VA Residency for UVA - How big of a factor is it? Forum

[nyk3]

In admissions, how big of a boost does VA residency constitute? Is it as big as the URM bump?

[CG614]

40% of the class come from VA. So it helps a bit.

[oneforship]

No, it is not as large of a boost as URM. The medians for in-state students at UVA are roughly the same as out of state students, the difference is that there are less Virginia applicants so you have less competition for those spots.

That said, I think it does help you if you are a splitter, or perhaps borderline, but I think that has less to do with a "bump" and more to do with fewer people for the in-state spots.

[upalittletoolate]

May be considered a thread hijack, but does anyone know how difficult it is to achieve Virginia residency? Is it doable before applying/after 1L/etc.?

[pjo]

May be considered a thread hijack, but does anyone know how difficult it is to achieve Virginia residency? Is it doable before applying/after 1L/etc.?

dug this out of the archives...might have to dust it off lol. This helped me a bit to learn more about it http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5&t=108450

Oo and another thing, on top of establishing VA residency, each school in VA has its own qualifiactions to be classified a residence. I think UVA is the hardest, GMU is medium and WM is easiest

[holydonkey]

RE: VA domicile

I have a decent amount of experience with this. For the record, although Virginia's Council of Higher Education sets a general domicile guideline, schools have some room to interpret the policy. There are three public law schools in Virginia, UVA, William & Mary, and George Mason. Washington & Lee is Private (as are U Richmond, Liberty, Regent, etc).

For the public schools, the general things they will look at when determining domicile include location of residence for 1 year, your place of employment for 1 year, where you have paid taxes for the past year, your driver's license, voter's registration, and vehicle registration. For each of these schools, you cannot claim VA domicile your second year - you must enter classified as a VA resident to receive in-state benefits.

While all of the above requirements must be "considered" when determining domicile, each school decides how much they will weigh each requirement and how many of the above things must be fulfilled to be classified in-state. This means it is certainly possible to be classified in-state at UVA and out-of-state at George Mason, in-state at GMU and out-of-state at William & Mary. From what I've heard George Mason generally has the least stringent requirements for domicile, UVA is somewhere in the middle, and William & Mary is the most difficult.

[sundance95]

I am also curious about this. Great post, holydonkey, very helpful.