University of Virginia-Main Campus Top Questions

I wish I had known that there are certain organizations that only allow you to join in your first year. There are also certain honors available only after completing certain academic requirements, like having more than 15 credits every semester grants eligibility to an honors program. I also wish I had pursued different career opportunties.

I wish I could have understood major requirements before deciding to transfer. Coming in as junior, I'm behind most of the class when it comes to how close they are to finishing their degree. Had I known what classes to take and the difficulty, I would have tried to take more of them before coming.

Pace yourself.

I wish I had known more about the deadlines for fall sports so i could have participated.

I wish I had known a little more about what kind of classes I wanted.

Get involved first semester to make new friends and explore your interests, but don't overload yourself. Your GPA first and second year builds the foundation for the rest of your college experience. It's so easy to get overwhelmed and want to join everything, but you need to pick 2 or 3 activities. The workload is heavy and can catch you off guard if you're doing a million other things.

Build up your GPA

I wish that someone had told me to pick a few extra cirricular activities that I really loved at that were important to UVA, and to stick with them. Initially, I joined a couple random philanthropic organizations and random clubs, but I didn't gain much from them and didn't enjoy being a part of them. It wasn't until later that I became a tour guide and even then I still wished that I had started out earlier so I could've been involved with other prestigous organizations on grounds such as the honor committee and student council.

I wish I had known that the University of Virginia, although very competitive, is also a very friendly environment. The stigma about all of us being stuck up and snotty is totally untrue. Yes, you will probably meet some people you do not like, but you would find that anywhere. The University is a great place to make friends as well as study, and often you will find people just like you (hard-working, competitive, with similar interests). I wish I had known what a wide variety of classes were offered before I signed up for classes too!

Prior to coming to UVA, I would have liked to have known how to manage my time better for it is paramount to success at this university. This is a school where students put in many hours of studying as well as many hours in other extracurricular activities Being able to not squander time is a huge advantage to succeeding at this university.