University of Virginia Visit Report by noimagination

Visit Activities:

Campus Tour: Yes - I took the Engineering School tour. Comments in Visit Description.

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Campus:

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I can't really comment, since it was summer and most people on campus were visitors.

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Didn't talk to anyone in detail.

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Appearance is entirely subjective. Some people like historic brick buildings. I prefer steel & glass, and the campus was hideous to me.

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The buildings may have been old, but they were in decent shape. Lots of construction.

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Didn't visit.

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The campus seemed very secure to me. Walking around was kind of hazardous thanks to reckless drivers and inadequate pedestrian bridges/tunnels.

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This campus would be great for many people, just not for me. I don't like the dominance of cars or the historic style.

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Off-Campus:

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There isn't much right around campus, but it's not too seedy.

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Charlottesville is too small of a city for my liking, but it has a decent number of restaurants and is kind of quaint (again, not my thing).

Campus Visit Notes for University of Virginia

Visit Description:

UVA isn't on my list, for a wide variety of reasons. However, my family often drives through to visit family nearby and I've been honing my skills at touring colleges here. I took a general tour last year, so this time I just attended a tour of the Engineering School.

The tour was well-attended (~15 students and parents). There was no contact whatsoever from the staff - aside from signing up for spam in the engineering admissions office, all our tour was handled by the guide. He was a nice guy going into senior year in electrical engineering. While he seemed pretty knowledgeable, he had the unfortunate habit of saying "I guess" a lot and throwing qualifiers behind every statement, which made him seem unwilling to commit to anything. This wasn't too much of a problem though.

We walked around a few of the engineering buildings. The guide didn't say anything too earth-shattering, but he gave a pretty good tour. One classroom was open (but not in use - summer school was over), and we took a peek. It was a small classroom with just 30 seats and seemed pretty nice. There was also a small lab open with one guy working on something (he didn't say what). The 24-hour study halls were nice enough, though not really my architectural style.

It was way too hot outside for my taste, but fortunately we spent most of the tour indoors. The overall impression was far better than the main tour I did last year, where the people were snotty and obnoxious. I'm still not interested in UVA, but it was a decent tour.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Panera Bread (a chain) has a good location right on Route 29 (business?), which is called Emmet Street near campus.