Is W&M a prestigious college?

[Anonymous]

This is a tough school to define. It’s sui generis. And I mean that in a good way.

[Anonymous]

It’s a very fine school.

[Anonymous]

These threads always go off the rails. It’s a prestigious school, well known nationally, with great undergraduate teaching and a unique historical campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s difficult to argue that the school that educated Thomas Jefferson and Jen Psaki doesn’t have some solid claim to prestige.

Thomas Jefferson sure, but Jen Psaki? This has to be sarcasm.

There are a few more than that:

Thomas Jefferson (U.S. President, Author of the Declaration of Independence, Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, Louisiana Purchase, Founder of the University of Virginia), James Monroe (U.S. President, Monroe Doctrine) John Tyler (U.S. President, Annexation of Texas), George Washington (U.S. President, earned Surveyor’s License), John Marshall (Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), Henry Clay (U.S. Senator, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Secretary of State, “Great Compromiser”), Peyton Randolph (President of the First Continental Congress), Bushrod Washington (Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), Edmund Randolph (U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Governor of Virginia), John Crittenden (U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Senator, Governor of Kentucky), George Wythe (First American law professor, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Henry Clay)

Jon Stewart (22X Emmy Award winner with the Daily Show, 2X Grammy Winner, Peabody Award Winner, 9/11 Advocate, Comedian), Glenn Close (3X Emmy, 3X Tony, 3X Golden Globe, 2X SAG Award winning Actress), William Ivey Long (6X Tony winner), Patton Oswalt (Emmy and Grammy award winning comedian and actor), Martin Jurow (Movie Producer of Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther, Terms of Endearment), Bill Lawrence (creator of Scrubs, Cougartown, Spin City, Ted Lasso), Linda Lavin (2X Golden Globe Award, Tony, and Obie award winning actress and singer), Chip Esten (Actor/Musician Nashville), Stephanie Szostak (Actress, A Million Little Things), Scott Glenn (Actor, Silence of the Lambs, Hunt for Red October)

Robert Gates (U.S. Secretary of Defense under both Presidents Bush and Obama, CIA Director, President of Texas A&M University), Jen Psaki (Press Secretary to President Biden), James Comey (FBI Director), Jacob Frey (Mayor of Minneapolis), Stephanie Murphy (U.S. Representative), Dina Titus (U.S. Representative), Steve Chabot (U.S. Representative) David D. McKiernan (Four Star General and Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan), Christina Romer (Chair, Council of Economic Advisors), Thomas A. Shannon Jr., (Acting Secretary of State, Undersecretary of State), Mary Jo White (Chairperson of the SEC), Michael Powell (Chairman of the FCC), John Dalton (Governor of Virginia), Mills Godwin (Governor of Virginia), Ming Erh Chang (Admiral, first naturalized Asian American naval officer to reach flag rank in the United States military)

Mike Tomlin (head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Super Bowl winner), Sean McDermott (head coach of the Buffalo Bills), Jill Ellis (Coach of the U.S. Women’s Soccer team and 2X World Cup Champion), J.D. Gibbs (President of Joe Gibbs Racing), Michael Clemons (General Manager, Toronto Argonauts)

Perry Ellis (Fashion Designer), Joseph Ellis (Pulitzer Award winning author and historian), Alexandra Bracken (NY Times List best-selling author), Lewis Puller Jr. (Pulitzer Prize winning author and Silver Star Recipient), Kiya Tomlin (Fashion Designer), Karen Hall (Writers Guild of America Award Winner, Writer for M*A*S*H, Hill Street Blues, Moonlighting, The Good Wife, etc.)

Beth Comstock (co-founder of Hulu and Vice Chair of General Electric), Lewis Glucksman (CEO of Lehman Brothers), Raymond Mason (Founder and CEO of Legg Mason), Alan B. Miller (Founder and CEO of United Health Services, Inc.), Joe Plumeri II (Chairman and CEO of Willis Group), Mark McCormack (Founder of IMG, the first global sports, events and talent management company), Todd Boehly (Funder and CEO of Eldridge Industries and co-owner of the LA Dodgers), Ken Himmell (CEO and President of President and CEO Related Urban, developer of Hudson Yards in NYC, the largest private real estate development in U.S. history), Mark Smucker (CEO of the J.M. Smucker Company), James W. McGlothlin (Founder and owner of The United Company)

William Barton Rogers (Founder and President of MIT, Physicist and Geologist), Henry Rosovsky (Acting President and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University), John Lloyd Newcome (President of the University of Virginia), Andrew Martin (Chancellor of Washington University St. Louis), Mary Maples Dunn (President of Smith College)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds so immature when school boosters respond to "hurt feelings" but saying that the poster's loved one must not have gotten in.

Grow up and argue based on substance people.

Her kid is at Oxford from UVA as are W&M students. What more “evidence” do you need. Everyone who has read this forum understands the frustration of spending tax monies for decades o my to find out your own child doesn’t have the scores or GPA to get in. It’s a common complaint. There are only 3,750 seats each year at uVA and fewer at W&M. Threads bashing on both are started all the time by disgruntled parents, students or student rivals (UMD and VT) all the time.

