<p>Looking to study political science/government/public policy/economics Money is not an issue. Rankings and prestige are not an issue. Please rank these four in order in the following ways:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Most fun social scene (I like to party)</p></li>
<li><p>Toughest workload</p></li>
<li><p>Highest grade inflation</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you!!!</p>
<p>UVa does not have as much partying as in the past, but many people believe it is the best for a well-rounded college experience. There are some colleges that are better at sports, some colleges that are better at various academic disciplines, some that have more to do because they are in big cities, and some that are more fun. However, UVa has a great mix.</p>
<p>UVa also has the Batten School of Public Policy. There is a new 4 year degree, plus a 5 year bachelors-masters program. It was endowed with a $100 million donation, and a number of great new faculty have been hired. A historic building was completely rehabbed for the program. However, the public policy program of Duke is much more well-established.</p>
<p>It was many years ago, but I attended both UVa and U. Penn. I found the professors, courses and students at UVa to be much more down to earth and practical and less pretentious. My son is now at UVa (where he is very happy) and he will probably apply to the Batten School. You enter your 3rd year, after taking a couple prerequisites.</p>
<p>The Batten School is an interdisciplinary program that involves profs in foreign affairs, economics, the Law School, government, etc.</p>
<p>UVa’s Government/Politics Dept. has always had great professors.</p>
<p>Economics becomes the default major for many students at UVa who are not accepted into the Commerce School.</p>
<p>thank you for your help! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be admitted to the Batten school? Also, do you know about grade inflation/deflation at UVA? I spoke with someone who attends UPenn and she said there is a lot of grade inflation which is good for applying to law schools. Also, any idea on class sizes in comparison with the other schools? I would like as small of classes as possible.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Of those 4, UVa has the largest intro class sizes. That is the biggest downside of UVa. Intro chemistry and intro economics for example are huge. The class sizes get much more reasonable after the first year. For some non-scientific subjects (such as politics and history), you can jump right into the smaller 3000 level classes, and skip the 1000 level classes. Of course, the larger classes break down into discussion or lab sessions each week with smaller numbers of students.</p>
<p>For the 5 year bachelors/masters program, I believe I was told something like half the applicants were accepted last year. The intent is to increase enrollment over time, so admission may become easier. I was told last year that the Batten program is designed to keep students together in a 30 student grouping, so that would be the class size for most core classes. </p>
<p>Just to clarify, first you get admitted to UVa arts and sciences, and then you apply to get into Batten bachelors program your 2nd year or Batten masters your 3rd year.</p>
<p>The new President of UVa has made hiring additional faculty a major goal. Right now, some departments are feeling the effects of past hiring freezes.</p>
<p>You will find a good social scene at all four schools, so really don’t worry too much about it (they’re pretty comparable).</p>
<p>[National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities<a href=“Check%20out%20links%20to%20individual%20schools%20at%20the%20bottom”>/url</a></p>
<p>For average class sizes, it appears to be Penn < Duke << Georgetown << UVa.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/]National”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/)</a></p>
<p>Penn - City school with urban party opportunities, Greek life, ivy league athletics
Georgetown- city school with urban party opportunities such as clubs and bars, open house parties, no Greek life, basketball school, big east athletics
Duke - southern school with a northeast influence, Greek life, little off campus social life, basketball school, acc athletics
UVA - preppy southern school with Greek life, state school partying, rural, more of football school, acc athletics, southern preppy vibe</p>
<p>These are the main differences from a social life perspective. Regardless these are all work hard play kinda hard schools full of nerds who want to
pretend they aren’t.
They can’t hang with the real party schools, but then again their diplomas are worth a bit more than your typical party school.</p>