Opinions on Charlottesville Please (Vienna: crime, chapel, home)

[wikidinc]

Hi, I hope I am in the right section, I apologize if I'm not.



I am trying to decide which graduate school to go to and my choices have been narrowed down to University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Va), Ohio State (Columbus, OH), Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD) and University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC.) I need opinions from people on Charlottesville and if you have lived in one of these other cities then even better!

Some concerns for C-Ville:
I visited last weekend and it is a very pretty town and seems very safe.
I worry about having enough to do. I take dance lessons current and wish to keep doing so. I also do yoga and pilates as well as run and rock climb. Yes I know there are many activities available through UVa. I have heard from several people though that isn't much of anything to do in Charlottesville and that worries me. I also don't want to live there if the town "dies" when the college breaks for college in the summer.

Thank you for any opinions, good bad or ugly.


Jen

[FindingZen]

Your instincts were correct. While Charlottesville is technically in the northern half of VA, it's not considered part of "Northern Virginia" in the local vernacular. I'm going to move this to the general Virginia forum.

[harley22]

Hi. If you are considering Chapel Hill...I would say though a very good school you have one street...BORING! You can go to Raleigh and Durham (kinda scary) but really not much to do. Baltimore while there can be lots of crime...if you can find an area to live outside of the crime filled area you have DC close by which is an amazing city with tons to do. Good Luck!

[Jesco White]

Cville will have the most "cultural" activities outside of the rest of VA combined. NoVa will have a lot of nice chain restaurants, but if you want to actually grow a unique reputation, you would to well to avoid NoVa. Cville is a hidden gem. It's a place most hate when growing up there, but after experiencing alternatives, it comes off as a pretty nice place to live and enjoy.

[roanoker 4]

C'ville is a nice, classy place to go to college. I like it because the downtown Mall is so convenient to the campus and is not just about college students like other college towns. The outdoor activities in the region offer peace and quiet and the proximity to DC is a big plus too.

[VaNative]

Originally Posted by Jesco White

Cville will have the most "cultural" activities outside of the rest of VA combined. NoVa will have a lot of nice chain restaurants, but if you want to actually grow a unique reputation, you would to well to avoid NoVa. Cville is a hidden gem. It's a place most hate when growing up there, but after experiencing alternatives, it comes off as a pretty nice place to live and enjoy.

I lived there for a LONG time but got tired of the lack of entertainment and the high cost of living. My family still lives there but I have no desire to ever move back.

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by Jesco White

Cville will have the most "cultural" activities outside of the rest of VA combined.

Hmmm. This is only true if you've never left Cville!

[Sourkraut]

Originally Posted by Jesco White

It's a place most hate when growing up there, but after experiencing alternatives, it comes off as a pretty nice place to live and enjoy.

I grew up in C'ville and am feeling this exact way right now as my husband and I are looking for somewhere to move. Moving back home is extremely tempting at this point. Granted, the place where I moved to is New Jersey so by comparison almost anywhere would be preferable.

As far as the activities the OP specifically asked about are concerned, C'ville's a very active community with lots of options for yoga, pilates, rock climbing, etc., especially in the downtown area. There's a fantastic running trail through the city (which I miss dearly) and several well-attended races throughout the year so you'd have a lot of company there. As for things "dying" during school breaks, there are certain areas like The Corner where shops close or have abbreviated hours when students aren't around, but a large population of the city is not associated with the university at all so areas like the Downtown Mall and the less picturesque Route 29 businesses operate normally year round. Honestly, if you can afford it you could easily keep yourself entertained by sampling all of the delicious local restaurants C'ville has to offer. That's the one thing I miss the most.

[Jesco White]

Originally Posted by sregorat3

Hmmm. This is only true if you've never left Cville!

As someone who has traveled the US and Europe extensively, and who now resides in the NoVa/DC Area, I beg to differ. Unless you can live in a major world city (Paris, NYC,Budapest, Vienna, London, etc) and you know you're going to be in a smallish area, charlottesville is about as good as it gets. You may have confused my definition of travel with yours... Nelson and Greene are not "multicultural" experiences. Please find me a metro area of 125k that surpasses charlottesville, and I'll be happy to look into it. Remember, part of the criteria are the ability to find jobs!

Charlottesville isn't perfect, but it is pretty damn good for the central mid-Atlantic area. I did hate the area growing up though....

[apQ6Qx]

I went to Johns Hopkins... unless you want to sequester yourself on campus for your entire stay you don't want to go there. The campus itself is remarkably incident-free, but you're taking your chances going very far off campus, as the university abuts at least one inner-city run-down neighborhood. We used to call the street that you shouldn't cross the "line of death"... it was only a few blocks south of campus.