University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (often abbreviated as UVA or Virginia) is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Established in 1819 by third U.S. president Thomas Jefferson, it is the only university in the United States to be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, an honor it shares with nearby Monticello. UVA is one of the eight original Public Ivies.
The 2012 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Virginia as the 2nd best public university in the United States along with University of California, Los Angeles, and the overall 25th best university in the nation.
UVA's initial Board of Visitors included former Presidents of the United States Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. The site of the University was once farmland owned by Monroe, whose law office and farmhouse is now the site of Brown College at Monroe Hill, a residential college at the University.
UVA competes in 23 varsity sports within the Atlantic Coast Conference. UVA's athletic program finished third in the NACDA Directors' Cup rankings in 2010. In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, UVA athletes won 4 medals, including two gold medals. Of all Division I universities represented in rowing at the Olympics, UVA's four medals ranks first.
Admission to the University of Virginia is competitive, with 90.2% of admitted applicants ranking in the top 10% of their high school classes. A December 2005 National Bureau of Economic Research study of "high-achieving" undergraduate applicants found U.Va., at twentieth overall, to be the most preferred college located in the state of Virginia, and the second-most preferred in the American South, behind Duke University. The study also revealed the University to be the most preferred public university in the entire United States. The stated purpose of the NBER study was to produce a ranking system that "would be difficult for a college to manipulate" by basing it on the actual demonstrated preferences of highly meritorious students.
Tuition is lower for both in-state and out-of-state students than at most other top universities. The student composition of the University is such that it was described in a feature article in the 2006 America's Best Colleges edition of U.S. News and World Report as being "chock full of academic stars who turn down private schools like Duke, Princeton, and Cornell for, they say, a better value." Indeed, in 2008 the Center for College Affordability and Productivity named the University the top value among all national public colleges and universities; and in 2009, the University was again named the "#1 Best Value" among public universities in the United States in a separate ranking by USA TODAY and the Princeton Review.
