<p>My parents are asking me to compile a college list and my mother wants me to look into UVA. From the people I know who go there, they all seem to be extraodinarily preppy. I'm not paticularly fond of preppy people. I was just wondering if it is true that most of the people at UVA are preppy, and if that is the case, I am probably going to strike it from my list of schools. I don't want to unless there is a good reason, and I wanted to make sure before I do so I don't miss a possible opportunity</p>
<p>First off, thats a very extreme generalization. Even if everybody was preppy that would be a stupid reason not to go to a college. It has various groups of people like any other college. Sure there may be a lot of affluent NoVA students but that isnt a bad thing. Also, you are out of state, meaning you need to be Ivy League material to get into UVA.</p>
<p>As it is a state school, there is a large range of people you can choose to hang out with. While there is possibly a larger amount of preppy people than one might expect at a state school, I actually do not really run into it a lot. That might be because I live in Brown College instead of Old Dorms... About half of the people at football games still dress up (and actually, while I am far from preppy as I sit here in my tshirt and sweats I do dress up as well). I have such a wide range of friends at UVA I could not possibly describe it as all preppy, but if you were to live in Old Dorms you would probably get sick of the "high heels clanking down the stairs every weekend" or the sheer number of sundresses present (or guy equivalents). I do have a very non preppy friend who lives in old dorms (that quote up there is from her) but she is living in Brown next year haha. A lot of my friends live in the IRC too or New Dorms. So in conclusion... The preps are mostly secluded to Old Dorms, they are not invisible, but it is not the whole University like some would like you to believe.</p>
<p>Thank you. I didn't mean to offend someone with this generalization. Sigma, I guess I am ivy league material and i have pretty strong legacy at UVA. Also, i disagree completely with the statement that it would be a stupid reason. Diversity is an important factor for me. I actually transfered schools because everyone at my old school was so generic (for lack of a better word.) I want the student body of wherever I go to be diverse not only in color and gender, but social status, political views, and personality. Of course, I am sure that no school is 100% preps but there are definetly majorities....
hazelorb- what is the difference between Brown College and the rest of the school. I'm guessing its one of the departments, which one?</p>
<p>Sorry if I sounded angry...wasn't my intention.</p>
<p>Brown College is a residential college that brings together faculty and students. They basically run their own ordinance.</p>
<p>Check out these links for more info, there's way too much to post here =)
<a href="http://www.brown-college.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.brown-college.org/</a>
<a href="http://www.virginia.edu/housing/options.php?id=brown&type=fy%5B/url%5D">http://www.virginia.edu/housing/options.php?id=brown&type=fy</a></p>
<p>It is a living option, at its very basic definition. First years live in Old or New dorms, or one of the residential colleges (Brown is a res col). You have to apply to get in to Brown and so everyone gets along! It is a ridiculous application meant entire to amuse the readers (check out brown-college.org for our last app... Our new one, complied last week, is pretty sweet if I do say so myself). We have a reputation as being either weird or elitist, depending on who you talk to, but I cannot even imagine UVA without Brown. We have a rather large budget so a lot of that goes to social events, and there are 300 people willing to talk to you or help you out just because you happen to live in the same dorm as them, which definitely isn't true in other places, especially true of upperclassmen being willing to drive around first years, etc.</p>
<p>But even if you don't live in a place like Brown you still will find diversity. Consider this. Vanderbilt has a higher "diversity" rate than UVA, but is it really diversity if everyone there thinks acts and talks the same way but has different colored skin? At UVA you will find people from all over Virginia, from TJ up near DC to really rural areas of SW VA, along with people from out of state and international students. You get a great amount of diversity if you're willing to seek it out. In high school I had a lot of asian friends but never a lot of black friends (I'm white) and here at UVA some of my closer friends are black. There is a problem with racism in the old dorms I promise you, and I'm pretty sure they still encourage students who want diversity, especially minority students, to live in New Dorms because it simply is more diverse there.</p>
<p>Brown College is not really a separate school or anything if that's what the name implies. We have people from the Ed school, E school, A school, Comm School (a lot of them bc we're right next to it), and of course CLAS. The academic opportunities given to students living in Brown are not at the forefront of why to apply (the awesome living experience is #1) but we do offer "short courses" (see the website for this semester's) and also there are maybe 50 professors associated with Brown and will offer special courses, discussion sections, lectures, etc for Brownies. It's pretty much awesome and perfect for anyone who wants more out of college than frat parties every weekend (we have our own awesome parties, commonly in our bathrooms. We are crazy if you didn't get that already). As far as diversity in Brown, well, it's possibly less diverse than other places because of our application (most of Brown is liberal is how it turns out) but we all get along really well and we don't have any racists or anything (though we definitely got one who applied, it was pretty bad).</p>
