Anonymous wrote:My bff's son, who is in a position similar to your DC's, is likely headed to Mary Washington. I suppose for the DMV, that is a "regional university," but it has a very high admissions rate so I thought of it when reading your post.

Anonymous wrote:Michigan State accepts 88% of its students, yet it's a fantastic school in many majors. (Supply Chain Management being the #1 in the country, which is what my DS did--LOADS of job offers for their grads).

https://ir.msu.edu/rankings


It's really not always about the admit rate for the quality of the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where you go to college doesn’t matter, it is what you do there. I guarantee you there are plenty of speciality surgeons making seven figures that did undergrad at state schools with high acceptance rates. The acceptance rate doesn’t matter.

Can we just make this a sticky?

Anonymous wrote:The difference between schools like Duquesne, GMU, & VCU and schools like Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Oklahoma, & Iowa is that the latter are in states in which not a lot of people are sitting around studying the USNews rankings. They often see elite private colleges as a waste of money, so many of even the best students are happy to attend the U of ____ or _____ State U.

So in Va, Pa,Mass, NJ, NY etc the top students are fighting to get in Ivies & Stanford /Chicago/MIT etc. They are usually not happy about attending their own state schools like UMass, Rutgers, SUNY and so on. They are even less happy about attending their in-state publics which accept 80+%.

The bottom line is if you go to U of Arizona, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma State etc your classmates will include lots of that state’s smartest students, which is quite different from UMass & SUNY, much less CNU, VCU etc.

But remember, just because a lot of the best students in Kansas head to the U of Kansas, it doesn’t mean most of the students at the U of Kansas are top students. There is a mixture of students at such colleges, but they DO include a lot of valedictorians & other top students.

Anonymous wrote:The difference between schools like Duquesne, GMU, & VCU and schools like Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Oklahoma, & Iowa is that the latter are in states in which not a lot of people are sitting around studying the USNews rankings. They often see elite private colleges as a waste of money, so many of even the best students are happy to attend the U of ____ or _____ State U.

So in Va, Pa,Mass, NJ, NY etc the top students are fighting to get in Ivies & Stanford /Chicago/MIT etc. They are usually not happy about attending their own state schools like UMass, Rutgers, SUNY and so on. They are even less happy about attending their in-state publics which accept 80+%.

The bottom line is if you go to U of Arizona, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma State etc your classmates will include lots of that state’s smartest students, which is quite different from UMass & SUNY, much less CNU, VCU etc.

But remember, just because a lot of the best students in Kansas head to the U of Kansas, it doesn’t mean most of the students at the U of Kansas are top students. There is a mixture of students at such colleges, but they DO include a lot of valedictorians & other top students.

Anonymous wrote:You say these schools are "lax," but another way to look at them is that they have capacity for all kinds of students.

George Mason University, for instance, had an acceptance rate of 90% last cycle, in part because they're growing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You say these schools are "lax," but another way to look at them is that they have capacity for all kinds of students.

George Mason University, for instance, had an acceptance rate of 90% last cycle, in part because they're growing.

This. For example, Arizona State has explicitly said their mission is to give all kinds of students opportunities so they want to be large and admit most applicants. As they put it, they want to be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed"

OP here- Thank you, this is very helpful! We're looking at GMU, but will now take a peek at ASU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You say these schools are "lax," but another way to look at them is that they have capacity for all kinds of students.

George Mason University, for instance, had an acceptance rate of 90% last cycle, in part because they're growing.

This. For example, Arizona State has explicitly said their mission is to give all kinds of students opportunities so they want to be large and admit most applicants. As they put it, they want to be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed"

OP here- Thank you, this is very helpful! We're looking at GMU, but will now take a peek at ASU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You say these schools are "lax," but another way to look at them is that they have capacity for all kinds of students.

George Mason University, for instance, had an acceptance rate of 90% last cycle, in part because they're growing.

This. For example, Arizona State has explicitly said their mission is to give all kinds of students opportunities so they want to be large and admit most applicants. As they put it, they want to be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed"

OP here- Thank you, this is very helpful! We're looking at GMU, but will now take a peek at ASU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In addition to 4-year graduation rate, I would look at freshman/first year retention rate - or how many students return after their first year. I would look at their first-year/freshman-year curriculum and the support they have in place for student success. Basically if your student goes there, what will that first year be like for them.

+1 They can have better outcomes for some students than a community college because you are part of the on campus community and I think that can be helpful in peer influence and access to support resources.

In VA, both GMU and VCU have overall high admit rates (will be lower for some majors) but also high retention rates. In MD, a couple smaller schools with high admit rates/high retention are McDaniel (has a reputation of having good supports for students with learning disabilities) and Loyola Maryland.

GMU is always growing as well. It was nonstop construction when my daughter went there. Now there are four other campuses in Virginia and a fifth in South Korea. Be sure to tour the high tech campus in Prince Georges County. State of the art and amazing. My DC took computer classes there