<p>Looks like this discussion needs a rap song. The Virginia College Rap Song!</p>
<p>[Va</a> College Rap - YouTube](<a href=“The Virginia College Rap - YouTube”>The Virginia College Rap - YouTube)</p>
UVA is always ranked higher on party school lists than JMU or any other school in Virginia, and it is, in fact, much more of a party school. My daughter says the stories she’s been hearing from her UVA friends over breaks are crazy and are far more outlandish and wild than anything she’s hearing about any of the other schools. Many UVA kids are drunk most of the time, do very little studying unless they’re majoring in engineering or something else math-related, and Greek life there dominates everything. They also use more expensive types of alcohol and drugs than the kids at most of the other state schools, because they have more money. Almost all the bad publicity UVA has gotten in the last few years has been directly linked to alcohol…from the death of Yeardly Love at the hands of her drunken frat guy, lacrosse playing boyfriend George Huguely, to the horrific murder of the sadly disoriented Ms. Graham to a serial killer. Have the people in this thread been hiding under a rock? UVA is the biggest party school of the Virginia state schools, and it always has been. It’s not known for the type of studying that goes on at William & Mary, for example, though the school tries hard to project that image on campus tours. Undergraduates get a lot more attention at many other schools, including JMU, Mary Washington, CNU, and W&M, than they do there. Somehow though, the school manages to maintain an excellent reputation no matter what goes down there. Me thinks it is way overrated and has an excellent PR machine propping it up.
There is a lot of misinformation going on here. First of all, UVA and VT are very focused on grad students – not necessarily bad, just different than schools like JMU or William and Mary, which focus more on undergraduates. You will not have teaching assistants as your primary teachers at JMU or W&M, but you will at UVA and VT. You will also have some classes at UVA and VT with 400 other students in them, but you will not at JMU or W&M. At JMU and W&M, you will be welcome to participate in research as a freshman and as much as you want as an undergraduate, whereas that is usually reserved for grad students or only a select few undergrads at UVA and VT. UVA is far and away the biggest party school of all of the Virginia schools. I grew up in Virginia and know well over 100 UVA grads, as well as grads from every school in Virginia, and I have many relatives who live in Charlottesville and either attended the school or work there; and the wildest and most excessive stories I’ve ever heard about partying at Virginia state schools have come out of UVA. I visited there myself as a student (including for the famous Easters weekend that no longer exists), and my kids have visited there recently and frequently. They have also visited other Virginia colleges. UVA consistently takes the cake on partying, and no more studying goes on there than anywhere else. The most academically challenging and intellectual school with the most serious students in Virginia is actually William & Mary. That being said, there are bright, hard-working students at all of the colleges, as well as slackers and hard party types at all of them. UVA kids are wealthier than most, though, and can afford more expensive alcohol and drugs. It is also easier for them to hide behind the school’s outsized reputation. People just assume they must be working hard, because it’s highly selective. When I was young, the saying was that the hardest thing about UVA was getting in and that once in, you could let the good times roll. The school is much overrated, imho. It is a good school, but not so good that they are beyond reproach, and not so good that their students have any business looking down on people from other colleges. The Greek system is also bigger at UVA than at any of the other state schools, which right there guarantees that it’s the most consumed by partying of them all. I’ve known a dozen or so people who have chosen JMU over UVA over the years, for a variety of reasons and also over VT. VT was not even in the running for people outside of engineering and sciences majors until recently. Outside of engineering or architecture, VT was basically non-selective for years, and JMU was more often the next choice after UVA or W&M for undecided or non-engineering people (and even sometimes their first choice). It still is often chosen by students over VT who want more of a liberal arts focus and a more cohesive, tighter knit campus community. VT is a great school, but it is also large and sprawling and can overwhelm some students – not for everyone. Not everyone is obsessed with pecking orders and reputations, because we all know people who have been successful from all of these colleges. Virginia’s second and even third-tier colleges compete with the best of many other states’ public universities. Several people I know chose JMU over UVA after having been accepted at both, because JMU had more technical majors to choose from, because it was more undergraduate focused, and/or because it