<p>In staters, as Charlie correctly points out, have a much lower price point and so therefore might not need/get as much aid.</p>
<p>Having said that, it is as obvious as the nose on your face that UVA gives an admissions bump to OOS legacies in significant part to attract/enroll fuller payors of the higher OOS tuition.</p>
<p>UVA constantly and publicly complains (with good reason) about how little money it has. What to do about that cash crunch was pretty much the root cause of the whole President Sullivan debacle.</p>
<p>UVA’s finances depend on getting 2/3rds of its tution revenue from 1/3 of its students. As a demographic group, UVA alumni families are going to be MUCH more likely than the average OOS applicant family to be able to pay higher tuition without much/any aid. If UVA didn’t get higher net revenue per student from the OOS legacy crowd, why would UVA give them an advantage? UVA would be better off trying to get the non-legacy OOS applicants with higher GPAs and SATs.</p>
<p>As Charlie also correctly points out, the int’l student demographic is an even better pond to fish in for full payors. Which is why UVA (and all other schools) are chasing those int’l students so hard these days.</p>
<p>In addition to their fuller pay characteristics, my guess is the OOS legacy pool has favorable yield characteristics (i.e. those kids are more likely than average to accept an acceptance). The full payor from India or China that UVA covets is also coveted by lots and lots of other schools around the U.S. (like UCLA, Cal Berkeley and plenty of privates). It may be a lot easier to get the legacy kid from Chicago to enroll.</p>