Thoughts on Mary Washington College?

[Anonymous]

Comparable to a College of Charleston or Christopher Newport, a notch below JMU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Comparable to a College of Charleston or Christopher Newport, a notch below JMU

Middle 50% of SAT scores of freshman class, 2011-2012:

Mary Washington--reading 520-630, math 510-600
College of Charleston--reading 550-650, math 560-650
Christopher Newport--reading 520-630, math 520-610
JMU--reading 520-620, math 530-620

Not much daylight between these 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Comparable to a College of Charleston or Christopher Newport, a notch below JMU

Middle 50% of SAT scores of freshman class, 2011-2012:

Mary Washington--reading 520-630, math 510-600
College of Charleston--reading 550-650, math 560-650
Christopher Newport--reading 520-630, math 520-610
JMU--reading 520-620, math 530-620

Not much daylight between these 4.

+1

[Anonymous]

As "notches" go, CoC looks like the winner.

[Anonymous]

Wow thing have changed since I went to MWC! We use to be a notch above JMU. I learned how to write. Was shocked when I started working and meet many other folks from other schools who couldn't write. But, do people write anymore?

[Anonymous]

The above stats mean squat - for getting in - if your kid is from Northern Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The above stats mean squat - for getting in - if your kid is from Northern Virginia.

True. If you're from NoVa, the Virginia state universities do NOT not ot want you at all. The state system has become a mechanism for NoVa to subsidize Goochelberg county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a beautiful school, with great academics - small classes, amazing professors. Not a huge party school either, which i liked. I hated Fredericksburg itself - very small, very southern town. I graduated almost 15 years ago, though, so not sure how much has changed (and how did I get so old!?)

Fburg has got a nice small liberal community but you have to know where to look. I found it at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. But still that's not probably a big draw for a college student.

I'm curious why you would think anyone would look for a liberal community? Or, why you think pp specifically was looking for one? Ethnocentric much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a beautiful school, with great academics - small classes, amazing professors. Not a huge party school either, which i liked. I hated Fredericksburg itself - very small, very southern town. I graduated almost 15 years ago, though, so not sure how much has changed (and how did I get so old!?)

Fburg has got a nice small liberal community but you have to know where to look. I found it at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. But still that's not probably a big draw for a college student.

I'm curious why you would think anyone would look for a liberal community? Or, why you think pp specifically was looking for one? Ethnocentric much?

I didn't post this (I didn't got to UMW), but I took this post to be a response to one above it, in which someone said she hated Fredericksburg, saying it was small and southern. So the poster here was saying that actually she was able to find a liberal community there.

You seem to be itching for a fight. Do you have something to add to this discussion, or are you just trolling for trouble?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMW alum here: loved my four years there. The campus and buildings are just beautiful; the quintessential classic college campus. After touring several other schools, I knew when I first laid eyes on Mary Washington and walked around that it was the place for me. Yes, it's a small school, though bigger than many other SLACs. It's true there is no Greek system whatsoever, which is one of the main reasons I chose it. Parties were open to everyone and usually just organized within dorms or at off-campus apts. One thing I loved about the school was that everyone was friends with everyone else and you always recognized someone in your classes or around campus. I didn't want to go to an enormous university where I would just have been one among many anonymous students. The old town area of Fredericksburg is adorable, lots of antique stores and restaurants. My friends and I used to meet up for brunch downtown sometimes on the weekends. As for the male/female ratio, I never, ever felt that there were too few guys there. When you're actually going to the school, it isn't particularly noticeable that there are more female students, at least it wasn't to me. Lots of great friendships with the guys, as well as several boyfriends during my time there. I had some incredible professors who opened my mind to all kinds of different ways of looking at the world. I made lifelong friends at Mary Washington and hope that one of my kids will want to go there someday as well. Highly recommend this school.

This was my experience too. I graduated in 2005. I went to a very small high school overseas and didn't want to get lost at a big university. I found that there was a pretty sizeable group of kids like me, whose parents were Foreign Service or military and moved often. It was nice to not be the only one who didn't have a hometown. Mary Wash is consistently in the top ten small colleges for Peace Corps volunteers too.

