University of Virginia
Founded 1819. Thomas Jefferson's academical village, a UNESCO World Heritage campus.
Overview
Jefferson designed UVA around a lawn and rotunda rather than a church, making it the first US secular university and an architectural landmark. The academical village he planned is now a UNESCO World Heritage site alongside Monticello. The university pioneered the elective system and student self-governance traditions that persist in the honor code. Woodrow Wilson studied law here briefly, and Edgar Allan Poe enrolled in 1826. Today UVA enrolls about 25,000 students and pairs public ivy academics with a founder's mythology unique in American higher education.
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