University of Virginia-Main Campus Top Questions

Diversity is a big buzz word at UVA. There are kids from dozens of different backgrounds as well as dozens of different states/countries. Some people dress up for class while others roll out of bed and wear sweatpants. Whatever your background, you'll be able to find a group of students like you within 2 weeks...and you'll make friends quickly. For the most part, UVA students are very tolerant.

Students at UVA are very accepting of other people and for the most part I have not noticed any problems as such. The kind of student that may feel out of place at UVA is those from humble means. Many people dress in a way to project an image of elitism in an attempt to separate themselves from normal people. They wear odd things such as bowties from time to time. You do not have to conform that much to not feel out of place but one should conform at least a little bit. Most of the students at UVA are wealthy. The students are mostly left wing and often times pretend to be politically aware but are usually quite misinformed. A lot of the conversation that goes on between students is about how much they will make one day.

Work hard play hard kids with some that work really hard and some that don't work hard at all.

What do most students where to class? This question is intriguing because I was most surprised with the answer to this, more than anything else, when I was a first year at UVA. I assumed that most students, like myself, would prefer to wear sweats/pajamas, and tshirts to class. Boy was I wrong. Though a proud few do opt for comfort in the classroom--many of those, however, are either coming to or from the gym--most students actually dress to impress when they go to class. From skirts and dresses to khaki pants and collared shirts. Although I would say most students wear jeans to class...it's usually not jeans and a t-shirt--more like something that would be appropriate to wear out later that night. Though I don't think this is a bad thing at all, be prepared to be in the minority if you prefer to wear sweats and baggy tees to class (except during finals...when everyone does it)

UVA is stereotyped as being preppy which is not really true at all. Yes there are preppy people and girls do wear sundresses to football games, however during the week most people and in T-shirts and jeans just looking to get to class. UVA is no more preppy than most other colleges. UVA has such a large and diverse student body that everyone is able to find there own group or niche that they fit in with. I am not the preppiest girl around and I had originally that I wouldn't fit in here, which is why I didn't apply here my senior year. I then transferred in and found out that I did fit in. I found other people who were like me and it just worked. There are many students that come from wealthy families, but there are also those students that didn't and have student loans and jobs to worry about.

Everyone has a voice at UVA. Name a racial, cultural or religious group that is represented here and chances are you've been to one of their events on grounds. However, personally I would prefer to have a little more racial diversity in the student body. It's no secret that the majority of UVA students are white, and that itself isn't the problem, more that the status quo with regards to racial demographics can often lead to self segragation from the black community, as well as the white community. On the whole I find that I have fewer friends of different ethnic backgrounds to myself than I did in High School, which is a bit of a shame.

The stereotype of UVA students is that it's all southerners who wear bow ties and pearls (not the same people wearing each, mind you). There is definitely that component, but there's plenty of people who don't fit that. UVA students do tend to be dressier than most, however. Politically, religiously, racially, etc., there can be some self-segregation, but it's not hard to either reach out or find your niche, depending on what you want to do. You'll probably fall into a group of people who are relatively similar to you no matter what type of person you are.

Everyone likes to say that UVA is made up of a bunch of southern white bigots, but that really isn't the case. We are actually a pretty diverse school, getting more so every year. We have more religious and cultural groups then I can count so that everyone has somewhere they feel like they fit in. We've also got a pretty large gay/lesbian/transgender society, with numerous support groups/clubs that back them up. We are still a majority white school and the majority of the students are still from Virginia.

Uva student body is very diverse everyone can find their nitch, or can just hang out from anyone

There is every kind of person at here.