UVA vs. NYU Stern

wofbharatj
Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:24:26 +0000

Charlottesville is very artsy fartsy, as I like to call it. =] There is a lot of diversity and acceptance in the city, so don’t be surprised to see all kinds of musical acts and such. Cville brings a lot of talent in for concerts and stuff. Dave Matthews Band originated in Cville. Lamb of God (heavy metal) came from Richmond, and they come to Cville occasionally. If you are looking for music, Cville is a nice place to come, don’t worry too much about that. In terms of environment, Cville is a suburban/rural transitionary area. What I mean by that is, if you are driving up toward the airport, there is a lot of switching between neighborhoods and just plain trees. There is a feeling of a nice small city/town, but also a place where nature dominates. If you are into outdoors, Cville is the place to be. Shenandoah Valley is about 30-60 minutes away, depending on which location you are heading.

NYU is expensive, but so is Cville. Cville is actually more expensive than people anticipate. It’s nowhere near as bad as NYU though, so UVA definitely trumps NYU on that note.

In terms of majors, business at UVA is number 2, arguably number 1 in the nation. Wharton and McIntire are very close in terms of quality. The sciences at UVA are also wonderful. In fact, the director of Physics at UVA sent me an email because the Office of Undergraduate Admissions saw my keen interest in majoring in Physics. Dr. Norum recommended me to a few professors to talk to at Day on the Lawn. They faculty is just wonderful, don’t hesitate about majors at UVA, you’re covered.

As for NYU majors, I know they have a phenomenal math department, but the specific Physics department, I have no idea. Rankings don’t really matter for Undergrad though, they are both top-notch Universities.

UVA has a nice party scene, as well as a nice dating scene. A lot of students participate in Greek life, but it doesn’t dominate the University. There is a nice ratio, so parties are definitely plentiful, but nobody sees wasted students rioting every night or anything haha.

NYU is in New York obviously, so I’m sure there is a lot of partying and dating and such. But with the whole “lack of campus” thing, I personally would think it’s a little more unorganized and comfortable. But maybe I’m slightly biased.

The UVA Alumni network is arguably the best public University network in the nation. It has the highest endowment of all public Universities at somewhere near 4.5 billion (Around 200 thousand dollars per attending student!). University of Michigan-Ann Arbor is in second, with only half the amount of endowment. That just goes to show that UVA’s alumni network is very well funded and powerful. They love UVA and contribute as much as possible.

I hope you feel the same way about UVA, and attend the University. I also hope you ditch the idea of business and do Physics with me =P. Good luck with your decision, and I hope I helped you out in a relatively unbiased way (I put in a little bit of bias, but don’t blame me). =]