University of Mary Washington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pecking order thing is ridiculous. All the state schools are very different in size, culture, focus, etc. I wouldn't suggest anyone apply to any of them blind, and that includes UVA. No more than the Ivies or Big 10 are all equivalent!

Exactly this. But DCUM is ratings-obsessed, so you might as well be shouting into the wind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMW's place in the Virginia state school pecking order has dropped fairly dramatically over the last 20 years. It used to be a solid number 3 in admissions standards - after UVA and William & Mary. Now it's nowhere close to that.

Which VA schools moved up in admissions standards in the past 20 years to displace it?

I'm not sure what standards PP has in mind. UMW has dropped, but it's been considered below UVA, W&M, and VT for far longer than 20 years. Now it's considered below JMU and possibly GMU and CNU as well - probably on par with VCU.

That's too bad. I never kept up with the bigger VA state schools but I went to UMW and it was lovely. Small-ish, small classes, nice students, not overwhelming social life with something for everyone as far as I could tell, and still had sports and clubs and groups...just not centered around greek life.

My education was robust. And we had a babysitter recently who graduated from UMW in the past 5 years. She was sharp and a student athlete, and I have to imagine if she did well there it is still a place for good, smart kids.

I'd consider it for my child for sure.

+1
I also graduated from MWC (back when it was called Mary Washington College, which I vastly prefer). It was exactly the right college for me, for all the reasons you mentioned. Best four years of my life.

Yes!! I went to MWC also. I can’t believe I’ve started calling it UMW without thinking about it. Grrrr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMW's place in the Virginia state school pecking order has dropped fairly dramatically over the last 20 years. It used to be a solid number 3 in admissions standards - after UVA and William & Mary. Now it's nowhere close to that.

Which VA schools moved up in admissions standards in the past 20 years to displace it?

JMU, Tech and possibly GMU and CNU

JMU and tech were always high in the pecking order.
It’s GMU and inexplicably CNU’s rise that has bumped Mary Washington down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pecking order thing is ridiculous. All the state schools are very different in size, culture, focus, etc. I wouldn't suggest anyone apply to any of them blind, and that includes UVA. No more than the Ivies or Big 10 are all equivalent!

I completely agree. It's so nice that the VA kids have such a varied and solid selection of schools to select from. I'm from OOS and where I came from, there was one large flagship state school and then a few other schools that didn't have much to offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMW's place in the Virginia state school pecking order has dropped fairly dramatically over the last 20 years. It used to be a solid number 3 in admissions standards - after UVA and William & Mary. Now it's nowhere close to that.

Which VA schools moved up in admissions standards in the past 20 years to displace it?

JMU, Tech and possibly GMU and CNU

JMU and tech were always high in the pecking order.
It’s GMU and inexplicably CNU’s rise that has bumped Mary Washington down.

GMU is so different (big research university) that I don't think it has much to do with the shift. It's really CNU -- similar size, similar student profile in test scores, similar admission rates. CNU, however, does have a better retention rate/lower transfer-out rate and better graduation rate. It seems to have more of a "fun" reputation while UMW is seen as more "quiet". CNU has Greek life and UMW doesn't so that probably contributes to that image.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pecking order thing is ridiculous. All the state schools are very different in size, culture, focus, etc. I wouldn't suggest anyone apply to any of them blind, and that includes UVA. No more than the Ivies or Big 10 are all equivalent!

I completely agree. It's so nice that the VA kids have such a varied and solid selection of schools to select from. I'm from OOS and where I came from, there was one large flagship state school and then a few other schools that didn't have much to offer.

+1 And I like that there are a range of schools with higher/lower selectivity in different types. If you want a smaller school you have W&M but also UMN, CNU and Longwood. Want the big rah-rah football school - UVA, Virginia Tech, JMU all provide that to different degrees. Want an urban campus or a great art school, VCU. GMU and VT are both big research universities, do you want a college town or close to a big city? And, there are the public HBCUs

My state had a lot of public universities but they were pretty universally big schools and it didn't feel like they were that different from each other outside of the specific locations.

[Anonymous]

My sister went to UMW. It's a great school, but there was a big gender imbalance. Is that still the case?

It's not so much the gender imbalance itself that's the issue. It's what stems from it. I went to another school with a screwed gender ratio, and there are ramifications much more than numbers printed on a page, or less number of guys around.

[Anonymous]

CNU has moved into the niche area that MWC has targeted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister went to UMW. It's a great school, but there was a big gender imbalance. Is that still the case?

It's not so much the gender imbalance itself that's the issue. It's what stems from it. I went to another school with a screwed gender ratio, and there are ramifications much more than numbers printed on a page, or less number of guys around.

Gender imbalance is the norm now. Among state schools, only VMI and VT are majority male, I believe. Others skew majority female to different degrees, often significant.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but not nearly as much as Mary Washington!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, but not nearly as much as Mary Washington!

MWC is 64/36
Longwood is 68/32
VCU is 61/39
Radford is 61/39

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister went to UMW. It's a great school, but there was a big gender imbalance. Is that still the case?

It's not so much the gender imbalance itself that's the issue. It's what stems from it. I went to another school with a screwed gender ratio, and there are ramifications much more than numbers printed on a page, or less number of guys around.

I think MWU is still about 65% female. Can you say more about your experiences at a non-gender-balanced school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pecking order thing is ridiculous. All the state schools are very different in size, culture, focus, etc. I wouldn't suggest anyone apply to any of them blind, and that includes UVA. No more than the Ivies or Big 10 are all equivalent!

Exactly this. But DCUM is ratings-obsessed, so you might as well be shouting into the wind.

The person i know that went there is super appearance obsessed and not a very nice human, but i like to think she is in the minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CNU has moved into the niche area that MWC has targeted.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CNU has moved into the niche area that MWC has targeted.

+1

Do you mean smaller, and liberal arts-oriented? Two schools are very different (as mentioned previously - you really have to visit them all). There are big proponents of both universities and I rarely see overlap since the atmosphere/culture is so different. The tour guides (in before times, of course) at all the state schools we visited really illustrated that for my kid.