<p>and I was so thoroughly discouraged by the entire experience. I had a genuinely awful time, and now I don't really know what to do. The other Echols scholars there for the day just didn't seem to understand me the way I had hoped they would. The enrolled students I spoke to were unmotivated, disinterested, and cared far more about what parties they had been at this past weekend than in what they were learning. The classes I sat in on were dull and dumbed down, far from insightful or inspiring. The teachers I observed and spoke to were adequate at best and expressed no interest in helping me to learn more about the university or its various departments. Obviously, the whole school can't be this bad, I understand that, but if this was all I was able to see in my entire day down there, then perhaps it represents a larger portion of the school than I would have imagined...</p>
<p>Until this weekend, I was really thinking that I was going to be attending UVA this fall, but I'm not nearly so certain anymore. I don't really know what to think or do... help?</p>
<p>Wasn't at Echols day, but Friday's Day on the Lawn. In my opinion, UVA doesn't do a fair job representing themselves as said functions. The orientation at a local high school last fall left my nephew with a huge negative feeling of the school and didn't even want to apply. The class that my daughter sat in actually had a film that day. Knowing perspective students would be there, she was hoping a most inticing lecture would have been held. It's a great school. Sons are graduated of UVA. Don't let these days discourage you.</p>
<p>My D and I were there on 4/16. We had a totally different experience. We thought the students volunteers were very helpful, friendly and were genuinely interested in getting all our questions answered. My D has a a mixed review of classes she attended. One was an introductory class in Sociology. She thought that was too basic and dull for a college course especially late into the semester. The other class was a politics class and she thought it was awesome. </p>
<p>We did have some complaints with the logistics (lunch line was too long- we ended up eating at the dining hall; the resource room was too small) but they were really no big deal.</p>
<p>My D had a positive experience. She was very impressed with the options available to her. Prior to the visit, she thought she would major in Biology; now she wants to explore more. We even visited the Business school. Also she observed the students walking to and from classes. And she thought she would fit in well. The preppy thing about UVA is defenitely a myth.</p>
<p>If you were serious about UVA for whatever reason before this, perhaps a non DOTL visit is in order. You could maybe get hooked up with an enrolled student to spend the night or whatever, or do you know someone at UVA to talk to? Actually many, like Hazelorb, are on this board and I'm sure as she offered, they'd be willing to talk about your concerns. </p>
<p>I don't think DOTL (from the one I went to, which was Fri) was a fair representation of UVA for some people. It is a little more loose and individual than some of these events and I think people can get lost, have a negative perception early, and then that colors the rest of the day. For example we got there at 8:50 and the one garage was full, so we had to drive around for an hour until we found parking on the street in Charlottesville, and then walk back a couple of times to feed the meter. But I've been to UVA and know a lot of people there and although I didn't find DOTL extremely useful, I don't feel it was an accurate depiction of UVA. </p>
<p>I also think the students they choose to lead this things fit a general profile, probably because those are the ones interested in doing it: generally clean cut, somewhat preppy, very school spirited. While these are certainly nice people that some people will gravitate towards as friends, keep in mind that not everyone at UVA fits this profile. That's why I think sometimes an unofficial visit can benefit some people, they may get more a sense of where they could fit in at UVA.</p>
<p>Hm, I was there that day and didn't get that impression at all, grant it it was for Rodman not Echols.</p>
<p>The classes I sat in on were okay, but I was able to talk to the solid state devices proffesor after the class and he was really interesting. He gave me a lot of good advice about research, what its like being a proffesor, what I should major in, and the kind of research in UVa engineering. He seemed really involved and he truly cared about his students (there were only like 30 of them). I was fairly unimpressed by the Rodman meeting though. Not that its not a nice honor or that I got a bad impression of UVa engineering, there just isn't nearly as much to Rodman as there is to Echols.</p>
<p>I did talk to the Echols coordinator too, and he said if I transferred to CAS then I would (unless I fail all of my 1st simester classes) be put in echols. So if anyone wanted to know how Echols treats Rodman transfers, theres your answer.
