What’s wrong with William & Mary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary significantly increased its alumni giving rate after an aggressive effort. It’s at the end of its billion dollar For the Bold fundraising campaign. It seems like getting the last 40 or 50 million is really taking some time, but overall it sounds like the campaign has been a success. God for them. The school doesn’t have limitless fat cat donors, and I’m guessing that some good old boys aren’t the biggest fans of the milquetoast-seeming President. I haven’t seen admission stats for the next class, so I’ll assume they were about the same as lady year’s—good enough, but not great.

^ Good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But no where have I said that W&M have unhappy alumni. I simply refuted the statement that because W&M is on the top of the list on alumni giving for public universities, that ergo they must have happy alumni. I pointed to factors such as W&M's size and wealth student population that leads it to have a high giving rate over other publics.

You refuted nothing. It is evidence of likely alumni satisfaction. If you had to bet your life on whether the school at the top of the alumni giving percentage list has higher alumni satisfaction or the school at the top of the alumni giving percentage list has higher alumni satisfaction, which would you pick? If you are being honest, I think you would pick the school at the top. Why? Because it is evidence of likely alumni satisfaction, and the vast majority of people would see it that way as well.

This is what USNWR says about it: Alumni giving rate average: The nonweighted mean percentage of undergraduate alumni of record who donated money to the college or university. The percentage of alumni giving serves as a proxy for how satisfied students are with the school.

You can also find research that shows there is a correlation between satisfaction and giving rate. For instance, Ruffalo Noel Levitz, the firm that does graduate surveys for universities.

No, I refuted exactly what I said I refuted.
No, I would not bet my life on whether a school at the top of alumni giving also has most satisfied alumni. Too noisy an indicator.
However, if I had to bet out of a set of universities which universities had the highest percentage of alumni giving, I would choose the one that was the smallest in size and also had the wealthiest students.
What USNWR says does not matter. They are only giving justification for why they use alumni giving in their ranking. In reality, it only serves to keep the Ivies at the top; as the editor said once, "the ranking is true because Harvard is #1 in the ranking". You would need a legitimate study proving that alumni giving is heavily correlated with college satisfaction to prove what you are claiming, not what some random guy at USNWR says

Anonymous wrote:Two thoughts:

1) A poster keeps suggesting that alumni giving is related to wealth of parents. Alumni giving is from the alum, not the parents. Unless the thought it that the parents are giving the $$ to the alum to donate? Not sure about that conclusion.

2) The complaints about the area surrounding W&M are odd, to me. I didn’t have money to go out anywhere when I was in college, and neither does my kid (at W&M). He is in college. I would expect most of his activities, dining and social, would be on campus, as they are, because he has no money to do anything off campus- no matter what school he attended.

1) Children of wealthy parents go on to be wealthy themselves due to connections, going business/medical/law/graduate school that non-wealthy students may not be able to afford, et. al. Furthermore you are more likely to give to the school if you did not have to struggle to pay for it. Furthermore you are more likely to give to the school if you did not have to take out loans to pay for it. That's why schools with a wealthy student population will have more alumni giving. Also it is partially true that some parents will give to the school in their children's name while/after the student attends the school.

2) The complaints about the surrounding area is specifically that the surrounding area is very expensive, with prices inflated by tourists and wealthy retirees. Therefore the students can't afford them. Most college towns are cheap places to live. Most activities of students are definitely not on campus unless you expect students to be cooped up in their dorms for four years - this is why college towns exist and have a constant buzz and excitement around them - they are lively. Now perhaps at W&M certainly many students do end up spending a lot of their time cooped up in their dorms. That's partly because of the terrible and expensive college town. College is not meant to be a boarding school. The terrible college town contributes heavily to the negatives of W&M despite providing a good education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

There is indeed very little to do outside of campus in the college town itself, but there is indeed a frat scene with ~35% in frats/sororities. But don't expect anything to be set around the town itself (i.e. no movie theaters/concerts/clubs etc.). Mostly house parties.
There is school spirit but its a different kind from VT and UVA. It's not based around sports, its more of what you might expect at a private liberal arts school.
Some kids do seem to outright hate the school initially though; there are a lot of male students that did not get into their first choice of UVA who come to W&M and would much prefer the environment of UVA i.e. large population, big-time sports, huge frat scene, undergrad business school, Charlottesville.

