Ethan Brown '25
Features Editor
For two days, on Thursday, March 16 and Friday, March 17, several hundred individuals admitted to our dear Law School will descend on Charlottesville for a jam-packed forty-eight hours of seminars, information sessions, mock classes, and networking. When I attended Admitted Students Weekend (“ASW”) last year, I absolutely loved it. I came away from the experience feeling extremely excited about the prospect of attending UVA Law, and I hope that every admitted student who joins us this year feels the same way.[1]
But I also remember feeling a little disappointed that I hadn’t been able to spend any time exploring the area during my visit.[2] So, in the hopes that some plucky admitted student picks up a copy of this week’s Virginia Law Weekly as they meander around the school, desperately trying to find Slaughter Hall,[3] here are my tips for maximizing any free weekend time in Charlottesville:
1. Go to Cou Cou Rachou.
This is the first item on the list because it is unquestionably the most important. Cou Cou Rachou is a delectable French bakery just a five minute drive from North Grounds, and if you have a car and more than 300 seconds of free time during your stay in Charlottesville, you simply must go. The vibes are immaculate, the pastries are delicious, and the outdoor patio is precious (and warm!). I recommend stopping by and grabbing their cardamom braid as well as their egg and spinach quiche, because if you have to spend your travel stipend for ASW on something, it might as well be a pleasant breakfast.[4] I evangelize this restaurant like nobody’s business, and since I’m a “journalist” in the most charitable sense of the word, you can trust me.
2. Check out Main Grounds.
UVA Law students sit in our little brutalist ivory tower up here on North Grounds, and by virtue of our building being a mile or so away from Main Grounds, we rarely have to interact with the University’s undergraduate population. On the whole, I consider that to be a pretty fantastic attribute of UVA Law. But I highly encourage all admitted students—particularly ones who haven’t been to Charlottesville before—to at least take a short stroll around Main Grounds, particularly The Lawn.
If you’ve seen any UVA promotional material in your life, you’ve seen the Rotunda and The Lawn, and very rightfully so. These historic portions of UVA’s undergraduate campus make up one of only twenty-four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the United States. I’m lowkey an architecture nerd, particularly when it comes to colleges and universities,[5] and UVA takes the cake in creating a captivating common space at the heart of its campus. I make a point of going through Main Grounds on my morning runs, so I see it often. But even if you aren’t planning on making frequent stops to the undergraduate campus during your time here, I recommend checking it out at least once. I promise it will get you excited about joining this institution.
3. Stroll around Ragged Mountain Natural Area and Reservoir.
Another stone’s throw from North Grounds is Ragged Mountain, a beautiful outdoor space with hiking and biking trails, ample parking, and stunning views of the Charlottesville metropolitan area. While I have my designated areas around Charlottesville for my trademark Hot-Gay-Boy Walks,[6] Ragged Mountain is my go-to place for more solemn and reflective walks, the sort we all inevitably have when the stress of law school and the fear of eventual oblivion set in. I know that might not sound like the greatest sales pitch. But it’s still a gorgeous place for a stroll!
4. See how people here actually interact with each other when the dust of ASW settles.
This is probably the hardest thing to do with limited time, but the point of ASW is to show prospective students that their lives at UVA Law will not only be tolerable, but enjoyable. I think that our Admissions Department does a great job of doing that, but obviously, every law school puts a veneer on things—until you matriculate here, or at any other institution, it’s hard to encapsulate the intangibles of a law school experience. And at risk of seeming like too strong of a simp for UVA Law, which I deeply fear will undermine my credibility as this paper’s premier snarky satire writer,[7] I do think this Law School is special.
People here generally like each other. We aren’t competitive, or at least not in a way that’s toxic, like it is at other schools. And by and large, even though law school is stressful, almost everyone I know is still happy to be here. It can be difficult to see those intangible elements for yourself, even as you’re told them over and over again by professors and administrators during ASW, so try and stick around the Law School for a few minutes once it’s over on Saturday. You’ll see people spending time with each other and actually seeming to like each other’s company; you’ll come across the clusters of 1Ls studying and helping each other through tough Property cases; and you’ll bear witness to the moments of unadulterated joy, like those that come from the discovery of a loose Starburst on the floor outside Student Affairs. These small moments make UVA Law the special place it is.
With that, I wish all ASW attendees the happiest of stays in Charlottesville and the best of luck wherever their law school admissions journey takes them, though I sure hope it ends in a return trip to C’ville this August.
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bwj2cw@virginia.edu
[1] Except the ones who come to ASW and subsequently feel the compulsive need to tell every person they meet that they’re deciding between here and Harvard. I don’t need y’all messing up the vibe.
[2] Which, to be fair, I knew I would not not see much of during my first year of law school. But don’t undersell the significance of liking the place you’re about to spend three years of your life living in!
[3] See Ethan Brown During His Own ASW, March 17, 2022.
[4] Don’t forget your travel subsidy, y’all! ASW attendees get up to $400 reimbursed, with no need to produce receipts, depending on geographic origin.
[5] This is genuinely the most embarrassing sentence I’ve written in the Law Weekly, and this is coming from the man who somehow managed to write 2,300 words about The White Lotus.
[6] TikTok hasn’t caught onto them yet, smh.
[7] A self-appointed title.