Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Besides rankings can somebody give a more organic view to why UVA is great?

So far, the only answer I have is "it has a great campus", which is nice. It has "good sports" sometimes.

Can anybody give me anything else positive about UVA? Any alum that can give a positive experience they had at UVA?

If you're majoring in basketweaving, UVA is the place to be.

I know it sounds like a dig (I didn't go there), but the connections at UVA are in a different league compared to the other local publics.

Anonymous



When UVa wins the NCAA tournament this year, it'll be awesome.

Yep UVa does not choke...the school's mascot should be a choking dog.

Anonymous wrote:
It's hard to get into from Nova, not so much from the Rova. Very male dominate culture(think 1950's leave it to beaver) and snobby. It's a state school that thinks it's a small private country club.


Wrong.

Sure

I think UVA should have its own forum topic.

Anonymous wrote:Aren't uva and william and nary equally competitive? Why is the attention focused on uva?

Same caliber students. But they are two very different schools. W&M is basically a liberal arts college with a law school. UVA is the much larger research flagship.

Anonymous wrote:

You say "just a state school" - what does that mean? Does the fact that it is public somehow lessen its status? I guess I'm just not sure what you mean by "it's a good school but it's a state school."

Any state school is going to be at the mercy of state funding. That's not a big issue if it's a state that consistently supports education, but IME (yes, I went there), UVA has suffered at the hands of a state government that has steadily gutted funding -- not that it stops UVa boosters from insisting that it's the very bestest place ever.

It's not that you can't get a great education at UVA, but if a student who isn't interested in being surrounded by frat culture, s/he shouldn't worry that not going to Mr Jefferson's University means missing out on the best education possible.

People want to go there for all the above reasons. But with the class size of NOVA HS, the top 10% of a 380 person class is 38. But UVA will not accept 38 people from any one school, except maybe TJ. So there is the problem.

When UVa wins the NCAA tournament this year, it'll be awesome.

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to get into from Nova, not so much from the Rova. Very male dominate culture(think 1950's leave it to beaver) and snobby. It's a state school that thinks it's a small private country club.

Wrong.

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to get into from Nova, not so much from the Rova. Very male dominate culture(think 1950's leave it to beaver) and snobby. It's a state school that thinks it's a small private country club.

Many great state schools are very diverse socially like Berkeley, Michigan, Wisconsin. UVA has a much more follow the crowd lax bro all Greek vibe.

Anonymous wrote:Besides rankings can somebody give a more organic view to why UVA is great?

In state tuition, arguably the second undergrad business school in the country, and great grad programs. maybe not great like a top Ivy.

Anonymous wrote:Aren't uva and william and nary equally competitive? Why is the attention focused on uva?

I think it might be because athletics give UVa a higher profile.

I grew up elsewhere, and the kids from my town who went to UVa were athletes. The ones who went to W&M were more scholarly. (A crude division, because the UVa students were smart and the W&M students played sports, but the UVa students trended jolly/boisterous and the W&M students trended thoughtful/quiet.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is a good state school just like UMD - nothing more, nothing less. People always talk about rankings but most people don't even know what criteria are used for rankings.

WTH? There are a million things MD does better than VA but please no sane person could say UVA is "just like" UMD. Let's see. They're both in state schools. They each have decent sports programs some years. Yep, that's it.

MD has such an inferiority complex. Of course in its case, it's richly deserved, so there's that.

Keep up with the hating, though, it's quite amusing. Might even make you feel better about sticking your admissions director on a clown bus with a video crew.

What's this thing about "hating"? Nobody "hates" UVA. People are just trying to understand what's so good about UVA. Is that wrong? Where is the beef?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is a good state school just like UMD - nothing more, nothing less. People always talk about rankings but most people don't even know what criteria are used for rankings.

WTH? There are a million things MD does better than VA but please no sane person could say UVA is "just like" UMD. Let's see. They're both in state schools. They each have decent sports programs some years. Yep, that's it.

MD has such an inferiority complex. Of course in its case, it's richly deserved, so there's that.

Keep up with the hating, though, it's quite amusing. Might even make you feel better about sticking your admissions director on a clown bus with a video crew.

It's hard to get into from Nova, not so much from the Rova. Very male dominate culture(think 1950's leave it to beaver) and snobby. It's a state school that thinks it's a small private country club.