Is uva a prestigious college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lol at the idea of any public university being considered prestigious.

Then you’re an ignorant snob. Which, of course, is the best kind, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is prestigious. Michigan is prestigious. Notre Dame is prestigious. None is the Ivy League, Stanford, or Chicago, but remove them from the list and you're not going to get much more prestige out of an undergraduate degree from a research university. We all know it and are splitting hairs.

I agree with you that they are all great schools and that people here are splitting hairs. What I disagree about is that they are prestigious. What do you really mean by that? Do you mean that you can feel superior to others if you went there? Or, if your kid goes there? That somehow attaching that name to your resume should signal intelligence? Here's the thing, no undergrad does that. Show me a CV of someone who went to Harvard undergrad and the answer is "But, where did they go to grad school?". If there is no grad school, having just a BS or BA looks just as unimpressive no matter where it is from (well, in the top 200 or so).

So, is UVA a good school? Yes. Can your kid get a good education there, and at a bargain if you are in state? Yes. Should you feel that it somehow is superior to any of these other schools and gives you the right to brag to your neighbors? You can try, but I'm not impressed.

well the OP never said. And he or she hasn't been back as far as I can tell.
I only know there are certain people (esp. in certain national origin groups, but U don't want to stereotype) that only care about "prestige." Sounds like we all agree UVA is an excellent highly ranked national university, as is Michigan.

[Anonymous]

UVA is a very good school.

Prestigious makes me think of Ivy League and little ivies. I wouldn’t describe uva as prestigious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lol at the idea of any public university being considered prestigious.

Then you're an idiot. UC - Berkeley is prestigious AF, to name just one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is prestigious. Michigan is prestigious. Notre Dame is prestigious. None is the Ivy League, Stanford, or Chicago, but remove them from the list and you're not going to get much more prestige out of an undergraduate degree from a research university. We all know it and are splitting hairs.

I agree with you that they are all great schools and that people here are splitting hairs. What I disagree about is that they are prestigious. What do you really mean by that? Do you mean that you can feel superior to others if you went there? Or, if your kid goes there? That somehow attaching that name to your resume should signal intelligence? Here's the thing, no undergrad does that. Show me a CV of someone who went to Harvard undergrad and the answer is "But, where did they go to grad school?". If there is no grad school, having just a BS or BA looks just as unimpressive no matter where it is from (well, in the top 200 or so).

So, is UVA a good school? Yes. Can your kid get a good education there, and at a bargain if you are in state? Yes. Should you feel that it somehow is superior to any of these other schools and gives you the right to brag to your neighbors? You can try, but I'm not impressed.

You're just being contrarian and silly. It's like saying Sidwell isn't a prestigious high school because none of the kids there have gone to college yet. We're not talking about an individual's resume, we are talking about the prestige of an undergraduate program generally. And obviously when a school's undergraduate program produces 50 Rhodes Scholars for graduate study and routinely sends it graduates to top law, busniess, medical and graduate programs it's a prestigious undergraduate program.

Sorry your kid didn't get in.

[Anonymous]

Really? You are impressed if you hear someone went to Sidwell? A very low bar. I guess everyone is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Business -- Michigan 7, UVA 13 UMD 48
Education -- Michigan 14, UVA 16 UMD 33
Engineering -- Michigan 4, UVA 40 UMD 22
Law -- Michigan 8, UVA 9 UMD 49
Medicine -- Michigan 15, UVA 26 UMD31
Nursing -- Michigan 8, UVA 20 UMD 13
Biology -- Michigan 23, UVA 46 UMD 62
Chemistry -- Michigan 15, UVA 48 UMD 41
Computer Science -- Michigan 11, UVA 30 UMD 16
Math -- Michigan 12, UVA 47 UMD 22
Physics -- Michigan 13, UVA 44 UMD 14
Economics -- Michigan 12, UVA 29 UMD 21
English -- Michigan 8, UVA 6 UMD 30
History -- Michigan 6, UVA 18 UMD 27
Political Science -- Michigan 4, UVA 37 UMD 29
Psychology -- Michigan 3, UVA 17 UMD 39
Sociology -- Michigan 1, UVA 32 UMD 24

Just sayin

and yet, despite all this, UVA is still the higher ranked national university for undergraduate education.
Both are very good schools, but I suspect people around here lean toward UVA and people in the Midwest lean toward Michigan or Notre Dame.

UVA has a higher overall ranking because it has a lower student/teacher ratio than Michigan. Otherwise the indicators are identical.

However, undergraduate teaching is a different story:

Michigan - 6
UVA - 17
ND - not ranked

Pretty sure UVA is also higher ranked because it has a better 4 and 6 year graduation rates.

By 3 percentage points or so, yeah. Barely a difference.