<p>that sounds pretty sweet. does anyone know of anything similar to that at other colleges (just curiousity, expolring options)</p>
<p>what percent of people in Brown are freshmen?</p>
<p>"I want the student body of wherever I go to be diverse not only in color and gender, but social status, political views, and personality"</p>
<p>Ummm, not to get off topic, but i dont see in any way how someone dresses signifies their political views, social status, or personality. I know a lot of what would be considered "preps" from my high school, and the diversity amongst them is extremelely high in all those regards. </p>
<p>To answer your question, though i dont go there (yet, class of 2011) ive visited a bunch of times and it doesnt seem too preppy, I saw and met all types of people. With such a large student body theres bound to be just about any kind of student ud want to meet.</p>
<p>Matteisn-
amadsjc brings up a good point. Just how do you identify "prep"? I was going to mention this earlier, but still have bruises from the last time this subject came up! :D So, ...are you asking if a lot of people dress preppy at UVa, or are you asking if there is a lot of diversity in political view, economic status, etc?</p>
<p>D is from west coast, and was initially put off the by the number of polos, khakis, and Lilly P.. (whatever) she encountered. She was used to much more diversity in dressstyle--for sure. However, over time, she saw how a school of 13K people provides plenty of different types-in all ways- and has really come to love her experience there. She particularly enjoys UVa's policy of taking so many of it's students from out of state. She feels that she has met and befriended so many people from all over the country--something she may have missed at other schools she considered.</p>
<p>amadsjc- i have found through my experience at a prep school and then at a non-prep school that an overhelming amount of "preps" are usually upperclass and are 85% white, if not more.</p>
<p>caseyatbat- i guess i would consider preps polos, kahkis, and essentially the southern upperclass lifestyle (i am from the south and i really hate it).</p>
<p>To reitterate what's been said earlier, skin color and clothing do not mean intellectual diversity, and that's something you really need to understand.</p>
<p>i understand that completely. i'm just going to stop making my point because everyone will just think i am stereotyping people. I have actually brought this up with my best friend (he's black) and he agrees with me that 85% of the preppy people he knows are white and extraodinarily wealthy. Neither of us related preppy people to inteligence</p>
<p>To answer your question, ~50/300 are "1st years" (we have different terms for everything here).</p>
<p>Ah, I see. So would you recommend first years to apply to Brown or go the traditional route of old and new dorms?</p>
<p>MattEisn: Are you are still basing your point on the overriding assumption that attire defines who a person is and how they communicate with others? I don't care that the friend who agrees with you is black. Why does his skin color give your argument credibility? Skin color doesn't inherently mean someone has knowledge on a subject so why would it be relevant? If you want to know if a lot of people at UVA are "preppy" then I think you should start by explaining your definition of preppy.</p>
<p>Who are you kidding? Appearances are a major factor in how we interact with people. More than a few people at UVA and elsewhere care about how they look in the eyes of others, especially if they're trying to fit in their 'group'.</p>
<p>As someone who knows the app process in Brown, you have a MUCH higher chance of getting in as a 1st year (only a few people didn't get in as 1st years, but the regular app process is 300+ people competing for 50-100 spots so good people get overlooked).</p>
<p>Some people say you need the "first year experience" or something like that but I can't even imagine UVA without Brown. Every day all of us 1st yrs in Brown say how glad we are that we didn't just "apply for our 2nd year instead." However, there are many people who really loved their 1st yr experience and wouldn't trade it for anything. A lot of us in Brown have agreed that we feel kind of disconnected from our class, but we're disconnected from the people we wouldn't associate with anyways (lol... speaking of the title of this forum) so it's not a big deal. Those are things to consider though.</p>
<p>Personally, I knew I wanted to live in Brown since the moment I heard about it as a sophomore. When I did my overnight, I found that I still had a lot in common with people in New Dorms and would be happy there too. Applying to Brown for me was never a question, but the alternative of New Dorms was good. However, Brown is definitely where I belong. I would definitely recommend applying to Brown as a 1st yr if you eventually want to end up here, but definitely do an overnight and know what you'll be trading.</p>
<p>Thank you for that. If I end up being accpeted to UVa, I think I'll definitely consider Brown as my first choice of housing.
The topic of this forum was what my main beef with Virginia was about too. I read some nasty things about the so called preps at sites like <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/%5B/url%5D">www.studentsreview.com/</a>. The comments about the students there made me shake UVa out of my top choice. Its nice to know that if I did attend UVa, I would have the option of avoiding that scene completely. So now UVa is back on the top of my list. Thanks again.</p>