<p>I am a High School Junior intrested in attending UVA. I have several questions...
1.) How are the Professors?
2.) What is the average class size?
3.) How are the dorms?
4.) How do meal plans work?
5.) How is the food?
6.) How is the Campus?
7.) What type of organizations do they have at UVA?
8.) Do UVA students usually attend Football Games?
9.) Does UVA offer merit OOS scholarships?
also..... I would like to major in media studies, if you know anything about the program please add it in your post!</p>
<p>Let me precede this by saying, I don’t go to UVA, but I can at least answer your questions a little from what I’ve heard from people here, seen while I visited, etc.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>This is the #1 or #2 (depending on the year) public school in the nation. The professors are mostly amazing, but obviously there are a few duds everywhere, but considering it’s academic reputation they’re obviously going to be great.</p></li>
<li><p>The Princeton Review says most classes are near 20, but a lot of the intro classes from what I’ve heard can be up to 300 or so people. After intro classes a lot of them have much smaller classes. That would also depend on how big the major you’re in is.</p></li>
<li><p>Every single person seems to love whatever dorm they were in. Some don’t sound that great on paper to me, but everyone seems to say they loved theirs.</p></li>
<li><p>No idea on this one, sorry</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve heard it’s pretty good, but it’s not great. Some people hate it, most people say it’s decent. There seems to be a wide variety from what I’ve heard and seen on the website.</p></li>
<li><p>UVa kids call it the Grounds, not the campus just so you know. It is beautiful! It’s one of 3 world heritage sites in the USA according to the UN. The lawn is beautiful, the architecture (designed by Jefferson for a lot of it) is amazing, I walked on the campus and wondered if it was a college, or a national park.</p></li>
<li><p>I believe I’ve heard there are over 500, but that may be a bit of an exaggeration. Regardless, there are a multitude of organizations, so pretty much anything you think of will be there. One is Pancakes for Parkinson’s which has an annual all you can eat pancake grill for a fee that goes to Parkinson’s research…</p></li>
<li><p>From what I’ve heard nearly everyone attends. It’s extremely popular whether or not they are doing good that year. There is a ton of spirit at UVa.</p></li>
<li><p>There are not many, if any, merit scholarships. They focus a huge amount of their financial aid on needs-based aid.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That’s my, admittedly not much, information that I have to offer. I’m sure others will have better answers for you.</p>
<p>I’m moving in as a 1st year in 8 days, so I’ll tell you what I know so far. The food I had at orientation was excellent. Maybe I’m just easy to please b/c I’m always hungry, but I was really impressed. They serve this delicious stir fry for dinner and omelets for breakfast in Observatory Hill Dining.
I hate football and probably won’t go to many games. It’s a big thing at UVA though, and if you’re interested in attending games you’ll have no trouble finding people to go with. If you’re like me, you’ll still make friends.
As for merit scholarships, you could look into the Jefferson Scholars program. It’s a full-tuition, room and board, books, etc. scholarship given to top University students. Keep your grades up, and ask your school counselor about nominating you. Each school generally nominates 1 (or <em>maybe</em> 2) excellent students. You can also apply for scholarships that aren’t affiliated with UVA.
