<p>What’s shameful is that most schools don’t offer a free education to all its poor students. I’m happy that UVa is one of the few schools doing that.</p>
<p>Re. recruiting rich students, actually, that’s not true. UVa admissions is need-blind and doesn’t look at your family’s wealth when it comes to admitting you. In fact, they don’t even see your family’s income. (I know. I volunteered for the Admissions Office when I was in school.) Yes, there have been rare cases where a student was admitted because of his/her family’s extreme wealth, but every school has done that from Berkeley that all the way up to Harvard. </p>
<p>Yes, UVa has been listed as a “Best Value,” but poor kids weren’t applying (partly because they still couldn’t afford it. “Best Value” is based on the cost when measured against the benefit of that degree. Even some very expensive elite private schools have been called “Best Values.”) Whatever the case, ever since UVa’s inception, it has attracted the Southern aristocracy, and that’s still the case now - perhaps it’s because of its Jeffersonian history and traditions or the Ivy League ambience of the place, which tend to attract the more affluent. I mean, how many public schools do you know have been the national champion in polo for 3 consecutive years? (Alas, we lost to Cornell this year.) Even up here in NY, we have an annual alumni polo match between UVa and Yale. </p>
<p>Whatever the case, in an effort to live up to the Jeffersonian ideal of educating everyone who’s smart enough to get in, UVa is doing what most public and private schools aren’t doing by giving a free great education to the most disadvantaged. President Casteen who himself comes from a poor family was a beneficiary of this ideal, and he wants to ensure more students will benefit as well.</p>
<p>So yes, this will affect the school, and for the better.</p>