What’s wrong with William & Mary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of the high achieving, well rounded kids at my DC's school are interested in William & Mary. It seems to attract a certain "type"--which tends to be an academic-only (fewer ECs, no sports) student who would be a fit at certain SLACs, but chooses W&M because of lower in-state tuition.

The high achieving, well rounded kids seem much more interested in UVA, with VT as a safety school. Then looking at privates like Georgetown, Duke, Emory, and Vandy.

That is a shame for the kids at your DC's school, then. My kid was a 2 sport Varsity athlete with great ECs. Currently participating in a club sport, Model UN, signed up for another club and just secured an internship for next semester as a freshman. As for what is wrong with William & Mary- I don't really think anything (the food is not great), besides dated perceptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is just absurd. William and Mary provides the best undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences of any public institution in the country. It exists first and foremost for undergraduates and always has and always will. It's really old and really hard. If you don't want to work, if you want to party and follow big time college sports go elsewhere. Sadly, many young people today will do this and get a degree, but not an education.

It is in a class by itself.

If you look at USNWR Ranking for best undergraduate teaching, W&M is #5. It is #13 in undergraduate research/creative projects (which is critical in many fields and graduate school). No other public universities are higher ranked in those two categories. If you add senior capstone, only 12 national universities are ranked in all 3, and only Princeton and Stanford have a lower average rank.

Cool selective reasoning. Rank is good: count it! Rank is lousy: ignore it!

I must have missed the rule that every possible ranking must be given every time. But nice sarcasm on your part. Should I assume your favorite university doesn't rank too high in those rankings?

Mine is top 15 (which doesn’t actually mean much) but cool try. Just making a point that the poster strung together some conveniently high rankings to make an assertion that W&M (which I think is fantastic) is in a league with Stanford and Princeton. I could add together a few lousy rankings to put it in a whole different league and you’d howl about the absurdity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is just absurd. William and Mary provides the best undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences of any public institution in the country. It exists first and foremost for undergraduates and always has and always will. It's really old and really hard. If you don't want to work, if you want to party and follow big time college sports go elsewhere. Sadly, many young people today will do this and get a degree, but not an education.

It is in a class by itself.

If you look at USNWR Ranking for best undergraduate teaching, W&M is #5. It is #13 in undergraduate research/creative projects (which is critical in many fields and graduate school). No other public universities are higher ranked in those two categories. If you add senior capstone, only 12 national universities are ranked in all 3, and only Princeton and Stanford have a lower average rank.

Cool selective reasoning. Rank is good: count it! Rank is lousy: ignore it!

I must have missed the rule that every possible ranking must be given every time. But nice sarcasm on your part. Should I assume your favorite university doesn't rank too high in those rankings?

Mine is top 15 (which doesn’t actually mean much) but cool try. Just making a point that the poster strung together some conveniently high rankings to make an assertion that W&M (which I think is fantastic) is in a league with Stanford and Princeton. I could add together a few lousy rankings to put it in a whole different league and you’d howl about the absurdity.

That is a casual dismissal on your part. Are you saying quality of undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research opportunities don't matter?

[Anonymous]

^^^ If the former could be accurately assessed, sure. But US News attempts to do so via a peer assessment survey. Ask yourself how much someone from one school knows about what goes on in the classroom at all the others. Now look at that list. Do you really think that the quality of undergraduate teaching at Elon or Belmont is miles better than at Caltech, Duke, Vandy, or MIT. You may but I don’t. I think it’s laughable. All rankings are goofy on some level but this one particularly so.

I agree that this thread is silly. There’s nothing “wrong” with W&M. The better question is why does the ranking continue to fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is just absurd. William and Mary provides the best undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences of any public institution in the country. It exists first and foremost for undergraduates and always has and always will. It's really old and really hard. If you don't want to work, if you want to party and follow big time college sports go elsewhere. Sadly, many young people today will do this and get a degree, but not an education.

It is in a class by itself.

If you look at USNWR Ranking for best undergraduate teaching, W&M is #5. It is #13 in undergraduate research/creative projects (which is critical in many fields and graduate school). No other public universities are higher ranked in those two categories. If you add senior capstone, only 12 national universities are ranked in all 3, and only Princeton and Stanford have a lower average rank.

Cool selective reasoning. Rank is good: count it! Rank is lousy: ignore it!

I must have missed the rule that every possible ranking must be given every time. But nice sarcasm on your part. Should I assume your favorite university doesn't rank too high in those rankings?

