Anonymous wrote:We moved to VA from MD when my oldest was 2 years old. Best decision because we took full advantage of in-state tuition at UVA for both kids.

But moving with a 2 year old is much different than OP's situation, where her kids are in middle school.

Anonymous wrote:We moved to VA from MD when my oldest was 2 years old. Best decision because we took full advantage of in-state tuition at UVA for both kids.

Smart decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you move, you should make it clear to your kids early on that their college options are limited to public Virginia schools (or colleges that are equivalent in cost after four-year guaranteed non-loan financial aid). We're Virginia residents and this was the stipulation that we gave our kids. I wasn't going to let them disregard a great $30K school so that they could go to a similar one across the country for $60K.

That's a silly restriction. You can ask them to consider costs, but it's possible to get merit aid that makes some private schools the same or less than even in state options.

Merit aid is MUCH less available/common than many on DCUM seem to think. A lot of colleges have zero “merit aid”.

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are happy and have wonderful friends, it is never worth it to move in middle or high school just to game college admissions. If they are smart enough to attend college, a school is out there that you can afford. It probably won’t be UVA or Harvard, but it will suffice.

“Never” seems too strong. I could believe “rarely” or “infrequently”, but in any sample this large there will be at least a few students/families who would benefit from a move.

We moved to VA from MD when my oldest was 2 years old. Best decision because we took full advantage of in-state tuition at UVA for both kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are happy and have wonderful friends, it is never worth it to move in middle or high school just to game college admissions. If they are smart enough to attend college, a school is out there that you can afford. It probably won’t be UVA or Harvard, but it will suffice.

Not quite the same

+1
I laughed! So absurd.

I don't think you've kept up with how difficult it has become to get into UVA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are happy and have wonderful friends, it is never worth it to move in middle or high school just to game college admissions. If they are smart enough to attend college, a school is out there that you can afford. It probably won’t be UVA or Harvard, but it will suffice.

Not quite the same

+1
I laughed! So absurd.

We are planning to do this. DP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actual math is

(1) It’s cheaper to go from DC to other states for college than it is to live in Virginia and go to top Virginia schools. (Eg, Purdue OOS is about the same price as VT in-state, and then you subtract DCTAG.) This is because in-state prices in Virginia are absurdly high compared to in-state prices in most states. In fact I know several Virginia families who have gone out of state to save money.

(2)

but the real reason is that their kids didn't get into UVA or W&M or VT. Several families I know had to fall back upon OOS applications when those schools did not accept their kids.

Hard to get in when you don't even apply. Not everyone wants to go to those schools. My kid didn't.

ok for them. The point is that a move to Virginia opens up a lot of options including all of the other schools (JMU, Radison, GMU, VCU, etc. and the NVCC transfer program.)

You can go to VCU from DC. If you have a weighted 3.5 you are guaranteed admission and a $12k merit scholarship. DC TAG is $10k. The delta between in-state and OOS tuition is about $22k. If you think that’s a coincidence you underestimate the people at VCU who designed that pricing scheme.

And the math works roughly like that for all the lesser Virginia schools, as well as the lesser Maryland and Pennsylvania schools. Moving doesn’t “open up” those options. They are already open.

a) the VCU program was just implemented in January but you need a 3.5 weighted GPA
b) the VCU program is open to all applicants not just DC residents
c) VCU initiated the program to raise overall GPA to push VCU up the rankings
d) we know this because VCU's GPA at the 25th percentile is only a weighted 3.29


But back to options, Virginia has over 40 public insitutions of higher learning (there's a wiki listing them). That, alone, is reason to move. There's something for everyone. Plus lower taxes; a responsive government; law enforcement, etc

It’s not a bad idea. The top tier VA colleges are hard to get into though. Sadly, both my VA kids went OOS. But it is a nice fallback to come back if their first choice experience doesn’t pan out and they need to regroup. It’s also a nice option for grad school. I would move. It also depends on the HS comparison between what you currently have to what you’d be getting. Good luck and don’t wait too long. It’s hard to adjust to a new school in HS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actual math is

(1) It’s cheaper to go from DC to other states for college than it is to live in Virginia and go to top Virginia schools. (Eg, Purdue OOS is about the same price as VT in-state, and then you subtract DCTAG.) This is because in-state prices in Virginia are absurdly high compared to in-state prices in most states. In fact I know several Virginia families who have gone out of state to save money.

(2)

but the real reason is that their kids didn't get into UVA or W&M or VT. Several families I know had to fall back upon OOS applications when those schools did not accept their kids.

Hard to get in when you don't even apply. Not everyone wants to go to those schools. My kid didn't.

ok for them. The point is that a move to Virginia opens up a lot of options including all of the other schools (JMU, Radison, GMU, VCU, etc. and the NVCC transfer program.)

You can go to VCU from DC. If you have a weighted 3.5 you are guaranteed admission and a $12k merit scholarship. DC TAG is $10k. The delta between in-state and OOS tuition is about $22k. If you think that’s a coincidence you underestimate the people at VCU who designed that pricing scheme.

And the math works roughly like that for all the lesser Virginia schools, as well as the lesser Maryland and Pennsylvania schools. Moving doesn’t “open up” those options. They are already open.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actual math is

(1) It’s cheaper to go from DC to other states for college than it is to live in Virginia and go to top Virginia schools. (Eg, Purdue OOS is about the same price as VT in-state, and then you subtract DCTAG.) This is because in-state prices in Virginia are absurdly high compared to in-state prices in most states. In fact I know several Virginia families who have gone out of state to save money.

(2)

but the real reason is that their kids didn't get into UVA or W&M or VT. Several families I know had to fall back upon OOS applications when those schools did not accept their kids.

Hard to get in when you don't even apply. Not everyone wants to go to those schools. My kid didn't.

ok for them. The point is that a move to Virginia opens up a lot of options including all of the other schools (JMU, Radison, GMU, VCU, etc. and the NVCC transfer program.)

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are happy and have wonderful friends, it is never worth it to move in middle or high school just to game college admissions. If they are smart enough to attend college, a school is out there that you can afford. It probably won’t be UVA or Harvard, but it will suffice.

Not quite the same

If your kids are happy and have wonderful friends, it is never worth it to move in middle or high school just to game college admissions. If they are smart enough to attend college, a school is out there that you can afford. It probably won’t be UVA or Harvard, but it will suffice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actual math is

(1) It’s cheaper to go from DC to other states for college than it is to live in Virginia and go to top Virginia schools. (Eg, Purdue OOS is about the same price as VT in-state, and then you subtract DCTAG.) This is because in-state prices in Virginia are absurdly high compared to in-state prices in most states. In fact I know several Virginia families who have gone out of state to save money.

(2)

but the real reason is that their kids didn't get into UVA or W&M or VT. Several families I know had to fall back upon OOS applications when those schools did not accept their kids.

Hard to get in when you don't even apply. Not everyone wants to go to those schools. My kid didn't.