<p>Excellent points, NYTOVA. Totally agree on the shameful past of slavery.</p>
<p>FYI:
Slaves built a ton of things that you use everyday. You can write on this forum because of a freedom of speech written by slaveholders. That freedom is protected by the White House, which held slaves at one point. If you live in a southern state, you have a high probability slaves once lived on your property. Your ancestors might have held slaves. </p>
<p>Saying you won't go to UVA because of slaves is dumb and ignorant. It's part of our past. Get over it. On another note, TJ and GW were known to treat their slaves very, very well.</p>
<p>I don't think NYTOVA was telling us not to attend UVA because of slavery. He or she was just referring to how it's hard to think of UVA's historic buildings without bringing up the past of slavery. I think it's pretty ironic that the tour guides didn't mention a thing about slavery in their historic tours, but I understand it would definitely ruin UVA's image.</p>
<p>A slave is a slave... You're basically treated, at best, like second-class citizens. And if you know the history behind the lawn, these slaves lived in the basements which are now closed.</p>
<p>OK getting this thread back on track...</p>
<ol>
<li>Your friends that decide to pledge frats will be engulfed by them and you wont see much of them after first semester.</li>
<li>Walking around campus it sometimes feels as if the only way to distinguish between people is by bar codes.</li>
<li>There is VERY little racial interaction. People tend to stick with their own racial group.</li>
<li>You want a football team that will consistently win.</li>
<li>Food is terrible at Newcomb, edible at OHill.</li>
</ol>
<p>Those are basically the extent of problems I have seen. Overall I can think of more good things that outweigh these a lot. I giggles at the bell curve grading and McIntire being hard things. I don't get it, would you rather they just give everyone a C or D (where the average lies in most math/science classes)? This school has a lot of smart people at it. If you want to be the smartest person there go to CNU. I dont want us to end up with HY grading where everyone gets an A for effort. That completely ruins the usefulness of giving grades in the first place. You can go look at the spreads on thecrouseforum, anyways. They are hardly unforgiving.</p>
<p>ehiunno, maybe you can shed some light on FLVADAD who seems to think there's plenty of racial interaction - or no racial tension - at all in UVA.</p>
<p>This is frickin confusing. It's like there are 2 different campuses w/in UVa, and it's really hard for OOSers to tell what it's like bc there are so many differing opinions on the atmosphere:</p>
<p>1) Some people say diverse races get along great, others say they don't acknowledge each other</p>
<p>2) Many claim frats/sororities don't dominate the scene, others claim you "won't see friends who are part of them". So which is it?</p>
<p>3) I've been assured that people here aren't "pretentious", or anything along those lines, but outside sources still mention that label. What gives?</p>
<p>I think that for the sake of all of us prospective students, it would be great to clear this all up.</p>
<p>There are unhappy trolls in almost every discussion forum.</p>
<p>lulz yeah I am an unhappy troll with 700 posts coming from a guy with 49. I've been here for years, who are you?</p>
<p>Yeah, anyone who says racial interaction (notice how I didnt say diversity, if you think that packs of black/white/asian people is diverse then good for you, but your an idiot) is good here is idealistic and doesn't go here. you are seriously kidding yourself if you think there is even an average amount of racial interaction. I hate to be harsh but its the truth.</p>
<p>I dont think frats and srats dominate the scene, so dont get me wrong. There are tons of people that dont join, but the ones that do kind of become a part of that scene and you dont see them much anymore. But they really dont dominate the scene. There are lots of parties at apartments and such, and plenty of things to do that don't involve drinking. But yeah, during the pledging process and probably afterwards you wont see your friends that are in frats.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, right now there is a gathering of about 50 black people across from my window... man there is sure tons of racial integration here.</p>
<p>ehiunoo,</p>
<p>I'm not referring to you. Your posts are typically constructive and helpful. I'm referring to certain new members that have suddenly popped up.</p>
<p>Regarding the racial integration, how many schools of any size do you know of where people don't self-segregate?</p>
<p>hi again, learnmestuff~ i've said this kind of thing before, but maybe it will spark more comments from satisfied students....in my OOS d's experience, she had black friends. her point was that "everyone is so bright" that they were all on the same page, and saw beyond color. yes, UVA is heavily Greek, but you don't have to lose your friends when they join and you don't. she chose not to join, yet went to all frat functions and had a ball. the only time it might have strained her relationships with girls who joined a sorority, is in the third year, when they lived in their sorority houses, and she lived in an apt. but any changes in relationships were more a natural part of people going in different directions, NOT the sororities/fraternities themselves!
