<p>I was accepted at UVA and W&M this year and picked W&M. It was a tough decision but I'm confident I made the right one. What sealed the deal for me was a visit to both campuses. W&M just felt so much better to me. In my opinion W&M's campus was a lot prettier and it was (obviously) not as large as UVA's campus. The students at W&M seemed a lot friendlier than the students I talked to at UVA. Also, while according to the numbers UVA is the more diverse school, W&M seemed more diverse. It's hard to explain, but while I was at UVA the student body seemed very much homogeneous while compared to the W&M student body. Also, I found Williamsburg to be a much nicer place than Charlottesville. Actually, Charlottesville didn't seem like a nice place at all, it actually seemed like a fairly poor area and looked rundown.</p>
<p>As far as prestige goes... prestige is in the eye of the beholder. Most kids at my school think that UVA is the more prestigious school (and kept telling me that only nerds go to W&M), most of the older people I know thought that W&M was the more prestigious school. I think that grad schools will pretty much see them in the same light.</p>
<p>Lots of kids prefer W&M to UVA: more intimate campus feel; jobs with Colonial Williamburg, etc. Much depends upon what a student is looking for in the college experience. My D was accepted to both W&M and UVA/Echols - but received a full scholarship elsewhere with a totally different campus environment than these two schools. You have to go where you're most comfortable.</p>
<p>These are two completely different schools. It is amazing that there is so much overlap and difficulty in deciding. If you want a large school/ big Greek scene/and ACC sports -UVA is it. If you want smaller classes, residential campus /faculty that specializes in teaching rather than research/non conformist intellectual scene- W&M is it.</p>
<p>Both are good schools with good reputations but aside from geography, the similarities end. Kind of like Chicago v Michigan or Duke/Wake vs Carolina.</p>
<p>there is no question about it: it is clear:
UVA is far more superior academically and name-wise, and in all the aspects.
UVA has a nationally renowned medical center, its echols and rodman programs vie for students accepted into harvard/stanford/penn/duke.
UVA has a higher med/dental school acceptance rate than WM.
thus william and mary is a second-rate institution.</p>
<p>"Actually, Charlottesville didn't seem like a nice place at all, it actually seemed like a fairly poor area and looked rundown."</p>
<p>If you did not know: Charlottesville was ranked one of the top 10 cities/town to live by a magazine (i forgot the name- forbes?)
its average annual household income is far to the top than national average.
Williamburg may be nice, but it is a historical city, and you cant do pretty much anything except to see the historical sights (it is indeed pretty- no doubt about it)</p>
<p>Ha ha, everyone seems to be talking just one side of the whole story.. like blind men describing an elephant after they touched a part of it.</p>
<p>This topic has been beaten to death so many times... and you know what?
No winner, no loser, and no conclusion at the end everytime discussed.</p>
<p>Actually, there was one conclusion: both are excellent schools with different feels. So suit your needs as necessary. Do not waste you time and energy to argue who is better. No matter what you guys think, the schools will be there unaffected by your comments, arguments, and what not, remaining as two of the best schools in the US.</p>
UVA is far more superior academically and name-wise, and in all the aspects.
</p>
<p>Looking at your grammar, you're going to need every bit of that "more superior" academic instruction that UVA offers. </p>
<p>Anyways, UVA is not superior to W&M academically. W&M has undergraduate programs that are just as strong as UVA's in most cases. I would agree that UVA is the better school for engineering and business (because of McIntire), but other than that they're on the same level. I would even argue that W&M would be the better school for certain majors because of the location of the school (History, comes to mind). The quality of a W&M education is indiscernible of one from UVA.</p>
According to the U.S. Census Board Report for 2002 on regional income and poverty, the most recent regional report, approximately 16 percent of Charlottesville residents live in poverty, compared with 7.2 percent of Albemarle County residents and 9.6 percent of Virginia residents.</p>
<p>Additionally, while the median household income is $48,224 for Virginia as a whole and $52,365 in Albemarle County, the number drops to $32,785 in the City of Charlottesville.</p>
<p>He said 12 percent of Charlottesville families are living below the poverty line, and another 12 percent would be classified as working poor. Lynch compared that 12 percent of families living below the poverty line in the City to 4.2 percent of families in Albemarle County and 4.8 percent in nearby Greene County.</p>
<p>According to the Census Bureau report, 21.8 percent of children ages 5-17 living in families in Charlottesville live in poverty, while only 7.2 percent of Albemarle County children and 11.8 percent of children statewide in the same age group live below that $18,000 line.
