If WM instate is the target, where else is your DC applying?

[Anonymous]

Miami of Ohio?

[Anonymous]

Both my kids applied and got in. One attended, on didn’t. Other school options were heavy on Midwestern LACs with merit.

Pitt (early yes was nice and the campus doesn’t seem as large as it is)
Kenyon
Oberlin
Wooster
St. Olaf
Macalaster
Grinnell.

The kid who went to WM got in ED (her GPA was borderline). The kid who didn’t got into all of the above with decent merit.

[Anonymous]

Wake offers very little merit and a good chunk of it is going to recruit first gen so agree with op’s opinion that it is likely too expensive, same with BC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CNU
Charleston
Elon
TCNJ
UNCA

Not a lot of schools like WM. I believe the 3 OOS options grant merit.

Could not get my DS to apply to TCNJ, even though it sounds a lot like W&M to me. DS was accepted to and attends W&M, but he was offered merit aid at Rhodes and Sewanee that would have made either choice equal to or less than W&M in price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s hard to find a balance of small school, good academics and not crazy expensive. I’m guessing we will have to sacrifice on school size for the other applications?

If you want the academic peers of William and Mary and want similar size(4k-9k), it is Emory, Wake, WashU, Vanderbilt. If you want hardest academics for the size, add Duke and the ivies. There are no other true academic peers in that size range for the in-state price. The ones that offer lots of merit are NOT academic peers. Not close. You get what you pay for: virginia residents get a huge deal for a near-T15 type experience and peers.

Sorry - these are not peers of W&M. They are several steps UP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s hard to find a balance of small school, good academics and not crazy expensive. I’m guessing we will have to sacrifice on school size for the other applications?

If you want the academic peers of William and Mary and want similar size(4k-9k), it is Emory, Wake, WashU, Vanderbilt. If you want hardest academics for the size, add Duke and the ivies. There are no other true academic peers in that size range for the in-state price. The ones that offer lots of merit are NOT academic peers. Not close. You get what you pay for: virginia residents get a huge deal for a near-T15 type experience and peers.

Sorry - these are not peers of W&M. They are several steps UP.

Whatever you need to tell yourself to write $400k in checks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s hard to find a balance of small school, good academics and not crazy expensive. I’m guessing we will have to sacrifice on school size for the other applications?

If you want the academic peers of William and Mary and want similar size(4k-9k), it is Emory, Wake, WashU, Vanderbilt. If you want hardest academics for the size, add Duke and the ivies. There are no other true academic peers in that size range for the in-state price. The ones that offer lots of merit are NOT academic peers. Not close. You get what you pay for: virginia residents get a huge deal for a near-T15 type experience and peers.

Sorry - these are not peers of W&M. They are several steps UP.

Whatever you need to tell yourself to write $400k in checks.

My kids attend other excellent in-state universities.

[Anonymous]

University of Richmond, Washington and Lee, Mary Washington

[Anonymous]

Lehigh?

[Anonymous]

Schools in the range of 5,000 - 15,000 are generally considered mid-sized. Less than 5,000 = small (Lehigh is right about 5k). Most SLACs for instance are less than 3,000.
William & Mary at 7,000 is a mid-sized school. Twice the size of Richmond.
Only talking size here - W&M is a “size medium”, not small

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s hard to find a balance of small school, good academics and not crazy expensive. I’m guessing we will have to sacrifice on school size for the other applications?

If you want the academic peers of William and Mary and want similar size(4k-9k), it is Emory, Wake, WashU, Vanderbilt. If you want hardest academics for the size, add Duke and the ivies. There are no other true academic peers in that size range for the in-state price. The ones that offer lots of merit are NOT academic peers. Not close. You get what you pay for: virginia residents get a huge deal for a near-T15 type experience and peers.

Sorry - these are not peers of W&M. They are several steps UP.

Whatever you need to tell yourself to write $400k in checks.

My kids attend other excellent in-state universities.

So you have no experience with any of the schools mentioned in this thread. Let me guess, your opinions are based on USNWR rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s hard to find a balance of small school, good academics and not crazy expensive. I’m guessing we will have to sacrifice on school size for the other applications?

It is difficult. No other state offers a slac-like experience like W&M. Think about UVA. The class is only 4400, so, yes, not small like W&M but same caliber of student and, if your child winds up in humanities (bear in mind some 80% of students change their majors ar least once), the smaller seminar courses start very soon. My UVA history kid had seminar courses starting second year. I was very impressed by the small courses and topics he was having from third year on. He received a far better education and experience than I did at my slac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s hard to find a balance of small school, good academics and not crazy expensive. I’m guessing we will have to sacrifice on school size for the other applications?

It is difficult. No other state offers a slac-like experience like W&M. Think about UVA. The class is only 4400, so, yes, not small like W&M but same caliber of student and, if your child winds up in humanities (bear in mind some 80% of students change their majors ar least once), the smaller seminar courses start very soon. My UVA history kid had seminar courses starting second year. I was very impressed by the small courses and topics he was having from third year on. He received a far better education and experience than I did at my slac.

Not a Virginia parent. I’m envious that Virginia has a great public mid-size SLAC option like W & M. Wish other states had the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CNU
Charleston
Elon
TCNJ
UNCA

Not a lot of schools like WM. I believe the 3 OOS options grant merit.

Could not get my DS to apply to TCNJ, even though it sounds a lot like W&M to me. DS was accepted to and attends W&M, but he was offered merit aid at Rhodes and Sewanee that would have made either choice equal to or less than W&M in price.

NJ native here, TCNJ is not remotely like William and Mary. Formerly known at Trenton State, it was a teacher’s college for most of its existence. Roughly comparable to Towson in MD.

[Anonymous]

CNU is about 4,000 students. Great dorms, almost entirely residential, small classes, liberal learning core. Greek life and football games but neither overwhelm those uninterested. And low tuition. A nice school. I think it gets really overlooked on this website.