and as far as pretentious goes...just check out any east coast ivy, which will be the same or less than the attributes of UVA, and you'll see PRETENTIOUS! UVA is very proud and traditional, and will have the normal bell-shaped curve on arrogance and superiority as anywhere else, as those traits are a function of one's INSECURITY, not the school! hope this helps .</p>
<p>Last year, my nephew turned down UVA (in state) for Clemson. He thought UVA was too big, too pretentious, and too expensive. He loves the full ride and honors status in Clemson's engineering dept -- not to mention incredible perks such as free concert/event tickets, dinners with notables, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks MechWahoo, didn't mean to jump on you there :).</p>
<p>Well I am not sure about the large school thing, so you might be right. I didn't look at a lot of large schools when I applied so it may be a general large school trend, but it still isn't acceptable IMO.</p>
<p>The frat/srat thing is just my experience as a first year. Other people i have talked to have had similar experiences as a first year. I dunno, it seems like me and my suite mates that joined frats dont do nearly the same things that we did first semester because they have to(and/or choose to) spend most of their spare time at the frat.</p>
<p>UVa is a proud school, and there are some pretentious people here. It isn't any worse than most old/traditional top schools. I think the stereotype is far worse than it actually is. I don't notice it at all interacting with people, but I have certainly been called pretentious a number of times both before and after I came here, so I might not be the best judge of this :p.</p>
<p>Like I said, I am still happy with where I ended up. But this thread is about reasons not to come here, not reasons TO come here, so I am talking about the things I dont like. Every school has its problems. Thats the way it is.</p>
<p>"ehiunno, maybe you can shed some light on FLVADAD who seems to think there's plenty of racial interaction - or no racial tension - at all in UVA."</p>
<p>aceit, I said that there was not the kind of racial tension you keep trying to convince me of, not that everyone went around hand in hand singing Kumbaya. There's a difference. Maybe the problem is that you haven't spent much time on very many campuses. I have, and I can tell you that UVA does not stand out from a negative perspective when it comes to race relations. If you think it does, support your opinion with facts.</p>
<p>Read my post in the other thread, FLVADAD.</p>
<p>Hay Caramba, sure dig down as deep as anyone wants to anywhere, negatives will be all over the place, anywhere. Why live life so negatively? I'm not gonna play this game. I love UVA.</p>
<p>I am a NoVA senior and know many ppl attending and these are the conclusions I have drawn</p>
<p>Race--I think many of the white (and some asian) students do not notice the racial tensions.</p>
<p>And I do not think these are "tensions" as much as they are that people just naturally interact more quickly w/ ppl that are similar to them. I tend to introduce myself to ppl of the same background (be it religion, ethnicity...) not becuase I have a problem with other races, it is jsut becuase thats the way it happens...</p>
<p>The food does SUCK (and this is definatly based on personal prefrense), I am a very picky (not in terms of ingridients, but in terms of quality) eater. (But this will not influence which college I pick)</p>
<p>Many of the UVA ppl have a special sense of humor (which many may interpert as snobish)</p>
<p>For me it will be too much of a continuation of HS (i go to school in NoVA)</p>
<p>Academically you are at the cornell/brown level if not higher, but for some reason (the extracuriculars maybe or stuff like that) you may have been rejected (not to say that UVA kids are ivy rejects, but many of my freidns that attend uva did so after being rejected from ivy caliabr schools)</p>
<p>I interact with many UVA alums and sadly many of them are very self-centered and snoby (but I am not generalizing the student body as a whole, that is just my expiereince with a small percentage of the graduates)</p>
<p>powderpuff~ i would love some of YOUR history! you are incredibly positive and healthy! i'm not kidding...where are you from, background, birth order, etc. but please don't find me intrusive, but just impressed by your attitude! :)</p>
<p>whats all the talk about competing with TJ kids?</p>
<p>wolfpack are you from NoVA?</p>
<p>TJ is a (public) magnet school where all the top students from Fairfax (and some surrounding counties) county go to. Most consider UVA to be a safty, as a large number go to HYPS, Cornell, Columbia, MIT, etc....</p>
<p>nope, NC. Never even been to NoVA. I spend a lot of time around the danville area.</p>