<p>Stooge, have you been reading the posts before yours? I’m the first to agree that acceptance RATES don’t tell the full story.</p>
<p>VCU is an urban university located in the downtown area of a major city with a majority African American population. Sound familiar? What kind of system is Wisconsin running if all the minorities are going to UW-M?</p>
<p>As for U-Va’s “crushing clubby scene” being “far less interesting” than UW’s, that, of course, is a matter of opinion. Many serious students might think that going to a gigantic school full of middle class white kids who lead the nation year after year in alcohol consumption per capita while putting their noses up to anyone from out of town (i.e., coasties) and taking five or six years to graduate isn’t particularly interesting either. </p>
<p>I’m not saying this is true, but it’s certainly no less the stereotype than the one you just ascribed to U-Va.</p>
<p>And as for justtotalk, your numbers are interesting but they don’t prove your point. To the contrary, they simply illustrate why the Virginia schools are better on average – in Wisconsin the overwhelming majority of the best students going to state colleges go to UW, leaving slim pickings for the other branches. In Virginia this isn’t the case.</p>
<p>What is the obsession with “white people?” “White people this… white people that” UVA is still 65% white. So what? That’s a greater precent than my high school. So what? </p>
<p>Many serious students might think that going to a gigantic liberal arts college like UVA full of uppermiddle class white kids who lead the nation year after year in blow consumption per capita while putting their noses up to anyone not in their club and and obsessed with moneyisn’t particularly interesting either.</p>
<p>There are two problems with your argument. First, I was talking about stereotypes, not realities, and you responded by again bringing up a stereotype. Both schools are more interesting than their stereotypes. Second, your argument presumes that, at the undergraduate level, UW is a “peer” of the other schools on your list. It isn’t. If it were a peer, it would attract the same level of out of state interest that each of these other schools does. It doesn’t.</p>
<p>Trying to tar the UW with a drinking problem compare to the obvious drinking excesses at UVa is really funny. UVa–home of the Wahoos-a name chosen for the ability to drink twice it’s weight. Home of the 4th year fifth tradition that has led to several drinking deaths, home to the drunken Foxfield Races which have become the subject of academci study of excess student drinking, home to out of control drunken prepster killer athletes whose troubles were swept under the rug by indulgent coaches. Great comparison there.</p>
<p>The Foxfield Races are a longstanding University of Virginia tradition. Some chide the event as the pinnacle representation of the upper middle class nature of UVA’s student demographic. Students use Race Day as an excuse to break out their “preppiest” attire. There is an abundance of pastel colors, Lilly Pulitzer patterns, and large sun hats. Girls are found wearing sundresses and many boys don a colorful bowtie for the occasion. Students tailgate at plots which are often organized through Greek organizations or other student groups</p>
<p>The point is: The percent of the WI high school class that gets an education at UW is equal to the percent of the VA high school class that gets an education at UVA, W&M, and James Madison combined. Therefore, UW alone provides as good an education system for in-state students as **all 3 of these universities combined<a href=“due%20to%20size”>/B</a>. Arguably better, because the bottom 1/2 of UW’s students got to study at UW while the bottom half of these three institution’s students had to study at James Madison. </p>
<p>You can’t infer anything about the effect this has on other instate students because we haven’t compared the other schools. To do that, you’d have to start looking at the second best school (UW-Lacrosse maybe) and compare its qualities with the next best schools at VA (probably VA Tech), multiply the UW-La population by 1.8 to even it out with VA, compare the adjusted population at UW-La with the population of VA Tech, and then keep going down the line until you account for 50% of the HS population that went to college. That’s the only way you’d know the type of education the average/median student is receiving. </p>
<p>That’s too time-consuming for me. And, I don’t have data on what percent of the state population is HS’ers or how many of them go to college. But you haven’t shown this data either, so you’re making unfounded assumptions on the info I provided. Note that once VA Tech is accounted for, BOTH WI and VA are running low on good school–there’s plenty of UW schools that stack up against Virginia Commonwealth. </p>
<p>Like I said, all my info shows is that a much larger percent of students in WI get a tier 1 education than in VA. The number of good colleges within a state is meaningless when you don’t consider size. Hell, if you want, we can just divide UW-Madison into 9 separate colleges each the size of W&M.</p>
<p>The problem with your analysis, for starters, is that you can’t leave Virginia Tech out of the equation because standing alone it is nearly as large as UW and has nearly as qualified a student body.</p>
<p>As for barrons’ comments, again, I’m talking about stereotypes, not necessarily realities, and the stereotype of UW is that it’s a party school. Look at the latest PR ratings, where UW makes 3 top 10 lists:</p>
<h1>6 Lots of Hard Liquor</h1>
<h1>8 Party Schools</h1>
<h1>10 Lots of Beer</h1>
<p>In contrast, U-Va appears on two top 10 lists:</p>
<h1>1 Best Value College</h1>
<h1>9 Best Financial Aid</h1>
<p>I’ll take Door Number 2, thank you very much.</p>
<p>Or from another college review website re UVA:</p>
<p>"…there are those who wished they had gone somewhere else and those who were turned off by things such as the lack of diversity, the prominence of Greek life, student na</p>