<p>I am trying to choose between these two schools. I'm not sure what I want to major in, but I am interested in Gov (international relations) and English (Creative writing). I think both UVA and Wes have great programs in those two areas. </p>
<p>If I went to Wes, I would also have taken some film studies courses because I am kind of interested in that and their film studies dept is so great, it would be sad not to take advantage of it. It would also be much easier to take more things that I'm interested in at Wes because they don't have such strict course requirements. I'm afraid that at UVA, the courses requirements (esp. math and science) would be restricting. My extracurriculars include music and art (both things that are big at Wes).</p>
<p>What I don't like about UVA: its course requirements, the campus looks kind of monotonous, the majority of kids have preppy lifestyles, and I prefer smaller classes</p>
<p>Going to UVA would be much financially easier for my parents. I only visited UVA once for several hours, and I admit that I was purposely trying to dislike it solely because I was angry that my parents had been pushing it so much on me. However, my parents will let me make the choice. They kind of want me to go to UVA b/c they think it's a better deal, but they also want me to go to where I will be happy. I think I would be able to be happy at both schools. </p>
<p>Right now, I feel as though I am paying thousands extra for the social atmosphere at Wes. If UVA had Wes' campus and kids, I would go to UVA with no problem. I sincerely hope this post will not make people angry, I'm just trying to be honest.</p>
<p>are you actually admitted to both schools? Unsure of your status.</p>
<p>In the biggest recession since the depression, be realistic about the amt of money your parents are able to hand over for four to ? years of college.
you should carefully evaluate your projected graduate school costs and consider them before spending 200 plus grand on undergrad (we didn’t (!!)and the recession hit and now we realize just how expensive grad school is but we spent too much on undergrad–grad school can be prohibitive unless you are wealthy, can afford to borrow it and repay it even in a sour economy or you are in an undergrad program that leads to stipended grad school in a hard research science for instance)</p>
<p>be realistic about if you have issues for grad school tution</p>
<p>It is a myth that UVA is all preppy although there is a Frat Row and dress up for football segment of life there that is a tradition…I know many kids who would fit in at Wes at UVA who are more artsy, theater, film, casual birkenstock types who never attend dress up events. </p>
<p>UVA is big enough for several alternative social cultures within each class…and it has a strong writing and film program…and plenty of good cultural arts in town…I don’t think it is any more monotonous than life where Wes is located and the connection to the DC corridor is excellent for internships</p>
<p>I have a friend who went to Wes and for the most part she hated the gov’t department they had. There was not a lot of support and the dept. tended to lean in the same direction as the general progressive student population. My friend was known in high school for being so far left as to be almost Communist, but the student population as Wes tended to be even further to the left beyond that. That might or might not be something that appeals to you, but it’s worth considering. UVA’s government dept. and the University in general seemed to be left-leaning, but still politically/ideologically diverse. </p>
<p>UVA’s film/media dept is not bad, I know a several people who were very happy with it. In my last semester I took a class called “Film Under Fascism” and I found it to be incredibly worthwhile. </p>
<p>And the core requirements are not as daunting as they seem. 12 credits in math and science do not all have to be “hard science” classes. There are astronomy courses, environmental science classes, and some statistics classes that are not too bad and can be relevant to your studies in international relations (geopolitics, conflicts over natural resources, aerospace politics, statistics for doing research).</p>
<p>Obviously UVA is not 100% but just walk onto UVA’s campus, look around, then go to Wesleyan and there is a huge difference. </p>
<p>It’s not that the math and science courses seem daunting. Some of those courses could definitely be useful like economics, but overall, they are a waste of my time. I could be using that time to take classes that are much more important to me. Do you find that there is enough time to take other courses in addition to trying to fulfill all the required credits? Especially since I might want to double major.</p>
<p>Have you actually been admitted to these two schools? </p>
<p>I would start with getting into each of them before launching into comparing them. If you strongly prefer small classes, don’t apply to UVA where your classes will be a mix of large and small. Wes has a famous theater/film studies track that is unique but creative writing and government courses are fantastic at UVA. UVA grads are well represented in our State Department.