The outright best part of W&M is their humanities, government, and related majors i.e. international relations. The small class size, generally 20-30 students per class in even freshman classes, is very good and necessary for those types of majors because it allows class discussions, and the professors in those majors are generally great and come from great schools. I would say this is a huge advantage that W&M has over UVA, VT and other top public universities.

Majors like Economics are not as good and you don't need small class size for those types of majors. Not much course choice. Computer Science major is extremely mediocre.

UVA business school is probably better than W&M's and certainly has more prestigious employers i.e. investment banks, top management consulting firms recruiting that W&M doesn't have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But no where have I said that W&M have unhappy alumni. I simply refuted the statement that because W&M is on the top of the list on alumni giving for public universities, that ergo they must have happy alumni. I pointed to factors such as W&M's size and wealth student population that leads it to have a high giving rate over other publics.

You refuted nothing. It is evidence of likely alumni satisfaction. If you had to bet your life on whether the school at the top of the alumni giving percentage list has higher alumni satisfaction or the school at the top of the alumni giving percentage list has higher alumni satisfaction, which would you pick? If you are being honest, I think you would pick the school at the top. Why? Because it is evidence of likely alumni satisfaction, and the vast majority of people would see it that way as well.

This is what USNWR says about it: Alumni giving rate average: The nonweighted mean percentage of undergraduate alumni of record who donated money to the college or university. The percentage of alumni giving serves as a proxy for how satisfied students are with the school.

You can also find research that shows there is a correlation between satisfaction and giving rate. For instance, Ruffalo Noel Levitz, the firm that does graduate surveys for universities.

No, I refuted exactly what I said I refuted.
No, I would not bet my life on whether a school at the top of alumni giving also has most satisfied alumni. Too noisy an indicator.
However, if I had to bet out of a set of universities which universities had the highest percentage of alumni giving, I would choose the one that was the smallest in size and also had the wealthiest students.
What USNWR says does not matter. They are only giving justification for why they use alumni giving in their ranking. In reality, it only serves to keep the Ivies at the top; as the editor said once, "the ranking is true because Harvard is #1 in the ranking". You would need a legitimate study proving that alumni giving is heavily correlated with college satisfaction to prove what you are claiming, not what some random guy at USNWR says

Anonymous wrote:Two thoughts:

1) A poster keeps suggesting that alumni giving is related to wealth of parents. Alumni giving is from the alum, not the parents. Unless the thought it that the parents are giving the $$ to the alum to donate? Not sure about that conclusion.

2) The complaints about the area surrounding W&M are odd, to me. I didn’t have money to go out anywhere when I was in college, and neither does my kid (at W&M). He is in college. I would expect most of his activities, dining and social, would be on campus, as they are, because he has no money to do anything off campus- no matter what school he attended.

1) Children of wealthy parents go on to be wealthy themselves due to connections, going business/medical/law/graduate school that non-wealthy students may not be able to afford, et. al. Furthermore you are more likely to give to the school if you did not have to struggle to pay for it. Furthermore you are more likely to give to the school if you did not have to take out loans to pay for it. That's why schools with a wealthy student population will have more alumni giving. Also it is partially true that some parents will give to the school in their children's name while/after the student attends the school.

2) The complaints about the surrounding area is specifically that the surrounding area is very expensive, with prices inflated by tourists and wealthy retirees. Therefore the students can't afford them. Most college towns are cheap places to live. Most activities of students are definitely not on campus unless you expect students to be cooped up in their dorms for four years - this is why college towns exist and have a constant buzz and excitement around them - they are lively. Now perhaps at W&M certainly many students do end up spending a lot of their time cooped up in their dorms. That's partly because of the terrible and expensive college town. College is not meant to be a boarding school. The terrible college town contributes heavily to the negatives of W&M despite providing a good education.

