Reply to What is the real W&M experience/vibe?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One of the problems with W&M is that it's extremely strict on grading (which would be fine if not for), student codes, and social codes.

It's a very conservative social culture. Not necessarily politically conservative or religious, but conservative as in very judgemental of any freedom/liberties. It's really not a good place to find yourself in as a college kid when you want to be exploring the world. Large part of this is being in the South.

Also there's a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby it has a terrible reputation as a school socially, and only those that don't care about social culture go there, realize that it has a terrible social culture and don't enjoy their time there, tell others that it has a terrible social culture, etc.

A lot of male kids that go their do so because they didn't get into UVA, which worsens resentment towards the already extremely bad school.

Being in Williamsburg, a terrible town by any standard full of retirees and the type of tourists who want to go to Colonial Williamsburg (again, retirees), further worsens the deficits of the school.

The only good part of W&M is that its better to go there than massive 30,000-student public schools for those majoring in certain humanities - English, etc. - because of the small class sizes although the course selection is very limited. STEM and Business education are both terribly weak.

But anyone not majoring in humanities and anyone that can go to private LACs and mid-sized universities should do so.

[/quote]

OP here. Again, I've heard all this before, but people who say these things seem to say so from "what they've heard." That's why I asked for opinions from those with first-hand experience. I'm not sure why, but W&M seems to generate a set of cliches and stereotypes that are incongruent with the experiences of those who attend. Perhaps, the stereotypes are judgements about the type of student (e.g. introverts) who attends W&M, not the school experience itself. [/quote]
I'm not saying so from "what they've heard". And all the other accounts of the school have been from parents, which is not first-hand experience.

Ironically, the cliches/stereotypes of the school tends to be very positive among parents and others - "intellectual", "welcoming", "cooperative", "quirky", "academic", etc.

The reality is as I posted above. The school is not conservative or judgemental - if you are from the deep South. The town is not terribly boring and parochial - if you grew up in a rural farm and have never been to a city.

The town is absolutely terrible and one of the worst "college towns" in the country, not because it is necessarily unsafe or run-down (although some areas are underdeveloped and have a trailer-park feel as many rural areas in the South are), but because its parochial, boring, non-existent and absolutely filled with retirees everywhere. The point about retirees is that they like living near a historical college, but absolutely hate, and I mean abhor, detest, students - especially if these students are from a different persuasion (read: It's in the South).

There is no grade deflation in STEM or Business - again primarily because these subjects are very weak generally. You could argue that there is grade deflation in the humanities, but in reality it's really just a difficulty in getting A's. A student could turn in a mediocre paper and get a B+. A student could turn in a top-notch paper and still get the same B+.

You can't really disassociate the school itself from the students that attend it, the town that it is in, and the people that run it.

You could say the professors are kind and understanding, which may be true but that's not much different from any other SLAC (professors tend to be more busy/less understanding in research universities). Some of the professors in the humanities are good, but the rest the subjects aren't very distinguished at all.[/quote]

So I guess I’ll say this about your rant:  sorry you dint get into UVA, would be my guess.[/quote]
What a weird post, where have I mentioned UVA in my post, and what does it have to do with W&M?[/quote]

Yeah, man.[/quote]

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