Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A. it's really hard to be in the top 10 % in this area. The competition is very very high.
B. we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

If the only state options were W&M and UVA, I would agree with you--very tough to take.

But they are not. There are several other good public options in VA. The "second tier" state universities in VA are better than the best public universities in several states. UVA and W&M are considered among the best public universities in the country. Yes, they are selective, that contributes to their excellence. But there are plenty of other schools for state residents. So this is really not that tough.

PP, absolutely agreed. But let's quit the state funding for the two schools, UVA and W&M, that no longer practice merits admission and, by policy, do not afford equal opportunity. There's no question - there are several very good, very solid publics in VA. The issue is that UVA and W&M have transformed themselves into special-admissions programs for those that have been homeschooled, and those that have attended one-room schoolhouses, and those that have no academic records to speak of, all at the expense of people in NoVa who pay essentially all of the state's income taxes. You shouldn't have to pay state taxes to support a state park that has a sign up saying "North/East of Remington VA Not Admitted." NoVa applicants are not welcome, on an equal basis, at UVA and W&M. Time to pull their public funding. It's not that they aren't very good -- they ARE - it's that they're no longer public universities.

Anonymous wrote:I'm sick of people peddling fake stats about UVA selectivity. They have a clear agenda to push the rep of the school beyond what it deserves. All it does is feed a NoVA mania among parents. Just stop!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A. it's really hard to be in the top 10 % in this area. The competition is very very high.
B. we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

UVA admission rate is about 30%! It's not that hard to get in.

If you think this, you are not paying attention. It's 30% on average--the NOVA rate is actually much lower.

A weighted 3.66 is not that hard to get. My rising junior, a pretty average student, currently has a 3.83. He has 5 B/B+ grades on his transcript, has only taken 5 honors classes, and doesn't have any APs yet.


Exactly! Come back next year when he's taking APs and see if you still think it's so easy.

we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A. it's really hard to be in the top 10 % in this area. The competition is very very high.
B. we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

UVA admission rate is about 30%! It's not that hard to get in.

If you think this, you are not paying attention. It's 30% on average--the NOVA rate is actually much lower.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A. it's really hard to be in the top 10 % in this area. The competition is very very high.
B. we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

If the only state options were W&M and UVA, I would agree with you--very tough to take.

But they are not. There are several other good public options in VA. The "second tier" state universities in VA are better than the best public universities in several states. UVA and W&M are considered among the best public universities in the country. Yes, they are selective, that contributes to their excellence. But there are plenty of other schools for state residents. So this is really not that tough.

PP, absolutely agreed. But let's quit the state funding for the two schools, UVA and W&M, that no longer practice merits admission and, by policy, do not afford equal opportunity. There's no question - there are several very good, very solid publics in VA. The issue is that UVA and W&M have transformed themselves into special-admissions programs for those that have been homeschooled, and those that have attended one-room schoolhouses, and those that have no academic records to speak of, all at the expense of people in NoVa who pay essentially all of the state's income taxes. You shouldn't have to pay state taxes to support a state park that has a sign up saying "North/East of Remington VA Not Admitted." NoVa applicants are not welcome, on an equal basis, at UVA and W&M. Time to pull their public funding. It's not that they aren't very good -- they ARE - it's that they're no longer public universities.

Hello there! I'm one of those kids who got into and currently goes to UVA: a school that apparently no longer practices merit admission according to you. Since you are a fragile person of delicate constitution, I've decided I will give you an in-depth response from someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

1. But let's quit the state funding for the two schools, UVA and W&M
Alright, so your main complaint is that UVA doesn't take kids by merit but instead takes kids raised in log cabins and home schools. I would *love* to see your data on how UVA has thousands of home schooled kids. Of the hundreds of people I have met at UVA and of those who are my friend on facebook, only 1 was home schooled. You're upset that UVA is not taking enough kids from certain parts of Virginia. Well if UVA no longer received public funding, then UVA would most certainly go private, and in five years, most of the student body would be out of state and international. Since you have no idea what you're talking about, I'll make it simple for you: defund UVA and nobody from Virginia will get in. Had it not been for the fantastic in-state tuition rates, which more than halved my college expenses, I would have been forced to go to an Ivy! It's not like UVA is known as "public Ivy" or anything. Oh the horror.

2. UVA gets hardly any public funding. In fact, only about 5.8% of its budget, as of 2013, came from the state. UVA is basically running as a private school already. It operates pretty well too since it has a $2 billion slush fund

3. UVA and W&M, that no longer practice merits admission
WTF? The average GPA of students admitted was 4.23 for my class and 4.26 for the incoming class. Their middle 50% of SAT scores lies solidly in the 700s. Their middle 50% of ACT scores lies firmly in the 30s. 90% of my class was in the top 10% of their high school classes. 97% of UVA's students were in the top 25% of their classes. These are kids who have founded companies, worked for Congress and NASA, have overcome tremendous odds, and yes, even competed in the Olympics. Sorry your kid couldn't get in.

