The title explains it! Any info on UVA’s social life, academic rigor, majors known for, etc. Thanks!
It’s an obscure school, I’m not surprised you can’t find any information about it anywhere.
UVa is one of the nation’s best public schools. It’s a bit of a quirky community (in a good way) . It has one of the best undergraduate business schools in the county (McIntire)
You really need to narrow down your questions in order for anyone to give you a useful set of answers.
Academic rigor is very tough! Then average admit has very high test scores, GPA etc, yet, despite that, the average GPA for UVA is around a 3.2
My kid was middle to upper end of the admitted pool scholastically and probably spends 5 hours per weekday studying (as well as never missing a class) and has a B+ average after 3 years.
Social life - 500 clubs, 1/3 of students are involved in greek life, (Thirsty) Thursday is the start of the weekend…
Rigor:
I feel that 3.2 is high for an average GPA. They actually had to cap/increase requirements for honors like Phi Beta Kappa and Intermediate Honors around 2006 because more than 10% of the class was qualifying for them. Everyone who is admitted is a superstar - the creme de la creme from out of state (OOS) or Northern VA (NOVA), or the valedictorian of their high school from other places in the state. I felt that my out of state public high school school was more rigorous than UVA I didn’t really study very much and graduated Phi Beta Kappa versus I graduated only top 1/3 of my public high school (my HS valedictorian went to Harvard for example).
There are a lot of “gut” classes such as How Things Work, Creative Writing, Nutrition, etc. It is a state university, even though it is a good one, so of course classes like that exist. Anyways, of course **not everyone can get an A/b. My psychology class was graded on a curve with B in the middle, so basically as long as I studied for about an hour I would get enough right to get a B on every test (got more right than the kids who didn’t study at all, and would have had to study for 9 hours to get an A to beat enough other kids).
There are a few seriously rigorous majors - biology (because of premed) has a much lower GPA than 3.2 I feel like… Engineering is much lower… And then there are honors programs such as Honors Politics which admits maybe 6 students to the major. Dean’s List is 3.4 so if the average GPA is 3.2 then maybe 1/3 of the University is making that every semester I would guess. Very inflated, but similar to my high school. 97% graduation rate last time I checked so very few kids failing out. Even the competitive schools such as commerce let in 2/3 of applicants, so maybe a 3.6 GPA.
The kids at the biggest disadvantage are the “rova” (rest of virginia) kids - for example, I had a friend (salutatorian of her HS in rural VA) who would study 3-5 hours per NIGHT but only had a B average. NOVA kids and OOS kids kind of coast along. I now teach in NOVA and all of my students could make it at UVA but most of them won’t get in because of living up here as opposed to the valedictorians of ROVA who have to work 10x as hard at UVA to even keep up.
The school motto is Work Hard Play Hard.
Majors - Commerce (undergraduate business basically). Make your own if your GPA is high enough (3.4 I think).
FYI- here is the link to the GPA averages for every year going back to 1992. The interesting thing to note is that as Hazelorb said, there is a big difference between the Commerce School and everyone else (although nursing is pretty high too). The other surprising thing is that Engineering GPAs average just hundredths of a point below A&S GPAs over most of the last several years whereas back in the early to mid 90s there was about a .2 difference which is pretty significant.
http://web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studat/dd/acad_gpa.htm
From what my now 2nd-year son (SEAS) has relayed to us, @hazelorb’s comments seem pretty accurate. SEAS is challenging, but for an OOS student at the top of his class in a mid-sized (class of 350) rural HS who already had APs and a few college classes under his belt, he works hard and maintains an A/B average thus far. Likes his classes, likes his major/department, has great new friends, loves the University. Works/studies hard, but also enjoys the social aspects and opportunities even more than we thought he would as well. UVa has been a great fit all-around for him.
@hazelorb wow, thank you!!
do you or @grp2013 know how hard it is for oos people to get scholarships?
To my knowledge, UVa does not offer any merit aid aside from the Jefferson scholarship (a full ride which gives no preference to in state or out of state, separate application required)
@jamesjunkers is that just one person or multiple scholarships?
Multiple, but it’s extremely competitive. You can Google it for more info. I believe they have a whole website. I also think there’s a thread on CC for applicants that you can read up on.
@jamesjunkers great, thanks so much!
The Jefferson Scholarship (Jefferson Scholars) is not actually given by UVA. The Jefferson Scholars Foundation is an alumni organization. http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/
You cannot simply apply to be a Jefferson Scholar; participating High Schools have a nomination they are allowed each year.
"Awarded solely on the basis of merit, Jefferson Scholarships are granted to candidates who have undergone a rigorous selection process.
Nomination - No one may apply for a Jefferson Scholarship directly. For the regional competitions, a prospective Jefferson Scholar must be nominated by his/her school (eligible schools may nominate one or two students per year from the senior class). Currently, over 3,900 secondary schools are eligible to nominate in the regional competitions.
Selection - Once nominated, students are placed into regional competitions which will determine the 120 finalists who will be invited to Charlottesville for the Jefferson Scholarship Selection Weekend in late March. In 2013-14, 36 Jefferson Scholars emerged from 1601 nominees to the competition."
UVA:
31,021 completed applications
8,997 admission offers (29%)
3,720 admission offers accepted
source: http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studat/hist/admission/first_by_residency.htm
Jefferson Scholars:
3900+ possible Jefferson Scholar nominees
1601 actually nominated
120 finalists (7.5% of nominees)
36 Jefferson Scholars selected (2.25% of nominees, less than 1% of student body)
source: http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/scholarship
Earning a Jefferson Scholarship is significantly harder than getting into Harvard/Stanford/CalTech/etc.
I would guess that not every Jefferson Scholarship is accepted by the student, either. If you’re good enough to get one, you’re probably also good enough to at least be offered admission to some of H/S/CT/etc. (File this under “problems we can only dream about having.”)
@FCCDAD my school isn’t eligible!! Am i screwed? 
@collegebound1516 sadly, yes. You are too late to do anything about it.
@KMizzle I am only a junior this year. do I still stand no chance if my school is not eligible? Is there nothing I can do?
Oh, I thought you were a senior. You may look into the eligibility process for next year to try to get nominated.
The above discussion is about merit aid. In addition, UVa does provide substantial need-based aid to out of state US students. Because the mandatory fees and tuition for OOS students have increased so dramatically, most middle class and many upper middle income families are eligible for substantial AccessUVa aid. However, UVa typically expects a full set of federal loans to be taken out and some work study to be done before UVa offers their own aid. Check out the financial aid website for plenty of info.