over Texas, Berkeley and North Carolina. I have mixed emotions about it as I graduated from Texas as did both of my parents. Also, it would be nice to have her closer to home. She has, though, worked her tail off for four years and is one of only a handful of kids to get accepted to Virginia. She has earned the right to choose where she wants to go. She also just doesn't want to go to a school with 50,000 students (UVA has about 13,500 undergrads, 5000 grad students). I am proud of her and will miss her more than anything. Thanks for listening.
I can tell you that the fact of a final decision will leave a very pleasant hole in the dinner conversation. Now you need to google the nearast Bed Bath and Beyond for mommy to buy dorm crap and arrange for tickets to the game on the only parent's day weekend you will probably attend. Congratulations. Happy kids make happy parents.
UVa is an outstanding school. My daughter graduated from UT, looked around at others for grad school and was invited by UVa, but declined in favor of UT. She said UT's graduate program was superior, at least in her major (math).
You may not want to hear this, and other posters may flame me for this, but I think the lesser of all choices in that mix was Texas. Not academically or socially -- I myself am a proud Austin resident and holder of two degrees from UT, and I passionately love this school and this town. But I kind of want my kids to use college as the opportunity to go away to some other part of the country, and then, of course, return to Texas after they graduate. Given that consideration and the high quality of all of those out-of-state schools, I think I would want my kid to chose any of those three over Texas. In any event, you should have a ton of pride for a daughter who is blessed with those excellent choices. If it was my kid, I would probably put UVa as my first choice. Also, I was born in Virginia and spent about half of my childhood there, and it will be a great place for you to visit when you see your daughter. Congratulations!
The son of one my best friends went to UVA -- loved it. If you want to PM me, I can give your name/number to my friend, just in case you've questions.
You may not want to hear this, and other posters may flame me for this, but I think the lesser of all choices in that mix was Texas. Not academically or socially .... I think you can say that academically. Not a slam at UT at all. Berkeley may be hitting the skids, but it's certainly not unreasonable to put UT 4th on that august list. UT is one of the finest public universities in the country. Not at the very, very top, but right up there.
Perham1, I would agree with your comment comparing Texas to Berkley and UVa, but not so much with North Carolina. North Carolina may have some better liberal arts programs, but I think Texas is better for engineering and business, both undergraduate and graduate. For law school, Texas is significantly better. I do believe I'm taking off the orange glasses for this one, although I haven't recently checked any published rankings.
Agree with South Austin- Texas is tied for second, or third place overall on this list of 4 schools. NC is a great school- but not at the level of Texas. Of course- as others have said- the only ranking that matters here is that from your daughter. Best of luck to her
South Austin; UNC is consistently ranked higher than Texas in virtually every published ranking. The rankings for public schools are typically: 1. Berkeley/UVA (depends on publications) 3. UCLA 4.Michigan 5.UNC 6.William & Mary Then several California schools (Davis/San Diego) Texas is usually ranked at the same level as Wisconsin. I'm not saying I buy into the rankings, particularly for Texas. With that said, UNC is ranked higher than Texas in most, if not all, publications.
smwhorn, I certainly trust your reporting having gathered intelligence for your daughter's college choice. I also have an affinity for North Carolina, since the second half of my childhood was spent in that state. In any event, you were in a win-win situation, because no matter where your daughter went to school, she would attend a superior university and you would have a cool location at which to visit her. Not many parents are that fortunate.
Excellent choice. UVA is a great school and Charlottesville is a great town. Great area of the country only about 2 hours from DC. The school also has a great history. There is so much to do and see there. don't get caught with a radar detector in virginia. they have gestapo police there. a little trivia. UVA students claim that Dr. Seuss got his inspiration for whoville from Charlottesville...but I think its just an urban myth. really good restaurant scene, about 150 wineries surround the town, really beautiful country.
I truly appreciate all the kind comments. They are making her impending flight from the nest a tiny bit easier.
You've gotta be proud of your smart, hard-working daughter who would succeed at any of those prestigious universities. Congratulations and best of luck to her.
Congrats to your daughter. That is an outstanding list she had to choose from. Many happy thoughts for her and her future. Congrats to you and your wife. You raised a smart one.
Congratulations. Much as I support UT with pride, I reluctantly admit it comes in fourth on your list academically. I wish the citizens of this state really demanded education as a priority, but they don't support either at K-12 or higher education excellence compared to some states, i.e. California. UT has fought hard to achieve Tier I status, and is a great school, but not at the very top. Best of luck to your daughter, she chose a great university from a great short list.
Congratulations!! you should be proud. It's good for her to spread her wings and venture outside of Texas. What a great experience she is going to have.
Awesome news, brah. Great school and the opportunity to explore a wonderful part of the country. Football team sucks, but the Redskins are the big deal up there anyway. How wonderful to have that opportunity. Congrats!
Fwiw, Cal Berkely is close to the hardest school to gain admission to. Some people believe it is the hardest. Part of it is that it is in Cali, a Cali state school and Cali doesn't like outsiders much, and it's a really good school.
She'll love Charlottsville!!!!! Perhaps if she sticks around for grad school she can live in the Range!! Congrats
smw, My daughter is a sophomore and is currently #10 out of a class of 470. She's very interested in UVA and UNC, so I was curious about what sort of class ranking, SAT, etc she needed to get accepted. Also, did you get any scholarship $$? PM me if you don't want to discuss on the public board. Any info would be greatly appreciated!
My daughter graduated cum laude from her high school (a very difficult private school in Houston), got a 34 on the ACT (top 99%), select and HS soccer, president of a couple of clubs at the school. Her school does not do class ranks but I think she was about the top 5% of the class. We did not get any merit money. Since both UNC and UVA are state schools, only 3 or 4 TOTAL students get merit scholarships.
Thanks for the response & congratulations to you and your daughter! Sorry to hear they're not very generous with merit scholarships. Did she get scholarship offers from any other schools? I just finished paying for my son's first year at Baylor, so we may have to take out a loan by the time she starts!
UT Fanatic - That's not true about UNC (not sure about UVA). The Morehead Scholarship program at UNC is a full ride for 4 years, and this last incoming class had 52 recipients from around the world. It's a separate application process from just applying to the university though, but here's more info should you be needing it. www.moreheadcain.org/
Thanks for the info zete! BTW, it was smw who stated UVA and UNC granted very few merit scholarships. I'll definitely keep your link so we can hopefully use it next year around this time.
