<p>I can see both sides of the argument, but I don’t agree with this being the best solution to the issue.</p>
<p>As a poster previously stated, the state should focus on the K-12 schools in order to expand the number of Virginians with degrees. There are still many students who aren’t interested in attending college and to increase that number you can’t simply open more spots for Virginians and call it a day. You have to make the kids WANT to go to college first.</p>
<p>As for funding, I am not well versed in this area. If Virginia keeps cutting budgets for schools, not only are they hurting colleges, they are making students not apply to college because they feel they cannot afford it, which seems counter-productive to the goal this article states of boosting degrees in Virginia. The public universities need OOS students and I believe the state should encourage OOS students to come. The fact that he says there are too many OOS students is in itself flawed. </p>
<p>[UVa</a> - Enrollment by State](<a href=“http://www.web.virginia.edu/iaas/data_catalog/institutional/data_digest/enrl_state.htm]UVa”>http://www.web.virginia.edu/iaas/data_catalog/institutional/data_digest/enrl_state.htm)</p>
<p>Less than 500 students enrolled are from PA, NJ and just over 500 are from NY and MD. NY and MD outnumber PA and NJ, which are the states mentioned in the article. </p>
<p>As for the family, I cannot see how his scores simply qualify him. While I do not know UVA’s averages and all of that information, I don’t feel that just because they pay taxes and he is a good student that he should automatically be accepted. Not everything is based on just numbers. And not only that, the fact that it’s assumed that OOS students robbed him of his spot is ridiculous, considering just over 12,000 people came from Virginia, vs. a much lower number (around 2000) from all other 49 states combined.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine how VT feels about this (I would like to know). To have their own university be portrayed as unequal and worse in the article and to include a testimonial from a current student who feels VT was below him. VT, W&M, UVA, as well as all other Virginia schools are great institutions. Though these are just numbers, VT’s engineering program is ranked higher than UVAs. The student could have transferred out of VT if he didn’t like it, but instead he stayed there. He is a junior now, and I don’t see why the family decides to come out now and cry wolf. He could always go to UVA for graduate school if he really wanted.</p>
<p>REMEMBER: It is not where you get your education, it is what you do with it.</p>