Reply to Is the UVA and Charlottesville brand damaged forever?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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 [/quote]

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

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.[/quote]

[b]
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.[/quote][/b]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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