University of Virginia-Main Campus Top Questions

Many people associate a preppy, elitist, spoiled, and conservative student body with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Like many stereotypes, this one holds some truth. Most UVa students come from the privileged suburbs of Washington D.C. and seem to have an endless flow of money from their parents. This sort of privilege translates as naivete and immaturity. Additionally, the UVa student body is primarily homogenous: many students dress similarly or listen to the same music or do the same things on the weekend. These interests and preferences all tend to be preppy, elitist, or conservative. However, many UVa students absolutely do not fit this mold. UVa is a large enough school that one can find any type of student. Perhaps if you are less conventional a bit more work will go into "finding your niche," but if you are willing to seek creative, interesting, and even bizarre people, you will surely find them. Most importantly, many people at UVa are smart, open-minded, and have a broad array of interests. So, to a large extent, the stereotypes are accurate, but there are many exceptions.

The stereotype of the students at the University of Virginia is that all of the students are snobby, rich kids who join sororities and fraternities and party all of the time. This stereotype is not completely accurate. One of the surprising things when coming to UVA was how smart everyone here is. The students here work very hard, and are committed to excellence in the classroom. While there are a lot of sororities and fraternities, the portion of people involved in greek life is not overwhelming. Everyone here is actually very friendly, so the stereotype that holds the least truth is definitely the snobby aspect.

When I was searching for colleges, I knew that the University of Virginia had a less than sterling reputation for its student population. From almost every college search book, I understood that my future college-to-be was full of preppy, rich, white kids, whose extra-curricular activities include driving BMWs, Greek life, and more Greek life. What did I find out? Well, Greek life is a big deal, and some students do have a pretty nice set of wheels. But athletics are a big deal. And so is music, art, and drama. And so is engineering, astronomy, and ultimate frisbee. And let me tell you, WAY more students drive 2002 Honda Accords than BMWs. I have never met someone at this university that "only" fit the stereotype, and had nothing else interesting to talk to me about (because I'm not big on Greek life). Once you are in the classroom, making new friends and hearing how broad-minded and imaginative your classmates are, you will immediately realize that there is way more to people than the threat of their "stereotype." I mean, we even have an organization on grounds that makes t-shirts reading "Stereotype Me," where every student is encouraged to write their own slogan or label, to break the bad habit of judging people for what others see on the surface.

When I was searching for colleges, I knew that the University of Virginia had a less than sterling reputation for its student population. From almost every college search book, I understood that my future college-to-be was full of preppy, rich, white kids, whose extra-curricular activities include driving BMWs, Greek life, and more Greek life. What did I find out? Well, Greek life is a big deal, and some students do have a pretty nice set of wheels. But athletics are a big deal. And so is music, art, and drama. And so is engineering, astronomy, and ultimate frisbee. And let me tell you, WAY more students drive 2002 Honda Accords than BMWs. I have never met someone at this university that "only" fit the stereotype, and had nothing else interesting to talk to me about (because I'm not big on Greek life). Once you are in the classroom, making new friends and hearing how broad-minded and imaginative your classmates are, you will immediately realize that there is way more to people than the threat of their "stereotype." I mean, we even have an organization on grounds that makes t-shirts reading "Stereotype Me," where every student is encouraged to write their own slogan or label, to break the bad habit of judging people for what others see on the surface.

The stereotype of the students at the University of Virginia is that all of the students are snobby, rich kids who join sororities and fraternities and party all of the time. This stereotype is not completely accurate. One of the surprising things when coming to UVA was how smart everyone here is. The students here work very hard, and are committed to excellence in the classroom. While there are a lot of sororities and fraternities, the portion of people involved in greek life is not overwhelming. Everyone here is actually very friendly, so the stereotype that holds the least truth is definitely the snobby aspect.

When I was searching for colleges, I knew that the University of Virginia had a less than sterling reputation for its student population. From almost every college search book, I understood that my future college-to-be was full of preppy, rich, white kids, whose extra-curricular activities include driving BMWs, Greek life, and more Greek life. What did I find out? Well, Greek life is a big deal, and some students do have a pretty nice set of wheels. But athletics are a big deal. And so is music, art, and drama. And so is engineering, astronomy, and ultimate frisbee. And let me tell you, WAY more students drive 2002 Honda Accords than BMWs. I have never met someone at this university that "only" fit the stereotype, and had nothing else interesting to talk to me about (because I'm not big on Greek life). Once you are in the classroom, making new friends and hearing how broad-minded and imaginative your classmates are, you will immediately realize that there is way more to people than the threat of their "stereotype." I mean, we even have an organization on grounds that makes t-shirts reading "Stereotype Me," where every student is encouraged to write their own slogan or label, to break the bad habit of judging people for what others see on the surface.

Fratty and Sratty, pretty southern and progressive. Some believe in "popped collars" though they don't really exist on grounds anywhere. People think UVa is preppy, when really the only preppy kids are the rich fratstars. The girls are hot and we party pretty damn hard, so most of the stereotypes are true

Stereotypes of students: Frat culture, Preppy, Intellectual, well diverse

The stereotype of students at my school is that they are very preppy. This is an accurate stereotype.

