Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what is UVa's strengths? Other than ranking by some magazine. Specifics anyone?

UVA public ivy I guess. People have this idea it's a better school.

Kids in engineering vie for exact same jobs and grad schools.

That said. UVA has a much nicer campus for many kids that is huge. I don't blame them. It's much more like a college town.

UMD is in a not nice part of town. Apartments and housing off campus routinely get broken into.

UMD is a beloved school by many and should not be discounted.

The biggest problems with UMD are the out of state numbers which UVA or schools like UNC do not accept. Getting into UMD from instate is pretty hard. UMD accepts at least 34% of out of state students with significantly lower gpa requirements. Pay full price good chance going.

Also, the Business School is a lImited enrollment program with an extremely high gpa requirement, and the University of ShadyGrove adds a whole extra level of annoyance. It's about 40 minutes away from main campus, some kids are required to take classes there. There is a pretty reliable bus system that ferries students back and forth.

UVa's 2017-18 enrollment numbers show 31% from out of state. It's not that different.

https://admission.virginia.edu/admission/statistics

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that the high school kids in VA are happy to go to UVA but kids in MD won’t even consider UMD as an option? Why does UMD get no respect? What’s so bad? Especially kids planning engineering or cs? What’s the issue?

Lots of HS kids in MD are happy to go to UMD, but I'd guess one reason might be that half the states population lives within an hour or so of the school, and a lot of kids want to get further away from home.

UMD is a lot like Rutgers. It’s not a bad school but the location is depressing and there’s a sense that most people there ended up at their second or third choice.

Anonymous wrote:I live in VA so can only speculate, but there is the fact that College Park is a stop on the DC metro. To me, it wouldn't feel as much like "going away" to college. UVA is much more removed from DC.

. there’s an Amtrak train that runs 3x a day from Charlottesville (very short walk from campus) to DC

Anonymous wrote:UMDCP is a very good university but I agree that the issue is College Park. It's never made sense that the surrounding town of the flagship state university in a pretty prosperous state wouldn't catch up with the school. There have been some changes and supposedly there are more to come but it won't be easy to live down the idea that CP is a gritty afterthought.

There are tons of good colleges in crappy areas.

Anonymous wrote:I hear more...Karla can not get in to UMD and is going to Towson.

Yes, parent of W kids from MCPS. Tons of exactly what you said. Only defense too that is that UMD has a much bigger acceptance rate for out of state students than UVA does, by lot.

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what is UVa's strengths? Other than ranking by some magazine. Specifics anyone?

UVA public ivy I guess. People have this idea it's a better school.

Kids in engineering vie for exact same jobs and grad schools.

That said. UVA has a much nicer campus for many kids that is huge. I don't blame them. It's much more like a college town.

UMD is in a not nice part of town. Apartments and housing off campus routinely get broken into.

UMD is a beloved school by many and should not be discounted.

The biggest problems with UMD are the out of state numbers which UVA or schools like UNC do not accept. Getting into UMD from instate is pretty hard. UMD accepts at least 34% of out of state students with significantly lower gpa requirements. Pay full price good chance going.

Also, the Business School is a lImited enrollment program with an extremely high gpa requirement, and the University of ShadyGrove adds a whole extra level of annoyance. It's about 40 minutes away from main campus, some kids are required to take classes there. There is a pretty reliable bus system that ferries students back and forth.

Anonymous wrote:UMD is, indeed, a great school for many subjects, including engineering and computer science. But it has a kind of homely campus in a dumpy town and it's very close to where many of the posters on DCUM live. I think most kids would prefer to go to a more idyllic campus in a cute college town a little removed from their HS.

It's also the case that UVA has had a great reputation for a State school for decades, while UMD's rise in the rankings and prominence started relatively recently. Still, even if they had the exact same prestige, I think people would be vastly more excited to go to UMD if it were in Annapolis or someplace else cooler than College Park. Most kids I know who end up there love it though, regardless of how excited there were about it in HS.

This is a large part of it. Also, College Park ain't exactly an idyllic college town.

I hear more...Karla can not get in to UMD and is going to Towson.

UMDCP is a very good university but I agree that the issue is College Park. It's never made sense that the surrounding town of the flagship state university in a pretty prosperous state wouldn't catch up with the school. There have been some changes and supposedly there are more to come but it won't be easy to live down the idea that CP is a gritty afterthought.

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what is UVa's strengths? Other than ranking by some magazine. Specifics anyone?

Brad, Chad and Thad say it is great

Exactly what is UVa's strengths? Other than ranking by some magazine. Specifics anyone?

Anonymous wrote:Not all Va kids eligible want to go to UVA.

Yeah, right.

Anonymous wrote:This is my DD. We live in MD. She says her first choice school is UVA and she absolutely doesn't want to go to UMD--even though she may study engineering.

Two reasons.
1. Landscaping (UVA seems like a more elegant, traditional historical university.
2. Proximity to home. She doesn't want to go a few miles away. Charlottesville is a few hours away.

In sum, it's all superficial--not based on quality of school.

Are you paying OOS tuition for those reasons?

The general sentiment at my DD’s W school is if you are going to umd it means you didn’t get in anywhere else. It’s like ‘oh you worked so hard just to land at umd? ‘ Whereas my friends and their kids are very happy and proud to attend UVA.