When it’s so cold you can’t feel your nose, and you step off the sidewalk into another slush puddle, it’s easy to dream about tropical locales. Well, some students do go to school in paradise, and it’s not all coconut tree houses and helper monkeys.
Students at the University of the Virgin Islands hit the books, write for their campus newspapers, bar hop and attend business club meetings just like we do. They root for the UVI Buccaneers at NCAA games.
The weather, though, doesn’t compare. The Virgin Islands are a U.S. territory in the Caribbean comprised of St. John, St. Croix and St. Thomas. During the university’s summer sessions, the thermometer reads about 95 degrees. In the winter, it hovers around 80.
UVI is a public school, and accepts 97% percent of applicants. It’s average SAT scores are about 300 points lower than NU’s in both reading and math categories and 67 percent of students had GPAs under 3.0 in high school.
UVI’s student body also looks very different than NU’s. Congress named UVI a historically black university, and according to the College Board, 80 percent of the student body is black. Just 2 percent is white.
“We have the three elements that would make any college education perfect,” says UVI senior Rick Grant. “American standards and American principles, and we have the fun, we have the warmth of going to the beach whenever you feel like.”
At UVI’s two branches – the main campus on the island of St. Thomas and the satellite on St. Croix – academic and social life is similar to that at NU. To some students, UVI seems to have all the resources of mainland universities, in addition to professors who come from abroad, Grant says. Business and marketing are the most popular majors, with many students looking to work on the islands or abroad. “We have pockets of students that take their academic studies very seriously,” says Student Activities Supervisor Junie Violenes. “Then there are some students who would like to stay around here forever. Most students make it a combination of trying to get their work done and trying to get some fun in.”
Of UVI’s 2,268 students, only 200 come from outside the territory – mostly from the Eastern Caribbean and Europe, Violenes says. And there is a cultural split between the islanders and the visitors. The school’s National Student Exchange program brings students from colleges across the United States to UVI for a semester or a year. But, Grant says, mainland students are often the easiest to point out because they are unaccustomed to the Virgin Islands lifestyle and spend their time out on the beaches. A season of BET’s College Hill was filmed at UVI’s St. Thomas campus during the 2006-07 school year. The drama played on differences between four locals and four transfers from California who lived together under the same roof.
UVI students unwind in the same way mainland university students do, Grant says. But the bars and clubs closest to campus aren’t a couple blocks walk but a 10-minute drive. Students travel to nearby nightclubs for “Twofer Tuesdays” and other weekend events, Violenes says. “Our drinking age is 18 here so we don’t have to wait until 21 like on the mainland,” she says. “That affects, too, the kind of activities that students who are not from the region participate in.”
Greek life is growing, with one fraternity and six sororities, and students party at school events such as Afternoon on the Green, UVI’s biggest lawn party. “I go to the movies, I really love the movies. I hang out with my friends, we travel on the weekends to St. John and St. Croix and take trips to the clubs and the bar,” Grant says. “Almost all students would indulge at some point.”
Then there’s the price: a year at UVI costs about as much as a quarter at NU. Sign us up.