You're nuts. I look at online average rents and average two bedroom in Williamsburg is $1,120 per month. In Charlottesville, it is $1,347 per month. Other costs are comparable. You try to twist everything to this anti-William & Mary narrative you keep pushing.

[Anonymous]

Have you attended the school or even been to the campus? The average rent in the whole city does not matter.

My post has been specifically about the walkable area adjacent to campus, where most students would congregate if it was not so expensive cause - you know - college students tend not to have cars (and freshmen/sophomore actually can't get parking on campus regardless). The restaurants and shops there are extremely expensive and cater to tourists and wealthy retirees that live in Williamsburg. The area is a tourist destination because of Colonial Williamsburg. The rest of the area near campus consists of 3 restaurant/delis/bars total.
The comparison is to most college towns, such as UVA and even Virginia Tech, that have a walkable center right outside the university where a lot of students gather and afford to eat at. Williamsburg does not have that. It's a terrible college town by any standard as soon as you set a foot outside of campus. It's essentially a dead town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But no where have I said that W&M have unhappy alumni. I simply refuted the statement that because W&M is on the top of the list on alumni giving for public universities, that ergo they must have happy alumni. I pointed to factors such as W&M's size and wealth student population that leads it to have a high giving rate over other publics.

You refuted nothing. It is evidence of likely alumni satisfaction. If you had to bet your life on whether the school at the top of the alumni giving percentage list has higher alumni satisfaction or the school at the top of the alumni giving percentage list has higher alumni satisfaction, which would you pick? If you are being honest, I think you would pick the school at the top. Why? Because it is evidence of likely alumni satisfaction, and the vast majority of people would see it that way as well.

This is what USNWR says about it: Alumni giving rate average: The nonweighted mean percentage of undergraduate alumni of record who donated money to the college or university. The percentage of alumni giving serves as a proxy for how satisfied students are with the school.

You can also find research that shows there is a correlation between satisfaction and giving rate. For instance, Ruffalo Noel Levitz, the firm that does graduate surveys for universities.

No, I refuted exactly what I said I refuted.
No, I would not bet my life on whether a school at the top of alumni giving also has most satisfied alumni. Too noisy an indicator.
However, if I had to bet out of a set of universities which universities had the highest percentage of alumni giving, I would choose the one that was the smallest in size and also had the wealthiest students.
What USNWR says does not matter. They are only giving justification for why they use alumni giving in their ranking. In reality, it only serves to keep the Ivies at the top; as the editor said once, "the ranking is true because Harvard is #1 in the ranking". You would need a legitimate study proving that alumni giving is heavily correlated with college satisfaction to prove what you are claiming, not what some random guy at USNWR says

Anonymous wrote:Two thoughts:

1) A poster keeps suggesting that alumni giving is related to wealth of parents. Alumni giving is from the alum, not the parents. Unless the thought it that the parents are giving the $$ to the alum to donate? Not sure about that conclusion.

2) The complaints about the area surrounding W&M are odd, to me. I didn’t have money to go out anywhere when I was in college, and neither does my kid (at W&M). He is in college. I would expect most of his activities, dining and social, would be on campus, as they are, because he has no money to do anything off campus- no matter what school he attended.

1) Children of wealthy parents go on to be wealthy themselves due to connections, going business/medical/law/graduate school that non-wealthy students may not be able to afford, et. al. Furthermore you are more likely to give to the school if you did not have to struggle to pay for it. Furthermore you are more likely to give to the school if you did not have to take out loans to pay for it. That's why schools with a wealthy student population will have more alumni giving. Also it is partially true that some parents will give to the school in their children's name while/after the student attends the school.

2) The complaints about the surrounding area is specifically that the surrounding area is very expensive, with prices inflated by tourists and wealthy retirees. Therefore the students can't afford them. Most college towns are cheap places to live. Most activities of students are definitely not on campus unless you expect students to be cooped up in their dorms for four years - this is why college towns exist and have a constant buzz and excitement around them - they are lively. Now perhaps at W&M certainly many students do end up spending a lot of their time cooped up in their dorms. That's partly because of the terrible and expensive college town. College is not meant to be a boarding school. The terrible college town contributes heavily to the negatives of W&M despite providing a good education.

