Washington and Lee University
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Anonymous
| Go visit. I am AA, female and a DC native. I graduated in the early 00s and truly enjoyed my time there. The faculty are amazing and hyper-engaged with the student body. Campus is beautiful, the course offerings are extensive for such a small school. The school is heavily Greek, but I found the Greek system at W&L more open than the Greek system at UVA. At UVA, Greek parties were closed and you had to be on a list (at least when I visited with friends). At W&L every party was open. You should certainly visit and see for yourself! |
Anonymous
| How big is the non-Greek scene at W&L? I live in NoVA and DD wants to go to W&L for the academics, the LAC feeling, and wants to stay in Virginia because she loves it here. But she is definitely not a sorority girl type or a party girl. |
Anonymous
| I recently toured and a facullty member told me greek was an astonishing 83-87%. Having attended a SLAC but with a small local tiny greek scene, I was astounded. But that's not the problem. The problem is the cost of belonging to the Greek scene (not an issue inmy SLAC). I didn't get a figure but the cost to join is significant enough to create a "them" versus "us" feeling to the campus, especially amongst the full scholarship kids. Even on full scholarship, the college cannot pay for greek fees. My DC heard enough about my bad experiences being a frat president that he had no interest in W&L after hearing that (a fact not mentioned in the extensive presentation and tour). |
Anonymous
| There is absolutely no question that the Greek scene is heavy at this school Well into the 80% range. This is not intended to be critical but if one is not into that life then one should seriously look elsewhere. Aside from the Greek, it truly is a good school if its a good fit your DC. It wasn't for ours. |
Anonymous
| It's actually more than a good school, it's statistically a great school and hard to get into - but the Greek scene, the drinking and the lack of diversity totally turned off DC |
Anonymous
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Folks. It is 65,000 per year.
Who can afford that??? |
Anonymous
Are you serious? There is no school on the planet worth this much money. |
Anonymous
Actually, depending on your income, Washington and Lee can be very affordable since it needs 100% of demonstrated financial need. Say your EFC is $20,000, W&L kicks in scholarships and grants to meet that above the federal loan cap ($27,000 for four years). We know plenty of students at similar cost institutions that meet 100% need and they are paying significantly less than the sticker price. Until you get that financial aid package, MOST schools are not affordable. |
Anonymous
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I was accepted there back in the late-90s. They flew a lot of us in for an accepted students 4 day weekend, which was nice. Unfortunately, I ended up being completely turned off by most of what I saw. Confederate flags were everywhere (including in the dining hall) & the Greek system seemed to dominate the students' social lives. It's possible things have changed a lot since then but, if not, I wouldn't recommend it unless your DC is very conservative & definitely plans on participating in Greek life.
It has a great journalism program, though. |
Anonymous
| Check me on the stats, but I think only 6% of the students are AA. They are actively seeking AA students to increase those stats but many AAs are repelled by the confederate flags in Lee's tomb (just recently taken down after the law school students complained) and Traveler's bones on site. My DC was repelled by lack of diversity and air conditioning in dorms so we won't be applying, but it is a very difficult school to get into and has a great statistical record. By the way, W & L has ED (binding). Two, actually, one ED in November and another in early January so they skim off teh top all the kids they really want via two binding application deadlines before all other schools. |
Anonymous
so not only is it expensive, it sounds like it is supported by the few boneheads that pay the full tuition while everyone else gets a discount. Oh. Sounds much much better now. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| W&L took down the Confederate flags from Lee Chapel THIS summer - so they are only about 150 years behind the times. |
Anonymous
| ^^ This is true. |
Anonymous
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Yeah they took down the ``comemmorative'' flags from the chapel. However, W&L announced in the same breath that it would be adding some genuine battle flags in its museum.
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