[Anonymous]

My daughter learned in APUSH that Thomas Jefferson did not like his experience at W and M and he relied on this experience when founding UVA. (We do not live in VA).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter learned in APUSH that Thomas Jefferson did not like his experience at W and M and he relied on this experience when founding UVA. (We do not live in VA).

That is not really true. Jefferson gave great credit to his experience at William and Mary as a student. Of Dr. William Small he wrote: "It was my great fortune, and what probably fixed the destinies of my life that Dr. William Small of Scotland was then professor of mathematics, a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners and an enlarged and liberal mind." Small introduced Jefferson to Locke, Bacon, and Newton. He studied law under George Wythe and wrote "to him I am indebted for first impressions which have had the most salutary influence on the course of my life." Dumas Malone, his biographer, wrote that Jefferson's time in Williamsburg "is the story of the...first flowering of an extraordinary mind."

Jefferson did succeed in reforming William and Mary significantly in 1779, abolishing the divinity school, and adding instruction in modern languages, law, anatomy and medicine, and fine arts. He also added the first elective system. He wanted greater public funding, no teaching of theology, and more sciences, though, which led to the founding of the University of Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Dumb post. Of course it us. Go read the wiki. Second oldest college in the US. Impossible to get in with a 75th percentile of attending students having a 4.46 and a 34 ACT. Few slots compared to most publics. Beautiful campus. $17,000 a year in-state. Everyone in Virginia wants their kid to go there or UVA but they can’t get in. 23% increase in applications this year. This is the time f year when all decisions have been made so those that didn’t get in have nothing better than to post atupid stuff like this in DCUM to disparage the schools they didn’t get into. I would have been thrilled if my Dd had gotten in but as a good/average Langley student she wasn’t even a contender.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, it's not. Perhaps within the state of VA.

I'd define "prestigious" as a school that has for a long time viewed as elite not just by the wealthy/well-educated, but also by the vast swathes of the population.

Outside of Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, I don't think any top privates even would be considered prestigious nationally. Doesn't mean that they aren't prestigious regionally.

The median person in this country has never heard of MIT or Princeton. They have heard of Ohio State and Alabama.

Who's talking about "heard of"? Where in the post does it say "heard of"?

It quite explicitly states that the vast swathes o the population views the school as elite. "Heard of" is not the same thing as "elite". No one views University of Alabama or Ohio State as elite, other than in football.

Anonymous wrote:
Exactly. "Prestigious" doesn't mean "good football team".

Again, who is talking about football teams? We are talking about elite academically, not good football teams.

Every Joe in Boston thinks that Hahvahd kids are wicked smaht. Every Joe has heard of the Ivies, even if they don't know some of the smaller schools in it.

The post does not reference football teams in any way.

"I'd define "prestigious" as a school that has for a long time viewed as elite not just by the wealthy/well-educated, but also by the vast swathes of the population."


I hate to break it to you, but the vast swathes of the population don't define "prestigious" the same way you do.

Read the post again. Then double-back and read it again.

It states a prestigious school is viewed as elite by vast swathes of the population. Viewed as elite, not viewed as prestigious, which would be circular definition to define prestigious by using the term prestigious.

Vast swathes of the population do know what elite means. They hear about it in the news every time a presidential candidate runs for office, how that candidate attended Harvard, Yale or some other Ivy League school. They hear about it during Supreme Court nominations about how the judge attended, again, Yale, Harvard, etc. law school. They hear about it when some wealthy tech CEO dropped out of Stanford or Harvard to start their own tech company. Or even when Trump brags about himself having "good genes" because his uncle was a professor at MIT.

An elite school literally means the school has been attended by the American elite - in political elites, industrial elites, etc.

LOL. You are very much out of touch with the vast swathes. Recent Trump drama aside, most of them couldn’t even name a Supreme Court justice. That’s just not the news they follow.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/403992-poll-more-than-half-of-americans-cant-name-single-supreme-court

[Anonymous]

I grew up in CT and it was certainly considered prestigious there. I had no idea it was a public school.

[Anonymous]

I went to Harvard Law. There were quite a few W&M grads in all three classes. It’s an xlnt school for pre-graduate work. Ask any any TJ parent whose child is interested in the humanities or the Stem courses that W&M offers. Very difficult to get into unless hooked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Harvard Law. There were quite a few W&M grads in all three classes. It’s an xlnt school for pre-graduate work. Ask any any TJ parent whose child is interested in the humanities or the Stem courses that W&M offers. Very difficult to get into unless hooked.

Lol

[Anonymous]

Male students have a much easier time getting in.

[Anonymous]

I think of it as a top state school. Not prestigious, but a great value in state. My 4 kids all refused to even apply. None of their friends applied either. It doesn’t appeal to a lot of kids. I also know of 3 kids that applied out in the last 2 years. All parents mentioned the same thing - miserable social experience and stressed out student body. YMMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think of it as a top state school. Not prestigious, but a great value in state. My 4 kids all refused to even apply. None of their friends applied either. It doesn’t appeal to a lot of kids. I also know of 3 kids that applied out in the last 2 years. All parents mentioned the same thing - miserable social experience and stressed out student body. YMMV

This. Wonder how true the rumors are though...