The University of Virginia (U.Va.), being a school in southern Virginia, most definitely has stereotypes. When I visited U.Va. for the first time while in high school, one of the first things I noticed was the plethora of white students that all seem to be wearing very similar clothes; i.e. boat shoes, rainbow flip-flops, polo shirts with khaki pants, or sun dresses. Of course, once I started to attend U.Va. I realized that although that preppy stereotype about U.Va. exists, there is more diversity than people think there is here.
So, some stereotypes common to U.Va. A major one is that everyone seems to be involved in a fraternity or sorority. Although there is a significant portion of the school that does participate in that community, not all fraternities and sororities are the same and the rest of the population of students are not in one.
Also, the legacy of President Jefferson, our founder, is quite strong here. There are definitely students that love U.Va., and want to continue to maintain the old-school/psuedo-colonial, upper-middle class white American appearance that many students assume all of U.Va. is engulfed in. Often times people assume those students are in fraternities and sororities. However, there are many students, that may or may not be apart of frat/sorority community, who are very committed to diversifying the school by encouraging more students of color, who come from different socio-economic backgrounds, and have sexual orientations to come to U.Va. That was something I didn't expect when I came here.
Another stereotype, that makes it way nationwide, is that students at U.Va. do not know how to enjoy themselves. There's this assumption that because of U.Va.'s prestige and history, students are constantly in the library studying and everything seems to related to work. That's not true. U.Va. is a school that builds leaders and although academics is heavily valued students here strike a balance between studying hard and "playing hard." Meaning many students go out for the weekends and participate in extracurricular activities like performance art and cooking.
One stereotype, that to some degree is true, is that social groups here sometimes do not often interact. For example, often times student athletics seem to have their own community and don't spend as much time with non-student athletics. Hopefully in the future that will change.