We visited UVA this weekend...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That has got to be tough. UVA is some of the best education you can buy around here, in state, from what I hear. But I could see the drinking culture could be a turn off. I went to Duke in the 1980s and that culture prevailed there. BUT, there were pockets of all other types of people--you just needed to find them. artists, activists, computer nerds, intellectuals, etc. I am sure you can find your group anywhere, even UVA. The drinkers/greeks are probably just the largest and noisiest and easiest to spot.

Wise post. I know several people that went to UVA and were not in the Greek scene. They loved it but were probably not as visible as the Greek drinking crowd. I think the kid has to have enough self confidence to avoid just going with that flow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a good value, I suppose, but locals go a bit overboard on its status. Outside of their law school, nothing about UVA or Charlottesville is elite by any stretch of the imagination.

Of course they are, but it's amusing to watch the usual crowd of bitter, left-leaning twits in DC and MD try to take down places that are not "elite" enough for them. Do you morons still not realize why the rest of the country hates you and your peculiar obsessions so much?

UVA is where rich parents bribe their slacker offspring into (see: Greek life), and where middle class have to send their kids because they can't afford any better.

OP here. I'm glad you said this, because this was the appearance of things for sure. We also saw some students making their way to classes on Monday morning, but there definitely weren't 22,000 of them up at 9am eager to learn, maybe 50.

My DC is at another state flagship U and his earliest class this semester was at 10:30. College classes here in the US tend not to run on a high school schedule so kids will have quite varied class schedules.

[Anonymous]

UVA is where rich parents bribe their slacker offspring into (see: Greek life), and where middle class have to send their kids because they can't afford any better.

I didn't go to UVa, and don't have a horse in this race, but methinks you are a troll. It's really tough to get into UVa right now...the quality of student who is there is clearly very high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a good value, I suppose, but locals go a bit overboard on its status. Outside of their law school, nothing about UVA or Charlottesville is elite by any stretch of the imagination.

Of course they are, but it's amusing to watch the usual crowd of bitter, left-leaning twits in DC and MD try to take down places that are not "elite" enough for them. Do you morons still not realize why the rest of the country hates you and your peculiar obsessions so much?

UVA is where rich parents bribe their slacker offspring into (see: Greek life), and where middle class have to send their kids because they can't afford any better.

OP here. I'm glad you said this, because this was the appearance of things for sure. We also saw some students making their way to classes on Monday morning, but there definitely weren't 22,000 of them up at 9am eager to learn, maybe 50.

My DC is at another state flagship U and his earliest class this semester was at 10:30. College classes here in the US tend not to run on a high school schedule so kids will have quite varied class schedules.

+1

My DC is a science major at UVA and his labs are usually 6-9 pm.

[Anonymous]

Enjoy Mary Washington, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

UVA is where rich parents bribe their slacker offspring into (see: Greek life), and where middle class have to send their kids because they can't afford any better.

I didn't go to UVa, and don't have a horse in this race, but methinks you are a troll. It's really tough to get into UVa right now...the quality of student who is there is clearly very high.

I turned down Echols Scholar at UVA years ago because I didn't want to go to a school with roughly 30 of my high school classmates. But then, as now, the quality of admitted students was very high. Not everyone who goes there is into Greek life, but it does tend to attract well-rounded students with at least moderate social skills. Perhaps this is off-putting to those whose offspring are not equally accomplished or who could not readily navigate a large school. I'm sure another place is out there that will take them.

[Anonymous]

So many fxxking wankers on this thread.

[Anonymous]

UVA has too many party animals and rednecks (and too white) to be appealing to most people outside of the South.

[Anonymous]

Listening to the people who say things like "UVA will be a safety for my child" is like listening to all the people who tell you their toddlers are profoundly gifted. Only time will tell. This poster may have a very different attitude about a year from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

UVA is where rich parents bribe their slacker offspring into (see: Greek life), and where middle class have to send their kids because they can't afford any better.

I didn't go to UVa, and don't have a horse in this race, but methinks you are a troll. It's really tough to get into UVa right now...the quality of student who is there is clearly very high.

