"The University of Virginia’s fundraising team for years has sought to help children of wealthy alumni and prominent donors who apply for admission, flagging their cases internally for special handling, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The records from the UVa advancement office, which oversees fundraising for the prestigious public flagship, reveal nearly a decade of efforts to monitor admission bids and in some cases assist those in jeopardy of rejection.
UVa denies that the advancement office held any sway over admissions decisions. But the documents show the office kept meticulous notes on the status of certain VIP applicants and steps taken on their behalf." …
Just confirming the unethical behavior and hypocrisy at UVA that everybody already knew existed. Look at UVA’s recent history; Federal review for their handling of sexual assault cases (the erroneous Rolling Stone article gave the University undeserved cover for this issue), over 2 billion dollar slush fund that they hid from the state while raising tuition, political power play’s with the Board of Visitor’s, Dean J’s ridiculous assertions that there is no NOVA ceiling (waiting for her response to this new development; no way she wasn’t aware of preferential treatment), etc. UVA’s honor code has, and always will be, “rammed” down the throats of undergraduate’s while being ignored by the administration.
They let Ted Kennedy into the University. Harvard expelled him for cheating. UVA controversially let him attend after a full faculty vote. Name, money, power=“Welcome to the UVA family”.
This is likely pretty common across a range of schools. In this case, some evidence has emerged.
Ted Kennedy’s admission was likely not a banner moment in the history of the honor code. While there he was also caught DUI and drove with his lights off to try to evade the police.
Oh for goodness sake. That news is old as the hills. I donated beaucoup bucks over the years to my alma mater “just in case”…and I mean beaucoup . but my kids did fine and didn’t want to go to my alma mater. But in the meantime the school made out bigtime and I’m still glad I gave the money, now someone can get a scholarship.
A second Washington Post article that seems aimed at the obvious: colleges consider donors in the admission process?? Now that is some in-depth investigative reporting! Reading any of the CC “Chance Me” posts one would recognize that one of the well-known “hooks” is a applicant of a large donor. This doesn’t make it right, but a WashPo article feigning shock that UVa considers wealthy donors in this admission process is not news.
What’s shocking is that UVA is nominally a public state university that is supposed to be serving the students of the Commonwealth of Virginia. We who live here know better. They love OOS money.
The state only funds 10% of UVa’a academic budget. The rest of the money needs to be raised some way, and UVa has been able to maintain its high quality and its generous need-based financial aid through strong fundraising.
The article was notable for saying that the Development Office was only watching 46 applicants out of over 32,000 applicants a year. The writers did not have access to admissions decisions, but the information in the article shows that at least one son or daughter of a very large contributor was not admitted during the regular admissions rounds, and was put on a wait list along with thousands of other applicants.
The UVa admissions office has frequently said that they have no access to financial information about US applicants when making their admissions decision.
That compares to many other universities that are “need aware” in their admissions decisions - meaning they have to limit the number of accepted students with high need, and need to accept a certain number of full pay students each year. At those other universities, it often becomes easier to be admitted if you do not apply for financial aid, but that is not the case at UVa.
No news here. The real story is states cutting funding to their elite state flagships and universities in-turn have become “private U’s” that accept a little state funding. U’s need to keep the lights on and turn to OOS and international students to make up the lost revenue. UM is now 50% OOS, UCLA & UVA are 33% plus another 5-15% international students. The A- to B+ in state students end up holding the short stick. Hence grade inflation in high schools in an attempt to get in-state kids accepted. It’s a viscous cycle like steroids in baseball.
So, is it coincidence that UVA has half the number of "need"students when compared to other elite public converted to private universities?? Is admissions system set up to give advantages to students from affluent suburbs of large metro areas? Has UVA had lasik surgery? Is a beancounter making sure the numbers work? Are elite state flagships telling their states screw you and keep your money we will make financial decisions that we need to make to maintain our quality and we don’t need your cash? Do the elite state flagships no longer need state money and the strings that come with it? How many full pay students are needed to help fund the need students? Who pays the bills to prevent education cuts?
Bud – correction. UVA is limited to one third non-VA enrollment (OOS, foreign, whatever). UVA has used that model for many many decades.
The primary change at UVA is that the OOS price has increased a lot relative to private college sticker price. UVA OOS used to be a significant discount to privates back in the day; today not so much.
I paid $2,100 a year for my first year of out of state tuition at UVa. That bargain helped to attract some of the best out of state students and helped to establish UVa’s national reputation.
Let us also remember that UVa is still one of only 2 public universities in the nation that meet 100% of the proven financial need of all US students, including out of state students. Most public universities provide no need-based aid to out of state students, and are mainly seeking full pay out of state students.
UVA has been very good to me as an OOS student, covering all my need and letting me attend for free (didn’t even need a loan!). I understand they’re able to be so generous because of their substantial endowment. Even so, no university which receives public funds should be allowed to discriminate on the basis of wealth. I would rather pay extra for my education than be surrounded by students who are only here because their parents bought them an acceptance letter.
Every year, we on CC argue about this. Some go nuts. Even kids with pull get vetted. This isn’t shutting out some huge number. At the school I know best, it’s less than 1%.
UVA’s endowment is roughly 6 billion. Puts it in league with Cornell. UMich is 10B (but that, like some UC figures, may be for the larger system.)
Adding: I worry much more about some athletes, their cases ‘flagged for special handling’ or rubber stamped, some who later suffer academically.
Closer to $8 Billion now. They vacuumed all the depts and found some extra cash around. http://www.uvimco.com/
It was a big deal as nobody outside UVa knew about it==state government
@Barrons, it’s long been said this endowment is the heart of some operational differences between UVA and W&M. One has full buckets, the other, not. In practical terms, UVA is just courting big donors same as ever, same thing that led to these riches, in the first place. And I’d bet W&M is scampering, too.
But UVA doesn’t “need” to trade an admit for donations. Some readers assume these donor kids take a major percent of admits. Not. They offered roughly 9200 admits. Even if they took all 46, that’s .005. Even if all 46 came, it’s about 1% of the class.
WAPO an some other media sources like to do the wide-eyed OMG thing.
It is important to note that much of UVa’s endowment was restricted to particular purposes by the donors, and therefore cannot be used for financial aid, etc. At least $1 billion is restricted to use by the Health System. A large percentage is restricted to subsidizing salaries of named professors in specific departments. One large donation was restricted to use to build Olympic-quality squash courts at the Boar’s Head Inn.