University of Virginia-Main Campus Top Questions

The most prevalent stereotype is that UVA is a preppy and/or snobby school- that all the girls are ditzy, everyone wears polos, and upper-middle class whites make up the majority of students.

they are preps, the are rich and spoiled, and a lot of people think we are stuck up

That we're pretentious, preppy, Southern, aristocratic, mostly Greek, Republican...you know the drill. At least, before I got to UVA, those were the stereotypes I heard about that I was fervently hoping were not true.

The biggest stereotype I've heard is of the preppiness and uppity attitude of UVa students. Many people think we think that we're better than other universities because of the high-rank, high-intensity university that we attend. We're perceived as a very Caucasian, rich school. If you ever watch a home football game at UVa, you may notice that some people go the length to dress up for the game: guys in ties, girls in pearls. This tradition has been phasing out over the past several years with a new effort to push students to wear "Orange Fever" t-shirts.

The typical stereotype that I hear about UVA students is that we are pretentious and look down at other Virginia schools.

The University is an anti-intellectual environment despite its ranking as a top public institution. The people here are unwilling to engage critically "that which is."

Diverse, active, potitical sensitive, pride, southern

Picture in your mind a typical UVA student. Not familiar with UVA? Picture what you imagine most Ivy League school students. Still no? If not it doesn't matter, because I had the same image of UVA students before I got here, and its incredibly innaccurate. I thought popped collars, polos, sundresses, the typical guys in ties, girls in pearls that is a common moniker of the students at "Mr. Jefferson's University." Now sure, you will run into a few of these students in your time here, but not as commonly, nor as severely as you think. The extreme stereotypes of your UVA students can be found most concentrated scattered among the greek life, quite a few mysteriously appear at football games, and are some what prominent among the more competitive club sports. But the majority of UVA student are quite like you or I (supposing you are indeed normal and aren't taking offense to this), they've shown up in class in their pajamas, they wear t-shirts with their favorite bands, they wear jeans not just khakis, and a good number of them would not fit into that stereotyped UVA student. Another stereotyped is the stuck-uppedness (if indeed such a word exists) of the students here. A lot of that comes off from the deep history and traditions that can be found at any college. But again, few people are avid followers of all these traditions, who hasn't called "grounds" by their real name--campus, or who hasn't slipped up and called someone a freshman, who is really actually a first-year. Unforgivable.

UVA is the Preppiest university in the world. The students are really snobby, rich, stuck-up, bitchy, and conservative.

UVA students are stereotyped to be rich and preppy. They are also stereotyped to drink a lot and adopt the attitude of "study hard, party hard."