The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.
In fact, the university is located in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is also home to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, Monticello and the Rotunda. The University of Virginia has an endowment worth
6 billion and has produced two Nobel Prize winners, 20 Rhodes Scholars and 26 Marshall Scholars.
Thomas Jefferson had visited the University of Oxford in England, and he wanted to create a similar institution in his home state of Virginia. The school was designed to be a place where students could study law, medicine, agriculture, and science. However, the university also included courses in philosophy and rhetoric to promote students’ ability to think critically and communicate effectively.
Jefferson was not only a member of the university’s board of visitors but also its first rector (president). In addition to being responsible for starting the university, he also designed its buildings and grounds based on his experience at Oxford. The architecture style that he chose is known as neo-classical or Palladian style because it uses classical elements such as columns and domes from ancient Greek and Roman buildings.
Nowadays, the University of Virginia is one of America’s most selective public universities, with an acceptance rate of just over 20 percent. The school has a very low student/faculty ratio of 6-to-1, and it is consistently ranked as one of the best value colleges in the country because of its high quality academics at an affordable price tag.
