Mary Washington University- thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the campus and the only red-flag is see is this: https://augustafreepress.com/news/enrollment-decline-for-virginia-universities-puts-radford-umw-at-some-risk-in-the-future/

What is the reason for the decline in these schools?

A lot of kids who did not do well in high school went to these schools so they are not a draw for more serious students. I think there is probably a mix of kids who are academic and those who are not, but I'm sure GMU, VCU, and JMU take the majority of B+ kids in the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s a great option for kids looking for a small in-state liberal arts setting. I too know a couple very successful and really bright UMW grads.

+1. As for any college, verify that the school has whichever short list of majors that DC is considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the campus and the only red-flag is see is this: https://augustafreepress.com/news/enrollment-decline-for-virginia-universities-puts-radford-umw-at-some-risk-in-the-future/

What is the reason for the decline in these schools?

Partly its about location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the campus and the only red-flag is see is this: https://augustafreepress.com/news/enrollment-decline-for-virginia-universities-puts-radford-umw-at-some-risk-in-the-future/

What is the reason for the decline in these schools?

A lot of kids who did not do well in high school went to these schools so they are not a draw for more serious students. I think there is probably a mix of kids who are academic and those who are not, but I'm sure GMU, VCU, and JMU take the majority of B+ kids in the state.

Understood. But there are still kids who are not getting 3.7+ gpa and want to go to college, so wondering why these schools, VCU, Mary Washington, Longwood, etc are having a decline while JMU is surging… it seems like JMU is moving up… but students should still consider these other VA in state schools…

[Anonymous]

It appears UVA, VT, and GMU have increasing enrollments and, with a finite number of kids heading to state schools, it's going to come at the expense of other schools. I wouldn't worry too much about a 7% decline at VCU, given its size and location, but a 20% decline at Mary Washington, with an undergraduate enrollment closer to 3500, is a bigger challenge. I would pass.

[Anonymous]

I think Mary Washington also loses a lot of kids now to CNU, which is newer, has better dorms, and for better or worse doesn't suffer from having been a single-gender school as was long the case with UMW.

The people I know who've gone to Mary Washington enjoyed it and did well in their careers. It just struggles right now to carve out a distinct identity that appeals to enough kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Mary Washington also loses a lot of kids now to CNU, which is newer, has better dorms, and for better or worse doesn't suffer from having been a single-gender school as was long the case with UMW.

The people I know who've gone to Mary Washington enjoyed it and did well in their careers. It just struggles right now to carve out a distinct identity that appeals to enough kids.

By contrast my kids really disliked CNU. Older son wanted to like it but it wasn’t presenting with strong research options unlike UMW. My other son found CNU too corporate feeling and too conservative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Mary Washington also loses a lot of kids now to CNU, which is newer, has better dorms, and for better or worse doesn't suffer from having been a single-gender school as was long the case with UMW.

The people I know who've gone to Mary Washington enjoyed it and did well in their careers. It just struggles right now to carve out a distinct identity that appeals to enough kids.

By contrast my kids really disliked CNU. Older son wanted to like it but it wasn’t presenting with strong research options unlike UMW. My other son found CNU too corporate feeling and too conservative.

This was my daughter's take on it too. She clearly preferred UMW over CNU. But ended up at an OOS LAC that has a lot in common with UMW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Mary Washington also loses a lot of kids now to CNU, which is newer, has better dorms, and for better or worse doesn't suffer from having been a single-gender school as was long the case with UMW.

The people I know who've gone to Mary Washington enjoyed it and did well in their careers. It just struggles right now to carve out a distinct identity that appeals to enough kids.

By contrast my kids really disliked CNU. Older son wanted to like it but it wasn’t presenting with strong research options unlike UMW. My other son found CNU too corporate feeling and too conservative.

This was my daughter's take on it too. She clearly preferred UMW over CNU. But ended up at an OOS LAC that has a lot in common with UMW.

Do you mind sharing which LAC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the campus and the only red-flag is see is this: https://augustafreepress.com/news/enrollment-decline-for-virginia-universities-puts-radford-umw-at-some-risk-in-the-future/

What is the reason for the decline in these schools?

Partly its about location.

Too close to NOVA? I get that. An alum here.
And Fredericksburg is kind of exurb but the downtown is really nice.
Whoever commented about the dorms versus CNU, the Mary Wash dorms are actually really nice to beautiful. UMW maintains the older dorms well. And remodels or tears down the newer ones. Lots of thoughts on that.
Where UMW falls really short is on messaging.

[Anonymous]

What STEM offerings does UMW have?

With a lot of demand for CS/CompE and for Stats/Data Science, having strong offerings in that area would be worth both UMW investment and also marketing.

[Anonymous]

It’s a school that is going to need to rebrand and evolve to survive. Changing the name and a greater focus on STEM should be priorities.

[Anonymous]

I was impressed with the tour and the admissions rep who spoke after.
The campus is much prettier than I expected and it’s in walking distance to Old Town Fredericksburg.
The tour guide was warm and enthusiastic which added to the nice impression of the school.
I came away from the visit thinking very highly of UMW.
Plus I know a handful of alumni who loved their time there.
My dd seriously considered UMW but opted for VCU as she wanted a bigger urban setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What STEM offerings does UMW have?

With a lot of demand for CS/CompE and for Stats/Data Science, having strong offerings in that area would be worth both UMW investment and also marketing.

I'm a CS/Bio double major who graduated in the early 2000s (hope I'm not outing myself here...). I thought the CS program at that time was pretty rigorous but very theoretical - perfect for someone like me who was more interested in biomed computational research, but maybe not so great for someone looking to go more the engineering side. At that time, there was no data science offering, however the beauty of MWC was that someone like me could work with the department and get the course offerings that I needed. I took classes that were technically a part of the econ and math departments. I did something similar for my bio degree, as there was no biochemistry offering at the time, but a few of us banded together and they put together a course for us.

As for research, proximity to the DC area helps - lots of internships and partnerships with NIH and area universities to do research either in the summer or throughout the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What STEM offerings does UMW have?

With a lot of demand for CS/CompE and for Stats/Data Science, having strong offerings in that area would be worth both UMW investment and also marketing.

I'm a CS/Bio double major who graduated in the early 2000s (hope I'm not outing myself here...). I thought the CS program at that time was pretty rigorous but very theoretical - perfect for someone like me who was more interested in biomed computational research, but maybe not so great for someone looking to go more the engineering side. At that time, there was no data science offering, however the beauty of MWC was that someone like me could work with the department and get the course offerings that I needed. I took classes that were technically a part of the econ and math departments. I did something similar for my bio degree, as there was no biochemistry offering at the time, but a few of us banded together and they put together a course for us.

As for research, proximity to the DC area helps - lots of internships and partnerships with NIH and area universities to do research either in the summer or throughout the year.

Sorry, just to add to this: I had absolutely no problem getting interviews/offers from graduate schools after my time at Mary Washington. I ended up accepting a program at a tier 1 institution and I'm now a principle investigator. So at least 1 datapoint for STEM at Mary Washington, albeit outdated because I'm old.