?? 4 year at UVA = 88%
4 year at UM = 76%

that's a pretty significant difference

UVA routinely has one of the highest graduation rates in the US -- public or private -- and is on par with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore by the measure. William and Mary comes close, and Michigan and Berkeley, while tied for third, are far behind. They're tied with Wheaton College, Stonehill College, Pepperdine, etc. UVA's culture is akin to an elite private school, where undergraduates are expected to finish on time. Why wouldn't this factor into the rankings? It's pretty important.

FYI UVA's African American graduation rate is also far and away #1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really? You are impressed if you hear someone went to Sidwell? A very low bar. I guess everyone is different.

Never said I was impressed. I said it's a prestigious high school. And it is.

[Anonymous]

I’m from the west coast but spent most of my adult life in the Midwest before moving here. My husband grew up here.

He was shocked by how little we in the rest of the country think of UVA (he’s not an alum but like a lot of people in this thread has an inflated opinion of them).

Everywhere in the country recognizes Berkeley as elite. Probably UT and Michigan too. UVA is just plain regional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m from the west coast but spent most of my adult life in the Midwest before moving here. My husband grew up here.

He was shocked by how little we in the rest of the country think of UVA (he’s not an alum but like a lot of people in this thread has an inflated opinion of them).

Everywhere in the country recognizes Berkeley as elite. Probably UT and Michigan too. UVA is just plain regional.

UT is not considered elite anywhere outside of Texas. And Michigan is nationally known by the common man/woman more for football than academics. Plus, as you say, you spent most of your adult life in the midwest. Why wouldn't you know more about Michigan?

That UVA gets tens of thousands of applicants every year from the very top students in every state in the country speaks volumes. It's nationally known and respected among the group that matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really? You are impressed if you hear someone went to Sidwell? A very low bar. I guess everyone is different.

Never said I was impressed. I said it's a prestigious high school. And it is.

If it is not impressive, what makes it prestigious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from the west coast but spent most of my adult life in the Midwest before moving here. My husband grew up here.

He was shocked by how little we in the rest of the country think of UVA (he’s not an alum but like a lot of people in this thread has an inflated opinion of them).

Everywhere in the country recognizes Berkeley as elite. Probably UT and Michigan too. UVA is just plain regional.

UT is not considered elite anywhere outside of Texas. And Michigan is nationally known by the common man/woman more for football than academics. Plus, as you say, you spent most of your adult life in the midwest. Why wouldn't you know more about Michigan?

That UVA gets tens of thousands of applicants every year from the very top students in every state in the country speaks volumes. It's nationally known and respected among the group that matters.

What a weird rebuttal.

I worked in Chicago and PacNW doing hiring and both UT and Mich were more respected by hiring managers than UVA.

I’ve never been to Texas, but I’m sure they’re even more impressed with UT than the rest of us.

All of these schools gets loads of out of state applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m from the west coast but spent most of my adult life in the Midwest before moving here. My husband grew up here.

He was shocked by how little we in the rest of the country think of UVA (he’s not an alum but like a lot of people in this thread has an inflated opinion of them).

Everywhere in the country recognizes Berkeley as elite. Probably UT and Michigan too. UVA is just plain regional.

Most people in the country don't know jack outside of their own state. To the extent they do, they more likely think of Berkeley as elite than the other schools, but are unlikely to think Michigan or especially Texas is more prestigious than UVA.

Certainly most people on the East Coast who are actually informed about schools consider UVA as prestigious as Michigan and Texas, and it is not at all uncommon for local students to turn down the "lesser Ivies" (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth) or top SLACs for UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Business -- Michigan 7, UVA 13 UMD 48
Education -- Michigan 14, UVA 16 UMD 33
Engineering -- Michigan 4, UVA 40 UMD 22
Law -- Michigan 8, UVA 9 UMD 49
Medicine -- Michigan 15, UVA 26 UMD31
Nursing -- Michigan 8, UVA 20 UMD 13
Biology -- Michigan 23, UVA 46 UMD 62
Chemistry -- Michigan 15, UVA 48 UMD 41
Computer Science -- Michigan 11, UVA 30 UMD 16
Math -- Michigan 12, UVA 47 UMD 22
Physics -- Michigan 13, UVA 44 UMD 14
Economics -- Michigan 12, UVA 29 UMD 21
English -- Michigan 8, UVA 6 UMD 30
History -- Michigan 6, UVA 18 UMD 27
Political Science -- Michigan 4, UVA 37 UMD 29
Psychology -- Michigan 3, UVA 17 UMD 39
Sociology -- Michigan 1, UVA 32 UMD 24

Just sayin

and yet, despite all this, UVA is still the higher ranked national university for undergraduate education.
Both are very good schools, but I suspect people around here lean toward UVA and people in the Midwest lean toward Michigan or Notre Dame.

+1. Those that are unaware are probably older. The college/university world has changed a lot in just the last five year.

[Anonymous]

^ Most people in the country don't know that Berkeley, University of California, and Cal are the same thing, or that they are different than any Cal state campus.