Why is UVA better than W&M?

Wirefox
Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:18:26 +0000

Even though W&M has a greater percentage of students who study abroad than UVA has, it is still possible for UVA students but my advice is plan early. I have a first year S at UVA and a junior D at W&M. My D thought of doing a study abroad semester as a junior but in the end decided to do undergrad research with a professor. She will stay at W&M and do a summer fellowship with this particular professor and will continue in his lab next year. S is an engineering student at UVA and is furiously working to complete his application to study engineering in Madrid in fall of 2011. The application was not simple as he had to get approval from numerous professors at UVA in order to take engineering courses in Spain. He also had to meet with a Spanish professor so she could evaluate his spoken and written Spanish. Interesting challenge for him since it has been two years since he took AP Spanish. Hoping it works out for him.

As previous posters said: Go and visit both schools b/c they are very different places. D knew W&M was right for her from 7th grade when we visited Colonial Williamsburg. She has experienced ups and downs but overall is very happy she picked W&M. She works very hard in her courses, has a job with a few hours/week and is a member of a club sport which is her main group of friends. Son had a much more difficult time deciding between UVA and an out of state school that offered him a lot of money in merit scholarship. Ultimately, he is very glad he chose UVA.

Now my third is accepted at W&M and UVA and we will visit both. She is leaning more towards W&M b/c of the size differences. I am in agreement with her b/c I think she would be lost at UVA but we will see what she decides in the next few weeks. From a parental perspective and I think many students’ perspectives as well, it isn’t difficult to see and feel the differences between UVA and W&M once you have visited both schools.