<p>Lots of good ideas here. I'd like to add another dimension to the discussion. </p>
<p>I have three kids. One is extremely inner-driven and has always been so since birth. He can tune out a crowd of 10,000 while he focuses on minutia that fascinates him. The next one is extremely social and so easily distracted that he can forget to finish his dinner if his phone rings. The third is right in between. It takes some doing to cause her to lose focus, but it can be done and she may never look back. Each one of these kids needed a different undergraduate environment. </p>
<p>My point is that when thinking about such things, we need to take into account where a particular kid will thrive, or if not thrive, then at least do well and be able to keep up their motivation to carry on into post graduate studies. </p>
<p>Btw, I know nothing about UVA, so I am not making any judgements here. I'm not talking about schools, I'm talking about students.</p>