I turned down Echols Scholar at UVA years ago because I didn't want to go to a school with roughly 30 of my high school classmates. But then, as now, the quality of admitted students was very high. Not everyone who goes there is into Greek life, but it does tend to attract well-rounded students with at least moderate social skills. Perhaps this is off-putting to those whose offspring are not equally accomplished or who could not readily navigate a large school. I'm sure another place is out there that will take them.

George Mason?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the people who say things like "UVA will be a safety for my child" is like listening to all the people who tell you their toddlers are profoundly gifted. Only time will tell. This poster may have a very different attitude about a year from now.

UVA is a safety for TJ students except for maybe the bottom 10%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the people who say things like "UVA will be a safety for my child" is like listening to all the people who tell you their toddlers are profoundly gifted. Only time will tell. This poster may have a very different attitude about a year from now.

UVA is a safety for TJ students except for maybe the bottom 10%.

So that's why 76 of them enrolled for class of 2020?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

UVA is where rich parents bribe their slacker offspring into (see: Greek life), and where middle class have to send their kids because they can't afford any better.

I didn't go to UVa, and don't have a horse in this race, but methinks you are a troll. It's really tough to get into UVa right now...the quality of student who is there is clearly very high.

I, too, think they are a troll or a bitter waitlisted or rejected student. Those who know the real stats.of UVA wouldn't be making this absurd comments. I attended President Teresa Sullivan's convocation for the class of 2020. Here are the real stats: You have to have a GPA of 4.0 or over to get in so rich parents and slacker kids don't get in the front door. 67% of the class hails from VA and represents the very best students of VA, the rest of the class has representations from 45 states and 76 countries from around the globe. It is very cosmopolitan. As to claims about it being only white, only 57.2% of the class of 2020 is white Caucasian (you can scroll down to see the stats.). As to "slacker kids" being sent, 255 in the class of 2020 have perfect SAT scores. 93% were in the top 10% of their class. As to the ignorant “redneck” comment, check the enrollment by Virginia municipality map. The largest group, 677, come from Fairfax County, which includes T.J. students (76 attending), followed by Loudon at 220 and Prince William at 118. Counties at the west and southern rim of the states have as few as one student or zero attending. UVA consistently ranks as 1, 2, or 3 for public university in the USA. https://news.virginia.edu/content/among-nations-elite-us-news-gives-uva-no-2-public-university-ranking. We were thrilled for DD when she got in because getting in to UVA from No. VA is extremely difficult. Most of her friends didn't get in. She is involved in debate, not Greek life, has never stepped foot in a Greek house, works on the Daily Cavalier, loves UVA and doesn't drink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think OP got into UVA. Greek row is stunningly beautiful. UVA keeps popping up as no. 1 or no. 2 for most beautiful on those never-ending ratings lists. My DD attends there and is involved in other clubs, not the greek scene, but I've driven by those buildings many times and don't know what OP is talking about.

Er, not stunningly beautiful.

Agreed that while UVA is a good university overall, it is not a "stunning" campus by ANY stretch of the imagination. There are simply too many big, beautiful campuses out there that truly deserve the descriptor of "stunning": Pepperdine, Emory, UC Santa Cruz, Indiana-Bloomington, Kenyon...UVA just doesn't measure up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also visited UVA two weeks ago. We liked it overall, it is a good safety school for us and they do have a program that my child is interested in. The only thing that really jumped up to me is how white is the student body. We've spent on the campus the entire day, and then ate a dinner near UVA and probably saw 3 asian kids and one or two AA. It is such a big difference from what we've seen in Harvard or Columbia.

I'm Asian and I hear this all the time from current students at UVA. How white UVA is.

Here is UVA's demographic breakdown:

0.1% American Indian/Alaskan Native
13.1% Asian
6.5% Black/African-American
6.4% Hispanic/Latino
4.7% Multi-race (not Hispanic/Latino)
0.0% Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander
63.3% White
5.8% Unknown

It's also about 8 percent Jewish, and when I went there a decade ago had the most active Jewish campus life at any Virginia school, FWIW.

So it's less diverse than Harvard or Columbia but hardly all southern WASPs.