<p>C’mon, Wahoogril, you’re going to have to do a lot better than that to justify the OP selecting U-Va over UW. You know full well that most U-Va students don’t go to DC any more often than UW students go to Chicago – DC is a a solid 2 and one-half hours away and U-Va is not a suitcase campus. U-Va students tend to stick around Charlottesville on the weekends. </p>
<p>The true comparison is Madison and Charlottesville, and there’s just no denying that Madison has a LOT more going on. </p>
<p>What it really boils down to is this. UW is every bit as good of a school academically as U-Va. But there are three very solid reasons for the OP to pick U-Va over UW.</p>
<p>One, UW is HUGE, twice the size of UW, which not only makes it less personal, etc., but makes it very difficult for the average student to take all the classes needed to graduate on time. UW boosters may quibble about the reasons for this, but there’s no question that UW has one of the lowest four year graduation rates of any major college in the U.S. U-Va, on the other hand, has the highest graduation rate (by far) among public universities and ranks as high as the Ivy League on this measure. Four year graduation rates are not only a good proxy for how academically serious the study body is – it means that your education ultimately costs less. </p>
<p>Second, Charlottesville may not be Madison but it does offer plenty to do and has MUCH, MUCH better weather. Again, you’ll hear a lot from UW folks about how the weather isn’t that bad once you get used to it, etc., but I’m sorry – it’s freezing cold in Madison, Wisconsin for most of the academic year and nothing can be done to change this. </p>
<p>Finally, U-Va is far more diverse than UW – something that is likely of high importance to an international student studying international relations. Part of the reason is demographics – unlike U-Va, UW is not located in state with a diverse population – but a major reason for UW’s lack of diversity is its lack of commitment to financial aid. U-Va does a much better job on this front as well.</p>