Have you visited UVA? Since you’re OOS that might be difficult but you could try to visit this coming summer or even e-mail one of the Media Studies professors if you have questions. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>1.) How are the Professors?</p>
<p>I have been EXTREMELY impressed in general with the professors so far. There are most definitely some bad ones here and there (and boy are they awful) but their lack of aptitude is usually apparent in the first week, so you can drop or swap the class. I don’t know about Media Studies but the art department is pretty consistently bad, in case you were thinking of taking art classes to supplement your media studies. However the photo profs are pretty good and I hear the cinematography guy is awesome so if you were considering crossing into that territory it would be a worthwhile endeavor. </p>
<p>2.) What is the average class size?</p>
<p>When you are taking general requirements or most intro-level classes, they will be pretty big (anywhere from 60 to 300+). But as you progress through your major through the years, they will become smaller and smaller as the material is more specific to what you study and the pre-requisites will prevent an overflow of people who are not in the major. This is probably especially true for Media Studies, as you must apply and be accepted to that major. More info here: [Applying</a> to the Major | Department of Media Studies](<a href=“http://mediastudies.virginia.edu/undergraduate/distinguishedmajors/application]Applying”>http://mediastudies.virginia.edu/undergraduate/distinguishedmajors/application)</p>
<p>You may also be interested to know that most large classes also have discussion sessions, which are mandatory 50-minute classes that break down your lecture into groups of 10-20 students. These provide the opportunity for discussion (duh) so you will have the chance to engage your classmates and a TA about the material covered in lecture and readings. In my experience the TAs have been extremely intelligent and knowledgable, so don’t worry that you’re experience won’t be good just because the professor isn’t there. Anyway, if you did want to discuss the material with the professor, they all have office hours every week and are usually thrilled to have students come see them.</p>
<p>3.) How are the dorms?</p>
<p>The dorms are definitely not that exciting. The buildings are plain and a bit run down when compared to other schools of UVA’s caliber. However many people do like them and those who don’t find lots of great options for off-grounds apartments (which are often closer than some of the dorms to Central Grounds). If you google UVA Housing you will find a lot of useful details on each different dorm there. The only thing I’d like to add is that a lot of people will tell you that Hereford is terrible because it is so far away from central grounds, but these are typically people who don’t live there. Hereford is serviced by buses that come every 10 minutes and (before the McCormick Bridge debacle) they would get you to central grounds in 10 minutes, which is about how long it takes to walk there from closer dorms. So there is essentially no difference, and you get to live on a beautiful hillside with a fantastic view of the mountains right next to the best dining hall.
Personally I think the housing in and around UVA is pretty dismal unless you’re rich but my opinion is definitely not that of the majority.</p>
<p>4.) How do meal plans work?</p>
<p>First years must buy a meal plan. Your first year you can get something like 13, 14, or 15 meal swipes a week in addition to “plus dollars” (more on that later), or you can get unlimited meal swipes and no plus dollars. You’ll def have to check the uva dining website for details on that cause I’m kind of rusty on the numbers. After your first year you can get 50 a semester, or 100 a semester (maybe more options too, can’t remember). Meal swipes are done on your student ID, the same thing you use to get into your dorm building. There are 3 dining halls around grounds that take meal swipes and there are several other smaller, higher quality places around grounds that take plus dollars. The plus dollars places can also take meal swipes for certain combinations of food at certain absurd hours of the day, so if you go at the right time you can use a meal swipe for specific items. </p>
<p>5.) How is the food? </p>
<p>The food is absolute garbage. I am currently trying to figure out how I am going to feed myself while living in dorms again this year. The fresher options at the plus dollars locations are pretty bad tasting, but the dining halls are absolutely abysmal. It is the lowest quality food, ill prepared, and minuscule portions (in many cases the food is put on a plate FOR YOU by a dining hall worker). Getting good meat at an on-grounds dining location is impossible, so protein intake can become a real problem. I would not recommend getting a dining plan after your first year as that 2 grand can be much better budgeted to groceries to prepare meals in the dorm or apartment kitchen (time consuming but worth it for your health). </p>
<p>6.) How is the Campus? </p>
<p>Central Grounds is no doubt beautiful and a great place to be, I enjoy walking around grounds during the nice weather, but it can be frustrating how poorly planned the university is. I’m sure that will be apparent this year when the buses can’t access central grounds due to an issue with a single bridge. Since most of the dorms were all built (seemingly) as far away as possible from where classes are held and therefore rely on buses, getting to classes will be slightly more challenging, particularly in inclement weather. Also there is a ton of construction and it absolutely never stops. None of the projects that started/were in progress the year I arrived have finished yet, but there have been several new projects started. It can be tiresome to suddenly not be able to take an easy route to class, or have a dining area you relied on close, etc etc, not to mention the eyesore and noise.