Mine is top 15 (which doesn’t actually mean much) but cool try. Just making a point that the poster strung together some conveniently high rankings to make an assertion that W&M (which I think is fantastic) is in a league with Stanford and Princeton. I could add together a few lousy rankings to put it in a whole different league and you’d howl about the absurdity.

You seem weirdly overinvested in this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ If the former could be accurately assessed, sure. But US News attempts to do so via a peer assessment survey. Ask yourself how much someone from one school knows about what goes on in the classroom at all the others. Now look at that list. Do you really think that the quality of undergraduate teaching at Elon or Belmont is miles better than at Caltech, Duke, Vandy, or MIT. You may but I don’t. I think it’s laughable. All rankings are goofy on some level but this one particularly so.

I agree that this thread is silly. There’s nothing “wrong” with W&M. The better question is why does the ranking continue to fall.

Peer assessments form part of the overall ranking, no? It’s falling Partially because of the emphasis on pell grants. Partially because of poor funding.

[Anonymous]

But you’re on this thread. On page 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of the high achieving, well rounded kids at my DC's school are interested in William & Mary. It seems to attract a certain "type"--which tends to be an academic-only (fewer ECs, no sports) student who would be a fit at certain SLACs, but chooses W&M because of lower in-state tuition.

The high achieving, well rounded kids seem much more interested in UVA, with VT as a safety school. Then looking at privates like Georgetown, Duke, Emory, and Vandy.

That is a shame for the kids at your DC's school, then. My kid was a 2 sport Varsity athlete with great ECs. Currently participating in a club sport, Model UN, signed up for another club and just secured an internship for next semester as a freshman. As for what is wrong with William & Mary- I don't really think anything (the food is not great), besides dated perceptions.

All is well, then, when applications to other VA publics are booming, but applications to William and Mary are not? All is well when the acceptance rate is getting perilously close to forty percent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ If the former could be accurately assessed, sure. But US News attempts to do so via a peer assessment survey. Ask yourself how much someone from one school knows about what goes on in the classroom at all the others. Now look at that list. Do you really think that the quality of undergraduate teaching at Elon or Belmont is miles better than at Caltech, Duke, Vandy, or MIT. You may but I don’t. I think it’s laughable. All rankings are goofy on some level but this one particularly so.

I agree that this thread is silly. There’s nothing “wrong” with W&M. The better question is why does the ranking continue to fall.

Peer assessments form part of the overall ranking, no? It’s falling Partially because of the emphasis on pell grants. Partially because of poor funding.

I think the Pell grant factor is new. W&M’s slide is older. Didn’t know about the funding issue. I’d be thrilled if my kids went to W&M. Think it’s great and don’t give a hoot about the rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But you’re on this thread. On page 8.

Weird post.

[Anonymous]

My DC is a senior at W&M. Accepted at 10 highly rated schools including UVA. I honestly do not think DC could have had s better experience at any other college.
Accepted W&M partly because very generous scholarship/ aid package.
Being frankly a bit less competitive than UVA DC rose to the top of everything (something that would not have happened at a bigger school) This led to many awards competitions internships etc etc. Good overseas programs too.
Also DC very happy there and sad to leave.
We had our doubts but a lot of information about W&M either outdated or inaccurate.
Suicide school for example. No same as any other school but they have a new student mental health center.
On the contrary I think W&M is rising not falling in stature.

[Anonymous]

Applications could be falling because W&M is expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But you’re on this thread. On page 8.

Weird post.

Try to keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Applications could be falling because W&M is expensive.

Has it gotten more expensive? More so than every other college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ If the former could be accurately assessed, sure. But US News attempts to do so via a peer assessment survey. Ask yourself how much someone from one school knows about what goes on in the classroom at all the others. Now look at that list. Do you really think that the quality of undergraduate teaching at Elon or Belmont is miles better than at Caltech, Duke, Vandy, or MIT. You may but I don’t. I think it’s laughable. All rankings are goofy on some level but this one particularly so.

I agree that this thread is silly. There’s nothing “wrong” with W&M. The better question is why does the ranking continue to fall.

Peer assessments form part of the overall ranking, no? It’s falling Partially because of the emphasis on pell grants. Partially because of poor funding.

I think the Pell grant factor is new. W&M’s slide is older. Didn’t know about the funding issue. I’d be thrilled if my kids went to W&M. Think it’s great and don’t give a hoot about the rankings.

Once upon a time, it was in the US News top 25. It held steady as the sixth best public (39-34 best overall) for years.