University of Virginia

The University of Virginia, commonly called UVA, is the college that first seems to promise Lara Jean Covey and Peter Kavinsky a shared next chapter: he has committed to its lacrosse team, and she has long imagined going there too. When she is rejected and later chooses UNC, UVA changes from an expected destination into the measure of their diverging paths, sharpening questions about ambition, distance, and whether young love can survive two separate futures.

Setting and established destination

The novel introduces the University of Virginia as a real, immediate place rather than simply a name on an application. During a visit, Lara Jean and Peter drive onto its grounds on a Friday night. The campus is quiet because spring break has left many students away, and Peter parks along the street. The subdued visit gives the university a lived-in presence before it becomes the setting for the couple’s imagined college life.

Peter’s route there is already well established. He made a verbal commitment to the UVA lacrosse team the previous year, then applied early action. As with many college athletes, his admission was nearly assured as long as his grades remained acceptable. When the official acceptance arrived in January, his mother held a party; Lara Jean baked a cake bearing the message, “I’m taking my talents to UVA,” in yellow frosting. The celebration makes the university part of their shared history well before Lara Jean receives her own decision.

For Lara Jean, UVA has been the expected choice rather than one possibility among many. She says it was always in her heart and that she had not seriously anticipated another destination. She initially planned to apply early alongside Peter, but her guidance counselor, Mrs. Duvall, advised her to wait so that the admissions committee could see her midyear senior grades. The delay, intended to present her application at its strongest, leaves her future less settled than Peter’s.

Rejection and redirected plans

The university’s admissions letter acknowledges that it received more than 30,000 applications and describes Lara Jean’s academic, personal, and extracurricular credentials as very strong before informing her that she has not been admitted. The scale of the applicant pool and the courteous language do not soften the decisive result: the institution she had treated as her likely future has closed that route.

The rejection brings practical alternatives into view. Peter recalls Toney Lewis, a former schoolmate who spent two years at PVCC before transferring to UVA as a junior, and suggests that Lara Jean might eventually transfer too. His example offers a possible route back, not an immediate reversal of the decision. Lara Jean also imagines other futures, including taking a year off to work on farms; the range of possibilities underlines how much her plans have opened up now that UVA is no longer assured.

When she is accepted to William & Mary, the decision is framed partly through its distance from Peter. She tells herself that Williamsburg is not very far from Charlottesville, while recognizing uncertainty beneath that reassurance: she does not know whether Peter’s mother is relieved that she will not attend the same university, or whether the separate destinations imply that the relationship is ending. The geography remains manageable on a map, but its emotional meaning is unsettled.

The imagined shared future

Even after the rejection, UVA remains an organizing point in the couple’s plans. Lara Jean describes their proposed arrangement as a year at William & Mary followed by her attempt to transfer to UVA for the second year. Peter treats the separation as temporary and workable: he says he can drive down on weekends, arrange for his mother to bring his car, and have Lara Jean take the bus. His confidence that they can make it work contrasts with Lara Jean’s growing awareness that future plans are vulnerable to change.

Their imagined life at UVA appears in small, ordinary scenes as well as in plans for transfer. As they learn to slow dance, Lara Jean considers taking a ballroom-dancing class there so they can improve together. She jokes that Peter should not join a chorus or an a cappella group, then clarifies that he can join as many as he likes. These casual projections make the university feel like a container for shared routines, not merely a credential or athletic opportunity.

Peter’s athletic future there is concrete and demanding. His high-school lacrosse team does not reach the state championships, although he is due to attend a training camp with his new UVA team the following weekend. His mother later stresses that he will be going there as a student-athlete and needs to focus on lacrosse and study. UVA therefore represents both the future Peter has worked toward and obligations that could limit how often he travels to see Lara Jean.

Diverging routes and relationship strain

As the couple contemplates adulthood, UVA’s promise begins to carry a cost. Lara Jean imagines Peter at the university’s law school years later and feels a pang at the distance between that possible future and the boy she knows now. August, when they will leave for college, draws nearer; she senses their paths diverging even while the immediate relationship remains close. The imagined long future makes their impending separation feel larger than the distance between two campuses.

Peter’s mother voices the practical concern most directly. She appreciates Lara Jean’s willingness to consider the couple’s plans, but worries that Peter will not be able to drive to North Carolina every weekend while balancing college athletics and study. She connects her caution to her own experience: she and Peter’s father married young, and she does not want the teenagers to repeat what she regards as their mistakes. She also believes Peter will not let Lara Jean go unless Lara Jean lets him go first. Her warning turns UVA from a neutral educational destination into a pressure point in their relationship.

Lara Jean eventually argues that Peter should do what he needs to do at UVA while she does what she needs to do at UNC. She believes that trying to stay together will make everything fall apart, and insists that Peter should not abandon the place he has worked toward to follow her. Their conversation exposes the difference between Peter’s earlier certainty that logistics can be solved and Lara Jean’s fear that love could distort either person’s choices. At this point, UVA stands for a future that is Peter’s in its own right, not simply a shared destination.

Reconciliation and significance

After their separation, Peter raises the question of Lara Jean’s decision not to transfer to UNC and says she should have told him that his mother had spoken with her. Their conflict is not only about which college either of them will attend; it concerns whether decisions made for the relationship have been shared honestly. Peter rejects the idea that their future must be determined by his mother’s warning or by the example of Lara Jean’s sister’s relationship. He argues that they are not other couples and that neither of them wants to break up, even though staying together will be hard.

The university’s narrative significance lies in the gap between admission, aspiration, and belonging. Peter reaches UVA through an athletic commitment and an acceptance that confirms a path already in motion. Lara Jean, whose sense of that same path has felt almost unquestioned, must absorb a rejection, consider transfer, and ultimately choose a different college. UVA remains central even when she does not attend: it shapes her alternate plans, exposes the strain between individual futures and romantic promises, and helps make clear that love cannot be secured simply by choosing the same place. Their eventual insistence that their relationship is their own reframes the question from whether Lara Jean can follow Peter to UVA to whether the two can choose one another without surrendering their separate directions.