All that said and done, it IS an incredible place steeped in history, and I definitely agree with Crimsonstained7’s sentiments. You can spend your entire 4 years discovering something new. </p>
<p>7.) What type of organizations do they have at UVA? </p>
<p>Absolutely everything. I am not exaggerating. If somehow someway it doesn’t have what you’re looking for, it is super easy to get it started up yourself.</p>
<p>8.) Do UVA students usually attend Football Games? </p>
<p>Yes! And our tradition here is to wear your Sunday best to the games. We usually lose but everyone heads to the bars on The Corner afterwards to have a good time anyway.</p>
<p>9.) Does UVA offer merit OOS scholarships? </p>
<p>Not that I’m aware of, but I saw somewhere that they are making a push to expand merit-based scholarships. Not sure what will come of it.</p>
<p>The first year science classes are large, but the sizes rapidly shrink after that. First year math and language classes are kept modest in size. </p>
<p>There are complaints about the dining halls, but my son said that once he found out about all of the alternatives available under the meal plan, he was happy with it. Some of those alternatives are not widely publicized.</p>
<p>There are very very limited merit scholarships for incoming students. The private Jefferson Scholarships are extremely competive. As a student progresses, there may be more merit money in later years for a student within their department.</p>
<p>UVa has excellent need-based aid, including for out of state US students. If a student exceeds a certain amount of federal loans by fourth year, they also are typically eligible for additional aid that year. The Dean of Admissions just said that few applicants know about that policy, and therefore they may think that UVa’s aid offer may not be as good as some other colleges, when actually it is better in the end.</p>
<p>Some of the complaints you read about dorms may be outdated. Most of 1970s dorms have been demolished recently, and many new dorms have been built, with more to come. The “old dorms” are plain on the inside, but are often popular with the students because they are sociable and close to classes.</p>
<p>1.) How are the Professors? - some are better than others. use the website thecourseforum to find the good ones.
2.) What is the average class size? - some are small (5, 10, 15) and some are large (500).
3.) How are the dorms? - they are not new but they could be worse i suppose… don’t go to uva for the dorms because most colleges have better dorms than uva.
4.) How do meal plans work? - you can choose how many meals per week you want and it all costs the same your first year. you get more “plus” dollars that can be used at university run food places (chick fil a, sandwiches, pizza, etc) if you choose less meals. you can upgrade at any time to get more meals. there are a lot of threads on this.
5.) How is the food? it could be better and it could be much worse, i would say average
6.) How is the Campus? - it is called “grounds” and it is beautiful
7.) What type of organizations do they have at UVA? - there are over 500 clubs (there was a tater tot appreciation society at one point while I was attending UVA… some other clubs are club sports, games clubs, language clubs, etc) as well as fraternities, league sports, IM sports, residential college associations, majors associations (like physics club/math club/etc), honors clubs, etc. if it doesn’t exist you can create one.
8.) Do UVA students usually attend Football Games? yes
9.) Does UVA offer merit OOS scholarships? no, there are a few select who get full rides through an intense interview process but no little scholarships like you are asking about</p>
<p>Is the food really that bad?</p>
<p>Our dining hall food is supplied by Aramark, which also provides food to prisons.</p>
<p>One of my professors once told the class that UVa gets what the prisons don’t take, but I can’t speak to the veracity of that statement outside of saying that considering the quality I wouldn’t think it impossible.</p>
<p>The food gets old after a while. There is somewhat of a lack of variety at the dining halls, at least from my experience thusfar.</p>
<p>However, there are some other restaurants/fast food places around campus. The Corner has some good (albeit a bit more expensive) joints as well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>Aramak is a very, very large company that provides food services to many different types of institutions and facilities.</p>
<p>[About</a> ARAMARK | ARAMARK](<a href=“http://www.aramark.com/AboutARAMARK/]About”>http://www.aramark.com/AboutARAMARK/)</p>
<p>The Aramark contract is up for renewal in the next year or so. While I have never heard great things about the food at UVa, I am hopeful there will be improvements – at least in options – when the Newcomb dining hall reopens. The temporary dining lawn off the Lawn will be interesting, to say the least.</p>
