2/3 in-state -- state mandate?

<p>I have a question that has been bugging me the last month or so.</p>

<p>I am a senior in high school from Washington state and am seriously hoping to get into the UVa and study architectural history (though I’m not sure I will get in, considering my SAT scores are only a little above average and my GPA and rank are above average but not that amazing). I heard that the UVa was very hard to get into if you were OS, and it wasn’t until looking through this forum that I found the reason why. Apparently there is a state mandate that 2/3 of the students admitted to the university must be in-state.
Is this true?</p>

<p>If it is, why is that? From an OS student’s perspective, it seems very unfair that just because I wasn’t born in Virginia that I have a much harder chance of getting into the university than an IS student.</p>

<p>And yes I know that you have to be a citizen to be considered IS. But to be considered a citizen, you have to have lived there for 1 or 2 years, am I correct? So the only way I could have been a citizen of Virginia is if I was born and raised there all my life, my family lived there, or I decided to pick up and move to Virginia and live there for 2 years, which would never work out according to my circumstances.</p>

<p>I’m just and ignorant out-of-stater wondering why VA has a state mandate where UVa must have 2/3 students the ratio of in-state students (and I assume this mandate applies to other universities in the state as well).</p>

<p>Well, it is a state university. That’s the prime reason. The General Assembly (VA governing body) wants their taxpayers’ sons/daughters going to the state funded institutions. It does seem unfair to OOS students to have such a great university be so exclusive, however, it could exist in any state. Look at the thread about UVa going private. Lots of good stuff being talked about over the different “quotas” the GA is setting up.
And its not the fact that you wern’t born in VA thats keeping you out, its the fact that your taxes are going to WA, no VA, thus you are less of a “responsibility”.</p>

<p>Thank you shoebox.
I knew there had to be a reason, especially one that involved the fact that the UVa was funded by Virginians’ tax dollars. I just couldn’t see it very clearly.</p>