University of Virginia
University of Virginia (visited 3/22/24)
UVA academically lives up to much of the hype. Although this isn’t the flashy flagship of some other southern states, it makes up for it in the history and gorgeous buildings. Located in Charlottesville in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, they have the best of both worlds: the city has lots of art and music venues, restaurants, and more while the rest of the area provides about any outdoor activity you can imagine.
I appreciated the good communication before the info session, including directions about how to get where we needed to be – and the signage on campus was helpful. The info session was comprehensive (and big! It was held in a lecture hall and probably about 80% full), better than many I’ve seen. They were up-front about their long, complex history as a school founded by Jefferson, and they acknowledged the enslaved laborers who helped build the university. They do now have a monument to the people who put the work in. “Without this history, we wouldn’t have the university as we know it today.” Interestingly, they do still have a ways to go with increasing student diversity, particularly drawing Hispanic and African-American students (both well under 10%). One student mentioned that she thought that they could do better supporting people from a variety of socio-economic brackets.
That all being said, the tour left a lot to be desired. Our guide was lovely, enthusiastic, and very well trained (I overheard her telling another visitor that they train for a semester), but the university would be much better served by rethinking the format of the tour. Even though they had 10 or 12 tour guides, the groups were large out of necessity due to the sheer number of visitors; however, I’ve been on big tours before, and they’ve worked. We only saw a tiny portion of “The Grounds” (what they call the campus), making 5 or 6 stops; at each place, there was a massive Info Dump (like 6-10 minutes worth). At several points, she repeated large chunks of what had already been presented in the info session, despite that fact that all of us had been there (they split up the tours by rows from the lecture hall). The tour groups all followed the same path so there were bottlenecks while we waited for people to come out of particular buildings – and then we were given way more time to look at a mural than needed (which, although a cool thing to see, should’ve been a 1-minute stop, not 5). A lot of people in the group got fidgety and clearly lost interest as the tour went on. At one point, I wandered over to listen to another guide speaking – and learned a lot about Greek Life and some other things that our guide hadn’t shared.
However, the tour’s quality isn’t indicative of the overall quality of the school; we just didn’t learn much that we couldn’t get off the website – I wish we had learned more about the lived experience of students on campus. Academically, UVA is great. They’ve consistently ranked in the top 5 best public universities in the nation, boasting an impressive 97% retention rate and 91% 4-year grad rate – that’s huge! Students have a lot of autonomy through the honors system, clubs, and other things due to the self-governance the university allows within these areas.
The school touts that “You can make it what you want it to be.” I did get to pick a couple students’ brains – and they agreed that this equates to more of competitive environment than many of them would like. There are opportunities here, but “you have to be a little aggressive about it.” Students seem to vie for recognition, socially and academically. If that’s you, keep looking into UVA. If it’s not, you may want to look elsewhere.
During the info session, the rep said, “As a public university, we have a commitment to the commonwealth of VA – 2/3 come from in-state – but we also have a commitment to all the students.” Not surprisingly, it’s a bit easier to get in as a VA resident; last year, they accepted 28% of VA applicants but only 17% of out-of-state (from a total of 56,500 first-year applications). For admissions, they’re looking to see that students have challenged themselves in all subject areas. They get the most apps in EA (and accept the most from then).
When applying, it’s important to know that students apply directly into a SCHOOL. The direct-entry options for first- year students include:
- College of Arts and Sciences: this is the most common and most flexible school.
- Engineering and Applied Science: students have some flexibility here; they come directly into the school but don’t declare the specific major (out of the 10 choices) until the end of the first year. Computer science (as well as computer engineering) is within this school. There are also 14 minors, including most of the engineering areas as well as Technology Ethics, Engineering Business, History of Science & Tech, and Science & Tech Policy.
- Architecture
- Nursing: this is a direct admit program.
- Within the School of Education and Human Development, Kinesiology is the only major that students can apply directly into as a freshman. All others, they apply into later (see below). They can double major; if they decide it’s not what they want, it’s easy to transfer to A&S.
All other programs are Upper Division Options. Students will start at UVA in the School of A&S, then apply into the school of their choice in the 1st or 2nd year. You can only apply to one school for a major, but you can minor in another school or double major across the upper-division and the direct-entry schools:
- Leadership and Public Policy: they only offer a single undergraduate major but have 2 minors in Public Policy/Leadership and in Social Entrepreneurship.
- School of Commerce: This is their business school. They’re currently switching from a 2-year to 3-year program; students will now apply as freshman to start in their 2nd year at UVA. Acceptance into the school runs about 50-60%. Students who don’t get in can work with the advisor to select a different major (like Econ) and can minor or just take some classes in the Commerce school.
- Data Science is their newest school.
- All majors except Kinesiology in Education and Human Development apply to enter the school after their first or second year. Youth & Social Innovation is their newest major.
Undecided students can take a COLA (College Advising Corps) class taught by deans for 1 credit. This is designed to help provide more intense advising and a chance to explore options.
UVA is 1 of 2 public schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need, but they have limited merit aid and academic scholarships. The vast majority of aid is for need-based. Highly accomplished students should consider applying for the Jefferson Scholars program as well as the Walentas (first-generation) and alumni scholarships which are all separate applications from admissions.
The iconic part of campus, “The Lawn,” has the rotunda at one end; this had been the original part of campus. The Lawn is lined with some of the original buildings – the Pavilions are the 2-story buildings where the professors used to live; the student rooms are in the connecting 1-story buildings. Now, 4th year students can apply to live there. “It’s a huge honor to be selected. Usually, students have to be really involved in the life of the campus and have contributed significantly to groups and organizations. But before getting to jealous, know that then bathrooms are around the back, so going for a shower can really suck in cold weather!”
They have 3 residential colleges that are centrally located on The Grounds. Incoming students can apply to live in one of these or opt for the freshman dorms which are more on the outskirts of campus, about a 10-15 minute walk to the main academic buildings. There are doubles and suites; students are randomly assigned so there’s no need to rush to apply for housing. Students must live on campus for at least 2 years; after that, students can stay but don’t need to – although many in the Residential Colleges will stay all 4 years.
There are plenty of dining options on campus including all the typical college fast-food places (like chic-fil-a, Panda Express, Starbucks, etc). Our tour guide describe the dining hall food as “aggressively average – but the pizza is really good!”
First years can’t have cars on the grounds because parting is limited (and can get pricey). “We can’t tell you not to have a car, but you need to find somewhere else to park it,” said the tour guide. Campus is fairly big but there shuttles run continuously on 5 loops so it becomes less of an issue.
In terms of social life, this is what I picked up from the tour guides:
- There’s a big a capella culture here. Pitch Perfect was based on this – there are something like 26 groups. “Tryouts are insane.”
- There’s a big running culture. Students can run with the President twice a week. “he does marathons. I’ll be at the back of the pack.”
- There’s lots of Greek Life.
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