Some of us view UVA as more of a community college type school. Sure you could get in-state tuition but you also deal with poverty among the student body and limited resources due to the state’s budget. There is no prestige and your peers are just trying to tread water.

Anonymous wrote:For donut hole families with high achieving kids this is increasingly becoming a common choice. The cost of elite private universities, which is going to top $100,000 a year soon, is a strain for many upper middle class families. Two kids. $800,000. And when you consider that the type of kid who is getting into Harvard or Duke is likely also being offered considerable merit and even full rides from their state flagships it becomes a fairly easy decision. Many families will take the free ride or the heavy discount over Harvard. And then use the savings for grad school or a down payment or whatever. That's a very reasonable choice.

That is the smart choice! For any kid who is competitive for a Harvard, they can easily find excellent merit a tier or two down. Heck, kids that are not "highly qualified" can also find excellent merit. My 3.5UW/1250/no AP kid got 35% of tuition at two schools in the 80s (so total cost was $40K, this was 5 years ago) and got 70% of tuition at a school ranked ~120 (total cost of $30K). We were not even searching for merit. It is not difficult to find merit, you just have to step down a bit to a school that values you and gives merit. I don't consider 80 ranked schools to be "bad school" they were both excellent schools and my kid attended one

Anonymous wrote:I did that. Not quite Harvard, but turned down Duke, Cornell, and Dartmouth engineering to go to UMD. It was the decision between graduating debt free or $100k+ in debt.

Ironically at my first job my cube mate came from Yale, so I'm not sure it made much of a difference in the end. Part of me still wonders "what if?" 20 years later, but I'm not sad with how my life turned out.

I bet you and your first cube mate made very similar salary in your first jobs as well. Fact is it is NOT worth going into debt for college. If you have a good state school, get in, and actually like the school, most would be foolish to turn it down and pay significantly more.

Anonymous wrote:For my family, if we were choosing between in-state UVA with some aid and Harvard full-pay or close to it, it would be very hard to turn down UVA.

Luckily, we will never face that dilemma. 😂

Exactly! Most likely it is a money issue. Hard to justify an extra $45K+ per year if it's not already saved or if kid plans for Law school/med school and that extra $45K could be used to have less debt. That's $180K saved by choosing UVA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t always worth it for a family to put a huge stress on their finances for an impressive school. UVA produces very successful students and was likely much cheaper. I get it. The Ivy brand isn’t necessarily a good purchase if you, say, hurt your retirement.

UVA is barely top 25 and they are very weak in STEM and CS. It doesn’t attract top students.

Hey, guess what? There are many other majors that aren’t STEM or CS. And UVA is very strong in a lot of them.

If you’re majoring in something that will likely require a PhD to get a decent job, it absolutely makes sense to go to a cheaper, but still solid, undergraduate school. With the right preparation from highly-qualified faculty, a top graduate program is entirely possible—and you’re less likely to be starting out in debt.

Stop feeding the barley 25 not strong in STEM and CS troll please.

The truth doesn't care about your feelings.

Does the truth care about the truth?

Because they've become for the very wealthy and the poor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fall in the donut group, money could be an issue especially with multiple kids in college

They probably do fall into the donut group. Both parents are professionals but I don’t think they make $$$.

+1. This is likely the answer, as they were interested in Harvard enough to apply.

Athletes turn them down for athletic scholarships, too.

Anonymous wrote:For donut hole families with high achieving kids this is increasingly becoming a common choice. The cost of elite private universities, which is going to top $100,000 a year soon, is a strain for many upper middle class families. Two kids. $800,000. And when you consider that the type of kid who is getting into Harvard or Duke is likely also being offered considerable merit and even full rides from their state flagships it becomes a fairly easy decision. Many families will take the free ride or the heavy discount over Harvard. And then use the savings for grad school or a down payment or whatever. That's a very reasonable choice.

THIS

For donut hole families with high achieving kids this is increasingly becoming a common choice. The cost of elite private universities, which is going to top $100,000 a year soon, is a strain for many upper middle class families. Two kids. $800,000. And when you consider that the type of kid who is getting into Harvard or Duke is likely also being offered considerable merit and even full rides from their state flagships it becomes a fairly easy decision. Many families will take the free ride or the heavy discount over Harvard. And then use the savings for grad school or a down payment or whatever. That's a very reasonable choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard is expensive
Not everyone likes Harvard or feel it is a fit for them
UVA is a great school
One data point does not make a trend or norm

Then why did this person apply to Harvard ?

They obviously are interested in going. Just decided on UVA. Picked the place they thought best for them.

I would assume it's based on cost. UVA in-state is probably substantially cheaper.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t always worth it for a family to put a huge stress on their finances for an impressive school. UVA produces very successful students and was likely much cheaper. I get it. The Ivy brand isn’t necessarily a good purchase if you, say, hurt your retirement.

UVA is barely top 25 and they are very weak in STEM and CS. It doesn’t attract top students.

Wrong. UVa attracts plenty of top students. My kid being one. Echols scholar. Top stats, valedictorian of very large public, long-term strong ECs/volunteering, niche sport (& captain), part-time job, orchestra, and more. Solid all around and extremely likable. Kid is very happy at UVa.

Aren't there 4.0 students at all schools around the world? Based on your argument, all schools attract top students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t always worth it for a family to put a huge stress on their finances for an impressive school. UVA produces very successful students and was likely much cheaper. I get it. The Ivy brand isn’t necessarily a good purchase if you, say, hurt your retirement.

UVA is barely top 25 and they are very weak in STEM and CS. It doesn’t attract top students.

Ranking colleges is fake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did that. Not quite Harvard, but turned down Duke, Cornell, and Dartmouth engineering to go to UMD. It was the decision between graduating debt free or $100k+ in debt.

Ironically at my first job my cube mate came from Yale, so I'm not sure it made much of a difference in the end. Part of me still wonders "what if?" 20 years later, but I'm not sad with how my life turned out.

+1
There are Googlers who graduated from top tier who work along side state u grads. I worked with someone from Cornell; I graduated from no name state u.

I never understand this reasoning. Unless you can prove Google hires in the same proportion from Harvard vs a specific State U, it doesn’t verify anything.

If Google hires 50 from Harvard and only 10 from UVA…well the odds are significantly better at Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people do this for financial reasons. I know several who turned down Ivies for University of Florida. The financial savings is HUGE.

+1 My DH got into Duke and Penn but went to a SLAC ranked between 50 and 100 because they gave him a full ride. His parents told him they had spent all their money on college for his older sibling and an inheritance they were expecting didn’t materialize.