That people are every prepy and hat it is mostly an all-american, all white school. This is not true UVA is very diverse. I am international student and have many international friends thanks to the University of Virginia.

Students are varied, from international students to frat oriented kids. Most UVa students are social, very social... like to be part of student organizations and attend social gatherings done by independent fraternities or sororities or even UVa gatherings.

The University of Virginia has always and probably will always be thought of as a "preppy" school for rich white kids. In fact, some people even ask me if I'm a snob after I tell them that I go to UVa. While this stereotype does in fact have some truth to it (there are quite a few North Faces, Sperrys, and Long Champ bags walking around grounds), UVa is an incredibly diverse place and its getting more and more diverse every year. I can't imagine someone coming to UVa and not finding some place where they're comfortable just being them. Heck, I'm comfortable around everyone here, no matter how different from me they are since almost everyone here is incredibly open-minded. Of course, that doesn't mean that you won't have the desire to go out and buy a North Face or a pair or Sperrys for your very own. I did and I don't regret it. You might though. Sometimes I get sick of seeing so many people who dress the same everyday. I mean, it's kind of good because almost everyone here dresses rather nicely, but it can get monotonous. The base-line here is that most UVa kids are preppy to some extent and and that preppy is a reinforcing cycle. However, there is lots of room for diversity and lots of people (though not in the majority) who are not preppy and will never be preppy.

The stereotype of students here is generally that we are rich and preppy, that we all wear Sperrys and pearls and Northface. The last time I checked we ranked #1 in preppiness on Huffington Post. This is true in that we all dress pretty nicely, but I feel like over exaggerated. UVA students are also very into fitness, so you will always see a packed gym or people running at all times of the day. We are also very into eating healthy foods. UVA students tend to be very bro-y in that fraternities occupy a large social role on campus. The guys are generally all like this but they are all still very nice. Of course, all schools have this kind of party-life, but all of the students here are very intelligent, respectful, and friendly. The southern hospitality really permeates into the school a lot so the students are very friendly.

I'd say the most common stereotype surrounding UVA, especially from outside the campus community is that it is home only to white, preppy students, predominantly coming from wealthy backgrounds. Though it remains true that the school has a lot of students that fit this mold, it is by no means a representative generalization. There are students of every race, every economic class, and that shop at every store you could imagine...not just Vineyard Vines and J.Crew. So if you're a white, preppy applicant..you'll fit right in. And if you're not..you'll fit right in.

UVa has a stereotype for being a school composed mainly of rich, preppy kids. For the most part, this stereotype is true but it doesn't mean that there aren't hubs for other types of students. I don't fit this mold at all and I feel like a fit in just fine. Just because I'm poor and have a nose ring, I'm not ostracized. This is due to the fact that 99{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of UVa students are the nicest people you'll ever meet.

The students here are proud of being part of a school with such rich history and tradition, and perhaps sometimes feel UVa doesn't get the credit it deserves because it's public, but the atmosphere is not that of a snobby private school. The preppy stereotype is largely true; students here dress very nicely for class, and no one wears bummy clothes around grounds. On the whole, UVa students are extremely well-rounded; most students are self-motivated, involved in a range of activities, and dedicated to academics (yes, nerdy) without being as cutthroat about it as many other highly ranked schools. They definitely work hard, play hard.

UVa is regarded as having well-rounded, highly involved students, and I think that's accurate. Most students are self-motivated, involved in a range of activities, and dedicated to academics (yes, nerdy) without being as cutthroat about it as many other highly ranked schools. The preppy stereotype is largely true; students here dress very nicely for class and all other events, and no one wears sweatpants or "bummy clothes" around grounds.

To an extent, yes. But that does not mean everyone is preppy. On any given day, you see all different sorts of people. And there is no pressure from the students to have to dress up for class. T-shirts/yoga pants/sweats are completely normal.

UVA has a tendency to be marked as a preppy, rich kid stereotype. I come from a high school that had stereotypical rich kids and I sure was not one of them. When first arriving on grounds, it's easy to start judging people right away, but when you really get to know people, they're not so different from yourself. I first thought that some people in my Residential area would be snobby and I would NOT get along, but after a couple of days we now hang out a lot and we are all a big family! It is completely different from high school because everyone is starting over again by themselves just like you. There is no need to be snobby and rude like in some people were in high school. I absolutely love all the students here!

UVA has a tendency to be marked as a preppy, rich kid stereotype. I come from a high school that had stereotypical rich kids and I sure was not one of them. When first arriving on grounds, it's easy to start judging people right away, but when you really get to know people, they're not so different from yourself. I first thought that some people in my Residential area would be snobby and I would NOT get along, but after a couple of days we now hang out a lot and we are all a big family! It is completely different from high school because everyone is starting over again by themselves just like you. There is no need to be snobby and rude like in some people were in high school. I absolutely love all the students here!