AccessUVa - The great new financial aid program

Colleges & Universities University of Virginia
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<p>Cav302, aka VirginiAlum?, since you addressed your response to me instead of Indy, I’ll go ahead and respond. </p>

<p>Well, here’s another fine example of how people like you are misleading everyone here. AccessUVa is being funded on the backs of students/parents via a 50% tuition increase, 10% a year for the next 5 years. <a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2005/03/bov.html[/url]”>http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2005/03/bov.html&lt;/a&gt; “The tuition proposal discussed by the board would help fund the $137 million that University officials forecast will be needed to meet the cost of education, including funding the AccessUVa financial-aid program…”</p>

<p>So, what does AccessUVa actually do? It guarantees that UVa will see more low-income applicants. It doesn’t do anything to fix any of the systemic problems that have created the LOWEST enrollment of low-income students of all universities in the nation. </p>

<p>All Casteen did was throw the student/parent’s money at the problem, and not address the real issues. In fact, now that middle-income parents will have to pay a higher tuition, all Casteen did was shift the problem from the lower-class to the middle-class. But none of that really matters when neither group is your target recruit.</p>

<p>BTW, UCLA and UC Berkeley seem to do fine with over 30% of each of their student bodies qualifying for the Pell. <a href=“http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/articles/050502/2college_6.htm[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/articles/050502/2college_6.htm&lt;/a&gt;
Meanwhile, 58% of last year’s incoming class at Uva reported family incomes of $100,000 or more. One in five reported $200,000 or more; only 2.4% of U.S. households earn that much. </p>

<p>Indy, it’s sad that these guys can’t even tell the truth on a basic message board. I wonder if that would qualify as an Honor Code violation? </p>

<p>Here’s the real answer to your questions. Casteen had to create AccessUVa to protect his legacy. He doesn’t want to go down in history as being the UVa president who created the MOST elitist public university in the nation. He also doesn’t want to risk his US News rankings and make some real changes. It’s still quite shocking how a state funded university can get away with turning their backs on the poor in their community.</p>