University of Virginia Visit Report by Physik

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - Newcomb theater was almost completely filled when started. The speaker talked about admissions, essays, each specializing schools. He mixed jokes well and pretty funny in general. Informative!

Campus Tour: Yes - The guide was very enthusiastic in general. She had a loud voice, and seemed to explain pretty much everything. Spent most of the time around dorm area answering questions(like laundry, car, AC, bus).

Classroom Visit: No - Tried to visit physics dept, but not enough time. But had chance to look at the exterior of physics dept building. Looked solid & firm.

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Campus:

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When asked directions, they helped out gladly and dutifully. Some passer-by's during a tour looked somewhat depressed & paranoid. Not everyone seemed happy. Some were happy in general.

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Very enthusiastic and tried to be funny. Courteous to everyone. Helpful and informative.

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Many old trees, leaves everywhere, grass seemed natural, no litters floating around (although some bridges didn't seem clean). Brick buildings, etc. Pretty excellent.

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Just the norm, though I expected it to be a little cleaner on some areas. Bathrooms have auto soap and paper towel with sensers (but the water faucet was not auto; quite strange). Clean in general.

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Only outside view; Looked like a typical dorm from outside. Many of the windows had the rectangular fans to circulate air. Laundry room is answered to be in a separate room in each dorm building.

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Blue light poles pretty ubiquitous enough. Wonder if it has any blue tooth tech... :)

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was a nice visit. Perfect weather, no traffic.

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Off-Campus:

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Some constructions were going on. It can be quite confusing at first time. Some narrow and curvy roads but in general a nice area.

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Almost like a suburban. Many many restaurants and commodities buildings.

Campus Visit Notes for University of Virginia

Visit Description:

My family headed south to go to UVA. We saw some cows on the way to charlottesville. Other than that, the speed limit was pretty high mostly; around 60. After lots of up-and-down roads, finally reached Charlottesville. The town seemed just like a suburban area.

We had trouble finding Central grounds parking lot at first. We headed into wrong direction within a campus area. We got some help from one student who seemed to not have fully awaken from the morning drowsiness. Somehow, we found the parking lot and headed towards the Newcomb hall.

We still got early there and had time to look around before the info session started. We went to bookstore, and just sat around within the Newcomb building for awhile. Actually, met a staff who makes sushi in cafeteria.

Later, went inside the Newcomb theater for the info session. Took about a front middle seats. The seats started to fill up. By the start of the session, it was nearly full. The speaker started with Thomas Jefferson stuff just as anticipated. But he only spent minimum time like less than a minute on that fortunately. He was funny sometimes and made good jokes. He talked about admissions stuff, which involved general stuffs. He talked about percentage of instate &outofstate, and high school rankings, etc. The admissions stuff was just basic and pretty much known already. He also talked about each specializing schools like arts&sciences, engineering, architecture, and nursing. He mentioned about physics dept very briefly within the discussions of arts&sciences. He further talked about essays. He used the Mcessay analogy. It was very helpful and reinforcing. He talked about community service stuff that how many hours aren't everything. For the rest of the time, he answered questions from the crowd. Some asked about their virginian residency status if they had been bouncing around internationally. The speaker calmly explained that 12 month residency in VA before matriculation was enough. Other normal questions included SAT's & ACT's.

Then, the student tour guides were introduced. Unfortunately, no tour guides were physics dept alumni. They were either social studies or econ or bio, etc.

The tour started and our tour guide was enthusiastic and had a clear, loud voice. She took us around rotunda, concert hall area(? I'm not sure of the name of it), library, dorm, dining building, etc. Dorm is the place where we spent most time on. There were many good questions and helpful answers. During the tour, we could see large stadium and very well systemed buses. I thought the bus transportations were one of the best thing in UVA. The guide also explained that UVA now has GPS device for the buses so that you can see the estimated time arrival when you click a button on the bus stop, like the metro signboard. I thought it was pretty cool.

The tour around dorm was just casual. Just usual questions and answers. We heard all that good story about no AC's for the most part, no cars for freshmen, swiping ID cards, blue lights for security, etc. And also, the alarm sounded out of no where, but the guide explained that it was the sound coming from dorm doors if the door had been left open for more than 5 seconds or so. Quite a security, I thought.

Many good questions were asked, and the guide was very helpful and enthusiastic in general, and the tour ended at the admissions office. My family took some brochures and hung around a bit for awhile before going back to the parking lot. Again, we had little trouble finding Newcomb hall, where we started. We had to ask for directions, and one student dutifully and courteously gave us directions. The student was heading the same destination, so we just followed. At the end, we realized how close we were from admissions office to Newcomb hall. It was like right next to where the tour ended but we didn't notice it because the tour circled around a bit. Anyway, we again came to Newcomb hall to go back home.

Then, suddenly, someone tapped on my shoulder. I thought it was my mom was tapping on the shoulder because I dropped something. But it was actually a UVA student who was actually a student from my high school from last graduating year! I knew him but we didn't talk that much because he was a senior when I was a junior. But I was actually very glad to see someone who I knew in UVA where everyone seemed like strangers. I asked him some questions and exchanged emails in order to ask more questions later. He seemed to really enjoy being there. He also talked about where our high school history teacher, a graduate of UVA, studied for his teaching degree. It was an interesting and friendly talk. After saying goodbye to him, it came to me that I really wanted to study in UVA. The buildings seemed nice and students like him would be very friendly, I thought. Then, we headed home from the parking lot, only this time knowing where to go.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

Didn't stay

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Staffs have the best suggestions. Didn't eat around Charlottesville.

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

Central Grounds Parking lot was not very conspicuous at first, and also a lot of construction going on when we were trying to find it. A lot of restaurants and commodities around, though. Great bus.