<p>^^Not to be confrontational, but how exactly is UVA better than Cal for undergrad? You mentioned size, yet both schools have the exact same percentage of classes with 100+ students, and Cal actually has a higher percentage of classes with under 30 students. Again, I’m not trying to knock UVA and I’m not even saying Cal is better, but I just don’t see how having amazing research means poor UG. It could just as easily be said that UVA’s reputation comes from its history and because of who founded it. I would also argue with UVA having the most money of the three. Where are you getting that info and what are you counting as UVA’s money?</p>
<p>Cal has a shi*** social life and a weird student culture. It’s also not as diverse as UVA. </p>
<p>imiracle, you think Georgetown is a better school than UVA? lol. I agree that UVA isn’t Harvard, but it’s still and excellent school and probably among the better options for an instater who’s not going to qualify for aid anywhere. I applied to better schools than UVA and got into higher ranked schools than UVA. I chose to come here and I’m happy. I also realize that I’ll do as well here as I would anywhere else.</p>
<p>well actually, UVa has 4.7% of its class 100+ (147/3112) while berkeley has 7% of its classes 100+ (228/3192) and 78% (2438/3192) of its classes are less than 30 while at berkeley its 75% below 30 (2378/3192). So I’d say there pretty comparable/a slight edge to UVa - but thats splitting hairs.</p>
<p>I got those numbers by going to each cds and just doing some quick addition and division.</p>
<p>Also - I didn’t mean to point out that having great research makes for poor undergrad - I just feel that a school like cal has gotten its recognition from its research programs - whereas UVa hasn’t yet still has a stellar reputation. Also, some argue that a huge research school the professors will be more worried about their work - but uva isn’t necessarily a small research school so thats a moot point.</p>
<p>UVa has a ton of money. It’s general endowment is 3.2 billion. That excludes the law schools 200 million dollar endowment - so you can either do 3.4 billion/19200 or 3.2 billion/18000 - either way its per student endowment is more than cal and michigans.</p>
<p>I’m surprised they take more than 30% of oos applicants. Does that sound right?</p>
<p>Yes. It’s probably more difficult for normal OOS applicants because a lot of the OOS admits are athletes and legacies.</p>
<p>Endowment doesn’t translate like that. Just dividing endowment by # of students gets you some nice figures, but are they actually spending that money on you? No, its sitting there earning more money. Berkeley is the flagship UC, and California is the richest state in the union, so I’d consider having the state of california backing Berkeley up to be a pretty good endowment. Like I said, I have no bone to pick with UVA and I think its a fine school, I just don’t like it when people feel the need to rationalize their school’s quality by bashing another.</p>
<p>First i’d like to say - I never bashed berkeley - i’ve said many times that i think its phd programs are ahead of uva’s and for a majority of programs on the graduate level i’d think a degree from there is top top notch. I wasn’t bashing it to make myself feel better about the school I go to - I have no reason to - I love my school.</p>
<p>Also, with the money - again I’m sure you can swing the numbers however you want - but last time i checked wasn’t california bankrupt? Thats a completely stupid argument to make that “oh california has more money than virginia so berkeley has more money.” the state of Virginia had the same budget problems that california did, but uva fixed them by pushing through the charter initiative. Now uva has more autonomy - and they replaced the state money they gave up with private funding…which turned out to be more than the state was giving them anyway.</p>
<p>Any way you want to slice it - uva has more total money than cal, more per student money and less students.</p>
<p>“but last time i checked wasn’t california bankrupt[?]”</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>And even your response about Cal’s phd. programs probably being better than UVA is really just a passive aggressive way of slighting Cal’s undergrad programs. Of course Cal’s phd programs are great. Pound for pound they’re probably the best in the world, but we’re talking about UG here, so I don’t see that as much of a compliment. Either way, it doesn’t really matter and I’m not going to get into a shot for shot deal with you. If you’re happy with you school then great, I’m happy you’re happy.</p>
<p>Berkeley engineering at the graduate and undergraduate level blows UVA engineering out of the water.</p>
