So OP is complaining about JMU being woke, and a UMW alum is complaining about that school being woke. Is this a website catering to the DMV, or have I stumbled onto a Florida website?

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Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Other than academics. It has an 80% acceptance rate and is thought of as a safety for kids trying to get into JMU or VCU. Part of what makes SLACs good is the student body and Mary Washington isn't selective enough.

Yea I disagree with this. The admissions rate for JMU is just as high and for VCU it’s even higher. More than 9 out of 10
VCU applicants are accepted, and the profile of VCU students is actually lower. These are facts, not opinions, easily verifiable on line. It’s not helpful to post misinformation.

+1 UMW's best fit is as a safety for students who'd like to go to W&M. That was my DD and those were the only VA schools she applied to.

That’s a really safe safety there.

Uh, that's the point of a safety! Especially have to have a financial safety. If you really like W&M there is nothing else close to it in VA. If you don't get into W&M you probably aren't getting into UVA so then the next choice down in terms of undergrad profile is VT. Which is pretty much the complete opposite of W&M. I have one kid at VT who hated W&M. My W&M applicant was waitlisted and ended up at an OOS LAC with a merit award that made it cheaper than W&M but more than UMW that gave a merit award.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Other than academics. It has an 80% acceptance rate and is thought of as a safety for kids trying to get into JMU or VCU. Part of what makes SLACs good is the student body and Mary Washington isn't selective enough.

Mary Washington is not a safety for VCU.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Other than academics. It has an 80% acceptance rate and is thought of as a safety for kids trying to get into JMU or VCU. Part of what makes SLACs good is the student body and Mary Washington isn't selective enough.

Yea I disagree with this. The admissions rate for JMU is just as high and for VCU it’s even higher. More than 9 out of 10
VCU applicants are accepted, and the profile of VCU students is actually lower. These are facts, not opinions, easily verifiable on line. It’s not helpful to post misinformation.

+1 UMW's best fit is as a safety for students who'd like to go to W&M. That was my DD and those were the only VA schools she applied to.

That’s a really safe safety there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Other than academics. It has an 80% acceptance rate and is thought of as a safety for kids trying to get into JMU or VCU. Part of what makes SLACs good is the student body and Mary Washington isn't selective enough.

Yea I disagree with this. The admissions rate for JMU is just as high and for VCU it’s even higher. More than 9 out of 10
VCU applicants are accepted, and the profile of VCU students is actually lower. These are facts, not opinions, easily verifiable on line. It’s not helpful to post misinformation.

+1 UMW's best fit is as a safety for students who'd like to go to W&M. That was my DD and those were the only VA schools she applied to.

It seems like a nice school, and I think it could be a great option, depending on what you want to study. It doesn't have an engineering program, and its offerings/opportunities in the hard sciences/math seemed less comprehensive than some of the larger universities. I think I would have enjoyed going there (I knew I wanted to be an attorney and wanted a smaller school). It was not the right fit for DD (wants to major in CS with a math minor).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Other than academics. It has an 80% acceptance rate and is thought of as a safety for kids trying to get into JMU or VCU. Part of what makes SLACs good is the student body and Mary Washington isn't selective enough.

It's the safety school for JMU? In that case, the safety school incoming kids have higher stats. Right!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Other than academics. It has an 80% acceptance rate and is thought of as a safety for kids trying to get into JMU or VCU. Part of what makes SLACs good is the student body and Mary Washington isn't selective enough.

Yea I disagree with this. The admissions rate for JMU is just as high and for VCU it’s even higher. More than 9 out of 10
VCU applicants are accepted, and the profile of VCU students is actually lower. These are facts, not opinions, easily verifiable on line. It’s not helpful to post misinformation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Other than academics. It has an 80% acceptance rate and is thought of as a safety for kids trying to get into JMU or VCU. Part of what makes SLACs good is the student body and Mary Washington isn't selective enough.

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Anonymous wrote:We recently took our DS on tours of UVA, VT, Radford, JMU, and UMW.

UMW was our favorite hands down. Beautiful campus, more than enough offerings- no Greek scene (son isn't a partier), ridiculously affordable and small enough to not get lost. All the others minus Radford just seemed so huge and overwhelming. I get that the academics might be stronger at UVA and Tech, but not if you're a middle of the road undecided student.

Why isn't UMW more popular?

It's pretty far behind JMU academically too. Is it less popular than Radford?

JMU was our least favorite by a long shot and he'd be accepted there. The dorms were garbage with old AC window units. The tour didn't include the library or any academic buildings. Mostly the time was spent talking about inclusion, I kid you not. I will say the dining hall food was good and that matters to him.

What’s wrong with talking about inclusion? That sounds like a good thing!

My DD’s impression was that everyone at JMU carried themselves with an air of resignation that they were at a second-choice school.

That said it’s undergrad-oriented which is a great thing.

Yea that’s your daughter’s baggage for sure. She’s gonna be supremely disappointed when she doesn’t get into her first choice.

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Anonymous wrote:Because it used to be a women’s college and so is less strong on the athletic teams. I don’t get it either. It’s beautiful and the faculty we met were awesome. Great job placement. Good financial aid.

+1

JMU used to be a woman’s college too, but it became very popular soon after becoming co-ed.

It has a male name. Mystery solved.

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Anonymous wrote:There’s nothing wrong with UMW. It’s a good school. For some reason it’s slipped in the VA state school pecking order, but that might be because others have gotten hotter while UMW hasn’t. The gender imbalance is a turn off for many. It does have a reputation as more of a women’s college. It’s a great choice for someone who can’t get into William & Mary.

I doubt it’s a school for a “baseball standout” who is turned off by “preppy nerds” though.

Thank you for bringing this thread around to where it should be. I am not the OP, but I too have wondered exactly why some other schools got hotter while Mary Washington slipped. It has a lot going for it that some of the other schools don’t - namely a very attractive campus and walking proximity to a nice downtown. So why has it gone down in popularity?

As mentioned earlier, I agree the biggest factor is CNU's rise in popularity. There are only so many kids who will consider the smaller schools (although IMO these schools are the perfect size). CNU manages to provide the small size but also has things that tend to appeal to students, especially boys, who would have liked UVA but can't get in -- Greek life, more big sports. Plus shiny new buildings. My kid who wanted a smaller school actually hated CNU and much preferred the more LAC style of UMW but I can definitely see that CNU appeals to a wider pool of students.

It has a female name, and HS boys don't identify with that. That's why it hasn't expanded.

On the plus side, your kid won't have any classes greater than 60 students...and that's pretty rare. Most are about 25. Some are less. There won't be any TA's teaching classes. All or nearly all classes are taught by people with "terminal" degrees...meaning the final degree that is offered in that topic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an experience similar to yours when we visited. Prior to this, I didn’t know much about Mary Washington and my daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised.I too don’t get why it flies under the radar.

Maybe because it's ranked 149th among Liberal Arts Colleges by USNWR? I didn't even know there were that many LACs.

The point is why does it rank 149th? The school seems to have a lot going for it. That’s the mystery.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it used to be a women’s college and so is less strong on the athletic teams. I don’t get it either. It’s beautiful and the faculty we met were awesome. Great job placement. Good financial aid.

+1

JMU used to be a woman’s college too, but it became very popular soon after becoming co-ed.