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[quote=Anonymous]These things always end up being a food fight.

Resentment based on adverse admissions decisions may play a role, but some people may also be reacting to what they perceive as an overstatement or exaggeration of the level of prestige.

Fundamentally, though, prestige is relative and subjective, so not a good subject for a yes/no question as was originally asked.  I think we can say objectively that UVA is relatively highly ranked in some areas.  But we also need to recognize there is a lot of nuance on this topic.

I lived in California for quite a while and I don't ever recall UVA getting mentioned the same way one might hear Stanford or Harvard  or MIT mentioned or in the same way it is mentioned on this board. That doesn't mean UVA isn't well regarded in business or hiring circles, it just illustrates the relative nature of reputation and that a lot of talk about the reputation of most schools is impacted by region.

I think schools have to be looked at by their components.  UVA has been strongest historically, in my view, in a couple of graduate professional fields, law and business. Medical is pretty strong, but not quite as strong as those two in rankings.

UVA is not nearly as strong as an across-the-board research and graduate university (think Berkeley or Michigan), particularly in STEM. It would also be behind schools like Wisconsin, Texas, and Washington, for instance. This view of a research university (citations and research output) is what is primarily being rated in these world university rankings, which is why UVA rates pretty low in reports like the QS ranking, where I think it recently ranked 193.   My view, though, is this is not very relevant for undergraduate education.  If it truly was, no one would go to LACs.)

I think UVA is considered to be one of the best public schools for overall undergraduate education. Many state (and private) schools, in my opinion, use undergraduates to prop up the graduate and research programs, and they put their undergraduate focus into select programs like business, engineering, and honors colleges. These schools are effectively giving much more favorable treatment to some undergraduates at the expense of others. Their equivalent of UVA Arts and Sciences is not prioritized other than for honor students.  I think UVA does less of this than most comparable public universities (though obviously a lot more than LACs).

There is a well-to-do, highly-privileged segment of the population that largely only look at private schools for undergraduate.  They are really targeting elite privates for admission and they are going to look at UVA more as a good and acceptable destination, but not particularly prestigious in their circle.  This is a really thin segment of the population.

I'll just close by saying I think Virginia is fortunate to have UVA as an option for in-state students.  It is relatively unique, while many flagships are relatively indifferent to undergraduate education and have fewer notable schools and departments.  I also think Virginia has other great options.  W&M is completely unique in public higher education, Virginia Tech is strong in engineering, JMU has strengths, etc.

(The state would really benefit if it had a research hub driving economic growth, like Research Triangle in NC or Austin in TX, but that is another issue.)[/quote]

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