<p>I have a question for current students: Do you think that UVA is too spread out? I was there for Days On the Lawn, and it seemed like I had to keep crossing busy intersections to get everywhere. However, this might not be a problem if the campus is considerably less crowded on a normal school day. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I’m not a current student but a graduate. As somebody who made the daily rounds of classes, etc., for 4 years, I would say that for Arts and Sciences and Engineering students, anyway, the campus seems rather compact because you will typically spend most of your time in the “core” area. The one inconvenience is that you will probably be crossing the busy McCormick Rd. several times a day, and perhaps Alderman once in a while. But this is really a small inconvenience as compared to many other campus layouts. Getting to some of the outlying areas of campus such as law and business schools, the basketball arena, and administrative offices on 29 can be a bit more of a pain, and you will probably find yourself wanting to take a shuttle bus in those cases.</p>
<p>uva is ~20,000 students, it is big by definition. i visit my friend up at grove city a lot (small college near pittsburgh) and i’m always amazed by how small/“compact” it is - but there are only 2500 students there so that is how that goes. if you want a small campus then you need to go to a small school. i like that uva is big and alive - something is always going on. there are always a lot of people around. it creeps me out when no one is around, haha.</p>
<p>They’ve been doing a ton of road construction right in the heart of grounds, and that was clogging up traffic on grounds. They had a large stretch of one lane closed at a time and it backed up the normal buses/maintenance vehicles, as well as the other random cars coming through. Typically, through cars are not allowed in the main part of grounds (there are gates to deter traffic 8am-5pm), which cuts down on the basic traffic, but with the construction, the gates were up, so that didn’t really help.
I don’t see an issue of the traffic/stuff being spread out. I like the size because it doesn’t seem crowded at all, and you’re mostly localized in a 10-min walk radius. I never walk more than 15min to class, and when you’re a first year, you’re close to everything. After first year, you can decide where to live based on how far you’re willing to walk/take a bus to. Also, you can plan your classes based on how much time you’ll think you’ll need to get from one class to another.</p>
<p>i’m thinking about bringing a bicycle and was just wondering if the campus is bike friendly/accessible?</p>
<p>lots of people bike here</p>
<p>I was down at UVa for the most recent DOTL (and then some) but I also noticed that 1) there are a good number of bicyclists and 2) I did a LOT more walking than I expected. I stayed close to the Alderman dorms/near Thornton Hall and the Physics building, and I walked back and forth across the lawn to The Corner at least ten times in a day and a half. Then again I happened to be really hungry a lot of the time, and there is good food to be had there</p>
<p>College is definitely more walking than high school, no matter where you go. But on the other hand, I was doing some teaching in one of the local high schools this semester, and the main teacher and I were walking to his office when the bells rang to switch… I have never felt so cramped in!! At college, you get to walk out in the fresh air to all of your classes, and it is a lot less crowded than stuffy hallways. Of course, that means you have to walk outside in rain and snow and cold weather, but CVille doesn’t have too much of that (and that’s what coats, hoodies, and umbrellas are for).</p>
<p>That an it makes for killer calves. It’s comforting knowing that I get in 20-45min of walking exercise everyday ;)</p>
<p>to me the Central Grounds seemed pretty compact and close together</p>
<p>To me it seemed big at DOTL but at orientation it got smaller. After move in it got even smaller.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, everyone—they are really helpful! I am glad to hear that the Grounds are not usually that crowded. I can’t wait to be there in the fall!</p>