What’s wrong with William & Mary?

[Anonymous]

PP bus service at W&M is not the same as bus service in large publics. Buses come every hour at W&M. At large publics buses come every 7-15 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP bus service at W&M is not the same as bus service in large publics. Buses come every hour at W&M. At large publics buses come every 7-15 minutes.

Most routes are on 30 minute schedules during busy times. See the schedule: https://www.gowata.org/148/Routes-Schedules

[Anonymous]

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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.

No movie theaters? There are about 20 screens in Williamsburg. The Regal alone has 12 screens.

Another person who lacks reading comprehension. I'm talking about the area adjacent to W&M campus. Not an area that's a 30 minutes drive away.

According to google maps, it is a 6 minute drive, and 30 minute walk. Oh, and a 10 minute bicycle ride to Regal New Town. When I was in college, 30 minute walk was nothing. I would regularly walk 1 mile to get from class to lunch on campus. At these large schools with "great college towns", the college town, if across campus from the dorms, could be a long walk.

For some reason, if it is 2 miles away in Williamsburg it is different from being 2 miles away in any other college town.

I lived near UCLA for a while. Many of the undergraduate kids there lived nowhere near campus. They were on the Big Blue bus and other buses all the time. Characterizing their experience by what is in Westwood doesn't really represent their experience.

Not sure I follow. Sarcasm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP bus service at W&M is not the same as bus service in large publics. Buses come every hour at W&M. At large publics buses come every 7-15 minutes.

Most routes are on 30 minute schedules during busy times. See the schedule: https://www.gowata.org/148/Routes-Schedules

Busses are 30 minutes only from 6AM to 9AM and 3 PM to 6PM. That means they are primarily for going to/from class in the morning/afternoon. The rest of the vast majority of the time, it's only once per hour.

On Sundays the schedule times are even more limited. Not reliable service at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP bus service at W&M is not the same as bus service in large publics. Buses come every hour at W&M. At large publics buses come every 7-15 minutes.

Most routes are on 30 minute schedules during busy times. See the schedule: https://www.gowata.org/148/Routes-Schedules

Busses are 30 minutes only from 6AM to 9AM and 3 PM to 6PM. That means they are primarily for going to/from class in the morning/afternoon. The rest of the vast majority of the time, it's only once per hour.

On Sundays the schedule times are even more limited. Not reliable service at all.

nonsense, its perfectly reliable, its just not super FREQUENT. Different thing entirely.

[Anonymous]

If you go to New Town on a Sunday, and can't get a bus back to campus because you stayed there until 5 PM and bus service ends at 4 PM on Sundays, that's not very reliable at all.

[Anonymous]

Large publics have bus service until 4 AM in the morning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Large publics have bus service until 4 AM in the morning

And William and Mary is not a large public. It is a smaller public, with more of a SLAC vibe. If you want to big-college appeal, by self selection, you are not applying to W & M.

[Anonymous]

Exactly PP, and thats why 2 miles at Michigan, UNC, UVA, etc. is not the same as 2 miles in Williamsburg. The bus access is terrible and infrequent enough to be unreliable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly PP, and thats why 2 miles at Michigan, UNC, UVA, etc. is not the same as 2 miles in Williamsburg. The bus access is terrible and infrequent enough to be unreliable.

I can guarantee you any student at William and Mary could have gone to a large state school such as Va Tech, Penn State, NC State, etc. THEY CHOSE WILLIAM AND MARY BECAUSE THEY WANTED THE MORE INTIMATE SETTING. William and Mary is a smaller college compared with the large schools. Smaller colleges do not have the busses running 24-7. But, she will have professors teaching the classes. Not grad students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly PP, and thats why 2 miles at Michigan, UNC, UVA, etc. is not the same as 2 miles in Williamsburg. The bus access is terrible and infrequent enough to be unreliable.

I can guarantee you any student at William and Mary could have gone to a large state school such as Va Tech, Penn State, NC State, etc. THEY CHOSE WILLIAM AND MARY BECAUSE THEY WANTED THE MORE INTIMATE SETTING. William and Mary is a smaller college compared with the large schools. Smaller colleges do not have the busses running 24-7. But, she will have professors teaching the classes. Not grad students.

To be frank, you don't NEED a bus at W&M as an undergrad. I never used it, and neither did my friends. I suppose if you were trying to make it from the Law School to the business school daily, it would make sense, but it's not a large campus at all; you can always get from point A to point B in about 20 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly PP, and thats why 2 miles at Michigan, UNC, UVA, etc. is not the same as 2 miles in Williamsburg. The bus access is terrible and infrequent enough to be unreliable.

I can guarantee you any student at William and Mary could have gone to a large state school such as Va Tech, Penn State, NC State, etc. THEY CHOSE WILLIAM AND MARY BECAUSE THEY WANTED THE MORE INTIMATE SETTING. William and Mary is a smaller college compared with the large schools. Smaller colleges do not have the busses running 24-7. But, she will have professors teaching the classes. Not grad students.

To be frank, you don't NEED a bus at W&M as an undergrad. I never used it, and neither did my friends. I suppose if you were trying to make it from the Law School to the business school daily, it would make sense, but it's not a large campus at all; you can always get from point A to point B in about 20 minutes.

Exactly. And W & M/Williamsburg is great for Bicycles. Flat (unlike some schools -- VA Tech), and compact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly PP, and thats why 2 miles at Michigan, UNC, UVA, etc. is not the same as 2 miles in Williamsburg. The bus access is terrible and infrequent enough to be unreliable.

I can guarantee you any student at William and Mary could have gone to a large state school such as Va Tech, Penn State, NC State, etc. THEY CHOSE WILLIAM AND MARY BECAUSE THEY WANTED THE MORE INTIMATE SETTING. William and Mary is a smaller college compared with the large schools. Smaller colleges do not have the busses running 24-7. But, she will have professors teaching the classes. Not grad students.

First of all, this has nothing to do with the academics or intimacy of W&M vs. other schools. The point was a criticism of Williamsburg as a college town.

Yes, students might want to go to W&M despite the college town, but thats what it is - despite the (lack of) a college town.

The name of the thread is "What's wrong with William & Mary?".
One thing wrong with W&M is the terrible college town.

Capisce?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Large publics have bus service until 4 AM in the morning

And William and Mary is not a large public. It is a smaller public, with more of a SLAC vibe. If you want to big-college appeal, by self selection, you are not applying to W & M.

+1 Why are people arguing about the campus experience for W&M vs. UNC/UVA/Michigan? It's a totally different kind of school and, of course, will have a different experience, more like a SLAC, many of which are in remote, rural locations.

[Anonymous]

PP this thread is literally about whats wrong with W&M and why certain segments i.e. males avoid applying/matriculating at the school, or why many prefer UVA to W&M

One of the reasons is the terrible college town, compared to large publics with venerated college towns i.e. Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, Blacksburg.

This is not off-topic, this is literally on-topic.