What is it about UVA that makes people so gaga

[Anonymous]

The academic honor code is something that is relatively unique to UVA. Other schools have may have an honor code, but for them it's just part of a stack of academic rules. The honor code at UVA drives the academic culture and is a main focus of the University community. For the most part, it is taken very seriously and creates a unique environment where students are committed to their studies and engaged in the subject matter. The honor committee is a student run governing council.

http://www.virginia.edu/honor/

[Anonymous]

Look at the number of Rhodes Scholarship winners by institution. UVA has 50. The only institutions with more winners are Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, West Point & Yale. That is some elite company.

You aren't going to produce Rhodes Scholars with mediocre academic programs. The scholars are an exceptional subset of an already impressive student body.

http://www.rhodesscholar.org/assets/uploads/Rhodes%20Scholarships_Number%20of%20Winners%20by%20Institution_10_15_14.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the number of Rhodes Scholarship winners by institution. UVA has 50. The only institutions with more winners are Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, West Point & Yale. That is some elite company.

You aren't going to produce Rhodes Scholars with mediocre academic programs. The scholars are an exceptional subset of an already impressive student body.

http://www.rhodesscholar.org/assets/uploads/Rhodes%20Scholarships_Number%20of%20Winners%20by%20Institution_10_15_14.pdf

I mentioned this statistic to DC. Still has absolutely no interest in UVA or UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to this area. My kids are in ES, but this school seems to come into almost every conversation I have with other parents. It is a state school, just like other state schools, right? [b]I heard that it was only difficult to get into if you are out of state like UNC CH. Please enlighten me. Thanks.

I think you misunderstood. It's incredibly difficult to get into UVa if you live in northern Virginia. There's so much competition here, pretty much only top students get in.

[/b]Mainly because TJ HS students who do not get into Ivy colleges go here.[b] So, it is extremely high caliber of students applying there. The standards are very very high.

Similar to UMD, where Poolsville HS magnet, Blair HS magnet and Richard Montgomery HS IB magnet kids go, when they do not get into Ivy colleges.

The reason these kids did not get into Ivy schools is because Ivy colleges only take a handful from any given high school. So, if these kids would not have gone to the magnet high schools, they would have gone to the Ivy colleges. Catch - 22.

But hey - good for UVA and UMD!

We live in MD and would have loved to have had UVA as an option. It's not for everyone, true, but it's an excellent school. And we know 2 TJ grads (former teammates of my kids) who turned down Ivy League schools to go to UVA. They -- and their parents -- are very happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lets be honest here. half the class at TJ will go there. why. Asians like the cheaper in-state tuition.

Wow, bright as well as money savvy. So, the Asian students are single handedly improving the reputation of these state schools. Good work.

yes they are (well maybe not “singlehandedly”), but yes, I never implied otherwise. Thing is, they are very big on prestige but don’t like to pay a lot for it, so you find them at the in-state public schools quite often.

Keep walkin' it back, babe -- you've quite a ways to go for common bigotry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The academic honor code is something that is relatively unique to UVA. Other schools have may have an honor code, but for them it's just part of a stack of academic rules. The honor code at UVA drives the academic culture and is a main focus of the University community. For the most part, it is taken very seriously and creates a unique environment where students are committed to their studies and engaged in the subject matter. The honor committee is a student run governing council.

http://www.virginia.edu/honor/

The existence of the "conscientious retraction" makes UVA's honor code special in a bad way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A few reasons why someone might think UVA is a desirable school:

UVA has the highest 6-year graduation rate of any public university in the nation. Among all colleges and universities (public and private) only the following have higher 6-year graduation rates: Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, Princeton, Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, Williams, Stanford, Wesleyan, Northwestern, Duke, Wash U, Holy Cross, Vassar, Chicago, MIT, Cornell.

UVA has the second highest median SAT score of any public university in the nation. Only William and Mary's is higher.

UVA ranks #20 among colleges/universities that produce the most science & engineering PhDs.

UVA regularly ranks as one of the most beautiful colleges in the US.

Charlottesville is often listed as one of the best college towns in the US.

signed,

W&M grad

Just want to clarify that the above list counts the number of UVA undergrads that go on to get science & engineering PhDs (regardless of where they do their graduate work)--not the number of those PhDs that are given by UVA.

[Anonymous]

Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

Somewhat higher than that last year, more like 65 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

About half (about 190 - 210) acceptances until couple years ago. More TJ kids are opting for Michigan and UC Berkeley starting with 2 to 3 tear ago when UVA started accepting less TJ kids. Michigan and Berkeley are better than UVA anyway, especially in STEM.

In addition, wouldn't UC Berkely have higher median SAT score than both UVA AND W&M?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

About half (about 190 - 210) acceptances until couple years ago. More TJ kids are opting for Michigan and UC Berkeley starting with 2 to 3 tear ago when UVA started accepting less TJ kids. Michigan and Berkeley are better than UVA anyway, especially in STEM.

In addition, wouldn't UC Berkely have higher median SAT score than both UVA AND W&M?

I was using this data source:

http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/table/

Sort by median SAT score. The top 5 publics according to this are W&M, UVA, Berkeley, GA Tech, Michigan. But this is from 2010, perhaps no longer accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

Somewhat higher than that last year, more like 65 kids.

Last year, over one hundred TJ students accepted by UVA. However, only about 65 went there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

About half (about 190 - 210) acceptances until couple years ago. More TJ kids are opting for Michigan and UC Berkeley starting with 2 to 3 tear ago when UVA started accepting less TJ kids. Michigan and Berkeley are better than UVA anyway, especially in STEM.

In addition, wouldn't UC Berkely have higher median SAT score than both UVA AND W&M?

Cal, UCLA, and Mich are way better schools than UVA IMO.

not to mention your average tj kid is going to be more comfortable socially at Cal than at UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

About half (about 190 - 210) acceptances until couple years ago. More TJ kids are opting for Michigan and UC Berkeley starting with 2 to 3 tear ago when UVA started accepting less TJ kids. Michigan and Berkeley are better than UVA anyway, especially in STEM.

In addition, wouldn't UC Berkely have higher median SAT score than both UVA AND W&M?

I was using this data source:

http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/table/

Sort by median SAT score. The top 5 publics according to this are W&M, UVA, Berkeley, GA Tech, Michigan. But this is from 2010, perhaps no longer accurate.

According to the following source, UVA is behind UC Berkeley and Michigan in SAT scores:

http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank/sat_75pctl_rank/2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not half the class at tj -- only 60.

About half (about 190 - 210) acceptances until couple years ago. More TJ kids are opting for Michigan and UC Berkeley starting with 2 to 3 tear ago when UVA started accepting less TJ kids. Michigan and Berkeley are better than UVA anyway, especially in STEM.

In addition, wouldn't UC Berkely have higher median SAT score than both UVA AND W&M?

Cal, UCLA, and Mich are way better schools than UVA IMO.

not to mention your average tj kid is going to be more comfortable socially at Cal than at UVA.

TJ kids are increasingly applying to and being accepted to Cornell as well. Looks like Michigan, Berkeley and Cornell are replacing UVA as fewer TJ kids are offered acceptances by UVA compared to few years ago.