<p>Whoever said Williamsburg compares unfavorably to Charlottesville is kidding themselves. I have not been to Williamsburg but Charlottesville is a little overrated in terms of a town that has places for young people to go to. The Corner is nice but it gets old after a while and there are parts of the town that are run down. I don't regret going to UVa at all, in fact, I love it but if not for close friends, Charlottesville leaves much to be desired.</p>
<p>charlottesville has plenty to offer college students. most people who say "it gets old after a while" are people who visit the same 8 bars on the corner every tuesday, thursday, friday, and saturday. 4 years of that will get old. If you make use of all the options available in cville, you should have plenty to do. However, I will admit, it's far from a bustling city like boston or new york...</p>
<p>on the other hand, williamsburg is boring, and does not offer much to students unless they want to work in colonial williamsburg--which mostly "weird" kids do (at least my friends at w&m say so...).</p>
<p>regardless, neither towns are exactly perfect college towns; however, i would say cville offers more to a college student than williamsburg does.</p>
<p>Both towns IMO are nice, at UVA the campus and the town have a more integrated feel. This is appealing to some people but the campus and town at W&M is also appealing to some people. Neither is egregiously inadequate in a way that makes one clearly better or one clearly worse, but individuals will probably prefer one 'feel' more. </p>
<p>Things can be spun in many ways, but the undergraduate population and quality of education are pretty much in line. W&M has some appealing programs and experiences UVA does not, and vice versa, UVA has some things W&M does not.</p>
<p>You really can't go wrong here, these are both good schools. You have to follow your own personality to the one that tips in your favor as far as suiting you individually. But a great choice for the residents of VA to have the luxury of making.</p>
<p>UVa definitelty wins when it comes to attitude. W&M loses when it comes to pretentiousness.</p>
<p>jags- You're "wierd" if you work in CW? What a joke. Typical UVA spin. Tell that to the kids working through school that make good money off tourist tips. Not everyone has "daddy" to pay for everything.</p>
<p>You can hike, row, and ride a horse with a few miles of campus (the Rivana Trail is about two blocks from the JPA neighborhood. </p>
<p>The average Cville resident doesn't spend much time on The Corner at all. The Downtown Mall, Belmont, and now midtown are were most non-students hang out. There is plenty going on beyond the student neighborhood. Get out there and explore!</p>
<p>I just read your #3 post. Actually, W&M isn't the "hotter" school. Both schools' acceptance rates are about the same this year - 33%. For some reason, less people have been applying to W&M while more have been applying to UVA. I remember reading this article in the Flat Hat some time ago.</p>
<p>i didn't say that the people that work in CW were weird, my friend at w&m said they were weird. if it matters, i have met 1 kid who does work there, and i thought he was weird...although my experience with 1 person isn't at all conclusive of the entire group. however, in my opinion is asked, any group of 18-22 year olds who are so into colonial US that they participate in revolutionary reenactments is most likely a group of at the very least nerds and more likely than not, weird.</p>
<p>here, think of it this way. I love star trek and know tons about it. That makes me kind of a dork. fine. however, you won't see me dressing up like a klingon any day soon and going to star trek conventions--that would make me weird.</p>
<p>globalist,</p>
<p>the article says that w&m received a record number of applicants this year, i don't think that means less people are applying. however, less people have been choosing to attend.</p>
<p>while i was being somewhat facetious with the comment about w&m being the hotter school, it has historically gotten more applications per spot than UVa has. its a simple numbers game--most people who apply to UVa from Virginia apply to W&M, and I bet many OOSers do also. W&M usually gets arond 10,000 applications and UVa usually gets around 15,000 (this year was unusual), yet W&M has around 7500 less undergrads. Of course, W&M has no where near the yield rate that UVa has, which attributes to the similar acceptance rates. If W&M had the same yield that UVa had, they'd only be accepting 19% of their applicants.</p>
<p>Haha, you're right. I missed that paragraph. W&M might have increased their admit rate despite higher numbers of applicants because of lower yields.</p>
<p>Yeah, I decided to see how things were going here on CC. I went on vacation several months ago and got really busy afterwards. Are you looking forward to summer vacation? Are you back in Jersey or still in C'ville to check out graduation tomorrow?</p>
<p>I'm back in jersey for the summer. i had to start work almost immediately so i came back up practically the day after the last final (which also caused me to miss beach week unfortunately)...btw i had the worst possible final schedule. 5 exams...4 at 9 am, 1 on the very first day, and the only one which wasn't at 9 was the one in the last time slot on the last day of finals. barf.</p>