Great article on the direction UVA is heading......

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of people that get accepted into Virginia but turn it down for somewhere else. It’s not the end all be all that the Hoos think it is. It’s a very good school, but it isn’t unique. It does have a certain culture that has existed for a while, partially due to its heavy Greek scene (a surprisingly high percentage of undergrads are Greek and there are tons of choices). Denying it and getting defensive just makes it worse.

And I did get in and would be happy if my kids ended up there. But I turned UVA down to go OOS somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

When I took trips from my Ivy to visit some of the 30-plus kids from high school going to UVA years ago it didn’t seem all that preppy to me. I mean lots of kids lived off campus in fairly basic apartments and the fraternity scene seemed very State U.

I can only surmise some of these comments are a reaction to its having become more selective over the years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I've heard the bright kids this month debating on whether they want to go to UVA or VT, and the argument keeps coming up that UVA has too many preppy douchelords.

And poor old W&M is completely out of fashion with the kids--too stodgy and grindy, and lacking in tech shinies.

There were too many preppy douchelords at UVA 30 years ago, which is why I applied to W&M instead.

You totally sound like someone in their late 40s.

Nice try, kiddo.

How can the students be "preppy" when most hail from Virginia? With the exception of maybe four or five faux preggy kids from Potomac, I don't see preppies in Virginia. Granted some from NoVa might be wealthy and come from powerfully connected families, but NoVa is not preppy land.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The University" is a Old over from the address from back in the day. Before there was a Charlottesville. The mail just went to "The University, Virginia."

And they dropped the semi-formal attire at football games two football coaches ago. The frat boys still do it, but most kids are in t-shirts.

+1. Also pick up the Harvard Crimson - they will refer to it in editorials throughout as "The College".or "The University". And the law school as "THE Harvard Law School" or "The Law School".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I took trips from my Ivy to visit some of the 30-plus kids from high school going to UVA years ago it didn’t seem all that preppy to me. I mean lots of kids lived off campus in fairly basic apartments and the fraternity scene seemed very State U.

I can only surmise some of these comments are a reaction to its having become more selective over the years.

It's not. It's a Virginia state school. The few preppies there hail from New England.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The University" is a Old over from the address from back in the day. Before there was a Charlottesville. The mail just went to "The University, Virginia."

And they dropped the semi-formal attire at football games two football coaches ago. The frat boys still do it, but most kids are in t-shirts.

And they do it only at the first game of the year because it's an old, nice tradition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I've heard the bright kids this month debating on whether they want to go to UVA or VT, and the argument keeps coming up that UVA has too many preppy douchelords.

And poor old W&M is completely out of fashion with the kids--too stodgy and grindy, and lacking in tech shinies.

There were too many preppy douchelords at UVA 30 years ago, which is why I applied to W&M instead.

You totally sound like someone in their late 40s.

Nice try, kiddo.

I am 50.

Was repeating the phrase the other pp's kid used because I thought it was aptly descriptive; we didn't call them "preppy douchelords" back in the day, just stuck up frat jerks.

There were plenty snooty jerks then, but it sounds like many more now. Some people at UVA were calling themselves "The University" back then too, and tended to have an attitude problem. Wanted nothing to do with the school, as my family did not have money or prestige and I knew it was not a good fit for me.

[Anonymous]

Okay, I ask this with genuine curiosity and no vest interest - for those that are claiming that UVA is full of too many "preppy" students, what do you mean when you say preppy?

[Anonymous]

"whopping $32,000 for in-state"? Does this student have any idea what LACs, SLACS and private universities are going for? $62,000 to $82,000 a year, depending on the school. And that delta is paid in after-tax dollars. My DD started UVA at $26,000 a year. Thank heavens for Virginia universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I ask this with genuine curiosity and no vest interest - for those that are claiming that UVA is full of too many "preppy" students, what do you mean when you say preppy?

I'm curious, too, since 2/3 of the students come from Virginia, a bunch from 147 countries and all 50 states.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of schools in Virginia to serve the unwashed masses. UVA doesn’t need to be one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I've heard the bright kids this month debating on whether they want to go to UVA or VT, and the argument keeps coming up that UVA has too many preppy douchelords.

And poor old W&M is completely out of fashion with the kids--too stodgy and grindy, and lacking in tech shinies.

There were too many preppy douchelords at UVA 30 years ago, which is why I applied to W&M instead.

You totally sound like someone in their late 40s.

Nice try, kiddo.

I am 50.

Was repeating the phrase the other pp's kid used because I thought it was aptly descriptive; we didn't call them "preppy douchelords" back in the day, just stuck up frat jerks.

There were plenty snooty jerks then, but it sounds like many more now. Some people at UVA were calling themselves "The University" back then too, and tended to have an attitude problem. Wanted nothing to do with the school, as my family did not have money or prestige and I knew it was not a good fit for me.

Well, maybe you can say there are some entitled wealthy students on Greek row, but you sure can't call them "preppy". Every school has its share of wealthy students. By the same token, some posters here will claim in the alternative that UVA is "full of rednecks" until they see the "by county" statistics and understand that some counties in rural western and southern Virginia send zero to one student per years. As to "the University" - how was the student supposed to refer to it in the article? Was he supposed to write out "University of Virginia" every time he wanted to refer to the school in the editorial? He can't - that's absurd since this is from the student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily. By the same token, UVA, doesn't work either. If this article was written in my SLAC's paper, it would have said "the College" throughout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I've heard the bright kids this month debating on whether they want to go to UVA or VT, and the argument keeps coming up that UVA has too many preppy douchelords.

And poor old W&M is completely out of fashion with the kids--too stodgy and grindy, and lacking in tech shinies.

There were too many preppy douchelords at UVA 30 years ago, which is why I applied to W&M instead.

You totally sound like someone in their late 40s.

Nice try, kiddo.

I am 50.

Was repeating the phrase the other pp's kid used because I thought it was aptly descriptive; we didn't call them "preppy douchelords" back in the day, just stuck up frat jerks.

There were plenty snooty jerks then, but it sounds like many more now. Some people at UVA were calling themselves "The University" back then too, and tended to have an attitude problem. Wanted nothing to do with the school, as my family did not have money or prestige and I knew it was not a good fit for me.

Did you know that it is possible to attend UVA and never once set foot on frat row? My DS is doing that right now. He's a third year and has never stepped foot inside a fraternity or sorority there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t help that UVA (and that article) constantly refer to the school as THE University. It’s all over that article. They already have a huge chip on their shoulder.

because it is written by a student for the student newspaper. That's all you are getting: one student's viewpoint in the student newspaper, so OF COURSE it is THE University because it's in the Cavalier Daily.

Wrong. That’s how students and alum from UVA refer to the school. It’s not UVA, or Virginia, or school, or college, it’s “the University”. And it’s not campus, it’s “the grounds”. They don’t have freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors, it’s first years, second years, third years, fourth years. sounds like you don’t know much about the school if you don’t even know one of the basic reasons people find UVA to be pretentious and fratty.

I find it highly comical that a school newspaper article is making the argument that UVA is becoming more like a private school but uses that vocabulary, which was already doing that job.

It's the opposite actually. The phrases "first year" "second year", etc. actually show how humble the place is. Jefferson wanted to convey that the four years at UVA were the first four of a lifetime of education - hence "first year" of learning, "second year" and then on through life. How do you extrapolate "pretentious and fratty" from Jefferson's mindset that study at UVA started a lifetime of learning?

[Anonymous]

"freshman, sophomore, junior & senior" was not in collective use at the time Jefferson started UVA.