I think I may actually change my college before I enroll though (no matter the school), I am starting to lean towards physics in general. </p>
<p>I thought Sabato (sp?) did a fantastic job as a speaker. Even as a potential science/engineering, he made me want to come to UVa. He was absolutely fascinating. The other kid they got to speak, however, was probably the worst speaker I have ever heard. Period. Not only was his speach bland, dull, and boring, he came off as a priveledged pompous ass and spent the entire speach reading off of the podium. I will give him one praise though, he had a fantastic thesaurus!</p>
<p>Also attended Echols Day on the Lawn yesterday with my son. He really enjoyed the 2 history classes he attended and we both thought the student members of the discussion panel were very sharp, informative and enthusiastic about the Echols program specifically and UVA in general. I graduated from UVA many years ago and although I loved my years there, I was very pleased to find that the atmosphere of the school has really changed. It strikes me as being far less preppy and elitist now. I loved that the kids walking around looked much more like public school kids at my son's suburban MD high school. Everyone we ran into was genuinely friendly and helpful. I have high hopes that S will chose UVA (over WashU & Cornell). I think the only thing holding him back is his disappointment in not being admitted to a certain Ivy that his dad attended. I have tried to impress upon him how well respected UVA is once you get out of school, but I need a little help. Anyone out there care to comment!</p>
<p>I thought the minglers were energetic, friendly and helpful. But for the Echols session, I wish there were more Echols minglers. </p>
<p>The registration was quick. Not a big deal but you could add a little touch by having the name tags made ahead of time and a folder ready ( as opposed to us having to put the sheets together). These would be a nice, welcoming touch.</p>
<p>People seemed confused when they moved from outside to Peabody hall. I'm not sure how they could fix this though because I didn't personally find the situation very hard to understand. Maybe it could have been communicated a little better. </p>
<p>A dorm tour mingler in a central place might have helped. There probably was one but we couldn't find them and so we asked random people who were mainly confused. You know where the old dorms are and there's sort of a brick opening, some steps? Maybe there. There were a lot of confused people there. Someone probably came out later on, this was when it was first time to start dorm tours.</p>
<p>The biggest problem I guess I had was that I sat in on some genuinely terrible classes. Even knowing that though, it bothers me a little bit that there could even be such awful classes filled with students who I could not relate to in the slightest. I know that no college is going to be perfect, but I don't know where to draw the line between thinking that this college is not for me and calling a mulligan on the whole affair. I'm not going to have a chance to visit again before I need to make my decision, so I really am clueless as to what it is that I should do.</p>
<p>the problem with tour minglers were that they restricted the # of ppl that could sign up (and apparently they should not do that again if there was a need!). i am signed up with lunch buddies, and we did NOTHING because there was an echols lunch. it was really annoying. i would have much rather been walking around on a tour helping than doing nothing. it was a lot of miscommunication on the dotl program managers i assume and i hope they get their act together next yr.</p>
<p>The classes I sat in on were a Spanish class and a writing class, two of many areas I'd be interested in studying while at college. I was also going to sit in on a math class, but was discouraged from doing so by a UVA student who told me that it'd be a waste of my time.</p>
<p>NeedScissors: Think over your decision very carefully. If you have another choice, visit that school and reflect on your impression of both campuses. It helps some students to write down their impression of a college right after visiting to help refresh their memory. Unfortunately, the UVA student did you a disservice by discouraging you to sit in on the math class, IMO. You should have been the judge if it was a waste of time or not.. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>How atrocious of a student to tell you it's a "waste of time" to sit in a math class?! Did this come from a volunteer in the orange shirts at the admissions office/rotunda? </p>
<p>I'm a math and econ major, and I admit that it'd be hard to follow math lectures at the college level if you haven't had much experience with math in high school. However, feel free to attend any class you want because being there will give you a 'feel' of what classes at UVA are like.</p>
<p>Where do Echol scholars live? I like UVa, but I thought the Day on the Lawn event wasn't the greatest picture of the school. I sat on this physics class and there was one person surfing the web and another person writing I'm bored in her notebook...</p>