MAINTAINING the current ratio of in-state to out-of-state students is essential to the quality and diversity of our student body and our University. The understanding we have with the General Assembly now is for a 65/35 mix with 65 percent of students from Virginia. In Virginia, the ratio is not legislated, although it is in many states, such as North Carolina. Instead, the University has worked out an agreement with the General Assembly on what the ratio should be. In actual practice, our first-year classes usually have 66 to 67 percent from in-state.
The primary justifications for the current ratio, in my view, are quality and diversity. I am charged with enrolling the ablest and most promising students my staff and I can find, and to that end, we recruit throughout the United States and abroad. We canvass Virginia with the goal of enrolling the strongest students in the state, but we realize that each class can be strengthened by bringing in students from the entire nation.
Mr. Jefferson spoke of the University as the "capstone of public education in Virginia," but he also hoped that it would be a "temptation to the youth of other states to come, and drink the cup of knowledge and fraternize with us." Taking that as a rather direct assignment, which has come down over the past 180 years, my goal each year as Dean of Admissions is to enroll the very best Virginians and then add top-notch students from the rest of the United States and other countries. Just under half of the in-state applicants usually are offered admission, while about one-fifth of the out-of-state applicants are offered a place in the class.
A glance at the most recent profiles of our Echols and Rodman Scholars shows that 66 percent of the Echols and 76 percent of the Rodman Scholars are Virginians, indicating that many of our most talented students are from in-state. Critics of state universities often say that we enroll two distinct and identifiable student bodies -- one from within the state and the other from without with the intellectual strength centered in the out-of-state group. That is not the case here, for we attract outstanding young people from both groups.
Enrolling students from other states permits us to have graduates from some of the best secondary schools in the nation. Schools such as the Bronx High School of Science, Andover, New Trier High School, North Carolina School of Math and Science, Boston Latin and many others send us some of their top students and they add to the academic strength of the student body.
Retention and graduation rates also are measures of quality and our students complete their degrees at exceptional rates. For African-American students, we hold the highest graduation rate of any public university, and exceed the rate at over half of the Ivy League universities. Another measure is the number of Rhodes Scholars. The University claims more than any other state university.
Finally, in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of national research universities, Virginia has been first or second among the public universities for most of the last decade. If it were not for the quality of the 35 percent of students who come here from other states, I believe we would not have achieved these measures of quality.
Diversity is the other reason for having a large out-of-state cohort. Our goal is to bring together students with different backgrounds and experiences who can share their insights and learn from one another. Nearly 5 percent of first-year students are citizens of other countries, and it only has been in recent years that we have reached that level.
Approximately 27 percent of our students describe themselves as African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic or Native American. Multi-racial students who have difficulty putting themselves in one box for race or ethnicity are increasing in numbers each year. I'm told by faculty in the performing arts that the quality of students enrolling with talent in art, music and drama is increasing and enriching the lives of those of us who attend their performances.
In some of our recent classes, we have had rodeo barrel racers from Texas, 4H champions from Iowa, actors from the New York stage, cross-country cyclists, Intel Corporation winners, students who escaped their homelands, the first in their family to go to college, children of college professors, and students who are successful investors in the stock market. The large applicant group from out-of-state (normally 60 percent of the total applicant pool) gives us the opportunity to select people who often add unique qualities to the University. Seeing a performance of Spectrum Theatre's annual production of Voices of the Class will give one a sense of the richness and diversity of each new class. By bringing together people with so many different backgrounds, we believe we are enriching the undergraduate experience for all of our students.
To reduce the proportion of students from other states would be a mistake. It would bring on a narrowness of view and provincialism which cannot be a part of the fabric of a great university.
(John A. Blackburn is Dean of the Office of Admissions.)
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