Anyone else surprised by a lack of interest in William & Mary?

[Anonymous]

I know many W&M alums and the reputation as being rigorous is well earned. Believe it or not, that actually appeals to some kids. From what they've said, it's anything but cut throat. The exact opposite in fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know many W&M alums and the reputation as being rigorous is well earned. Believe it or not, that actually appeals to some kids. From what they've said, it's anything but cut throat. The exact opposite in fact.

Community is big at W&M. It is residential in a similar way to many Ivy League schools and LACs. Professors are expected to teach and engage with students and they do. Students generally feel connected to each other and the school. I think a huge majority of students would choose a word like "collaborative" to describe the experience rather than cut throat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary graduate here. I loved my time at William and Mary. But I will say this... things may have changed since I graduated a while ago...

- the campus is beautiful
- the campus is historic but the college has invested in dorms, the library, the theatre, and most buildings on campus
- it has a small community feel
- most professors are fantastic ... every single professor I had was fantastic
- class sizes are small even the 100 lectures
- students encouraged to take senior seminars as juniors or sophomores
- safe campus
- really down to Earth people

- not much to do on weekends besides hang with friends
- no major sports teams
- harder grading/ more work
- career counseling/placement is lacking
- some segregation among diverse communities (not a lot of mixing outside of class)
- not too many options for social clubs/ intramural sports
- conservative leaning

The school is rigorous but prepares you well for the world outside of college because you are expected to perform at a higher level.

You need to know your child well before you decide if they will be
happy at W&M.

Huh. I graduated in 2000 so maybe things have changed a lot but I didn’t get the conservative leaning feel at all. Off the top of my head, I recall there was a vocal Republican student group and an evangelical Christian student group, but I knew just as many kids in theater and the arts, environmental activists, working on campaigns for Democratic candidates, working for the student radio and newspaper, etc that more than balanced them out.

Actually, the kids who went to W&M from my high school were much more liberal, and ones who picked UVA were conservative, e.g Southern Baptist, involved in Young Life, members of the local country club, etc. Tech was the non-preppy version of UVA, and JMU was the most common in-state alternative to W&M. Small high school in SE VA so it was pretty easy to see how people lined up.

+1 on Young Life being a draw to UVA for hard core Christians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a good place for brainy kids who aren't into getting drunk several times a week. My Kid who went there liked to go hiking and camping, went to parties occasionally but preferred hanging out with friends, playing games or watching movies. I think my kid wished Williamsburg was more of a college town, like Charlottesville, but he was turned off by the fratty UVA culture.

Sound like my kid! I'll add it to the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a good place for brainy kids who aren't into getting drunk several times a week. My Kid who went there liked to go hiking and camping, went to parties occasionally but preferred hanging out with friends, playing games or watching movies. I think my kid wished Williamsburg was more of a college town, like Charlottesville, but he was turned off by the fratty UVA culture.

Sound like my kid! I'll add it to the list.

Well, UVA is certainly big enough that you can find social circles outside of the Greek system. And W&M, although perhaps more low key Greek, still has about 1/3rd of undergraduates in frats and sororities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&M seems to have so much going for it--well regarded academically, smaller, historic, located in quaint town, and cost-effective if in-state VA. But my in-state DC (with stats to get in) has no interest, and none of their friends do either. They consider it high pressure, low fun. They have heard that it's cutthroat among students. They find the campus old and dated.

DC is applying to Wake Forest, Davidson, and W&L, among a few others. It seems to me that W&M should be right in that mix.

Does W&M have a branding problem? Or is there some truth to the perceptions? I'm pretty much going to insist that DC apply there, to have an in-state LAC option.

At least based on the Princeton Review survey rankings, none of this appears to be the case:

#6 Happiest Students
#12 Best Quality of Life
#6 Their Students Love These Colleges
#6 Best College Library
#8 Best Science Lab Facilities
#16 Most Beautiful Campus

[Anonymous]

They reject high quality out of state kids who really want to go there and their yield rate is terrible. They keep falling in the rankings. I think they may be a “has been.” Williamsburg is a stretch for a weekend let alone four years.

[Anonymous]

We toured a couple months ago. I loved it, my DD said it just wasn’t her vibe. Nothing against the school and we hadn’t heard of it being a grind and my child is not looking for a party school, it just wasn’t for her. Luckily lots of options for everyone out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&M seems to have so much going for it--well regarded academically, smaller, historic, located in quaint town, and cost-effective if in-state VA. But my in-state DC (with stats to get in) has no interest, and none of their friends do either. They consider it high pressure, low fun. They have heard that it's cutthroat among students. They find the campus old and dated.

DC is applying to Wake Forest, Davidson, and W&L, among a few others. It seems to me that W&M should be right in that mix.

Does W&M have a branding problem? Or is there some truth to the perceptions? I'm pretty much going to insist that DC apply there, to have an in-state LAC option.

You mean work forest? That’s a grind.

[Anonymous]

It's a good instate option.
That's pretty much it.

[Anonymous]

Why was this thread brought back after four years? It was from 2019.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got into both. I chose UVA because:


I didn’t have to take a philosophy or ethics course.

Good move. When you are spending 4 years trying to improve your mind, why would you want to clutter your thoughts with the most profound ideas?

[Anonymous]

It’s possible the name of the institution sounded classy & historic to previous generations, but sounds pretentious & colonial to the current generation. Both the “College of” part & the two FIRST names are unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why was this thread brought back after four years? It was from 2019.

The first posting that brought back this old post complained about the school rejecting OOS students who want to attend. The poster then proceeded to trash the school. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[Anonymous]

OOS w&M grad here. IMo, W&M’s reputation has been hurt by the US news ranking system criteria that broadly seems to favor large research institutions and I think that has hurt W&M. Pre-professional majors and STEM seem to be what is most popular right now, as opposed to the small classes/liberal arts focus of W&M. Also, the “public Ivy” label used to draw kids to the school but now feels outdated.

I think it also has a crisis of what it is: an in-state public university or a nationally recognized liberal arts school. I now live in DC so I wish it took more smart OOS students (much to the horror of all you in-state folks). I think if it felt less like a back-up, more kids would love it (we all want what we can’t get).

But that doesn’t mean the education isn’t top notch. I absolutely loved it and found the professional community valued the degree bc they knew the graduates could think and write.