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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are a lot of people on this board with an odd bias against UVA. It has been a top ranked school for as long as I can remember and prestigious in the eyes of the many who consider it a public Ivy along with Michigan and Cal. Increasingly selective, it clearly has national cache due to intense competition from out of state students (not to mention many in state who are disappointed when they don't get in). It's not only popular with Virginia students or mid Atlantic, students come from all across the country and internationally to study at UVA. Don't let anyone tell you it isn't a top school or prestigious. [/quote]

I agree with this. I honestly think that much of the anti UVA bias comes from parents whose kids were already rejected or who anticipate that they won’t or can’t get in.  [/quote]

I’ve been posting a lot on this thread. I don’t have a kid who is applying to uva anytime soon. I just know a lot about higher ed (DH works in higher ed) and am the person with personal experience at prep schools. I’m just a knowleadable person trying to correct misperceptions. UVA is a fine school, but it’s just not in the same league as even the very top publics (Berkeley and Michigan).[/quote]

As an undergraduate institution, I think UVA is clearly in the same league as Michigan and Berkeley.   Don't forget, it was actually ranked the top public on USNews for many years.  Only Berkeley and UCLA are ahead now.  Michigan has been moving up in selectivity recently by admitting many more students from OOS.  Michigan and Berkeley are both huge schools that are significantly larger than top privates (only NYU and USC are similar size, and I am not thinking of them as top privates.)  UVA stays within the size range of Harvard, Penn, and Cornell for instance, which perhaps has contributed to its historical appeal.  Although it is off topic for this thread, I will also say William & Mary is a great in-state option at the undergraduate level.

UVA graduate law and business schools are comparable to Berkeley and Michigan.  They are all top notch.  UVA's medical school is well respected, but perhaps a level below Michigan.  (Berkeley does not have a medical school, but it has strong ties to the nearby UC San Francisco, which is one of the tops in the country.)

Where UVA cannot match Berkeley and Michigan is as a research university and for across-the-board graduate programs.  Berkeley is particularly strong here and has historically been viewed as one of the tops in the world, even rivaling Harvard.  They are both strong in graduate STEM and research.  This is really what is being rated in the global university rankings, and this explains why UVA is ranked much lower in those rankings.  It does not have research citations and scholarly output at the same level as Berkeley and Michigan.

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