seemed more down-to-earth and friendlier – all reasons I’ve heard living, breathing, smart people say for having chosen JMU over UVA. They are not doing something “weird” – just know what they do and don’t want and are unaffected by the brand name game. Most people go on to grad school now, and if you do well at any undergrad school, you can make it to a name brand grad school. My neighbor’s daughter just finished up at Yale Medical School, to which she was accepted from JMU. For the record, JMU’s undergraduate business school is quite highly ranked and is usually more highly ranked than VT’s business school by sources that matter in the business world, such as Bloomberg Business and Business Week. People on this thread have apparently not been paying attention over the last five years or so, when UVA has had several tragedies where alcohol was front and center, including the murder of Yeardly Love by her drunk, entitled, and temperamental frat guy boyfriend, and the horrific murder of the sadly disoriented young woman this past Fall, in which alcohol was a factor. And yes, the Rolling Stone story was discredited, but I have a friend who attended UVA whose roommate was gang raped at the Phi Kappa Psi house and was able to bring charges against one of the handful of perpetrators years after the fact, after he admitted to it in writing online. So the only thing special about UVA is its lovely lawn and particular brand of history having had a forefather as a founder, a reputation it is still riding on to this day, which seems unshakable, as people continue to ignore the signs of decline and sing the school’s praises of excellence, no matter what evidence presents itself to the contrary. It is a good school that presumes to be great because of its founder’s name, still attracts strong students who prop up its reputation, and has an awesome PR machine that successfully and falsely portrays it as a highly academic pressure cooker school with little focus on partying. Parents buy this story year after year, but the students know the truth, especially students who visit there from other schools and are amazed at the level of debauchery that takes place. The characterization of academic focus and excessive studying with little time for hard partying actually more closely resembles W&M. As for JMU, this school has worked hard to set itself apart and develop strengths in different areas than UVA, and I would argue that it’s actually a better place for undergraduates than UVA is, because at JMU classes are smaller than at UVA, every undergraduate class is taught by a professor, undergraduates are more welcome to do research and interact with professors, the food is infinitely better, and the sense of community is stronger. I overheard some kids at a mall discussing whether they would choose W&M or UVA if they got into both. One student summarized the truth quite well: “If both schools have equal academic reputations, why wouldn’t you choose UVA, because you get the same reputable diploma after having studying half the amount you would have to at W&M to get a high GPA, while partying your ass off and having an awesome time.” That, in a nutshell, is why UVA gets close to 30K applications a year while W&M gets around 15K.
Well said Collegelovingmom! However, I the amount of partying at JMU is also excessive. The academics are rigorous at JMU. Our daughter is studying very hard and realized early partying was not for her. She is very appreciative of the liberal arts program, and as a freshman is already getting a well-rounded education. She has found her advisors to be very helpful and has been allowed to designate three different majors as she attempts to narrow down her her interests. Even though she is WASP, she has been involved in several mult-cultural events and loves the art focus of downtown Harrisonburg. JMU can over a life of partying, but it also offers many diverse opportunities. Our daughter is OOS, but chose JMU due to the well over 100 majors offered and the numerous opportunities to develop her interests. There is a strong Greek focus, hence the stereotype; but there is so much more to JMU than so many other universities. It is a wonderful environment for those transferring from HS to adulthood. Keep uo the good work JMU!
There are assumptions here that In state kids choose their college of choice based purely on reputation - not so in my DS’s case. We visited or he has been to most of the colleges mentioned here and quickly realized he wanted a small, liberal arts focused school where he would be taught by professors, where classes would be small, the campus more intimate. The party scene was less important to him (unless there was a reputation for bad behavior - he definitely noted that). He didn’t like downtown urban locations or schools that were exceptionally large. Big time sports wasn’t important either. I’d like to think his approach was always mature - but some 17 year old snuck in there too (JMU was out because too many kids who were jocks and jerks from his high school went there).
But in the end one should really explore the right fit and feel over “reputation” alone. My son’s Virginia list is: W&M, CNU, Univ. of Richmond, and Univ. of Mary Washington.