Category: Virginia

Posted on

Aftermath of the SCOTUS Ruling on Affirmative Action in College Admissions

Background: About two months ago, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, U.S. colleges and universities have been eagerly awaiting guidance from the Biden administration on what this means to them. That guidance was released days ago.

On July 3rd, a racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against Harvard University based on its legacy admissions. According to the lawsuit between 2014 and 2019, students whose parents and family members were alumni were nearly six times more likely to be admitted, advantaging white students.

What has changed: The Common App, the application used by over a thousand U.S. colleges and universities, has made options for colleges and universities not to see the responses to the questions on race and ethnicity.

However, the SCOTUS ruling says that “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

The SCOTUS decision and the lawsuit against Harvard have led to several changes including these:

  • Some colleges and universities have dropped legacy admissions, a policy that gives students related to alumni preferential treatment in admissions. For example, Virginia Tech dropped legacy admissions.
  • In addition, Virginia Tech also eliminated early decision, replacing it with early action. Typically, students from financially disadvantaged families are less likely to apply Early Decision because they need to compare financial aid packages from different colleges before making their final college decision.
  • Wake Forest University began offering an Early Action deadline only for students who would be the first in their families to attend college.

These changes are attempts to balance the impact of the SCOTUS ruling on the diversity of college and university student bodies.

Posted on

University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of having lunch with Shelley Hillberry, Assistant Dean of Admissions of the University of Mary Washington who is the admissions rep for New Jersey. Shelley described Mary Washington students as intellectually, civically and socially engaged.

Physical campus / history – The University of Mary Washington is in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia on 172 acres. Before the school became co-ed in 1972, it was the woman’s college for the University of Virginia. The buildings are of Jeffersonian and Georgian architecture. There are no public roads through campus. The college is about 50 miles away from Washington DC and Richmond. The school’s location means there are plenty of internship opportunities.

The basics – University of Mary Washington is a public state college in Virginia. It is a mid-sized school with 4000 undergraduates and 1000 graduate students. The school has undergraduate colleges for Education, Business, and Arts & Sciences. There is an 83% retention from the freshman to sophomore year and 77% of students graduate in four years with a Bachelor’s degree. Students abide by an honor code.

Courses – Students have 40 credits of general education requirements, 40 credits in their major, and 40 credits of electives. The 40 credits of electives allow students to pursue a second major or a minor. The general education requirements include experiential learning (i.e., students must do at least one internship, study abroad, research, or community service learning).

Class size – Most classes have 22 to 24 students per class. The first year seminar is capped at 15 students. There are twelve larger general education classes with about 60 students.

Majors – Students don’t declare their major until after the sophomore year. Mary Washington is only one of six schools in the nation with an undergraduate historic preservation major. Popular majors are business, English, psychology, biology, history, international affairs, political science, historic preservation, computer science, foreign languages, and geography (with a GIS certificate).

Admissions – Admissions are holistic. The mid-50% of SAT scores for Critical Reading and Math are between 1050 and 1250 with the mid-50% of GPAs between 3.2 and 3.9. The school admits about 70% of the applicants. Interviews are recommended and are informational.

Students from outside of Virginia – The University of Mary Washington does not have an out-of-state quota. About 25% of the students are from outside of Virginia. There is merit aid available for out-of-state students. This year there were 114 applications from New Jersey with 24 depositing.

Honors Program – There is an Honors program, which takes about 50 students a year, typically students with SAT scores of 1300 or higher (Critical Reading and Math) and GPAs of 3.9 or higher. Students in the Honors program receive a $1-$2K grant.

Pre-med/Pre-vet – Pre-med students take advantage of internships at the hospital across the street from the campus. 80% of them go on to medical school. The pre-vet students often do an internship with whales.