<p>can anyone give me the pros and cons for University of Virginia and Wash and Lee? </p>
<p>Here's some criteria I look for in a college:
*I want a college that is good for premed/biology/physiology
*Would like to be near a big city
*Would like to have small classes and teachers to be accesible/encourage class discussions
*I dont want sports to be a huge deal like they are at my school, but at the same time, I want people that arent nerds and enjoy sporting events. I also would like division 1 athletics.
*Academic climate should be challenging, but not intense. I want people that are smart and push me to stay at the top, but I do not want cut-throat competition and super rigorous courses. People should also be friendly and willing to help me out.</p>
<p>I'm planning on applying ED or EA to either Rice, WLU, or UVa, so please check out my stats. I posted in this forum not too long ago, so see my last post (I think its the 1st-3rd chances post from the top) and let me know which school you think I should apply to ED or EA</p>
<ol>
<li>I don't know about UVA's premed program but W&L's is very strong</li>
<li>The nearest big city to either is Washington DC, 3.5 hours from W&L or 2.5 hours from UVA - Rice is the choice there.</li>
<li>That doesn't make sense - sports will be big at Div IA schools like UVA an not so big at Div III schools like W&L. If you want it all you need to go to a Div IAA school like Georgetown.</li>
<li>W&L isnt cuthroat in terms of the atmosphere, but the courses are very difficult, not sure about UVA here either.</li>
</ol>
<p>UVA is Division 1. Bigtime Division 1. W & L is Division 3 and they take athletics seriously but not even close to what goes on at UVA.
Both are excellent academically, both have beautiful campuses, and both are quite selective. The major differences between the two are size, class size, access to faculty, the Honor System at W & L, and the financial aid situation at W & L. A remarkably small percentage of W & L students APPLY for financial aid, so if you DO apply, you will get what you need to attend school there. The classes are very small, the profs totally accessable, and the ability to 'create' academic programs is a serious advantage.
They are simply different kinds of schools, and you should visit both before you make a decision.</p>
<p>Be careful with Rice - I applied there and thought that was my first choice school. At the time, I thought I wanted to do architecture. The problem with Rice is that their math and science programs are very strong, but if you decide that's not right for you, you're out of luck. I know so many people that came to W&L as pre-med but after the first (or second) semester of general chem are now humanities majors. Just be aware that at schools like UVa and Rice it can be difficult to switch to a different program if you decide you don't like what you're doing. And also, Houston is not one of the best cities to live in - many parts are still dangerous and the weather is atrocious - it's not called the "armpit of Texas" for nothing.</p>
<p>california--
have you taken the SAT IIs yet? if not, get moving. you need two.</p>
<p>you need to visit before you ED!!!!!! to any school. without that aspect you could be making a very very big mistake.</p>
<p>my S visited and liked it thoroughly enough to apply ED--liked is way too mild to describe. But he's seen Vanderbilt, Davidson, Wake, Rhodes, Sewanee and a few others. All have both good and bad aspects, vary from one degree to another so you MUST visit to get a handle on all of these variations and not rely on a bulletin board.</p>
<p>So we wait to hear. It is very very very hard to get into.</p>
<p>Take a look under the general aspect of the SAT/ACT section to get an idea of where you need to be "roughly" for SAT II scores. I've found listings for Rice, Princeton, and MIT. Still searching for other schools who list either a mean or a range.</p>