4. The issue is that UVA and W&M have transformed themselves into special-admissions programs for those that have been homeschooled, and those that have attended one-room schoolhouses
Sorry that you're so elitist you couldn't get over the fact that some people haven't been as blessed as you are. As a student, I can confirm everyone here deserved to come. What one-room schoolhouse did you have in mind? You know who else went to a one-room school house? President Lincoln.

5. You shouldn't have to pay state taxes to support a state park that has a sign up saying "North/East of Remington VA Not Admitted."
Defund UVA and nobody from Virginia will get in. Whoops.

6. NoVa applicants are not welcome, on an equal basis, at UVA and W&M.
WTF? What rock are you living under? A massive portion of the student body comes from NOVA because that is where the high-achieving population in the state is. You need a truly fantastic record to get in. One friend came in with 5.00+ GPA and over 60 dual-enrollment credits from the local college nearby her home(not a community college). Another came in having done serious engineering internships with Oracle and AI development firms. He literally built parts for the International Space Station. Another girl competed in the Olympics. We have somebody who went to Boys Nation and received the Samsung scholarship. One person I know was taking advanced politics classes at Swarthmore at the age of 14. This year UVA produced two Rhodes Scholars, both of which are women. These kids are amazingly intelligent and also very nice. I was DAMN lucky to get in.

7. Time to pull their public funding.
You're an idiot.

8. it's that they're no longer public universities
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. If they truly weren't public universities anymore then why are they taking 70% of their classes from in-state? If they were truly private, only 10% of the class would be in state, and then your kid really wouldn't be able to get in. Sorry college is expensive these days. Talk to your legislator about trying to send more funds to these schools. I would greatly appreciate that!

Sorry, PP, you're 100% wrong on the facts. Recognizing that you're a very understandably proud and eager young representative of your unusually small group of NoVa admits to UVA, you should know that UVA is - it really is!! - substantially publicly funded.

Please do some homework. Virginia House Bill 1500, Chapter 836, includes the UVA budget from the state. The total is $1.281 billion. This does NOT include the med school and related schools, and it does NOT include capital funding for things like new buildings.

UVA is dependent on public funding to such a high degree that UVA has indeed been building a slush fund (until it was caught by the General Assembly in an audit two years ago) to brace itself for the eventuality that public funding will be lost. It's only a matter of time. UVA can'r continue to refuse to admit NoVa applicants on an equal basis and demand funding from NoVa taxpayers.

Hi there! UVA student here again! Do your homework: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-much-state-funding-does-the-university-of-virginia-receive/2013/09/12/fb999782-1baf-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html?utm_term=.1eebf6ca602d

"For all university divisions, state appropriations accounted for $154.4 million of a $2.6 billion budget, or 5.8 percent." (This is from 2013 and I believe it is less now)

Hmmm ... so you're declaring that the Virginia budget law is somehow a fraud, it's just fake news, it doesn't exist?

Please consider what the state itself posts. This is official, it's the state budget site, and it reflects actual dollars, not outlier interpretations. See line items 196 through 199, covering UVA:

https://budget.lis.virginia.gov/secretariat/2017/1/HB1500/Chapter/1/office-of-education/

Sorry, PP, I have great admiration for your enthusiasm, but you need to study up.

Hi there, unstudied UVA student here. Here is yet another article showing that funds from the state make up only 10% of UVA's budget. Most of that goes to the medical school and the rest goes to financial aid. Only a small portion actually goes to funding operating costs. You are in favor of financial aid, aren't you? Go read the breakdown on the bill you shared. It actually specifies most of it goes to financial aid, the medical school, and UVA at Wise. Very little goes to operating costs. As a full freight student, I'm delighted to see a decrease in projected cost growth for full freight students. I entered at $26,000 a year and this year, I have been informed it will jump to $30,000. That's a significant jump for a lot of students. I hope this bill decreases this growth in in-state tuition.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/page/budget

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A. it's really hard to be in the top 10 % in this area. The competition is very very high.
B. we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

UVA admission rate is about 30%! It's not that hard to get in.

If you think this, you are not paying attention. It's 30% on average--the NOVA rate is actually much lower.

A weighted 3.66 is not that hard to get. My rising junior, a pretty average student, currently has a 3.83. He has 5 B/B+ grades on his transcript, has only taken 5 honors classes, and doesn't have any APs yet.

Anonymous wrote:
A. it's really hard to be in the top 10 % in this area. The competition is very very high.
B. we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

UVA admission rate is about 30%! It's not that hard to get in.

