First in 1993, and again 8 times since,
U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Virginia as America's #1 public
university. It is a perennial battle between UVa and the University of California, Berkeley to see which is declared the best public unviersity
in the United States. In the most recent (2005) edition, Berkeley was ranked #1 and UVa #2 (tied with the University of Michigan) out of roughly 200 doctorate-granting public universities in the United
States. In addition to Berkeley and Michigan, there is a friendly academic rivalry with #6, the College of William and Mary. This exists primarily
because these leading public universities are both in Virginia, as William & Mary has always lagged slightly behind the
University of Virginia in these national rankings and reputation surveys.UVa possesses a distinguished faculty, including 25 Guggenheim fellows, 26 Fulbright fellows, six National Endowment for the
Humanities fellows, two Presidential Young Investigator Award winners, three Sloan award winners. and three Packard Foundation
Award winners. The University is known for its schools of Architecture,
Business, Commerce, Law, Medicine, and Education, as well as for its departments of Art History,
Astronomy, Astronomy-Physics, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Economics, English, Finance, French, German,
History, Management Information Systems, Physics,
Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Spanish/Portuguese, and Systems
Engineering.The University of Virginia Library System holds 5,000,000 volumes. Its Electronic Text
Center, established in 1992, has put 70,000 books online as well as 350,000 images that
go with them. No university in the world can claim more electronic texts. These e-texts are open to anyone, and that is one
reason that the electronic collection gets ten times as many visitors per day as do the physical libraries at the University.The University's faculty were particularly instrumental in the evolution of Internet networking and connectivity. Physics
professor James McCarthy was the lead academic liaison to the government in the establishment of Suranet, and the University also participated in Arpanet and now
participates in Internet2 and Abilene. In March of 1986, the University's website
Virginia.edu became the first contribution to the World Wide Web
originating from the state of Virginia.The University of Virginia offers numerous special scholars programs. The Echols and Rodman Scholars Programs include 6-7% of
undergraduate students and offer these students the "keys" to the university, in the form of advisors, separate first-year dorms,
and priority course registration. Echols Scholars are also freed from the area requirements of the basic liberal arts curriculum.
Perhaps the most selective program is the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, which offers full 4-year scholarships based on rigorous
regional, international, and at-large competitions. Students are nominated by their respective high schools, and then have to
pass various interviews before being invited, for a weekend, to participate in various tests of character, aptitude, and general
suitablity. Approximately 3% of those nominated are successful, making the scholarship one of the most competitive in the
nation.