Virginia Del. Tim Hugo, R-Fairfax, introduced legislation that would require most of Virginia’s public universities to reserve three-quarters of their openings for Virginia students. Hugo said thousands of students across Virginia who are getting excellent grades and SAT scores are being pushed out of Virginia’s schools by out-of-state students. “Virginia is a magnet for kids from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, and what they do is push our kids across the border,” Hugo said. “And I think that’s wrong.”

Counting undergraduate and graduate, plus students pursuing medical or law degrees, the University of Virginia, James Madison University, William & Mary and Virginia Tech all had in-state student populations below 75 percent, according to fall 2010 head counts. The percentage of in-state students now ranges from 61 percent at Virginia to 72 percent at James Madison.