Ouch. Way to dump on my BA in mathematics without knowing me. It’s okay though, my mediocre math education from UVA enabled me to qualify as an Actuary in under two and a half years and reach a six-figure salary before the age of 26. What a disappointment.
Also, your BA vs. BS argument for comparing the strength of UVA’s and VTech’s math and statistics departments is invalid. UVA doesn’t offer a BS in math due to the philosophical preference in the College of Arts and Sciences to only award BS degrees to natural sciences. Math is not a natural science nor is it really a science for that matter (in my opinion)- it’s an art. Math is an art that uses human-defined axioms to help us quantitatively describe natural and artificial phenomena occurring around us.
Oh yeah, Berkeley also only offers BAs in mathematics: http://guide.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/degree-programs/mathematics/ - be sure to tell them how bad they’re at the sciences and mathematics focused disciplines.