate study here.  UVA's endowment (just like any colleges endowment) is going to be largely owned by the constituent schools and divisions.  I did some work on this in the past.  At that time, the entire College of Arts and Sciences, graduate and undergraduate, which is where most undergraduates are enrolled, only had about 13% of the total UVA endowment.  The medical school and hospital had nearly 1/3rd of it.  Law and Darden had substantial percentages and they have no undergraduates.   You mention it being more like Dartmouth.  Dartmouth's endowment per student is going to be 4X or so higher and there are fewer competing schools there as well.

As for UVA becoming private, although state appropriations are a fairly small percentage of the total budget, this is largely because half of the UVA budget is hospital with no state appropriation.  Much of the rest of the budget are auxiliary budget items like room and board which also don't get state appropriations.  It would be difficult for UVA to replace, without significantly raising tuition, the general fund appropriation and the appropriations for capital projects.  Also, for UVA to go private, it would have to come to an agreement to purchase the land and buildings from the state, which would run into the billions.  The state has made investments for 200 years here.  So not very feasible in my view.[/quote]

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