Cool story, bro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

There is indeed very little to do outside of campus in the college town itself, but there is indeed a frat scene with ~35% in frats/sororities. But don't expect anything to be set around the town itself (i.e. no movie theaters/concerts/clubs etc.). Mostly house parties.
There is school spirit but its a different kind from VT and UVA. It's not based around sports, its more of what you might expect at a private liberal arts school.
Some kids do seem to outright hate the school initially though; there are a lot of male students that did not get into their first choice of UVA who come to W&M and would much prefer the environment of UVA i.e. large population, big-time sports, huge frat scene, undergrad business school, Charlottesville.

The outright best part of W&M is their humanities, government, and related majors i.e. international relations. The small class size, generally 20-30 students per class in even freshman classes, is very good and necessary for those types of majors because it allows class discussions, and the professors in those majors are generally great and come from great schools. I would say this is a huge advantage that W&M has over UVA, VT and other top public universities.

Majors like Economics are not as good and you don't need small class size for those types of majors. Not much course choice. Computer Science major is extremely mediocre.

UVA business school is probably better than W&M's and certainly has more prestigious employers i.e. investment banks, top management consulting firms recruiting that W&M doesn't have.

When my DS was deciding which school to attend, he went to all the admitted student events. He "interviewed" current students he knew at the school to get the real scoop on student life. I remember when we talked to the UVA student (who he knew from high school.) He told us that many of his classes had over 100 students and he was a junior.

My DS is a sophomore at W&M and has only had one class with 100 students - it was Psychology 101 (that's not the numbering system W&M uses, but it was the entry level Psych class.) And every single one of his classes has been taught by a professor, not a grad student/TA. He took a calculus class and had a grad student in the lab portion of the class, but the actual class was taught by a professor.

[Anonymous]

My DS is having a tough time deciding between WM and VT & UVA. We were planning to visit VT and UVA before everything went virtual. He liked WM but is concerned it may too serious and boring. None of his friends applied to WM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

There is indeed very little to do outside of campus in the college town itself, but there is indeed a frat scene with ~35% in frats/sororities. But don't expect anything to be set around the town itself (i.e. no movie theaters/concerts/clubs etc.). Mostly house parties.
There is school spirit but its a different kind from VT and UVA. It's not based around sports, its more of what you might expect at a private liberal arts school.
Some kids do seem to outright hate the school initially though; there are a lot of male students that did not get into their first choice of UVA who come to W&M and would much prefer the environment of UVA i.e. large population, big-time sports, huge frat scene, undergrad business school, Charlottesville.

The outright best part of W&M is their humanities, government, and related majors i.e. international relations. The small class size, generally 20-30 students per class in even freshman classes, is very good and necessary for those types of majors because it allows class discussions, and the professors in those majors are generally great and come from great schools. I would say this is a huge advantage that W&M has over UVA, VT and other top public universities.

Majors like Economics are not as good and you don't need small class size for those types of majors. Not much course choice. Computer Science major is extremely mediocre.

UVA business school is probably better than W&M's and certainly has more prestigious employers i.e. investment banks, top management consulting firms recruiting that W&M doesn't have.

When my DS was deciding which school to attend, he went to all the admitted student events. He "interviewed" current students he knew at the school to get the real scoop on student life. I remember when we talked to the UVA student (who he knew from high school.) He told us that many of his classes had over 100 students and he was a junior.

My DS is a sophomore at W&M and has only had one class with 100 students - it was Psychology 101 (that's not the numbering system W&M uses, but it was the entry level Psych class.) And every single one of his classes has been taught by a professor, not a grad student/TA. He took a calculus class and had a grad student in the lab portion of the class, but the actual class was taught by a professor.

I don't know how much of this 'taught by a TA' is true in a lot of the universities. I'm sure there are some classes taught by TA's, but even at large, 30,000 studdent universities, the vast majority of classes are taught by professors or lecturers - those with MA or Ph.D.

There are discussion and lab sections that are led by TA's in large universities, but that's true for W&M as well.

