<p>I have visited both and loved both, but the extra prestige of UVA seems to make it the more popular choice among my friends. Out in the "real-world" beyond high school students and College Confidential, would anybody really see a noticeable difference between degrees from these schools?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say so. In NoVA, they’re crazy for anything in-state, so employers would be looking more at person than their education, since the two schools are basically equals.</p>
<p>Not really. Both are good schools and both are well known outside of Virginia. I would give UVA the edge but the difference is not huge. That said, Charlottesville seems to be a much more fun college town than Williamsburg.</p>
<p>I grew up in Virginia in the pre-U.S. News era, and it was always my opinion at that time that W&M trumped UVA in prestige. To the casual observer, W&M looks like a selective private school - older than any other except Harvard - and UVA would look like a public flagship university. After a quarter century of U.S. News rankings, we’ve all been taught to genuflect at the mention of UVA, but I still think of W&M as one of the top brand names in American higher education. UVA likes to think of itself as “Mr. Jefferson’s University,” but in fact, W&M really WAS Mr. J’s university.</p>
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<p>When I was small, I actually thought that W&M was a private school. To reiterate what gadad said, both were part of the original Public Ivies.</p>
<p>W&M is more prestigious, esp the further away from the state of VA. I have received praise re W&M from people in Napa, LA, San Fran, and Seattle. Its tough to be exclusive when there are 15,000 of you. UVirginia is more like UNC/UCLA. W&M is Brown/Amherst.</p>
<p>I’d consider UVA to be stronger, but not by a huge margin.</p>
<p>UVa and William and Mary are both great schools. There really is no need to debate prestige-some kids gravitate toward William and Mary,others to UVa,depending on their interests and temperament(bigger vs. smaller, bigger sports scene,location etc). For top Virginia kids in particular,it is usually about best fit between UVa or William and Mary (and Virginia Tech if the interest is engineering). Also the interest seems to vary with high schools-for instance ,in my kids school,UVa and VT were much more popular than William and Mary. William and Mary was not very popular with males who were sports minded in particular.</p>
<p>W&M has more prestige by far, esp for the undergrad level. Virginia gets its reputation from the grad programs. Law, MBA, Medicine, Englis, History at Virginia are top notch. W&M has more of an intellectual, private school, Ivy vibe. Virginia is a cross between Old South and Animal House.</p>
<p>Oh poppycock.</p>
<p>As a Virginian, I would agree that they are pretty close in terms of prestige, depending on exactly where you are and who you are talking to. I think you should go to the one you like better, if you’re choosing between them.</p>
<p>My brother goes to WM and he says it’s more of a fit thing.
Both are great feeders. Both are prestigious. UVA is more frat-oriented, but WM has a solid party scene too.
WM does not have as strong math/science courses, but pre-meds at WM are well-off nonetheless. There is no engineering school at WM, but with a 3.0 GPA you can do the 3/2 program with Columbia.</p>
<p>Both are very good schools. Agree it is more of a fit b/c they have very different personalities. Prestige is more for W&M. Most people think its a private, Ivy-esque school. It attracts the serious, self-confident student. Virginia suffers from State U syndrome. U of Fill-in-state-name-here. It would have been better if it were named Jefferson University. Princeton changed its name from the College of New Jersey. Tulane was U of Lousiana. Even Penn isnt known by its full name.</p>
<p>Plus at 15,000 students, its tough to be exclusive.</p>