Anonymous wrote:Would a gay, artsy boy potentially like MW?

I feel pretty confident with : yes!

When I went there (04 alum) we want downtown a lot.

Dinners downtown on weekends. Lots of cute lunch places.
Hyperion for coffee.
I ran downtown sometimes, or sometimes just to the park halfway between campus and downtown (forget the name).
Parties were held at some of the bars/rental spaces when I was a Senior.
Also when I was a Senior the bar scene was fairly adult downtown. I doubt the bars are all the same but I found that really nice and kind of more mature.
Central Park was more shopping for a reason, but maybe it's different now.

Mary Washington is a beautiful small school and the historic area is charming - lots of restaurants and cute shops. Plenty of kids hang out there on the weekends.

Would a gay, artsy boy potentially like MW?

My kid graduated from UMW. The Fred buses are great - go to Central Parke and downtown. It's probably a 15-20 min walk to the downtown area - about 1/2 mile through neighborhoods. Lots of great restaurants, pubs, funky shops. My kid never came home weekends. I'm sure many do but there was plenty to do on and off campus weekends.

Anonymous wrote:I read it on here that you get a nice merit aid from school with 4.0gpa or above

Yes, the net price calculator says we'd pay about $20k/yr for DD with weighted 4.0 + strong SAT scores

Anonymous wrote:I read it on here that you get a nice merit aid from school with 4.0gpa or above

You can get some merit aid for a 3.0, more for 3.25, more for 3.5 and the most for a 4.0. Renewable for four years.

I read it on here that you get a nice merit aid from school with 4.0gpa or above

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My student is also interested in Mary Washington. Anyone have any scoop, input and/or experience?

OP again. One of the things we found is that most of the student body seems to lean more hipsterish instead of “basic”, which really appeals to my daughter.

Oh my! I'm the PP who spoke about the different areas. I don't even know what "hipsterish" vs. "basic" means... but I'm pretty sure my kid and her roomie and at least one of her two suitemates are "basic." Maybe the other suitemate is "hipsterish" -- I'm not sure. I think she may have funky hair. Would that be hipsterish?

Anonymous wrote:My student is also interested in Mary Washington. Anyone have any scoop, input and/or experience?

OP again. One of the things we found is that most of the student body seems to lean more hipsterish instead of “basic”, which really appeals to my daughter.

Anonymous wrote:My student is also interested in Mary Washington. Anyone have any scoop, input and/or experience?

Has she visited yet? The campus is one of the prettiest I’ve seen.

My DD is there right now. There are plenty of kids who are there on any given weekend. Yes, it's easy to go home now and then b/c at least half of the students are from northern VA. So, it's not more than 2 hrs to get home. For us, it is a huge plus that DD is far enough away that she's developing independence, but close enough that we get to see her every 4 weeks or so for a weekend. (see the other thread about the benefits of being relatively close).

There are activities on campus regularly (I believe there was a fall formal this past Friday, and they had Halloween events before that, as well as some sort of "make new friends" mid-week event). Some kids do go to the downtown area or the newer shopping area (which is the opposite direction and I can't remember what it is called -- Central Park???). There is a free bus that runs in either direction Fri/Sat/Sun on the half-hour. There are other free buses during the week. The Central Park mega shopping plaza has your Target, Theaters, Best Buy, lots of restaurants.

I think it's really a matter of finding your people. If you like the downtown area, and hang out there... you are going to find the other people who like that area as well. In fact, there is an opportunity to come a few days early in Aug. to do a program to discover/explore the Fredericksburg area. So, those are definitely going to be kids who are eager to soak up the benefits of the area. Also, the honors kids come a few days early and do some kind of learning project that involves learning the city.

Hope that helps.

My niece graduated 2 years ago. She liked the school ok. She did say that lots of kids went home on the weekends bc a lot of kids don’t live that far away 2 hours or less

My student is also interested in Mary Washington. Anyone have any scoop, input and/or experience?

Do students frequently hang out downtown area, or do they stay closer to campus? My daughter is considering Mary Washington and loves the vibe of the downtown, but I’m wondering if it really is a place where students commonly hang out.