Virginia vs. Maryland for Universities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fake professor is here a lot. Often says Harvard.

There are at least 10 different professors on here, and I assure you I am real. I also texted my dad today who was a professor a few states away for 30 years, he also never heard of W&M. It must only be popular for certain majors

Well, then, we've established you are very ignorant.

[Anonymous]

One also has to remember UMCP has twice as large undergraduates as UVA.

[Anonymous]

So, I am the one that originally questioned the professor's veracity, I think the answer may be field specific. Perhaps he is an engineering professor. I have a PhD in economics from a very highly rated program, but don't work in academia.
Liberal arts schools, which W&M styles itself as, disproportionately send students to graduate school. W&M does so as well. As such, I would expect that most graduate students are well acquainted with top undergraduate programs, including liberal arts colleges. W&M is certainly viewed as a top undergraduate school, with the exception of the Ivy snobs.
This however, is not universally true for engineering schools, which are not a standard pathway from liberal arts schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, I am the one that originally questioned the professor's veracity, I think the answer may be field specific. Perhaps he is an engineering professor. I have a PhD in economics from a very highly rated program, but don't work in academia.
Liberal arts schools, which W&M styles itself as, disproportionately send students to graduate school. W&M does so as well. As such, I would expect that most graduate students are well acquainted with top undergraduate programs, including liberal arts colleges. W&M is certainly viewed as a top undergraduate school, with the exception of the Ivy snobs.
This however, is not universally true for engineering schools, which are not a standard pathway from liberal arts schools.

Apart from that, people who are generally familiar with higher education and/or American history know that W&M was the second college founded in the American colonies and that it was attended by Thomas Jefferson and other presidents.

But I guess if you're an accounting or engineering professor with a narrow focus you might not know this. One might think PP would keep her ignorance to herself but that rarely stops DCUM posters.

[Anonymous]

Always shocked by people who are proud of their ignorance, or somehow use that as part of their argument. Congrats, I guess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I am the one that originally questioned the professor's veracity, I think the answer may be field specific. Perhaps he is an engineering professor. I have a PhD in economics from a very highly rated program, but don't work in academia.
Liberal arts schools, which W&M styles itself as, disproportionately send students to graduate school. W&M does so as well. As such, I would expect that most graduate students are well acquainted with top undergraduate programs, including liberal arts colleges. W&M is certainly viewed as a top undergraduate school, with the exception of the Ivy snobs.
This however, is not universally true for engineering schools, which are not a standard pathway from liberal arts schools.

Apart from that, people who are generally familiar with higher education and/or American history know that W&M was the second college founded in the American colonies and that it was attended by Thomas Jefferson and other presidents.

But I guess if you're an accounting or engineering professor with a narrow focus you might not know this. One might think PP would keep her ignorance to herself but that rarely stops DCUM posters.

Then the university should be renamed "Jefferson and Presidents" to remind people of its proud history.

The sad truth is people outside of VA simply don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, almost nobody outside of Virginia has heard of W&M. I'm a professor who lives in the DC area and even a few years after I moved here I thought it was either some kind of weird hippy school or a catholic school. I finally figured out it was part of the public system and an actual normal university only after being a VA resident for five years. I've been at top universities in the northeast, south, and now here, and know hundreds of academics. I have never heard a single one even mention W&M. I doubt most faculty even know it is a school. That's NOT to say that it might not be a good school. But a lot of getting jobs is about name recognition. Most employers in LA, Atlanta, Austin, NYC has probably never heard of the school. In addition, a quick googling of the faculty salaries shows that it does not pay competitively to attract top faculty. Some may be there for location preference but I can't imagine any top people in their field choosing to take a 33% salary cut to go there unless they were desperate

You are nuts.

[Anonymous]

Fake professor has a fake professor dad. Cute!

[Anonymous]

UVA is probably the top school (16K undergrads), then I would put UMD (31K undergrads). Va Tech (28K undergrads) has a very good engineering program, but I don't think anything else stands out there. W&M only has about 6K undergrads, so combined with UVA, they are both smaller than UMD. As others have noted, Maryland is about 2/3 the size of Maryland.

I would say that if you want to make a run at getting into UVA with only a small downside if you don't get in, then go to Virginia. Otherwise, Maryland has a very good big state school, with excellent STEM programs, and which has more undergrad spots for a smaller population. I think this is closer than people are saying. I used to think Virginia ruled too.

[Anonymous]

Outside of California, I think VA is the only other state with 3 top 100 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One also has to remember UMCP has twice as large undergraduates as UVA.

They are giants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Maryland ... and the only answer is Virginia.

+1. Fellow Marylander (life long) here, who is envious of VA's colleges and universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, I am the one that originally questioned the professor's veracity, I think the answer may be field specific. Perhaps he is an engineering professor. I have a PhD in economics from a very highly rated program, but don't work in academia.
Liberal arts schools, which W&M styles itself as, disproportionately send students to graduate school. W&M does so as well. As such, I would expect that most graduate students are well acquainted with top undergraduate programs, including liberal arts colleges. W&M is certainly viewed as a top undergraduate school, with the exception of the Ivy snobs.
This however, is not universally true for engineering schools, which are not a standard pathway from liberal arts schools.

Still, someone who alleges to work in academia should have a basic understanding of nationally ranked colleges, whether those colleges specialize in your field or not. I was an English major, attended a liberal arts college, but I still know that Carnegie Melon is a good school. The "not my field" argument only goes so far.

[Anonymous]

The state of Virginia, if admitted to the top two (and chances are very slim of getting into UVA or W&M), otherwise UMaryland is absolutely better than the rest of Virginia, education wise. Rest of Virginia is vey insular. It won't be a broadening experience. It won't be expanding anyone's world view. Students who do well at a NoVa public HS will have a better college experience attending out of state publics, beyond DMV, with merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I am the one that originally questioned the professor's veracity, I think the answer may be field specific. Perhaps he is an engineering professor. I have a PhD in economics from a very highly rated program, but don't work in academia.
Liberal arts schools, which W&M styles itself as, disproportionately send students to graduate school. W&M does so as well. As such, I would expect that most graduate students are well acquainted with top undergraduate programs, including liberal arts colleges. W&M is certainly viewed as a top undergraduate school, with the exception of the Ivy snobs.
This however, is not universally true for engineering schools, which are not a standard pathway from liberal arts schools.

Apart from that, people who are generally familiar with higher education and/or American history know that W&M was the second college founded in the American colonies and that it was attended by Thomas Jefferson and other presidents.

But I guess if you're an accounting or engineering professor with a narrow focus you might not know this. One might think PP would keep her ignorance to herself but that rarely stops DCUM posters.

Then the university should be renamed "Jefferson and Presidents" to remind people of its proud history.

The sad truth is people outside of VA simply don't care.

The sad truth is a lot of Americans are dumb and probably can’t even find Virginia on a map. I guess I expect a little more of professors and PhDs, regardless of their fields.