<p>I haven’t gotten a chance to visit UVA but I’m considering it, what schools would you compare its atmosphere to? I haven’t seen any southern schools yet so I don’t know if I like that. I’ve visited Trinity (CT), Dartmouth, Brown, Williams, Princeton, UMass, and BC. Would you in any way compare it to any of the schools I’ve seen? How is it different or similar? (I just want something to compare to) Thanks</p>
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<li>lmgtfy [site:talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia</a> similar schools - Google Search](<a href=“site:talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia similar schools]site:talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia - Google Search”>site:talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia similar schools - Google Search)</li>
<li>uva is a public school, in the south, with ~12k ugrads and a couple thousand more grad students… all of the schools you just named are in the north, and most are private. uva is in a college town, not a big city like massachusetts. i would say that it’s probably significantly different from the colleges you’ve seen and you’re going to have to visit to get a feel for it. :)</li>
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<p>^…“not (in) a big city like Massachusetts”… hazelorb probably meant “not (in) a big city like BC” (or maybe, not in a big city like Boston…). Anyway, from a purely PHYSICAL impression of the campus, I think the most similar school to UVa on your list would be Princeton. I can’t say anything about the “feel” of the Princeton student body, however, and I think UVa may be somewhat unique in that regard. Because it’s a state school, you will find a good deal of diversity, including probably somewhat more diversity of academic talent as compared to an Ivy or a school like Williams. It can be easy to forget but UVa is a big-time sports school, for example (although UVa often times doesn’t do so well against ACC competition in basketball and football)! On the other hand as an “elite” state school, it doesn’t feel at all like a UMass or UConn either. Then you have the strong presence of “tradition” loving, often fraternity-oriented “southern gentlemen”, trying hard it seems to uphold an idealized way of life that in fact may never have existed. You will easily recognize this contingent on campus, much more so than in the northeast; but their influence is not nearly as strong as it once was. For the most part I think you will now find fairly brainy, fairly well-balanced, well-adjusted and friendly students. Hazelorb is correct though, in the end it’s something you’ll just have to experience for yourself.</p>
<p>haha totally meant boston… nice catch… it was ONLY 2am ;)</p>
<p>My impression of UVa is that it was is really sunny - the weather and the students. Everyone seemed so awake and cheerful, it was actually slightly errie. The energy on campus seems higher than at Brown, which seemed kind of lazy and relaxed (in a good way). What grade are you in? I’d really recommend visiting if at all possible.</p>