<p>What advantages and disadvantages do you see in these two schools. I personally am strongly considering both but I really want feedback on what your takes are on these two schools. I believe I have a reasonably chance at both and I've heard UVA is very difficult to get in out of state, however looking at Wash U's acceptence rate it is much lower than UVA's, nearly half. What do you think a middle class white male from Texas with a 2200 SAT, 4.5 GPA, and top 5 percent class rank has at getting into these schools?</p>
<p>Both are small, highly-ranked schools. WUSL is well-known as a pre-med and science powerhouse, while Virginia is focused on business (ranked #2 undergraduate school per Business Week) and has one of the top 6 law schools in the country.</p>
<p>My son is taking summer courses at UVA right now. He finds some things about it a bit odd--like UVA having no student union and very few places to eat on campus. But the school is beautiful and the countryside is also (I understand WUSL has a beautiful campus also--although the countryside is rather plain). He also thinks the courses at UVA are definitely challenging--which he likes--but then the same is true for his current college (Indiana University).</p>
<p>As far as overall rankings, I understand WUSL is about #11 and UVA is about #23--so they are obviously both excellent in academics.</p>
<p>P.S. UVA also gets some professors out of places like the state department, etc. because of its proximity to Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>how old are you? and are you out of college because you said you have a son?</p>
<p>I'm in my early 50s, my son is 19 (just finished his freshman year). I've been out of college for over 25 years.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I've been coaching students in college admissions for years (kind of a hobby of mine--a way of "giving back" to the community). As a result I've visited all of the Ivy league colleges except Cornell, been to all of the UCs except Merced, most of the Cal States, been to most of the colleges in the Boston area, Pittsburgh area, NYC area, Philadelphia area, Baltimore area, Seattle area, and Washington, D.C. area, and been to a few colleges in the midwest and mountain states as well (mostly in Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois). (I've lived in many of these towns--and travelled to lots of the others, since I owned my own consulting firm). Most of the colleges I visited were during the past 5 years--since I only started this "hobby" that long ago.</p>
<p>However, I have not been to either the Univ of Virginia or WUSL--though I have been to St. Louis. My knowledge on the Univ of Virginia is related to the information I've gotten from my son who is currently taking courses there, and from all the information from other Virginia students on this site (talked to many of them before sending my son there). Also, I've talked to students (and their parents) who are going to WUSL--but my knowledge on WUSL is very limited. For this reason I suggest you go to the WUSL forum on CC for more information on that school.</p>
<p>Calcruzer, i'm curious as to the differences in the difficulty of the classes (if any) that your son is finding between Indiana and Virginia. I have a twin at a community college who is considering sending an app to Virginia. He isn't as academically focused as I am, and I think he may have a hard time at a school of high difficulty.</p>