<p>Could current students speak to the benefits of Charlottesville etc?</p>
<p>We drove in to visit the school--did an info session, tour etc and met with coach. </p>
<p>Our student really liked UVA and its probably in the top 3-4 schools of the 8 or so considered on the final list--and may end up pretty close to the top.
While we can zoom around on google earth, I ask about the area because we did not have a chance to see the area--a HUGE thunderstorm broke out--so we just moved on to the next thing.</p>
<p>CVille is pretty small, and 10 minutes in any direction leaves you in a rural area. With that said, there is a “downtown mall” which is a shopping and music and restaurant scene, “The Corner” which is mostly shops and restaurants but some bars are there too, and then there are some other shopping areas like an actual shopping mall and a big shopping center accessible by bus. It’s definitely a college town if that is the vibe you are looking for. It would help if you had more specific questions.</p>
<p>There are two areas of town where lots of students congregate: the area right northeast of grounds, which includes the Corner (collegetown shops/restaurants) and frats, and the downtown, which centers on a pedestrian mall with more shops, restaurants, and a performance pavilion where there is a concert every Friday except during the winter. The areas are maybe a mile apart and there are frequent trolleys between them. All the big box stores (Best Buy, Walmart, etc.) are ranged along 29 north in a series of malls and plazas; there’s bus access to these. The Shenandoah National Park/Blue Ridge Parkway is about a 20-minute drive to the west; my sense is that some students never get there but that those who like to hike or do other outdoorsy stuff go there a fair amount. I believe you need a car to get there. DC is about two hours away by car or train.</p>
<p>Thanks
We drove into and back by way of Wash DC…so I think we saw those mall/shopping areas.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is enough to do–
meaning beyond eating out…
and Beyond class and kiddos sport…</p>
<p>One reason Dartmouth came off the list was that while kiddo liked Dartmouth–its in Hanover. It is a lovely town and the relationship with the people of the town and school seems really healthy. However- we hear the big drinking culture of Dartmouth is because the students are just plain bored and there isn’t enough to do on weekends etc…</p>
<p>So trying to get an idea of what C Ville has to offer and how UVA students fill the evening hours on weekends.
Does the campus empty out on non-football weekends?
Do alot of UVA students all go home?</p>
<p>We live an hour from UVA. I think D came home two weekends total last year (her first year) other than breaks. She loved it so much she never wanted to come home. We went to see her more than she came home! </p>
<p>There is so much to do just on Grounds alone. Athletic events. Movies. Concerts. Drama productions. Parties. Weekends are also pretty full with academics/studying- or so I’m told. Interest groups - organized volunteering- you name it. I don’t think anyone ever lacks for something to do unless they’re a hermit who prefers to do nothing!</p>
<p>There are 500+ clubs. There are always lots of activities going on, sports, shows, etc. While lots of students go out to the malls on weekends or out to eat, you could be completely self contained on the campus (“grounds”) if you wanted to.</p>
<p>Since so many are in state, there were always a few friends gone each weekend (me included! I’d take trips places once I had a car). But the whole campus does NOT empty out on non-football weekends. There are always lots of people around.</p>
<p>Speaking of Dartmouth, they made that funny video on Youtube where they prank the tour guides with the drinking song… UVA parodied that and everyone on the lawn stripped and ran around… Funny stuff. UVA has a lot of drinking/greek organizations, but there are a lot of other threads you can search for that were made recently talking about how sober students spend their time. There are less than 5000 undergrads at Dartmouth while UVA has 13k+ undergrads and then including the grad students the population is maybe 20k. So it’s not really comparable.</p>
No. This is not a suitcase school in any way. In fact, there are plenty of students who don’t go home for more than a week or two for winter break and many who stay for the summer.</p>
<p>By the way, the music scene in this town is phenomenal. In the last five years alone, I’ve seen the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Police, The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, The Dead, U2, and Phish on Grounds and there were major acts that I didn’t go see that the students loved (the students will have to name them…I know Lady Gaga is coming soon, right?). There is literally no college in the country that has drawn all of those acts.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.
It’s on the list in a really serious way and having not seen C’ville because of the thunderstorm and our time constraints (did info session, gen tour, engineering tour, met with coaches etc) before leaving town (in storm) to head back to DC (flt was out of DC)…
we just wondered about the town and things to do</p>
<p>As someone from NorthernVA where there’s always too much to do, I found Cville to be way better. There’s a TON of outdoors stuff to do, concerts, movies, clubs, interest groups volunteer work, sporting events, just hanging out, sightseeing, Downtown Mall things, shopping, frolicking, etc. But it’s never overwhelming because the pace of life is slower and everything’s more friendly and “southern”.</p>
<p>Frankly, there’s too much to do/see to jam into four years.
I miss Cville…terribly :(</p>