University of Virginia

Last week, we visited several potential graduate schools with middle child.  Since we were roaming through the Mid-Atlantic Region, we decided that we would swing by the University of Virginia.   I've always loved the UVA campus.  It's beautiful, and the school is beyond compare.  I wish that they'd had the programs I was searching for when I went off to college. 

This gorgeous school was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.  It was intended to be an Academic Village.  In the picture below, you see the Rotunda.  It was (and still is a part of) the library.  Down in front, you see the lawn, and on the left and right sides of the lawn, there are the original rooms and the classrooms.  The individual rooms are very nice - they are single occupancy.  Each has a fireplace, and the original stone work.  And no indoor plumbing.  Think on that for a while.  It wouldn't even have been considered necessary 100 years ago.  Today, the residents go outside, down the stairs, and around back to access the bathrooms.  Think about that trek when it's snowing, cold, and icy.

When my sister graduated from UVa, the ceremony was held here, on the lawn.  We sat with our backs facing the Rotunda, and the speaker was downhill - at the other end of the lawn.  I know she absolutely loved her time in school, and had hopes that her kids would go to school there.

Is middle child considering attending the University for graduate school?  Who knows?  He's trying to decide whether to enter the work world or go to graduate school.  He must make that decision soon - applications are due by the end of the year (November, I think.) and GRE's and subject area tests need to be taken before then in order to be considered for admission.

I'm enjoying the continuing tour of college campuses.  Daughter has yet to apply, too.  She'll be graduating from the community college next spring, and she needs to have her transfer applications in by the end of this year, too.  You can never see enough college campuses.. never!  

The Rotunda.

The Ampitheater.  It was 70* when we were here.  Students were sitting all over the ampitheater, studying.

The library - part of the admissions tour, so I didn't get a good chance to take a lot of pictures.

The reading room in the main library.