<p>It should be noted that many colleges charge $1K more a year for food and $1K more a year for housing than UVa. Those $1,000 of food savings can buy plenty of meals at real restaurants.</p>
<p>I would hope that UVa would let different companies run different dining halls, so that students can vote with their feet.</p>
<p>@GolfFather: Yes, other institutions and facilities including public schools and nursing homes. If they do provide quality food I have yet to see it, and it is certainly not at UVA, which is my primary concern.</p>
<p>@charlieschm: Here, here!</p>
<p>How you respond to the food depends on your expectations. When I was in college, each dining hall had one meal at each seating. If you didn’t like the meal being served, you used the salad bar or made yourself a sandwich. Things have obviously changed! O-Hill looks more like a mall food court than a traditional dining hall. </p>
<p>Dining halls seem to come in three formats: Aramark, Sodexho-Marriott, or independent. I’ve eaten in Aramark dining halls for 7 years, Sodexho-Marriott for 4, and independent for 7. Of the three, I think Aramark provided the most variety. </p>
<p>I’m a creature of habit, so I’m a loyal patron of the folks who make sushi in Newcomb. :)</p>
<p>Housing is so varied that it’s probably smart to look at [the</a> pictures on the housing website](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/housing/fy.php]the”>http://www.virginia.edu/housing/fy.php). There are “old” dorms and “new” dorms and new “new” dorms.</p>
<p>I spent a year at Virginia Tech, and lets just say if I could have spent more money there on food I would have (they have lobster and some great steak). I had a 10-meal a week plan at UVA for a year with plus dollars, and I probably wasted hundreds. The meals are not of the highest quality and get repetitive. I found it a struggle to even use all 10 meals a week as I did not want to go back to the dining halls. I know a few people who did not have a problem with the food at UVA, but I know a lot more people who ditched the dining plans and just bought their own food from grocery stores. I can say that I was more than happy to ditch the dining plan to buy my own food. Funny side note, I took a course on Food Politics during a J-Term, and many people were grilling UVA’s “head chef” who came to one class to field questions.</p>
<p>Charlie-(There are complaints about the dining halls, but my son said that once he found out about all of the alternatives available under the meal plan, he was happy with it. Some of those alternatives are not widely publicized.)
Can you send me a pm on that please 
My understanding is that last year the desserts selection disappeared vs two years ago!
I agree it is college food but I also think this you should be the argument to accept lower quality or selection of products.
I actually like the idea of vote with your feet. :D</p>
<p>2edu - </p>
<p>Charlie may have been speaking in part about the meal exchange where you can use a meal swipe at popular dining spots on grounds for certain items. There are restrictions such as hours/days. They include the following places this year.</p>
<p>Cafe McLeod</p>
<p>The Castle</p>
<p>Crossroads</p>
<p>C3 at Lambeth</p>
<p>Pavilion XI</p>
<p>Poolside Cafe</p>
<p>You can see specifics for each place here:</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to CampusDish at University of Virginia!](<a href=“http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSMA/Virginia/DiningPlans/MealExchangeProgram.htm]Welcome”>http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSMA/Virginia/DiningPlans/MealExchangeProgram.htm)</p>
<h2>I don’t know any more about the alternatives than what BlueIg just posted. </h2>
<p>We had some previous discussion about the UVa Chapel. I just read about it in a book about the architectural history of UVa. It said that UVa was criticized throughout the 1800s as being a center of “heathens” because it practiced the separation of church and state. Many other colleges had mandatory church services or had reverends as University presidents. To try to tone down this criticism, UVa finally agreed to build the Chapel.</p>
<p>The food here is mediocre at best. I’m so glad I don’t have a meal plan for over 2k+. I’ve been eating great food this year and I’m spending less than what I would have with the meal plan.</p>
<p>UVa seriously needs to do something about the food here. Have individual restaurants or something instead of Aramark.</p>
<p>There’s more to it than just Aramark. Aramark also has the contract to service JMU. Check the Princeton Review and see where JMU ranks for food service. This year, JMU is #4. Why do you think JMU’s food is so superior when it’s the same vendor?</p>