UVA vs JHU vs Northwestern

UVADeanJ
Sun, 01 Apr 2007 11:38:37 +0000

I personally wouldn’t characterize UVa as having a sprawling campus. Granted, the amount of land the University owns is large, but the actual area that undergraduates occupy (Central Grounds) is fairly compact.

First year students live in two areas, which are basically separated by an intersection. Like most first year college students, ours seem to identify themselves by their residence area and hall.

The current students on this message board can probably chime in with their personal stories about making friends and finding their niche.

As for class sizes, intro biology classes will be large, as they’re popular with students who want to fulfill the science/math area requirement. As the classes get more advanced, they often get a little smaller.

We’re a medium sized school…a bit atypical for a flagship university. Overall, 47% of classes at UVa are less than 20 students and only 7% are over 100. Obviously, the more popular departments won’t have as many super small classes, but there are plenty seminar style, discussion based classes here.