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

[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.

W&M has a greater no. of students participating in frats than UVA. Also, you can go to UVA for four years and never once step into a greek house - they are all off campus.

I am curious if anyone really turned down UVA to go to W&M if admitted to both?

[Anonymous]

Wake forest and W & L are heavily Greek and big party schools.W & M is quite the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard grading is hard from several folks. We are looking at it for DS only because not many comparable options. Good academics and cost is right but honestly not a top choice. DS wants to go to grad school so grading makes a difference. Also, if you want to transfer out, hard to do with lower grades.

Average GPA at William & Mary was 3.33 in 2014. At UVA it was 3.32 in 2013. No difference for those. Ivy League and top privates tend to have the highest average GPAs, but you have to be admitted.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Virginia.html
http://www.gradeinflation.com/Williamandmary.html

2013 is light years ago in today's college admissions. UVA has now eclipsed W&M in GPA and test scores. SCHEV reports median GPA for last years (sept 2019) entering class at William and Mary to be a 4.26 (4.46 for 75th percentile). The SCHEV for UVA for entering class of 2019 is even hiigher than W&M now. The median UVA GPA is a 4.35 with a 75th percentile GPA of 4.49.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we were shopping for colleges we visited W&M and were very underwhelmed by the opportunities being offered. Their big promotion was that a student could get involved with Williamsburg doing tourist related stuff. UVA’s emphasis was on internships available in DC which is still 2 hours away.

A lot of students these days want proximity to internships and experiences that are nearby. UVA had a feeling of history to it. W&M felt detached from the modern world.

But UVA students do those during the summer or take a term off to do them. However, there is a great train service that runs back and forth to D.C. should you need it for D.C. connects.

what great train service?

DS frequently takes the train from Charlottesville (almost outside his apartment door) to D.C. when he comes home for the weekends. It can drop off in Alexandria or Union Station. There's also Mega bus which leaves also from the train station and drops at Dulles and downtown. Mega bus is less expensive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard grading is hard from several folks. We are looking at it for DS only because not many comparable options. Good academics and cost is right but honestly not a top choice. DS wants to go to grad school so grading makes a difference. Also, if you want to transfer out, hard to do with lower grades.

Average GPA at William & Mary was 3.33 in 2014. At UVA it was 3.32 in 2013. No difference for those. Ivy League and top privates tend to have the highest average GPAs, but you have to be admitted.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Virginia.html
http://www.gradeinflation.com/Williamandmary.html

2013 is light years ago in today's college admissions. UVA has now eclipsed W&M in GPA and test scores. SCHEV reports median GPA for last years (sept 2019) entering class at William and Mary to be a 4.26 (4.46 for 75th percentile). The SCHEV for UVA for entering class of 2019 is even hiigher than W&M now. The median UVA GPA is a 4.35 with a 75th percentile GPA of 4.49.

The post was about average GPA of students AT W&M and UVA, not about average GPA of enrolled students. It was a response to the post above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard grading is hard from several folks. We are looking at it for DS only because not many comparable options. Good academics and cost is right but honestly not a top choice. DS wants to go to grad school so grading makes a difference. Also, if you want to transfer out, hard to do with lower grades.

Average GPA at William & Mary was 3.33 in 2014. At UVA it was 3.32 in 2013. No difference for those. Ivy League and top privates tend to have the highest average GPAs, but you have to be admitted.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Virginia.html
http://www.gradeinflation.com/Williamandmary.html

2013 is light years ago in today's college admissions. UVA has now eclipsed W&M in GPA and test scores. SCHEV reports median GPA for last years (sept 2019) entering class at William and Mary to be a 4.26 (4.46 for 75th percentile). The SCHEV for UVA for entering class of 2019 is even hiigher than W&M now. The median UVA GPA is a 4.35 with a 75th percentile GPA of 4.49.

The post was about average GPA of students AT W&M and UVA, not about average GPA of enrolled students. It was a response to the post above.

Still, any stats from 2013 are useless.

[Anonymous]

Stem is King

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard grading is hard from several folks. We are looking at it for DS only because not many comparable options. Good academics and cost is right but honestly not a top choice. DS wants to go to grad school so grading makes a difference. Also, if you want to transfer out, hard to do with lower grades.

Average GPA at William & Mary was 3.33 in 2014. At UVA it was 3.32 in 2013. No difference for those. Ivy League and top privates tend to have the highest average GPAs, but you have to be admitted.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Virginia.html
http://www.gradeinflation.com/Williamandmary.html

2013 is light years ago in today's college admissions. UVA has now eclipsed W&M in GPA and test scores. SCHEV reports median GPA for last years (sept 2019) entering class at William and Mary to be a 4.26 (4.46 for 75th percentile). The SCHEV for UVA for entering class of 2019 is even hiigher than W&M now. The median UVA GPA is a 4.35 with a 75th percentile GPA of 4.49.

The post was about average GPA of students AT W&M and UVA, not about average GPA of enrolled students. It was a response to the post above.

Still, any stats from 2013 are useless.

Why don't you start with "oops, my mistake" (since it was your mistake). Do you have better stats on average GPAs of graduates of W&M or UVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stem is King[/quote]'


Then you would want UVA over W&M in a flash. My DD is in aerospace engineering. https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/05/09/how-the-university-of-virginia-is-leading-the-nation-in-elevating-women-in-stem/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am curious if anyone really turned down UVA to go to W&M if admitted to both?

No. No one has ever done this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

W&M has a greater no. of students participating in frats than UVA. Also, you can go to UVA for four years and never once step into a greek house - they are all off campus.

I am curious if anyone really turned down UVA to go to W&M if admitted to both?

I did, years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

W&M has a greater no. of students participating in frats than UVA. Also, you can go to UVA for four years and never once step into a greek house - they are all off campus.

I am curious if anyone really turned down UVA to go to W&M if admitted to both?

I did, years ago.

About a third or so of my son's class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why the tuition at W&M is so much higher than other state schools?

cite, please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am going to echo what several other posters have said. My DS HAS NOT found his classmates to be cutthroat. If anything, he thinks they are very encouraging, as are the professors. He gets together with different classmates for study groups. He says the professors are all very approachable and more than willing to help students.

My DS did not initially want to go to W&M because of the nerdy reputation, but he was looking for a smaller school and he felt UVA was too much of a frat scene. Ironically, he's joined a fraternity at W&M. Yes, there is underage drinking but it sounds like it is fairly tame (at least compared to the stories I hear from other parents.)

His one complaint is the lack of a really competitive football and basketball team. They have a relatively new athletic director and I think her focus is to elevate the money making sports. Both teams have brand new coaches this year.

Mike London is the football coach. He needs a chance to rebuild. Basketball is doing surprisingly well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stem is King[/quote]'


Then you would want UVA over W&M in a flash. My DD is in aerospace engineering. https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/05/09/how-the-university-of-virginia-is-leading-the-nation-in-elevating-women-in-stem/

Well, W&M obviously doesn't have engineering (other than 3:2 with Columbia), but it produces more STEM PHDs per capita than any other national university except Berkeley.