William and Mary feedback

[Anonymous]

My husband went to W&M decades ago but they definitely partied. Recently, we took our child there for a tour with a friend. The dorms she lived in used to be a fraternity house. They weren’t great but someone told me they are tearing them down this year and rebuilding. I asked her about the academics and students. She found her classes to be very rigorous and the students very studious but not in a cutthroat type of way. She was having some problems adjusting at first but likes it now. Her only regret was not joining a sorority. She said she was anti-sorority when she started at W&M but she thinks a lot of the social scene revolves the Greek life and will rush next year. (I was never in a sorority so I’m not pushing for it either way. Just sharing info.) It seems like a great school and the campus is so beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love w&m - didn’t go there but many in my family did (I was a lazy HS student). One of the main cons I hear about it, though, is that the work is hard and grading is tough. I also hear that undergrad GPA a is very important for med school. That’s potentially a bad combination. So I would be concerned about pre med at W&M for that reason alone.

That's the reputation, but the undergrad GPA is no different than schools like UVA and has had very significant grade inflation. The average undergrad GPA was a 3.33 in 2014 (compared to a 3.32 at UVA in 2013), and I'm sure it's higher now.

https://www.gradeinflation.com/Williamandmary.html

2014! Utterly irrelevant!

Average Spring 2021 GPA is 3.56 according to this report. In general, college average GPAs just keep going higher and higher.

https://www.wm.edu/offices/fsl/documents/scholarship/spring-2021-grade-report-final.pdf

I really think this is a function of the more 'narrow' bands of selection in colleges today than in previous years. When you have a class of kids who come in mainly between 4.0-4.5 and SATs in the 1400s, there's just not as many obvious ways to give low grades if they do the work. And then if you're at another school where there's kids who top out at 3.8 and SATs range in the 1200s, the kids in that group who do the work will get the A.

I think we'd have wider ranges of grades in places where there wider ranges of abilities/work habits. I don't think this is the only factor, but I think it's an important one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sailing on the river. Close ties with profs. Internship opportunities. It’s a great school. Freshman dorms are small but it’s easy to get AC. They will install for you.

We love W&M but “sailing on the river”? Really? It is a 20 min drive to the boathouse from camous, and not many kids do it. Are you sure you aren’t think of SMCM?

There is a W&M Sailing club based at Kingsmill, on the James, which is about 10 minutes or so away. https://www.wmsailing.com/ Rowing is a club as well, and is based on the Chickahominy River. There is a boathouse on campus on Lake Matoaka where you can check out canoes and kayaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD went to W&M class of 2020. Loved it. We were worried about the tourist town aspect of CW but that turned out to be no big deal. DD did say that social life for men is more difficult if they don’t do fraternity because frats invite women but not men and that’s the party scene. Greek life is pretty low key at W&M. It’s the more expensive state school though.

There are parties outside of frats, but they are less frequent--especially during covid which has lessened dorm parties and parties for official organizations. There are some off-campus house parties outside of greek life. Frat parties are "open admit" for the first month or so of the semester for rush and then it's guest list only for men not in the frat (this is mainly for liability and is required--basically any guy who is admitted has to be vouched for that they won't get too drunk, harass or date rape anyone). My kid is in Class of 2022 (I can't believe he's graduating this year! Time flies!) and joined a frat despite not really thinking of himself as that 'type' because a lot of his friends from classes were in frats and they were nice and smart etc--not the stereotype--and it did provide access to more regular partying/social events. It has so far also proved helpful for networking. It was also cheaper for him to join the frat and then live with friends in the off-campus frat house than to stay in the dorms or get an apartment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a very unique school. Intellectually rigorous but collaborative, perfect mid-size student body, gorgeous campus steeped in history, full of tradition but kids are not pretentious. Surrounding area is picturesque with decent weather. There are a few quirks, like some of the freshman dorms, but dd absolutely loves it there.

Yes to ALL of this.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband went to W&M decades ago but they definitely partied. Recently, we took our child there for a tour with a friend. The dorms she lived in used to be a fraternity house. They weren’t great but someone told me they are tearing them down this year and rebuilding. I asked her about the academics and students. She found her classes to be very rigorous and the students very studious but not in a cutthroat type of way. She was having some problems adjusting at first but likes it now. Her only regret was not joining a sorority. She said she was anti-sorority when she started at W&M but she thinks a lot of the social scene revolves the Greek life and will rush next year. (I was never in a sorority so I’m not pushing for it either way. Just sharing info.) It seems like a great school and the campus is so beautiful.

Ha! I also went to W&M in the late 90's/early 00's and probably would have said the same as your husband and your child's friend, re the scene and academics. and people said the same stuff about W&M not being a party school when I went there. My experience was that there was definitely a significant proportion of the student body that didn't socialize as much (at least not at bars, frat parties, etc). But a larger proportion who did. I also never would have thought of myself as a sorority person before going, but rushed my sophomore year. And I remember those dorms when they were fraternity houses!