However being in a class with a professor and 20-30 other students in the humanities/government/internatioanl relations where theres a lot of in-lecture discussion, and most essay-grading done by professors rather than TA's, is a huge advantage of W&M. Compared to being in a class with 100 other students.
This matters less in natural sciences/economics/computer science because the lecturer is just lecturing for the entire class time. Although having small classes does help a lot with asking questions in the middle of class so you get more learning out of it.
No one wants to be the one asking questions in a class of 100-600 students

[Anonymous]

Large, well-known universities**. Possibly there are local universities where professors don't teach classes and TA's do, but even then I find it somewhat hard to believe. Perhaps graduate students in their last year of research at the university might teach a whole class.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is having a tough time deciding between WM and VT & UVA. We were planning to visit VT and UVA before everything went virtual. He liked WM but is concerned it may too serious and boring. None of his friends applied to WM.

W&M is definitely very serious. A lot of students want to go to medical/law/business/graduate school so a lot of people care about their grades. You won't find this at other universities where people simply don't care about grades.
Grading in the humanities and essay-grading is going to be somewhat more harsh than UVA/VT. There is no big-time sports culture

W&M has its advantages over UVA/VT, but I think for many public school kids (especially male) whose conception of college is huge stadium sports, huge block parties, buzzing college towns, W&M is very disappointing.
For example, UVA, Michgian, Berkeley have these attributes while having as good academics (possibly less so in humanities/government/IR) without being like how W&M. It's very much a liberal arts college.

[Anonymous]

My DS cares a lot about academics and is very focused. He also enjoys sports and a somewhat fun social scene. He doesn't need big parties or football games but he would like to have a college where there is some school spirit and fun. His concern from what he has heard from many students is WM is very serious with little to no fun. I think that is why none of his friends have applied and only considering VT/UVA. He is prepared to work very hard but wants to attend a college that can also provide a fun atmosphere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS cares a lot about academics and is very focused. He also enjoys sports and a somewhat fun social scene. He doesn't need big parties or football games but he would like to have a college where there is some school spirit and fun. His concern from what he has heard from many students is WM is very serious with little to no fun. I think that is why none of his friends have applied and only considering VT/UVA. He is prepared to work very hard but wants to attend a college that can also provide a fun atmosphere.

I wouldn't say W&M has a 'fun' atmosphere but it can certainly be fun. He'd need to join a frat or a sports club to enjoy though. Sports clubs have tryouts every semester and generally anyone that plays at a high school varsity level can join. They do have practice during the week and games on weekends so that might take away from coursework and other clubs.

Frats are frats, they recruit based on the attributes that frats generally recruit based on.

A lot of high school students will say that W&M is not fun, and thats true compared to VT and UVA. The college town seriously sucks. But again, it can be fun based on social group, fraternities, and clubs that they participate in. Also many high-school males don't apply to W&M simply because it does not have engineering.

In terms of spirit, there is no 'rah-rah', tailgating, massive football/basketball scene type of school spirit that you might find at UVA/VT. The school spirit is what you might find at a LAC or non-Division 1 private school.

Whats your son's major and does he want to go to graduate/medical/law/business school after college?
Some majors are definitely far stronger than others at W&M.

And remember that all grad/professional school require letters of recommendation from faculty, something that is definitely easier to get in small class sizes of 20-30 students because the professor actually knows the student rather than 100-600 sized lecture halls as you may find in VT/UVA.

[Anonymous]

He is a Business major and unsure what he wants to do career wise or if he will attend graduate school. He has excellent grades and has played Varsity sports. He is a serious student who also enjoys having a balanced social life. W&M is attractive to him because he attends a private school where there is small class sizes and great interaction with professors. I think he is afraid of W&M being all study and no fun and I am not sure if he is a fraternity type. I don't think he needs the fandom of UVA/VT but would like to attend sporting events to support his school.

W&M is the only college he is visited and he has done the virtual tour of UVA and VT. He likes the school spirit but has never stepped foot on either campus to see if the size or environment is a fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is a Business major and unsure what he wants to do career wise or if he will attend graduate school. He has excellent grades and has played Varsity sports. He is a serious student who also enjoys having a balanced social life. W&M is attractive to him because he attends a private school where there is small class sizes and great interaction with professors. I think he is afraid of W&M being all study and no fun and I am not sure if he is a fraternity type. I don't think he needs the fandom of UVA/VT but would like to attend sporting events to support his school.

