<p>I think part of the “W&M being so difficult” thing comes from the stress level at W&M, if you will. I think that the average W&M student is more stressed than the average UVA student. That said, I have a lot of friends at UVA, and they all work hard. Maybe you have to work harder at W&M to get the same grades as UVA, so that makes W&M students more stressed, but really, there’s no way to measure that.</p>
<p>I don’t know why the thread turned into this, UVA and W&M are both very good, very respected schools that you will put you on the path to go where you want to go. The OP should choose based on which school they get the feeling that “this is the place for me” when they step on campus (or “grounds” =P).</p>