Among my friends, academics came first. We had fun and were very social, but no one gave anyone crap if they skipped a party to study or finish a paper. We all knew the library well Of my close group of friends, I'd say 75% of us now have grad degrees (a few lawyers and PhDs as well) and we're all in solid, stable careers. Classes were small and taught by professors, not graduate students. I had several seminars that were less than 10 students, the biggest class was a Poli Sci 101 class and it was less than 100. The faculty is very accessible and many of the departments have social events for students and faculty, community and mentoring are definitely emphasized.

I really loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above stats mean squat - for getting in - if your kid is from Northern Virginia.

True. If you're from NoVa, the Virginia state universities do NOT not ot want you at all. The state system has become a mechanism for NoVa to subsidize Goochelberg county.

In 2012, 35.44% of the undergraduate students at UVa were from Alexandria/Arlington/Ffx/Falls Church/Fauquier/Loudoun/Manassas/Pr William. (54% of undergrads were from Virginia, 46% were not.) By comparison, those areas comprised 28.33% of the population of the state. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison since not every person is of college age, but it appears at first glance that at least at UVa, enrollment from Northern Virginia is roughly proportional to that of the rest of the state.

Interesting statistics here: http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studentdata.shtm (office of Institutional Assessment & Studies)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above stats mean squat - for getting in - if your kid is from Northern Virginia.

True. If you're from NoVa, the Virginia state universities do NOT not ot want you at all. The state system has become a mechanism for NoVa to subsidize Goochelberg county.

In 2012, 35.44% of the undergraduate students at UVa were from Alexandria/Arlington/Ffx/Falls Church/Fauquier/Loudoun/Manassas/Pr William. (54% of undergrads were from Virginia, 46% were not.) By comparison, those areas comprised 28.33% of the population of the state. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison since not every person is of college age, but it appears at first glance that at least at UVa, enrollment from Northern Virginia is roughly proportional to that of the rest of the state.

Interesting statistics here: http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studentdata.shtm (office of Institutional Assessment & Studies)

Enrollment is far from "proportional." It is much more difficult to be admitted from NoVa, higher grades/ranks/SATs are required of NoVa applicants, the average NoVa student receives less in non-loan aid than the average student from the red areas, and the differences have become extreme -- students from some western/southern VA counties are admitted with what amount to essentially remedial-level SAT scores, while NoVa students have to be well within the top 10% even to make the first, non-dispositive pass. UVA and W&M have become nothing but the blue subsidizing the red.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enrollment is far from "proportional." It is much more difficult to be admitted from NoVa, higher grades/ranks/SATs are required of NoVa applicants, the average NoVa student receives less in non-loan aid than the average student from the red areas, and the differences have become extreme -- students from some western/southern VA counties are admitted with what amount to essentially remedial-level SAT scores, while NoVa students have to be well within the top 10% even to make the first, non-dispositive pass. UVA and W&M have become nothing but the blue subsidizing the red.

Is there any info on how long this has been going on? I am wondering how this disparity, which my NoVa kid experienced firsthand, bears on graduation rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enrollment is far from "proportional." It is much more difficult to be admitted from NoVa, higher grades/ranks/SATs are required of NoVa applicants, the average NoVa student receives less in non-loan aid than the average student from the red areas, and the differences have become extreme -- students from some western/southern VA counties are admitted with what amount to essentially remedial-level SAT scores, while NoVa students have to be well within the top 10% even to make the first, non-dispositive pass. UVA and W&M have become nothing but the blue subsidizing the red.

Is there any info on how long this has been going on? I am wondering how this disparity, which my NoVa kid experienced firsthand, bears on graduation rates.

I graduated from W&M in 1988. (Out of state student). I can assure you that NoVA parents have been moaning about this issue for at least the past 30 years.

[Anonymous]

Ditto 14:02 I graduated from UVA in 1998 and this was talked about back then.