Has the rest of the country heard of William & Mary or does VA Tech have more recognition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to distinguish between name recognition and the reason why the school is recognized. Virginia Tech may be as well known as William and Mary, but I'd say it is much more likely that William and Mary is known for academics and its long history.

The vast majority of the country (and the world) has not heard of William & Mary, and for the minority who have, it's regarded as a decent school, not necessarily known for its academics, and rarely acknowledged for its long history. I think that reputation is mostly contained to Virginia.

The world won't know any schools in Virginia. They won't even know Virginia in all likelihood. But the key question is whether graduate schools and larger employers will know these schools and if so, do they have a favorable connotation.

I am from California originally and I knew of both of these schools. I probably know all the schools in the top 100 or so of USNews rankings, though. I am a Jeopardy fan and I've seen William & Mary questions, usually having to do with history, a number of times, and I think the contestants always seem to know it when the answer. An odd data point, but a data point nevertheless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to distinguish between name recognition and the reason why the school is recognized. Virginia Tech may be as well known as William and Mary, but I'd say it is much more likely that William and Mary is known for academics and its long history.

The vast majority of the country (and the world) has not heard of William & Mary, and for the minority who have, it's regarded as a decent school, not necessarily known for its academics, and rarely acknowledged for its long history. I think that reputation is mostly contained to Virginia.

The world won't know any schools in Virginia. They won't even know Virginia in all likelihood. But the key question is whether graduate schools and larger employers will know these schools and if so, do they have a favorable connotation.

I am from California originally and I knew of both of these schools. I probably know all the schools in the top 100 or so of USNews rankings, though. I am a Jeopardy fan and I've seen William & Mary questions, usually having to do with history, a number of times, and I think the contestants always seem to know it when the answer. An odd data point, but a data point nevertheless.

haha an odd data point for sure but at least SOME data... the PP who you quoted has ZERO data.

[Anonymous]

I went to a big state U in the middle of the country. I learned about William and Mary when I was selected to Phi Beta Kappa. The honors society was founded there.

Regardless of what people may think about it now, it was quite the college for our nation's founders.

[Anonymous]

W&M is a very good school and getting better due to working in it and new larger endowment. It’s expensive for a State school but nowhere near $70K+ for other schools mentioned. The PP that said they had their work cut out for them : they certainly did in paying off school debts from elite schools like Duke or Northwestern. Great schools if you can afford it.

[Anonymous]

Many students from the elite NE choose W&M for the combo of good school, small student body, affordable and climate. Plus cute historic campus.

[Anonymous]

It’s quite expensive for OOS. I don’t think I’d describe it as affordable for OOS students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s quite expensive for OOS. I don’t think I’d describe it as affordable for OOS students.

Still, less expensive than SLACs in general. My SLAC (not worth it anymore) is now 80K a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to distinguish between name recognition and the reason why the school is recognized. Virginia Tech may be as well known as William and Mary, but I'd say it is much more likely that William and Mary is known for academics and its long history.

The vast majority of the country (and the world) has not heard of William & Mary, and for the minority who have, it's regarded as a decent school, not necessarily known for its academics, and rarely acknowledged for its long history. I think that reputation is mostly contained to Virginia.

Strange. I went to Harvard Law and they seemed to recognize William & Mary graduates.

[Anonymous]

I'm not from VA and I always knew of W&M and always considered it to be a good school.

[Anonymous]

Hands down--William and Mary is better. I am shocked this is even a question. No one outside of VA knows about VA Tech. Everyone knows about William and Mary. It is a top school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s quite expensive for OOS. I don’t think I’d describe it as affordable for OOS students.

Still, less expensive than SLACs in general. My SLAC (not worth it anymore) is now 80K a year.

List price, sure. But many SLACs discount and W&M doesn’t give much $$.

[Anonymous]

Outside of VA:

William & Mary is well known for strong academics - in fact, I bet it holds more name recognition than many other equally strong slac’s simply because of its place in US history.

VA. Tech is known for football (and sadly the shooting massacre, although I’d say the strong resilience of the student and faculty body in its wake is what I remember most). I think because of “Tech” in its name most non-virginians assume it is stronger in engineering, but that is based on its name more than true recognition of its engineering programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hands down--William and Mary is better. I am shocked this is even a question. No one outside of VA knows about VA Tech. Everyone knows about William and Mary. It is a top school.

Yes. This isn’t even up for debate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s quite expensive for OOS. I don’t think I’d describe it as affordable for OOS students.

Still, less expensive than SLACs in general. My SLAC (not worth it anymore) is now 80K a year.

List price, sure. But many SLACs discount and W&M doesn’t give much $$.

The SLACs can only discount by offering merit awards. If your child is aiming for the top elite schools, there are very few merit opportunities left. Less elite schools will trade some merit money for a stellar GPA or test score. IF you are talking about financial aid, that is assessed by the CSS or FAFSA and your EFC (expected family contribution) is provided to the college. For most on DCUm reading this, they will have, as we did, an EFC of 100% so no financial aid beyond the $5500 offered if you file the FAFSA. So, in our case, there was no financial aid and no merit aid for either child. I say this because every year someone comes on this page and wails that they just learned that the schools their child was admitted to is $76K a year and they can't afford it. That family should have used the net price calculator on the school's page. You can also file the FAFSA early and get a real decision on your FAFSA.