<p>I know UVA is a great school but what are its best departments? Specifically, I’d like to know how the economics dept. is. Also, do a lot of graduates go on to top-tier business school?</p>
<p>The business/commerce/economic departments are some of the best in the country. McIntire is an excellent school, and I think one of the hardest to get in to. And, with UVa being a #2 public school, yes, lots of grads go on to “top-tier” business schools (including UVa’s!). Obviously its dependent on grades, but yes, UVa serves its students well.</p>
<p>I would say historically, UVa’s best departments are languages (french, german, and spanish imparticular), english, religious studies, history (especially american studies), commerce, and nursing.</p>
<p>UVA is known for providing a strong and very balanced undergraduate education. Every department here will be great at the undergraduate level. Rather than concerning yourself with departmental prestige at the undergraduate level, you should look at the school as a whole. Also, given that you’re interested in business school, you should look primarily at job recruiting. The econ department here does place graduates in business school - graduates place themselves. Business school admissions (I’m assuming you’re talking about the MBA) have a lot more to do with work experiences, recommendations and other factors than undergraduate major. Have you looked into UVA’s job recruiting? It’s fairly good. And if you’re just interested in getting a job after graduation (in banking/consulting or whatever), you might as well look at the McIntire School of Commerce.</p>
<p>Haha, I love how religion is one of the strongest depts now, when originally TJ didn’t even want religion taught here.</p>
<p>hazelorb,</p>
<p>religious studies is different than theology. jefferson was against theology classes.</p>
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<p>Wrong. The academic study of religion and theology is very different from having an institution built on religious principles. Jefferson wanted a secular school free from religious influence - not one that would ignore a potentially valuable area of academic inquiry.</p>
<p>anyone know anything about their engineering?</p>
<p>Well, I’m trying to transfer into it from the #11 public engineering program if that’s any clue =P The biggest difference between UVa’s engineering and somewhere like Virginia Tech/Georgia Tech/MIT/ect is that the latter focuses soley on engineering. UVa, however, ensures that its graduates have a broad, well-balanced education under their belt. So while the more technical schools will focus soley on math and science and maybe a freshman writing course, UVa mandates that you take humanities/STS (engineering-based writing courses) and other non-engineering classes.
So, if you want a pure science/math engineering school, UVa may not be right. If you don’t mind other classes incuded in your studies, then UVa is a good fit.
Also, in terms of specific departments, even though theres a relatively small number compared to other schools, the departments are some of the best. The EE/CpE dept are #25 overall, and the BioME department is ranked high also. The SystemsE program and ME/AE programs are also very well respected, although the AE side is not as strong as other schools, but is growing.
Check out the SEAS website, and just float around that and the Undergraduate Record and just click around and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn =)</p>
<p>seuferk,</p>
<p>rankings aside, UVa engineering grads make the same amount of money as Michigan engineering grads - and Michigan is supposedly a far superior engineering school.</p>
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<p>Yea. This has a lot to do with the fact that rankings of academic disciplines mean a <em>lot</em> more for graduate study than undergraduate study.</p>
<p>One of the advantages of the UVa education is a strong emphasis on the humanities with practices in communications skills. So it prepares you better for management positions in engineering.</p>
<p>You will have a lots of Va Tech, Maryland, Ga Tech graduates reporting to you!</p>
<p>exactly -</p>
<p>undergrad rankings are a lot of bunk, imo. for most majors (excluding certain professional-type degrees) - everyone generally learns the same stuff, no matter where you go. Your institutions overall prestige (in terms of where you can get interviews for jobs) and how well you do at school most likely makes up over 90% of what you do out of college - not you institutions “undergrad ranking” in certain departments.</p>
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That’s absolute rubbish. Employers–say Engineers, for instance–will surely be aware of such departmental rankings, and consequently may not place as much emphasis on a pure institutonal prestige.</p>
<p>lol (10).</p>
<p>Agreed. Just like saying a degree from UVa is held in higher regard that a degree from some Joe-Blow University, a degree from a well respected department is better than one from a lesser department. However, coming from a school of caliber of UVa, or even GT, VT, ect, any engineering degree from any department will be respected. Companies will see that you came form the engineering department from a top-notch school, and that will be enough. So I think there’s a fine line in the middle of what jags and coolbeans said: employment won’t be necessarily entirely based on the school as a whole, nor the individual department. Instead, it will be based on the quality of the engineering department as a whole.<br>
Then again, in engineering, there seems to be “great” and “will-get-you-a-degree” schools. There really isn’t much in between, and there really arn’t any seriously horrible engineering schools. It’s too much of a specialized and advanced degree.</p>
<p>UVA is really known for producing national and international leaders. We have a huge number of people who are passionate in politics and international relations/foreign affairs.</p>
<p>In the business world, and in the world of law firms in particular, UVA and UVA Law is known for producing well rounded, well educated students. When applying to the Law School in the dark ages (1978), the Dean of Admissions told me that they could fill the class with students with a 4.0 and 800 on the LSAT. Instead, they tried to find kids who were well rounded and who had good grades. There were a significant number of kids in my law school class who were varsity athletes in college–guessing about 25%-33%. I also had a small, but well known number of politically known classmates (Bobby Kennedy, Sargeant Shriver, Goody Marshall (ie Thurgood Marshall), Evan Bayh etc. I suspect the class make up is similar today. I also used to recruit at the Law School. Both those students who went to UVA undergrad and those who went elsewhere but who were at the Law School seemed to be less intense but equally as bright as those who I saw at some other Ivy League law schools. Finally, I believe the Honor Code had a tremendous influence on the UVA students–needless to say–for the positive.</p>
<p>what part of “excluding certain professional type degrees” don’t you people understand? last time i checked, engineering is a professional degree…</p>
<p>get past the first sentence in a post before you go running your mouth.</p>
<p>Also - if you think that a georgia tech engineer has a leg up on a harvard engineering grad because gtech has a higher “departmental ranking”, you’re living in a fantasy land.</p>
<p>No need to get harsh, I think coolbeans understood “excluding certain professional type degrees”.<br>
But like I pointed out, when you’re comparing places like UVa, GT, VT, Perdue, even Harvard, they’re all top schools. Its hard to say a Harvard engineer is better than a GT engineer, simply because they come ffrom such great programs, and really the only difference is the type of education they recieved (broad or specifically engineering only). They’re going to have different characteristics, but its hard to say one will be better or more successful than the other.</p>