The University of Virginia

Depite being out of state, this school was still 10,000 less than the nearest private school. It also had a pretty decent reputation, and was only about 3 hrs away from Baltimore where I live. Hence I went.

The first lasting impression I have from UVa comes from orientation, the July before my first year. People would ask, "What did you think?," and all I could say was that the people were absolutely beautiful. This stems from the most memorable portion of orientation, the pool party at the AFC. Of course, you would expect that the same people who would attend the pool party would also be above average in appearance just by the very nature of the activity, a bunch of strangers gathering around in bathing suits. But trust me, UVa has definitely got its share of attractive people.

The point of this review is to characterize UVa the best I can for someone who has never gone here. It's an extremely social school where the crowd mentality does not place the most weight on deep thinking, analysis, or art. The counter culture is extremely limited here; and this isn't to say that you can't find just about any type of culture, but you won't be part of the majority.

Do not underestimate the importance of the overall characterization of UVa. If you are indie, artistic, and like non-mainstream music, you'll be right back where you were in high school as far as population percentage (even worse depending on high schools). Most indie people don't like being mainstream so this won't bother them, but considering that the rest of your life will be spent in a minority, you might want to consider trying out a college where that isn't true.

The same goes for intelligence. It's frustrating to be a highly competitive school and still have to fight to find people who really seem to care about being smart. I can't tell you how many times I'll have a pseudo deep conversation with someone and they'll tell me how refreshing it is to find that in this school. That's not how college should be. Sure you can find people to talk to on a serious level, but the key is different people to get different perspectives. The girls especially really have a knack for playing dumb. The problem is, the guys love it, and definitely play into it only to further encourage it. It keeps me up at night to wonder if any of the girls at a place like Harvard could act as ditzy and mindless as so many of the ones around here. My guess is probably yes, just because it's no fun being smart all the time, especially with flirting or things of a sexual nature. I'd still like to see it with my own eyes though.

UVa definitely breeds fast, independent, successful people. There's no denying the reputation, size, and faculty of the economics dept. and Comm. school. People here are self assured, perhaps explaining why it's not always important to talk about beliefs or argue. I mean, if you have things figured out for yourself, you don't need to hunt around as much. Pre-med and Pyschology are extremely big here as well. The Pysc. dept. is absolutely top notch.

Being a large school has major advantages too. The sports are extremely entertaining for one. Even better, so many opportunities exist that it's a spontaneous and/or indecisive person's dream. Freshman year I went to China for some unknown reason (UVa has got so many random international connections), only finding out, deciding, and leaving all within 1.5 months. Finally, the size makes leadership a necessity. There's no guiding light that will pull you anywhere at UVa. The kids are completely expected to take full initiative and make with their time what they will. UVa has great classes (if you really read and think about the material, you can get past the boredom of big lecture halls, the small classes and good w/o any extra work), a nice campus, and great opportunities. If you are the right person, this is probably the greatest place on earth. For me, it is a really above average place. Imagine a student body whose overwhelming characteristic resembles SGA in high school, or a popular person who is smart but really places little emphasize on intellectual pursuit. These people are easy to get along with, drink with, or have wild nights partying with, but they don't provide any great inspiration.

2nd Year Male -- Class 2006

Education Quality: A+, Scholastic Success: B

It is a large and diverse university but with a small school feel. There is never a place you walk without passing someone you know on the way there. At the same time you get the benefits of it being a little larger school as far as abundance of activities, groups, events etc. All different people can find their nitch at UVA. You also have a beautiful historic grounds all thanks to the founder, Thomas Jefferson. He had a wonderful vision.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2005

Education Quality: A+, Faculty Accessibility: B+

As a recent graduate, I believe that the University, overall, is one of the best in the nation, but certainly not the best, which some students think. I would say that overall, UVA is comparable with Michigan and Berkeley (though very small in comparison), but decidedly a notch below Duke, Princeton, and Stanford. All of the programs, even seemingly BS majors like Art History, are rigorous and highly competitive, and definitely offer a rewarding intellectual experience that will accompany you to whatever you do after graduation. It's all about "the illimitable freedom of the human mind," as TJ once said; indeed, your college education is what you make of it. You can go Greek and party continuously all 4 years, like many UVA students, and not take full advantage of the intellecual goldmine that UVA actually possesses.

Unfortunately, much about the student body and social life at UVA is true. There's no question about it: if you are not truly preppy, not Greek, not from Northern Virginia, and not in the Comm School or College, you're going to have a hard time fitting into this school. I was a first-generation college student (the first from my family to go to a 4-year college) from a rural town south of Richmond, and I had a very tough time fitting in initially. There are a lot of snooty, arrogant people at this school, especially the women, and there are a lot of classless, supersexist, racist people. Indeed, a majority of the student body is from Northern Virginia, and they tend to be WASPy, middle/upper-middle class, and somewhat close-minded. However, not everbody at UVA is like this, and if you look carefully and wisely (joining clubs and playing IM sports, of which there are many, are very helpful in accomplishing this), you will find many unique people, in various groups, who don't possess these qualities. Just like your education, UVA leaves it up to you to take the initiative in determining which group you want to associate with during your time here.

E-school gets a bad rap because it's not ranked nearly as high as other schools at UVA (38th according to USNWR). I've heard people joke about its relatively high acceptance rate (about 45%), and I've seen hints of discrimination against it and its students in the Cavalier Daily and the Declaration. Please disregard all of this, because the E-school is in fact a very tough program and is highly respected in industry and in academia (grad schools really like the BS thesis requirement). It's grad school placement is very good, and it often finds itself on a short list with MIT, Princeton, and other top-notch programs when small high-tech companies recruit each year. It's a small program compared to Virginia Tech (1600 versus 6000), but despite the disparity in rankings, I would say that both programs are about even. Tech's engineering students, despite being more humble than UVA's, are not as smart and not as competitive as E-schoolers, overall, but their research facilities are much larger and fancier, and their classes are easier. UVA's research facilities are improving though, and someday, they will offer a comprehensive co-op program, which is already available at Tech, to provide more real-world experience. It's true that only 65% of E-schoolers graduate from the E-school (with the others dropping out to go into the Comm School or College, for the most part) because of the "ungodly" courseload, but if you have good time-management skills, you can do well. With humanities electives abound, numerous research opportunities, and a good Career Services program, E-school definitely allows you to make the most of your engineering education. Your social life will suffer, unless you've perfected the "work hard/play hard mentality," but you will have a valuable degree (believe it or not) upon graduation.I turned down Cornell for E-school, and despite some complaints about the atmosphere here, I had a great 4 years at UVA. I made the most of my time here, and I saved my parents $130,000. It was rough at times, and I often wondered what my time would've been like at Cornell or Virginia Tech. However, I never doubted that UVA was truly the right place to be, and I don't think you will either.

4th Year Male -- Class 2003

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: B