<p>At our info session we were told that UVa recieived 3 times as many OOS applications as in state.</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> its just my opinion that berkeley’s general undergraduate courses program whatever you want to call it is weaker than UVa’s. I’ I’ve given my reasons. Of course some schools will have more respected programs than others. An engineering degree from berkeley - graduate or undergraduate - carries more weight than a virginia engineering degree. But by the same reasoning I’ve applied before - I don’t think someone who graduates from berkeley with a b.s. in engineering received a better education than someone who walks out of virginia with a b.s. in engineering.</p>
<p>“Also, someone mentioned UVA being second to Berkley. I think almost anyone will put Michigan over UVA too”</p>
<p>WRONG. MOST people on this board thinks UVa UG more highly than that of Michigan and think Michigan is OVERRATED.</p>
<p>stop bashing your own state school.</p>
<p>ALso, UVa is NOT second to Berkeley for me. Berkeley is like the last resort…D- social life, little diversity, I’d have no pride if I go there, depite how my parents wanted me to go there because it’s well known in Asia).</p>
<p>GO HOOS!</p>
<p>I am not bashing my state school at all</p>
<p>In fact I feel blessed to be a Virginian as I have GREAT options of UVA and W&M (and some might wanna throw in VT and JMU… but IMO they do not belong in the same league as UVA and WM)</p>
<p>all I am saying is that a rational arguement would be to say I chose UVA because it costs less, and not try to say how it is better than a lot of school which in reality it is not.</p>
<p>I am SERIOUSLY considering attending UVA as I can save LOADS of money that can be better spent on my law school, so there is no way I would ever bash UVA</p>
<p>I am sorry if I gave you guys this impression. imiracle and I were merely complaining about the thinking of people in Fairfax County … I guess if you went to a FCPS school you would understand where we are coming from</p>
<p>i reiterate, UVA is a great school, and therefore I do not think that people need to put other schools down to make UVA look better, or be so insular and provincial to close all other options and concentrate all their efforts for UVA. I guess what we (or at least I) were trying to say was that people need to think outside the box and stop conforming. There is like herd mentality here that every smart kid needs to go UVA</p>
<p>ucla, uva, berkeley are all awesome public universities…although im partial to ucla…</p>
<p>its a funny thing how things work out in life…i mean i never really thought about colleges in high school i basically trained myself to work my ass off do IB Diploma prep for months for the “biggest test ever” (SATs) and i end up in the same college as some kid who just chilled all high school had a bad GPA and played while i studied for that big exam…but where else would I go and receive in-state tuition a top 10 undergrad business program and be relatively close to home, maybe i could have gotten into GT but i wouldnt wanna spend 40K a year</p>
<p>dude u got into UVA, maybe u forgot to see that 83% of the student body had a GPA of 3.75UW+ and 86% in top 10% of their class. How is that bad? I did the IB program, worked my ass off and look, I got waitlisted. Feel honored that u got into such an excellent institution. The kid you must be talking about could possibly be a URM, and no offense to them. I dont think u can “chill all high school” and get “a bad GPA and play” if you wanna get into UVA.</p>
<p>“and i end up in the same college as some kid who just chilled all high school had a bad GPA and played while i studied for that big exam”</p>
<p>do you honestly think he will be as well prepared as you? you can waste a whole life worrying about others. if you’re better prepared, you’ll probably do better in college. and didn’t you want to work hard and actually learn so you could become a smarter individual?</p>
<p>thanks for the imput guys really helped me alleviate some of that resent. thats true were not equal and college is where it really counts, that guy who dint work hard cant break those habits and wont succeed at the next level. but some guys who had like 4.0’s and 2100’s shouldve gotten in instead of this kid, which is quite confusing. well not neccesarily a bad GPA i might have exaggerated but liek 3.5ish. </p>
<p>thrills4ever-i hope you get in off the waitlist seem like a hard-working, goal-oriented kid i guess out of state students have it rough with admissions at UVA.</p>
<p>thanks bro, i hope so too. But for now, I cant say that im gonna go, and am trying to get my mind switched into BU mode. Its hard cuz my heart resides in cville!</p>