<p>I was wondering about how preppy UVA really is. I went down to visit there twice and got the same uneasy feeling that the majority of the kids are blonde with blue eyes, expensive clothing and all that abercrombie and fitch feeling. Does this really reflect the student body? I am also a little concerned wtih the "arrogant, conservative" reputation UVA has received. I know people say that at state schools like UVA you'll be able to find your niche, but I'm not so sure I want to have to really look for people who stray from this stereotype. Any feedback would be great and sincerely appreciated. I applied to fifteen other schools, got into Maryland Honors, Delaware Honors, UWISC, PSU, Binghamton, waitlisted at WASH U :-/ .. and still waiting from emory, vanderbilt, william and mary, george washington u, nyu, cornell, umich, bu, lehigh.</p>
<p>It is such a waste that a great school like UVA has thousands of students who are seemingly clones of each other.</p>
<p>You said you already know it, but it is true that at uva you can find you niche, and it wouldn't be that difficult. I think UVa has less of the pretty boy, arrogant A&F feeling and more of a conservative brooks brothers feel. Yes they are conservative but the arrogance that you might think would be there isn't. Most of them are really nice, you shouldn't be so quick to judge the students based simply on the way they look. Next time your down here try and talk to some students and I bet you'll find they are different than what you expect.</p>
<p>Im sorry if my post offended anyone. I have read a lot of material about UVa and some of the books or forums have mentioned that the student body tends to be "ultra-conservative, arrogant, preppy". I don't mean to judge people based on their appearance I was just trying to get a feel for how true the characterizations are. And I did stay with a student while I was there, he was from my school and a friend, I was trying to get an overall feeling of the student body because hes from out of state and a bunch of his friends are too.</p>
<p>I'm a student at UVA and I've lived in the city all my life who never really dresses like a "preppy" student. I just wanted to make a point that everyone at UVA does NOT conform to such sterotypes. Sure, there are people who dress like pretty boys but I don't find any of them to be arrogant. It just shows that there are people out there you can connect to at a school like UVA.</p>
<p>I live near UVA and have heard that stereotype plenty but I'm not sure I can vouch for or against it. Most of the people I know there (about 20 people) are politically moderate kids who graduated from my prep school...some of them do the lacoste w/ popped collar thing, some have a gap/brooks brothers vibe and some don't care about clothes but dress sorta preppy anyway. UVA is an excellent school regardless so I'm sure you'll find great people of similar tastes as you, no matter what they're wearing. However, I do think that William and Mary, also an amazing school, probably has less of the "arrogant, conservative" feel, is a bit more liberal and diverse, and offers a great Virginia public school liberal arts education with an even better price tag. (I personally prefer it to UVA, mainly for size/campus reasons.) But if you really want to stay away from anything remotely A&F, I would go for NYU. Definitely not a hotbed of conservativism. Anyways, I know some down-to-earth, open UVA'ers who don't fit any mold - don't let the preppie stereotype stop you from giving UVA a chance.</p>
<p>I live in Charlottesville, and I've come to love UVA. Were it not for the fact that it's right in my backyard I definitely would have applied early.
As to the reputation, I would have to say that it's really not true. </p>
<p>One summer, I took a political science course at UVA. There were about 25 students, maybe 15 rising sophomores, 5 juniors, and 5 seniors. Haha, and me, a rising, uhm, high school sophomore. Anyway, in that random sample (it's a core class that's required for a lot of majors, so it was pretty random) we had: a few "prepsters," a bunch of asians / indians, several african americans, a couple of internationals from all over the world, and lots of plain vanilla, middle america white kids. The political spectrum was extreme- some of the prepsters turned out to be quasi-marxist. In general, the political opinions of the class was noticeably skewed left of center. </p>
<p>If you walk outside the libraries, you'll hear the requisite people talking on cell phones. But there's a catch: you'll not be able to understand a thing that a lot of people are saying, because they're speaking Turkish, Korean, German, Swahili, etc. etc. etc. </p>
<p>Bottom line is: UVA is going to give you a great education, and a wealth of experience- not just object lessons in making mint juleps. The atmosphere is one of Southern charm... but that doesn't make it a backwater.</p>