So I went to Days on the Lawn and I liked the school from what I saw and my friends that go there seem to like it as well, but I never really wanted to go to UVA. I am really blessed to have gotten in at all so I’m not angry about what happened or frustrated, but certain things about the school seem as well as a general disinterest in some ways keeps me thinking about transferring in the back of my mind.
I am going to enter the university with a truly open mind and learn to love it as best as I can, but I want to think about transferring as well. People tell me if I bring it up that Im gonna be in the wrong mindset from day one but I dont want to put it off until December and then be late to the game when thinking of transferring.
Does anyone have any experience with it or any recommendations? I have so many AP credits that I can skip most of the entry level classes and focus on McIntire pre-reqs, but at the same time would that put me at a disadvantage when transferring?
Also how do I bring this up to my advisor etc? I dont want to seem like Im trying to leave as soon as I show up to the school because im really not, I just like planning things out ahead of time just in case I make that decision later on. I also dont want to give a bad impression to them about it.
@SWeLLT I am assuming that you want to get into the comm school when you say that you are focusing on McIntire pre-reqs. My advice is to at least give UVA a shot. Stay there for one year and stick it out. When I entered into University, I too, had the immediate thought of transferring due to personal reasons. But I stuck it out and found that the place I was attending was not as bad as I thought. When transferring, I would not meet with a UVA adviser but with the school that you want to transfer into. UVA is huge, I think that you will find something, but if you still want to do business and want to transfer out, message me, I can help!
My son transferred out of UVA right after his third semester for reasons other than academic or social. UVA was a perfect match for him in these areas, but he could no longer stay. He transferred to a peer institution and assimilated there quickly. Keep in mind, this is how it worked at this one institution. I don’t know how it would work elsewhere. All of my son’s AP credits transferred. He did not receive credits for his engineering class because the school did not offer it. He could have made a case for it with the department chair of the Physics Dept, and if he had signed off on it, credit would have been awarded, but my son didn’t need the credits. His McIntire classes were a mixed bag. Some automatically transferred fullly. For at least one of them, he received 2 of the 3 credits. He was then given the option to take the final exams of the peer institution for the class and then receive the extra 1 hour credit. I can’t honestly remember what he decided to do, but as I told him at the time, your UVA transcript exists if you are applying for grad school, jobs, etc, and shows that you completed a 3 hour course:).
When you transfer, there are forms that will need to be filled out and you will need a recommendation of a professor. Fortunately, my son had developed a good relationship with a couple who completely understood and empathized with his reasons for transferring, and wrote his letters.
My advice is to go in with an open mind and give it a chance. However, if you find that it isn’t right, don’t drag out your decision. Trust yourself. We initially encouraged our son to “stick it out.” He told us that while he respected what we were saying, he needed to move on. We reluctantly supported him, and it was absolutely the right decision for him. I am so glad he moved when he did, and didn’t listen to us:).
I have a daughter at UVA who is majoring in PPL, and another who will be there next year. It is a fabulous school!
Good luck to you!
@McIntireguy123 @oldUVAgrad
Thanks for the insightful words, I do plan on giving it a chance and all but the culture of the school every time I went to visit (3-4 times and 2 overnight stays) certain aspects of the school did not appeal to me. For instance I went to the Foxfield races the weekend before the last one and it was a little ridiculous, I feel like the beer industry expanded by 20% just in one day lol. I am not averse to the partying etc at UVA, but the school seemed very very white. I dont mean that prejudicially, but some of the things that I saw:
At Days on the Lawn the school really tried to emphasize its diversity to the extent that it was trying to prove a point, but in the end thats just numbers.
I visited the websites of maybe 6-7 fraternities and went to a party at one point as well, it looked like all the members were white, not a huge problem, but the fraternities run the school nowadays.
I heard from several students that as a result of the RS article various professors became very politicized over the issue. I am not going to try to take sides on it, but essentially I heard that some professors shut down students who pointed out the faulty journalism that led to that article being published when students tried to have a sincere discussion about it in class. (If it matters the people that had brought it up weren’t some ardent defenders of greek life but general campus students) The issue basically became a the centerpoint of a social cleavage (from what I heard, I am paraphrasing what I was told).
In general the school gives off a very minority unfriendly vibe and thats the main reason I would like to transfer out.
UVa is a medium sized, public school. You can find pockets of every style of student and professor here. It can take a little while to find your niche. You’ve spent a few days here so far and it seems like most of the days were weekends or days when there were big crowds of visitors. Those weren’t typical UVa days. Give it time. 
BTW, Greek orgs are only play a prominent role in your experience if you decide that they should. There are 15,000+ undergrads here and roughly 70% of them aren’t Greek. They definitely don’t “run” this school. Consider this: I don’t know if any of the tour guides, ambassadors, or DOTL volunteers are in Greek orgs. It never comes up and I’ve never seen them wearing letters.
I honestly don’t know why you plan to enter UVa this fall. You say you will enter with an “open mind”, but your last post indicates a pre-conceived bias against the school and its culture. Why not give up your spot to someone on the waitlist who truly wants to enroll and stay for four years? College should be some of the best years of your life. Why would you want to waste one of those years at a school that you admittedly never wanted to attend? I don’t get it.
@robertr I’m the type of person that will learn to like a place if its the best option academically, I didn’t get accepted into any schools that have the same value as UVA. I’m not against the school, but I dont have anyone I could voice concerns to about some of these issues. The people I did mostly confirmed the biases I had already developed so I was trying to get more information from a more diverse group of people. I probably will end up spending 4 years at UVA as its difficult to transfer to other schools or at least the ones I am interested in and I hope I will end up liking it.
@“Dean J” Thank you for your insight, I truly appreciate your involvement with students and I found your blog very helpful in the application process.
Confession: When I came to UVa from a big city up north, my plan was to stay for three years and then head back. That was in 2005.
You don’t have to be head-over-heels in love with a school to attend. But just know that UVa and Charlottesville have been winning people over year after year.