According to the senior survey conducted April 30, 77 percent of seniors will attend Virginia colleges and universities, while 23 percent will continue their education outside of the commonwealth.
The top five in-state colleges with South Lakes attendance in order are Northern Virginia Community College, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia, and George Mason University.
Among the factors which compel seniors to remain in-state for college are financial reasons.
“James Madison University is a lot cheaper,” senior Kenna Salvatore said. “JMU has a beautiful campus as well. I also like my family and want to be able to see them sometimes.”
The total cost to attend James Madison University is approximately $22,000 for in-state applicants and about $36,000 for out-of-state students.
Similar to Salvatore at JMU, senior Kenzy Forman was drawn to the campus atmosphere at Virginia Tech.
“I decided to go to an in-state school, Virginia Tech, because I loved the campus and the size of the school,” Forman said. “Also they have the program I want to major in, the teachers seem really awesome there, and the food is great.”
In addition to the cheaper tuition, Virginia schools offer a highly recognized education.
Senior Cara Minnix chose to attend The College of William and Mary due to its reputation.
“It’s so much cheaper and all the Virginia schools are really good, so for undergrad it’s not really worth going out-of-state in my opinion,” Minnix said. “I would understand for graduate school or something, but for undergrad I wouldn’t go out-of-state.”
William and Mary is ranked as the 33rd best national university by U.S. News and World Report. The University of Virginia also made the list in 26th place.
“I really like the Virginia schools,” Minnix said.
Some seniors, such as Josh Kim, choose to attend a school where their family members also went.
“A lot of my family went to Virginia Commonwealth University,” Kim said. “They have a really good biology program which I plan to study. It’s a really diverse school and I love city life. I feel like everyone can fit in here because there are so many people you can connect with.”
Senior Manali Sontakke was accepted to the University of North Carolina, and chose to attend the University of Virginia because it had a better engineering program and cheaper yearly tuition.
However, if Sontakke had to choose between an in-state and out-of-state school with the same tuition costs and great engineering programs, she would prefer to venture beyond Virginia.
“I would probably go out of state just to be somewhere new,” Sontakke said. “I think I’d be fine with [any distance] as long as I don’t have to take a plane ride every time I come home. I really like the four hour distance.”
