<p>I fear UVa vs. other school threads will overrun this board in another day or so.</p>
<p>Why don't you keep the conversations to one thread and let the board be for other issues? It seems we've already had two or three threads in the last 48 hours about "premed" programs. </p>
<p>Let me add that when you have to choose between one top college and another, non-academic factors might help you make a decision. You'll have access to great faculty and facilities at many, many schools, but if you're happy and comfortable, you'll be engaged in the college experience.</p>
<p>As I've written elsewhere, even with the best professors in the world, an unhappy student isn't going to thrive academically in the same way that they would in an environment they love.</p>
<p>Your replies are very informative and indeed very useful for clearing some doubts. Now, if one has to decide between McGill and UVA (for undergraduate business program) what would be the most important factors (other than cost and weather) one should look into.</p>
<p>I'd say size is a consideration between UVa and McGill. UVa has about 13,000 undergraduates while McGill has about 20,000.</p>
<p>Obviously, there's plenty of information online about the b schools at each, so some googling might give you more about specific coursework and class sizes.</p>
<p>i can't decide between uva and umcp honors. i'm planning on doing pre-med and probably a science major of some kind. i am very familiar with the maryland campus and i like it a lot. how does the uva environment compare to that of uva? thank you for your help.</p>
<p>yea UMD is my state school too...and i was accepted into the college park scholars program there....the UVA campus and environment is so much better in my opinion. UVA is not a small school, but it is nowhere near as big as UMD. plus UVA is a better school</p>
<p>hmm. i'm thinking that the undergrad education isn't as important though. i think the 60 g that i will save from going to umcp is outweighs the fact that uva is a better school than umcp.</p>
<p>Upenn is cool if you want to be in Philly. Its a very good school. I think you can find a bunch of stuff about UVa on other threads, so I'll just give my opinion on penn.</p>
<p>I don't think its very nice (at least not as nice as UVa), and its not in a nice area--even though its been cleaned up in the recent years. Its roughly the same size as UVa (i think it has like 11000 ugrads). Obviously it has world-class facilities. It's very jewish. If you don't know what something being "very jewish" is, or do and know you don't like it, I wouldn't recommend Penn. If you like sports -- I wouldn't recommend Penn. Other than that, I'd say they're pretty much the same. Even wharton isn't that much better than UVa's comm school--I doubt you'll find yourself with many more opportunities out of it than you will at UVa.</p>
<p>If you want city life and a club scene though, UVa isn't the place for you and Penn has all of that.</p>
<p>Perhaps a less offensive way of making your observation would have been to remark that you feel there is a disproportionally high percentage of Jewish students at Penn (in your opinion). Quite frankly, I have heard the same said about Emory and Brandeis, as well where the proportion of the Jewish students is way above what could be described as a normal (ie. representative) percentage. Whether the deviation above the norm is of Jewish, Christian or any other religious group, I would respectfully suggest that there is a more tactful way of making that observation.</p>
<p>Jews are disproportionately represented in every elite academic institution in this country. I suspect asians may be too. These cultures care about education and it shows in the results. It's a shame the rest of us don't feel the same way.</p>
<p>Our S is trying to decide between UVA and UNC-CH Honors. He did not get Echols as hoped. With aid/scholarships weighed in, UNC would be about $4K less. He is undecided as to major and loves both campuses and sports scenes. He is a very well rounded kid, NMS, two sport captain (but won't play in D1) and community service oriented. He will be overnighting at both to try and help him decide.</p>
<p>i didn't mean to offend you, I was simply stating a stereotype which has some (imo) merit to it. I never meant it as "if you are jewish you are this." certainly there are snobby people who arn't jewish, and there are jewish people who arn't snobby. I wasn't trying to be racist--i was merely saying there could be a culture shock from attended a school where the population is vastly different from the one you grew up in (and at penn it happens to be a disproportionately large amount of jewish people)--i'll choose my words more carefully next time.</p>
<p>Relaxdad: My D is accepted at UVA (visited last night) and it's high on her list right now - she sounds similar to your S (2 sport captain, valedictorian, well rounded), but even though we live in NC and would be getting great in-state tuition, she chose not even to apply to UNC. Why? Because most of her friends who are UNC students (and there are a lot of them) appear to be only solidly "above average", not top of the class. Compare the USNWR stats of percent of students in the top 10% of their high school class: 74% for UNC vs. 86% at UVA. Unless he has the Morehead, I'd say stick with UVA.</p>
<p>Virginia has a significantly higher percentage of out-of-state students than UNC. I think this makes a large difference in the college experience.</p>
<p>Thx, Sarahsdad. I guess that one of my concerns at two large universities is the possibility of his education and having to deal with TAs. In the Honors track at UNC, that may be less likely. On the other hand, he'll have about 9-10 AP credits of mostly 5s, so that may not be a concern since this could place him out of most 100 levels. Ultimately, the decision is his and he is considering a few top SLACs as well, but I think that the social scene at both schools is a big draw for him.</p>
<p>Please don't take this as an endorsement or criticism of any school it's not meant to be. The % of students in top 10% is one of the least reliable statistics for comparing schools. Many schools don't rank and many schools tend to favor class rank over other criteria in admission for a variety of reasons some of which have nothing to do with the quality of the student body.</p>
<p>About 6% of courses at UVa are taught by TAs. I'm told that those classes are generally the intro writing classes (that many students place out of) and some math and foreign language classes. There are TAs in other parts of the University, but I believe they help out when large lectures break into small discussion groups and they don't actually teach in many departments.</p>
<p>The current students can probably give the best information about how TAs are used in their departments.</p>