<p>Larry Sabato heads up the poli sci dept at UVA and if you’re a potential poli sci major you must know who he is. Truly exciting, but what isn’t so exciting is the size of the classes at UVA. It makes it infinitely more difficult to develop close ties with profs, and that’s such a vital part of what happens at Rice. The accessibility of the Rice social sciences faculty is incredible and this rapport leads to research jobs early on, summer mentorships, etc. Just getting into the classes you want at UVA is so much more difficult than at Rice. UVA makes sense as a grad school, but you’ll get a superb undergraduate education and access to a non-partisan think tank at Rice!</p>