<p>I figure everyone else is making one of these threads, why not me? lol</p>
<p>Anyways, I haven't visited either campus... yet. The thing is that I feel like I'm leaning towards William and Mary but I want to go to law school afterwards and I feel like I may have an easier time getting into a top law school from UVA, because of the whole grade deflation deal at W&M...</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm not really sure which one. I don't think the 7 spots that UVA is ranked higher on the US News poll is significant... it's not significant right?</p>
<p>Here are my preconceptions about UVA and W&M (it's just my meanderings in essay form), you tell me if they are ill-founded:</p>
<pre><code> As for what intrigues me into W&M is the sort of mystique that it has in Virginia. It's portrayed as the place where the true intellectual type go in VA. It has nicknames like "where your best hasn't been good enough since 1693," "the bootcamp of academia," "where fun goes to die," etc. Furthermore, it's portrayed as a place where grades truly have to be earned, not just given out. It's not a degree factory like most schools, I've heard that students study all day and all night just to get C's. Also, because of this perceived toughness their is a myth that William and Mary has the highest suicide rate of any college because the workload is so difficult. The myth is not actually true...
I know this sounds odd but just something about the perceived difficulty of William and Mary is appealing to me. Not to mention that many people in Virginia actually consider W&M to be the better school no matter what the rankings say. UVA on the other hand is perceived to be a bunch of stuck up, pretentious, drunk, rich kids. Their unofficial mascot is the Wahoo - a fish that can drink double it's body weight - their students seem to take much pride in this with their annoying calls of "Wahooooowa." But, I think overall UVA has more prestige nationally. Also, I plan on attending law school afterwards and I think it will be easier to get into a top law school if I go to UVA. Not because of prestige but because it will probably be easier to maintain a high GPA at UVA.
But for as many faults I found in UVA I see positives as well. I like the fact that the kids have a lot of school pride (I think they overdo it sometimes though). I also really like the fact that they are in the ACC... and students get free admission to all UVA home sporting events, which is awesome. Also, I like those really stylish blue and orange scarves that the students wear at UVA. I could totally see myself wearing that scarf with a Virginia sweatshirt lol I also find the fact that UVA kids call UVA "the University" pretty neat, and that they call the campus "the ground." I also like how they say 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year instead of fresh, soph, junior, senior. Little things like that, I find those type of things neat.
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