How UVa Compares to Other Flagship Universities in Out-of-State Enrollment
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4 responses to “How UVa Compares to Other Flagship Universities in Out-of-State Enrollment”
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There is absolutely no freaking “special burden” on state universities to acquit themselves well on bull&4*& rankings published in fake news magazines or in self-serving educational publications. Their job is to provide a first rate educational opportunity to the young people of that state, undergrad and professional level, and to be magnets for research. That is their job – and that is the only measurement that matters. That is why they take my tax dollars and one of them gets an annual supplemental check from my personal funds.
Yes, there is value in including some students from elsewhere and many of them do end up staying in Virginia. But looking at that list, those schools with tiny percentages of in-state students aren’t flagships for anything. UNC, now that’s a flagship, with that in-state percentage! And look at Berkeley! Good for them. And BTW, who elected Mr. Jefferson’s preppie academy the state flagship anyway? Didn’t get my vote! 🙂
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So the scion of Richmond goes to UVa and with his connections and his credentials ends up doing investment banking in NYC, and somehow raises a family in Manhattan, but wants his kid to drink from the same trough in Charlottesville? What does “out of State” mean anyway?
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In theory – “out of state” has to do with how much “in-state” taxpayers pay to support their own offspring’s education… I suppose….. and CLEARLY some states take that more seriously than others and they do fund their in-state kids at higher rates and allocate more slots to in-state.
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I attended the University of Michigan as an in-state student just after the last ice-age. At that time many people on the east coast felt that it provided the equivalent of an ivy-league education at a fraction of the cost. As a mid-westerner from a medium-size city, I enjoyed being around other students who had been exposed to a much wider variety of life experiences than I had. I considered it a valuable part of my education.
A high-school classmate went to MIT. My grades and SATs were better than his, but I did not think the difference in education was equivalent to the multiples of difference in cost.
My oldest son obtained his engineering degree from Michigan as an out of state student seventeen years ago. His annual costs were maybe up to 15-times more than what I had paid (not corrected for inflation).
As the state of Michigan’s economy shrank with the decline of the auto industry, I’m sure the state contribution to U of M declined as well. Much of the University’s reputation came from its highly regarded graduate schools: medicine, law, dentistry, business, etc. They probably saw that out-of-state students were grist for that mill. The world class hospital complex and the R&D conducted in the various graduate schools probably contribute a much higher percentage of the school’s budget than do undergraduates today.
I dislike the “pay to get ratings” game that many schools believe they must participate in. But our current time puts more emphasis on perception than reality, so I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that our major educational institutions are following the lead of government and business.
As the boomers retire, we might find that those we expect to replace them have not received an education that was as deep or as broad as those they intend to replace.
We must examine what the objective of a university education is. Is it to delay entry into the work-force as it was decades ago? Is it to get our young people deep in debt so they will be compliant to what is being asked of them? Is it to train them for a job? That is not usually what occurs with a university education, unless running the gauntlet of gaining a baccalaureate degree from a major university shows tenacity, perseverance, and ability to plod through the requisite B.S. indicates the qualities required of a modern corporate worker.
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