Collegiate Times

Graphic by LINDA NGUYEN/COLLEGIATE TIMES

Although there is a concern that Virginia public universities are admitting fewer in-state applicants in order to increase revenue, university officials said that is not the case at Virginia Tech.

On Nov. 14, the Washington Post published “In-state students’ admission obstacle: their home address” which stated that in-state students are having a difficult time competing with out-of-state students. The article went on to theorize that many colleges offered admission to a higher ratio of out-of-state students “simply to shore up their numbers.”

Mildred Johnson said it is not the case that in-state students are being displaced in favor of those from other states. Instead, she said that out-of-state students accept offers of admission at a lower percentage, so more are given those offers.

“We are looking to take students,” she said.

While Johnson said that “there are no quotas” in place at Tech, incoming freshman classes generally try to preserve about 70 percent in-state students and 30 percent from out-of-state.

University spokesman Larry Hincker noted that consistently since 2005 only approximately 47 percent of students accepted to Tech have been non-Virginians. In a statewide view, a consistent 22 percent of students accepted to four-year public institutions have been from out-of-state.

Last year, 62 percent of in-state applicants were accepted, while 72 percent of out-of-state applicants were accepted. Noteworthy, however, is the far greater volume of in-state students who submitted applications: nearly 3,000 more.

Hincker said that while out-of-state applications have been growing at a slow, steady rate, “in-state have been up 10 percent over the last four years.”

Johnson said schools could not be compared.

The article focused mainly on the College of William & Mary. However, Johnson stressed that each university uses its own methods of selecting applicants.

Hincker said that more students are applying to college than ever before.

“If more students are applying and the number of seats are constant, the admission rate is going to go down,” Hincker said.

Hincker noted that the ratio of in-state versus out-of-state students has remained steady.

“We’ve even increased the number of in-state students,” Hincker said.

In 2005, only about 6,800 in-state students were accepted out of about 10,600 applicants. In 2009, about 7,500 in-state students were admitted out of nearly 12,000.

Enrollment in four-year public institutions went up as well. In 2004, only about 149,000 in-state students were enrolled, while about 161,000 were enrolled in 2008.

Johnson said that students are admitted based on their overall criteria, not their hometown.

She said fears among parents are the chief cause of misconceptions like the ones presented by the Washington Post.

“You don’t know what’s behind that 4.0 GPA,” she said. “Most of the time it’s parents assuming things they don’t know.”

“All the kids who were on the waitlist are good students,” Johnson said.

While out-of-state students’ tuitions do subsidize costs of in-state students, Johnson said that Tech “fights all the time” against negative assumptions about the admissions department stressing that the admissions department continues to work to accept qualified students.