Anonymous wrote:DC applied to all three of these schools last cycle and will be trying again. These three schools are getting more competitive and out of reach for everyday people. I think each of them should be split up into multiple different schools that each have less competitive admissions or they should each double in size. Not just a 10% increase or 2% increase every year or whatever thing like that. They need to start construction NOW to build at least 2x the housing, classrooms, etc. to accommodate double the number of students and all new students should be required to come from Virginia. These admissions practices have gone way too far. As soon as admission rates hit below 50% for in-state applicants there should be mandatory student body expansions

The UVA in state admissions rate is 25%
The W&M in state admissions rate is 44%
The Virginia Tech in state admissions rate is 57%

It's not the colleges being too exclusive.
Have you considered whether your child doesn't actually deserve a spot at these schools?

Anonymous wrote:DC applied to all three of these schools last cycle and will be trying again. These three schools are getting more competitive and out of reach for everyday people. I think each of them should be split up into multiple different schools that each have less competitive admissions or they should each double in size. Not just a 10% increase or 2% increase every year or whatever thing like that. They need to start construction NOW to build at least 2x the housing, classrooms, etc. to accommodate double the number of students and all new students should be required to come from Virginia. These admissions practices have gone way too far. As soon as admission rates hit below 50% for in-state applicants there should be mandatory student body expansions

Study harder in high school. Going 0 for 3 when there's a clear difference among all 3 schools in admissions is not reflective of the schools but of the student. I wish that they had an actual most selective school to rival Berkeley and UCLA in rankings to prevent the brain drain from the many kids that consider UVA a safety.

Anonymous wrote:100% agree with the sentiment. UVa has barely increased enrollment. They are more interested in making the campus preppy.

There is literally not space for UVA to grow. We are so lucky to be in Virginia with so many options and a range of sizes and locations.

100% agree with the sentiment. UVa has barely increased enrollment. They are more interested in making the campus preppy.

This is ridiculous. There is already a plan to significantly grow VT. It has the land but this will take time. UVA doesn't have the space to grow. W&M has grown its student body by 1400
since 1985 and has plans to expand further with new dorms, etc.

Our child, who had 4.2 and good rigor was deferred from VT and flat out rejected from UVA. Figured out during the winter of her senior year that she was interested in nursing which she hadn't applied to at UVA and Va Tech doesn't have. She is graduating from JMU Nursing in the spring.

She couldn't be happier. It all works out. We are lucky to have many great schools in Virginia, not just Tech, UVA, and W&M.

Anonymous wrote:Make the smaller schools satellite universities for the big name schools. Go two years at the smaller ones and then 2 guaranteed at the bigger names. Have it be a natural pipeline, no transfer app required.

Look at threads about UVA Wise here and see how people look down their noses at it. UVA lets in-state waitlist kids go to UVA Wise for a year and then move to Charlottesville. No application.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Virginia has many schools for all types of students.

Let me guess. YOUR kids go to one of the top 3? That's what I thought. There needs to be a change.

NP. I have one kid at UVA and one kid who has applied to VTech (reach, unlikely) and JMU (likely). I have twins after the first two and I expect that one will apply to the top three (who knows?) and the other will be looking at JMU/VCU. I haven't even mentioned GMU which I think is a great and totally undervalued option.

I am not from Virginia and I can't BELIEVE the wealth of options here. I think VA is second only to California in this country and, in some ways, I'd take Virginia over CA because of the more serious overenrollment issues there. Other than CA, there is no other state in the country that compares in my opinion. I see people talk about North Carolina and Georgia but the drop off after the top two is too steep in my opinion. And some people love the NY schools but they don't have a UVA or even a Tech. And nobody has a William and Mary.

The only sense in which I have felt a little sting of unfairness is that I know my second kid would be in at Virginia Tech if we were not from NOVA. I am sure lots of people in FCPS feel the same way about UVA and W&M. But I knew that going into it and I am over it, he's over it.

I repeat, we have incredible options in this state. My siblings are envious. My high school friends are envious. We are the lucky ones.

Virginia already has an excellent university system. No one is going to spend time renaming, combining, and using more tax dollars to change that.

OP says this is the second cycle her kid is applying but doesn’t say what the kid has been doing this last year. Hopefully taking a full course load at NOVA and demonstrating they can handle the rigor of UVA/VT/WM

Make the smaller schools satellite universities for the big name schools. Go two years at the smaller ones and then 2 guaranteed at the bigger names. Have it be a natural pipeline, no transfer app required.

Anonymous wrote:Do that to the state’s best schools, and they won’t be the best for long. OP, you want the school’s reputation without the school’s admission and course rigor. Those things are incompatible. If your kid can’t get into these schools, they belong at a lower-ranked VA school. As others have said, there is a VA state school for everyone. You just need to accept that the schools you covet are not an academic match for your kid.

Truth.

OP simply wants their child to have the name recognition of one of the top tier state schools. OP, you really don't think they'll have the same experience at CNU or Longwood or similar if they happen to be called UVA or VT? Or if they do expand the main campuses massively, will that college experience be the quality one you're hoping for?

It’s an interesting topic though a strange solution.

Canada does have this general approach…they consider low acceptance rates a bad thing and once acceptance rates hit a certain level (can’t remember), the schools almost automatically expand. Often times, they create a satellite campus near the main campus.

This is why University of Toronto is 80,000 students which I think is larger than any US university. It still ranks top 20 in the world, so they manage to expand without sacrificing quality.

The flip side though is that the college population isn’t expanding…if more kids attend Toronto then fewer are attending another school so they do reduce costs at schools that are shrinking.

Anonymous wrote:You can argue how much BS is in the current "holistic" admission process though (think Harvard). I think it's fair to ask for merit based admissions.

That's not what OP wants. Smart kids are getting in, so.not OP's kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all are so lucky to live in VA. We are considering paying $70-$80k to send our kid to one of your schools…if they are lucky enough to even be admitted.

Maybe Virginia need to shrink the out of state student body to make more spots for taxpayer in state kids.

The catch is that OOS tuition is a major line item in campus budgets. The struggle has been even more visible than this at Michigan for years. Plus increasing the OOS ratio enhances selectivity. Plus OOS tuition is far more reliable than tax-base support that can be reduced by legislatures. State appropriations are a constant fear at public universities. So it's tougher math than it looks.