Anonymous wrote:A. it's really hard to be in the top 10 % in this area. The competition is very very high.
B. we all know kids who had more than a 4.0, head cheerleader, class pres, lots of AP classes and STILL didn't get in to UVA. They reject A LOT of quality applicants. For a state university -- that is hard to take.

Anonymous wrote:A) taxpayers are no longer paying for UVA - it has been self-funding for about a decade now.
B) It is almost impossible to get in from NOVA now. The TJ figures are an anomaly because of the self-selecting that has already occurred just to get into TJ. Langley and McLean (with 2000 students) might sent 12 to 15 each. The other NOVA positions have to be spread amongst all the other NOVA highschools (33 in FCPS alone) plus the privates AND the in-state students who are attending a private in Maryland or D.C.
C) Yes, you must be in the top 10% of your class to get in. Class of 2020 was 93.5% top 10% and class of 2021 is 94.6%. Remaining slots are out of state paying full freight, URMs, international students, first generation or other strong diversity types who bring something to the class.
D) Yes, smart parents much prefer UVAs %26K a year (now $30K a year for incoming class) to out-of=state tuition of $50K or private university or SLAC at $70-$72K. I know several students who turned down Ivies and U Cal schools because of the prohibitive cost. One didn't get into UVA so went to Berkeley but his parents are furious.
E) UVA seems to be also seeking out students with exceptional SAT and ACT scores. 682 in last year's incoming class had perfect SAT. The two students I know who got in from NOVA had perfect ACTs. The average ACT for the class of 2021 is 31-34. The average GPA is 4.26.
F) UVA seems to look for exceptionally well-rounded students and cherry picks the best off of each public and private. Check the stats on College Confidential and study the backgrounds of the "Chance Mes" who didn't get in and you will be astounded.
G) Eagle Scout seems to be well-regarded. I work inthe field and heard that Eagle Scout is an auto. in for U of Cal schools (UCLA Berkeley). That has been true in my experience The four young men I know who went to UVA in the class of 2020 were all Eagle Scouts but also had GPAs over 4.0 and perfect scores.
H) Although no one will tell you this up front, top scores on the SAT II subjectmatter tests will help your application immensely. Many schools like UVA and princeton will say "not required but recommended" but they say that because testing is expensive and they want first generation, URMS and the poor to apply. The ivies have a special program for this . . . to help the inner city and poor kids apply. That is a huge plus on your appliction if the FAFSA will support your claimed financial situation.
I) The college world has REALLY changed since we all went. It's no small feat now to get into many of the schools we attended. Study the stats on College Confidential to get atrue handle of the situation before you apply and check with Naviance. Your VA high school will not help you inthe application process if you don't have the minimum stats. THat's why the acceptance rates that people claim show that UVA, W&M and some of theother VA schools are easy to get into is not accurate. You can't compare the application class of UVA to other privates across the nation. The public high school counselors will laugh atyou if you ask them to help get your B student into UVA and W&M and will steer you to another Virginia school. They will not work to get good letters of recommendation. They will not signal to UVA or W&M your child's rank.
I) Re rank. Now you will sqwak and say that Langley doesn't rank. But it does. Those 60 kids or more who make valedictorian (GPA over 4.0) are the only ones they will help get into UVA or W&M. Also, if you compete for the Jefferson Scholarship, the nominating school must rank the nominated student. Even if the school doens't rank, the principal must indicate a rank on the application form which i have filled out.
J) I have no answer. Many counties in VA send no student or one to UVA. FCPS sends about 600, but when you see those 600 spread out across all the public and private schools plus VA boarding school and Maryland private and DC private but VA residents, you see just how difficult it is to get in by sheer population numbers. One Congressman introduced a bill into the VA assembly which would have allotted 100 more seats to NOVA but I don't think it passed. Those 100 would have had a negligble impact, anyhow, on say Langley of Mclean. UVA does its best to make it fair but it also wants the top flight VA students and OOS and international students.
G) Meanwhile, as UVA cuts down on the no of VA seats, the U of Cal system isgoing the other direction to limit the no of OOS seats in upcoming classes to only 20% - this is in response to angry californians who are paying into a system that their students can't get into. But my professional guess is that 20% will go to top flight international students. The Chinese, in particular, have an irrational fix on UCLA and Berkeley because of proximity to mainland China.

I apologize for typos -working on small phone while on vacation Hope that is of some help.

Anonymous wrote:

GMU. You need a 3.66 now to get in.

A weighted 3.66 is not that hard to get. My rising junior, a pretty average student, currently has a 3.83. He has 5 B/B+ grades on his transcript, has only taken 5 honors classes, and doesn't have any APs yet.