Obviously plenty of people at UVA were also admitted to top LACs and had similar choices. LACs have more intimate family like communities that are unique but UVA is very small for a state flagship college ranked second in the nation.</p>
<p>If you have the stats and can earn Echols status at UVA, you won’t have to trouble yourself anymore with these preliminary questions of curriculum. Essays matter a lot in UVA admissions so I would advise you to spend a lot more time looking at the positives at UVA before you do your essays. </p>
<p>Tons of UVA students have double majors.</p>
<p>It is a lot easier to make fine choices based on personal preferences after you know where you were admitted. </p>
<p>sounds like you have a preference for Wes. That is fine. Most kids have serious crushes/preferences before their applications are filed. I recommend you stay much more open in the process of your senior year…open to change.</p>
<p>Both of my sons chose to go to colleges for reasons we could not have predicted a year in advance. Both chose colleges that were not in their top five the day their apps were filed–colleges they didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about at first. Both sons has “favorite LACs” they were admitted to and did not attend after all.</p>
<p>College selection, and even the decisions in your family about how much money you will hand over for the first four years of your education are things that take time to sort out.</p>
<p>No one here is going to tell you that curriculum at Wes is superior to curriculum options at UVA…</p>
<p>well congrats on your choices…I guess you have a deadline and a serious decision to make. </p>
<p>I personally love small LACs and think they are great launchpads in life…however UVA has superb networking and a broad spectrum of ideas, people and options.</p>
<p>savethekiwi123, I was in the same shoes 2 years ago!!!</p>
<p>First, congratulations on being accepted into two excellent yet different institutions. </p>
<p>When I got accepted to both of these universities two years ago, I decided to visit both of them. I went to UVA’s Days on the Lawn but missed Wesfest since I had some conflicts with school activities at that time. However, I did visit Wesleyan before I made my decision. After I visited Wesleyan, I decided UVA would be a better fit for me. I did not like Wesleyan’s campus because some of the buildings just look like regular residential properties. I also thought the campus was really small. Further, on the day I made my visit to Wesleyan, the weather was horrible. Ultimately, I did not regret my decision to attend UVA. </p>
<p>A substantial portion of UVA students are not the stereotypical preppy kids that I once imagined. Rather, because of its size, the student body of UVA is really diverse. You can find all kinds of people here.</p>
<p>I would not worry too much about the area requirements, they are not as daunting as they might seem since many courses can be used to satisfy two or more requirements. For instance, I took a chinese class and it satisfied both the non-western perspective and humanities requirements. Furthermore, UVA actually only requires 12 credits for math and science. Other top-tier universities actually have more demanding requirements on math and science. Having only 4 AP credits from AB Calculus, I still managed to fulfill all my area requirements in my first year. The area requirements should not impede you from doing a double major because a major generally only requires about 30 credits. Also, as I mentioned before, some of the courses that you take to fulfill the area requirements may also satisfy the requirements toward your major.</p>
<p>Lastly, most upper level courses at UVA are actually not that big, but I’ll guess they are still bigger than most courses at Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Regardless where you end up, I think you will have a great college experience. “It’s a win-win situation.” That’s what most people told me when I was in your shoes two years ago.</p>
<p>I may have a somewhat unique perspective in that I actually attended both schools, although it was quite a while ago. Everyone is different of course but after about 2 years Wesleyan really started to make me claustrophobic. You may in fact want small classes, but just be careful what you wish for- once you begin to pursue a major you will probably end up in lots of classes with the same people over and over again, and I can pretty much guarantee you will encounter much the same people every day as you go around campus (which is small), eat in the dining halls and move through the dorms. I don’t intend to imply at all that you won’t like the people you meet, and some will definitely become your friends; it’s just that for me, daily life started to resemble “The Truman Show” a little bit. UVa had a much more open feel to it.</p>
<p>I took the same choice you did and I chose Wesleyan. I did visit UVA thinking it was meant for me but I noticed something that the other bloogers aren’t telling you. First of all it is a diverse school but not economically. Many of the kids I saw and talked too were from middle class to upper class backgrounds, and they did dress preppy regardless of their race. So at UVA you will find Asians, Blacks, Hispanics but unfortunately they have been assimilated into the White-Preppy culture of UVA if you don’t believe me take a closer look when you walk around again. I went to the Days in the Lawn program and although It was nice I felt alone in the campus, my host was busy doing his classes and assisting people and he didn’t have time to show me the campus at all. I had to do it all by myself and the compus to me looked pretty boring and uniform. Sure the Campus at Wes is small and some classroom areas look like actual residential areas but each building is unique like the students. Another thing that I didn’t like about UVA was the self segration of many students, something I did not see at all in Wesleyan. Hispanic students ate together, african students ate together and everyone was in their own little bubble very little race interraction. Many students at UVA actually know of this but they do not do anything to change it, I know this cause I asked my host and he said many of he organizations are aware of the lack of union between the different groups but their efforts to integrate the community have not come to fruitiocion. Anyways UVA is a great school but I come from south Florida from a school where the student body is as follows 30% Hispanic 20% black 20% asian 30%. So I was in shock to see such things as self segration and the lack of economic diversity at UVA. The university is really trying hard to change it’s stereotype of white,preppy, and southern unfortunately many minority students, like myself, have been discourgared to attend due to its fall backs. Wesleyan on the other hand can be a little too boring and small, however it is a cooperative environment that allows for academic exploration. It depends on what you want but it sounds like you would fit more at Wesleyan that UVA.</p>