Anonymous wrote:I hate the south. I wouldn't want my kid going to either place. Too many Republicans

You don't know much history about the south or demographics, do you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are an Echols Scholar, then it's comparable. If you are not, there is a very real chance you will be shut out of prerequisite courses as an underclassman, making it impossible to graduate in some majors in 4 years unless you take summer classes.

UVA grad here - no one was ever shut out of classes. Even if you forgot to wake up and register for classes on registration day, there was always a way to get into a class.

Agree. My DC is at UVA. She competed for Echols and Jefferson Scholar but didn't get it. There is no issue about getting necessary classes. That's a myth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are an Echols Scholar, then it's comparable. If you are not, there is a very real chance you will be shut out of prerequisite courses as an underclassman, making it impossible to graduate in some majors in 4 years unless you take summer classes.

UVA grad here - no one was ever shut out of classes. Even if you forgot to wake up and register for classes on registration day, there was always a way to get into a class.

This is simply factually untrue. As a Biology major, my kid was unable to get into 2 required classes in spring of sophomore year, which would have made it in impossible to take classes as a junior that were needed to graduate on time. As a result, we had to pay for summer school.

What year did you graduate, PP? You might find things are different today

Anonymous wrote:I hate the south. I wouldn't want my kid going to either place. Too many Republicans

I hate the south. I wouldn't want my kid going to either place. Too many Republicans

Anonymous wrote:If you are an Echols Scholar, then it's comparable. If you are not, there is a very real chance you will be shut out of prerequisite courses as an underclassman, making it impossible to graduate in some majors in 4 years unless you take summer classes.

UVA grad here - no one was ever shut out of classes. Even if you forgot to wake up and register for classes on registration day, there was always a way to get into a class.

If you are an Echols Scholar, then it's comparable. If you are not, there is a very real chance you will be shut out of prerequisite courses as an underclassman, making it impossible to graduate in some majors in 4 years unless you take summer classes.

Anonymous wrote:If you we're out of state VA, I would say either school was fine. Because you are a VA resident, I would totally go to UVA.

If you are asking the question, you won't be on board for the things that make Duke different. So go with UVA.

Is the cost of any private school worth it over McLean HS, Yorktown HS, etc? Is choosing a top private over UVA in-state any different?

If you we're out of state VA, I would say either school was fine. Because you are a VA resident, I would totally go to UVA.

I didn't think that Hopkins undergrad was that great. Lots of competition in the premed classes, which makes it more difficult for most students to get into med school (compared to a place that is not so focused on premed).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA has a 30% admit rate. Duke is 10%. Of course Duke is better. If cost is not an issue, the choice is obvious.

Admit rates are simply a result of marketing efforts. You need to look at the profile of the class and the post-graduation outcomes to get a measure of "better".

Class profile? The overwhelming majority of UVA students could would not get admitted to Duke. Look at the Common Data set.

True. PP doesn't understand she is comparing apples to oranges. You can't compare a SLACs admit rate to the flagship of a state. The competition for UVA is fierce, especially from Nova where it seems that the acceptance rate is more like 1% from McLean or Langley High School. The current class has 286 with perfect SATs, 93 percent were in the top 10% of their class, etc. I was on college confidential watching the international students play "chance me" for UVA during EA and regular admissions. The stats of rejected kids was astonishing. DC didn't even consider applying to Duke (too provincial; town and gown problems; the stupidity of faculty reaction to the Duke Lacrosse incident; overall liberal stupidity; too rich WASPy; too expensive and we're in the donut hole) but got into the real Duke - Princeton, UVA, GA Tech, Cal Tech, etc. and picked UVA and never looked back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard , Princeton , Yale , Hopkins, Stanford, MIT, Caltech.


All other privates are a waste of money that can be easily outperformed by state flagships.

So University of Wyoming over Duke then?

What? But consider the fact that only 10% of the incoming freshmen class at Duke is from NC. While OP posed the question re UVA I think the same holds true for UNC, the state flagship most relevant to Duke. The overwhelming majority of North Carolinians, when deciding if Duke is worth the extra tuition compared to an education at UNC (OP asked vs UVA), clearly they say no, and I think it could offer similar insight to the UVAvs Duke question. Quality of education,learning experience, alumni network, national reputation, is Duke worth the insanely more expensive price tag?

Now whether a student wants a small private school education at the college level is an entirely different question. My cousin and her husband are both principals at NC public high schools in central NC. Every fall and spring they organize tours of NC colleges for their jrs and srs to visit a group, usually renting buses and seeing 2-3 schools each trip. Students sign up for the trips they want. They haven't had any demand for Duke in 10 years and last year decided to drop it as an option. My cousin was fascinated by this. She said she felt it was in part due to the economic downturn and also to students really taking more control over the financial outlook of taking on student loans and how much things will cost. For them at least, the price tag was too inflated.

Again OP is talking about cost concerns re UVA vs Duke. Michelle Singletary of WaPo did a great similar analysis of her daughter's choices of UMD instate vs UNC out of state a few years ago.

Anonymous wrote:Like all colleges, it depends upon the intended program. Different schools have different strengths and weaknesses in their departments.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Harvard , Princeton , Yale , Hopkins, Stanford, MIT, Caltech.


All other privates are a waste of money that can be easily outperformed by state flagships.

So University of Wyoming over Duke then?