W&M is the only college he is visited and he has done the virtual tour of UVA and VT. He likes the school spirit but has never stepped foot on either campus to see if the size or environment is a fit.

There are a lot of students at W&M from private, Catholic and prep schools. If he likes the culture I think he will fit in fine at W&M.

There are sporting events at W&M so certainly he can attend those. The crowd size is far smaller but frankly, I've always thought of the big-stadium sports events with tailgating to not be very interesting.

For business major, UVA is probably better if he can get into McIntire. There are large investment banks, private equity and top management consulting firms that recruit that UVA that don't at W&M. Of course he needs to have a very high GPA (3.7+) with lots of leadership to get into those firms from UVA, but at least they recruit at UVA; they don't recruit at W&M at all. Not saying W&M students can't get a job at those firms, but it requires far more networking and getting references from parent's network than at UVA where they can simply walk up to the booth at the career fair.

If he plays varsity sports, he should be able to get into the club sports team, which provides an immediate social group and they do a lot of social events. And that's also a good way to join a frat if he wants to, a lot of the same business school students are simultaneously in club sports and fraternities.

Again for social life he will need to join social groups/clubs, club sports or fraternities (or all of them).
The college town is non-existent, there are no clubs and there are three bars that are very mediocre. It's not the same as say, a city college like NYU where you can go clubbing and social outings with a small group of close friends - you can't do that at W&M because there are no clubbing or social outings outside of the school environment itself. It's entirely house parties with other students from the college.
Some students go all the way to Richmond to spend a night at bars/clubs, which is 45mins-1hour away. Its not reasonable but its an example of how mediocre the college town is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Large, well-known universities**. Possibly there are local universities where professors don't teach classes and TA's do, but even then I find it somewhat hard to believe. Perhaps graduate students in their last year of research at the university might teach a whole class.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is having a tough time deciding between WM and VT & UVA. We were planning to visit VT and UVA before everything went virtual. He liked WM but is concerned it may too serious and boring. None of his friends applied to WM.

W&M is definitely very serious. A lot of students want to go to medical/law/business/graduate school so a lot of people care about their grades. You won't find this at other universities where people simply don't care about grades.
Grading in the humanities and essay-grading is going to be somewhat more harsh than UVA/VT. There is no big-time sports culture

W&M has its advantages over UVA/VT, but I think for many public school kids (especially male) whose conception of college is huge stadium sports, huge block parties, buzzing college towns, W&M is very disappointing.
For example, UVA, Michgian, Berkeley have these attributes while having as good academics (possibly less so in humanities/government/IR) without being like how W&M. It's very much a liberal arts college.

There can and should be different types of schools and environments. There is no one size fits all. Many of the top schools do not have big time athletics and large undergraduate student bodies (think all Ivy League schools, MIT, Caltech, Chicago, Rice, Emory, WashU, Tufts, top LACs, etc.). I think most who go there are happy with their choice. They have very high graduation rates and very high levels of alumni involvement in the school. That type of environment can have many advantages for people who appreciate it. They are residential and many feel that contributes substantially to their learning and the feeling of community. Relationships with faculty can be closer and this is appreciated. Take a look at ratings of student faculty interactions that show up in places like Niche and Princeton Review. Students at these types of schools often have opportunities to do more faculty-guided research and capstone projects which are useful for graduate school and admissions and applying for jobs, particularly so in science and in applying to medical school. Take a look at USNews rankings for undergraduate research, capstone projects, and undergraduate teaching and these schools tend to rank very high. These schools also rank high in percentage of students who go on to get Doctorates in STEM and other fields. W&M does well in all of these areas I just mentioned.

William & Mary can be rigorous, but grading is fair. If you look at Gradinflation.com, you can see that W&M's most recent average GPA was 3.33, which is comparable to UVA at 3.32 and higher than VT at 3.15.

So W&M isn't for everyone, but that's not a bad thing because it provides a good fit for many.