<p>What kind of party scene is there at UVa? I've heard that it's boring there. Is that true?</p>
<p>HAHAHAHAHA. Pardon my response, it’s the first time I’ve heard that UVa’s boring. For my experience at least, I constantly wish there’s two more of me to do all the things I want to do.</p>
<p>No, it is not true. Where do people hear these things? Seriously…</p>
<p>i didn’t really hear about uva being boring, but i remember visiting uva and having to drive through miles and miles of farmland- therefore, i am sort of worried that uva is this isolated college town w/ nothing to do, besides things on campus.</p>
<p>Again, do a little research on Charlottesville before saying it is an “isolated college town”. This couldn’t be further from truth.</p>
<p>what is there to do besides party?</p>
<p>Check out historic Monticello and Ash Lawn Highlands. Chill on the Corner with friends and sample a variety of restaurants. Go out on 29 for your large shopping complexes that have all your big stores - Best Buy, Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble, Fashion Square Mall, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bed Bath & Beyond, etcetc. Go downtown and walk along a street of boutique shops, listen to free music on Fridays after 5pm, or go ice skating. Go to Wintergreen for snowtubing, skiing, and snowboarding. Head on out a little outside of Charlottesville for various vineyards, hiking trails, and mountains. </p>
<p>Take advantage of UVa’s resources and play sports at all the facilities we offer, both indoor and outdoor. Watch drama productions in our theater. Attend artist readings in our bookstore. Go to a Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Fray, Disney on Ice, Maroon 5 concerts in our John Paul Jones Arena. Volunteer with our insane amount of community service organizations. Join one of 300+ CIOs. Wish you had three of yourself for all the events that happen on weekends.</p>
<p>Take a short day trip to DC that’s two hours away, or hop on over to Richmond + Shortpump that’s 45 min away.</p>
<p>And that’s all I could come up with as those things are what I typically do. Other folks who run in different circles, feel free to chime in.</p>
<p>Cheers from the UVa student blog.</p>
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<p>Hike, swim and work out at the AFC, attend way too many cultural events, go to the observatory and stargaze, play intermural sports, fence, go on weekly debate tournaments against teams from other top schools around the nation…</p>
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Cville is a small city and there are farms in the area. However, we’re 45 minutes away from Richmond and 2 hours from NOVA, so we aren’t all that isolated. In fact, there are many who would argue that growth needs to be capped now because the big box stores keep creeping further up the highway. There was a time when the Fashion Square Mall was the “top” of shopping on Emmet Street and it’s now the mid-point.</p>
<p>One of the best parts about living in a place like this is the access to great, local food. I don’t think enough students take advantage of the Saturday morning market near the Downtown Mall. It’s full of artists, farmers, and amateurs selling their goods. It’s a hugely social “event” for people who live here (some random googling [landed</a> me on some pictures](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/kthread/sets/72057594102232732/detail/]landed”>Charlottesville City Market 4.8.06 | Flickr)). </p>
<p>[One</a> of our engineering students studied the market](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=4402]One”>http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=4402). Pretty neat stuff.</p>
<p>There are so many restaurants in C’ville…all types of food.</p>
<p>all college towns are boring period!</p>
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<p>LOL that’s what I thought when I went to Fashion Square for the first time … I got off at the wrong stop and thought I could walk the difference… bad idea. Northern Charlottesville is a vast, vast place! The commercial zones seemed to go on forever. </p>
<p>I can sort of sympathise about the vast farmland. It’s a bit unnerving having driven down 700-800 miles from Maine and be 15 miles from C’ville and yet have your highway be surrounded by immense corn fields. It makes you wonder whether you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.</p>
<p>Curiously, I guess my mind is boggled about where the commercial shopping area ends and where the farmland begins, since both areas seem infinitely vast, depending on which direction you are travelling from.</p>
<p>Charlottesville is fairly isolated in the sense Richmond is 45 min and DC is 2 hours away…by car. Few 1st years have cars so everything revolves around Charlottesville.</p>
<p>As far as the party scene goes, there are 30 frats so there is pretty much a party every Thurs, Fri, & Sat. I have never heard UVa was boring considering it’s one of the bigger party schools in the nation.</p>
<p>The only complaint I have heard about UVa is that it’s preppy. This is true to a certain extent. Inside the Greek system, yeah it’s preppy alright. The frat I belong to (SERP), is definitely not preppy and one of the few chill frats. Outside the Greek system (70% of students), I wouldn’t consider it to be preppy at all.</p>
<p>Are there really that many people in frats and sororities? (70%) Is it overwhelming on campus? Do the people who choose not to rush feel isolated? Are the parties/activities on campus completely frat/sorority based so those who are not affiliated can’t join in or are those not in them just doing their own thing? Thanks!</p>
<p>jask meant that figure to be percentage of students OUTside the greek system. About 30% of students are in the greek system.</p>
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<li>No, the majority of people (70%) are NOT Greek.</li>
<li>You could totally ignore the Greek system if you chose to.</li>
<li>People who choose not to rush aren’t isolated at all.</li>
<li>Most parties on campus are frat based. There are apartment parties and club/activity parties (such as Drum Line) but they are pretty much once in a blue moon. Activities are usually club/university based. As far as getting into parties goes, my frat, SERP, will let anyone in because we’re baller (we end up with a 50-50 ratio of guys to girls, anyways). A lot of frats prefer to only let girls in and just let in guys that know a lot of brothers. I always laugh when girls come to our parties after going to other frats b/c there are so few guys to dance with.</li>
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<p>Thanks…I am actually a potential transfer student and the only reason that I ask is that my current University is extremely Greek and i would say 95% of the social stuff on campus is with sororities and fraternities. I am looking for a school that has social activities outside of the Greek system</p>
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<p>I suppose it’s how you define “party”. </p>
<p>I’ve often come back on a weekend night to find my room has been converted into a social mixer with like 15 hallmates in it drinking various mixed drinks and dancing/doing random alcohol-related party games, with my roommate’s bass blasting (without him being present). Then they cycle through various dorm rooms (usually with consent, sort of, or at least one occupant’s previous consent anyway). I suppose it depends on your RA. My RA has a reputation for being pretty lax – he doesn’t intervene unless you start hurting yourself or harming others. </p>
<p>Well if he “sees” a bottle of alcohol in an underaged kid’s room or sees bags of substances lying out there when he comes he’s gonna VSOC you for certain (he has no choice), but usually he gives ample “warning” that he’s coming by knocking. On purpose. lol. If you stash it, he won’t bother to search, even if it’s sort of obvious why there are 15 people gathered in a room but nothing sketchy on the table.</p>
<p>Helllllllll No</p>