I graduated from W&M then married someone in the military. Employers had usually heard of W&M. Many thought it was a private college, most knew it was very old. Worked in the Midwest, south, west coast and Hawaii. Honestly, I was surprised how many people had heard of it.

I'm originally from way outside Virginia, and the only person from my high school way back when who went to W&M had been rejected from the Ivies and some several similar schools, so that's my primary association with the school. He ultimately seemed happy though, and ended up in DC area too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As for the reputation, the big difference in W&M and VT is seen in tv shows. West Wing never made reference to VT, but I can think of multiple references to W&M (for example schools that inference Vincik (aka Alan Alda) a place to teach after finishing his senate term.

Really hope people aren't making their school choice decisions on one-off references by fictional TV show characters.

Is this a problem? I wanted to go into the Navy after Top Gun

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As for the reputation, the big difference in W&M and VT is seen in tv shows. West Wing never made reference to VT, but I can think of multiple references to W&M (for example schools that inference Vincik (aka Alan Alda) a place to teach after finishing his senate term.

Really hope people aren't making their school choice decisions on one-off references by fictional TV show characters.

Is this a problem? I wanted to go into the Navy after Top Gun

Anonymous wrote:

As for the reputation, the big difference in W&M and VT is seen in tv shows. West Wing never made reference to VT, but I can think of multiple references to W&M (for example schools that inference Vincik (aka Alan Alda) a place to teach after finishing his senate term.

Really hope people aren't making their school choice decisions on one-off references by fictional TV show characters.

I didn't read the response but just jumping into say that I grew up in the NYC suburbs, and was always aware of "top schools" (I'm Asian, lol, it was drilled into us) and was always aware of William and Mary being a good (respectable choice!!) school. I wasn't aware of Virginia Tech until I was an adult.

FWIW if I was a hiring manager, I would hold WM in higher esteem, but be open to both, obvs, because I'm not a small minded @$$hole.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Hokie alum (engineering). What shocked me the most when I attended was the talent of my peers. I was well prepared for the start of my career. VT engineering is well known and well respected.

Now in corporate America, I meet, hire, and work with people from all over. 2 colleagues went to high school in states outside of VA. One went to Georgetown and one went to W&M. I asked them both why they chose to pay private and OOS tuition and they both said that if they lived in a state like VA and had our options, they would have chosen UVA or W&M. So point being, we're lucky to have the options we have.

I also asked the colleague from W&M about the perception of difficulty at W&M and she told me it was somewhat real. She loved her undergrad education, but said that some classes were more difficult than necessary. I think W&M is a fantastic undergrad education, but for a student looking for grad school, I'd be aware of that.

Grad schools are typically aware of the difficulty of the schools.

I'm a Hokie alum (engineering). What shocked me the most when I attended was the talent of my peers. I was well prepared for the start of my career. VT engineering is well known and well respected.

Now in corporate America, I meet, hire, and work with people from all over. 2 colleagues went to high school in states outside of VA. One went to Georgetown and one went to W&M. I asked them both why they chose to pay private and OOS tuition and they both said that if they lived in a state like VA and had our options, they would have chosen UVA or W&M. So point being, we're lucky to have the options we have.

I also asked the colleague from W&M about the perception of difficulty at W&M and she told me it was somewhat real. She loved her undergrad education, but said that some classes were more difficult than necessary. I think W&M is a fantastic undergrad education, but for a student looking for grad school, I'd be aware of that.

Thoughtful post, 6:32. Enjoyed it.

I’m from the northeast and in my nerd circle of peers W&M was fairly well known. A few people attended. VT was more obscure but one random semi-nerd (not great grades) went there.

I graduated HS in 1982 in VA, and my best friend went to W&M, but I went to VT. So clearly I had heard of both. I did not have the stats to get into W&M, so I knew it was more selective.

With that said, I am a PhD physicist, and wish I had more of a liberal arts undergrad curriculum. The difference in the science education at a top Liberal Arts school (W&M, for example) and VT is negligible, but a a liberal arts school, I would have had to write more, which means I would have been a good writer by college graduation rather than mediocre after finishing my Doctorate. I would have thus published more papers in grad school, and potentially been competitive for an academic position (I was not and am working in Applied Science division of Wayne Enterprises (e.g., working out the science of weapons systems which is morally questionable imho).

We my DD, also interested in STEM, graduated HS, on her own her first choice was VT. I insisted she look at W&M. Just a 1 day tour. We did, and she fell in love with it. When she realized that Undergrad research is key to the STEM curriculum at W&M, and really excited her. At Tech, it is possible, but most faculty focus on the grad students).

She is a freshman at W&M. She is doing well (3.45 GPA), taking 3 STEM and one COL course each semester. And she seems happy.

As for the reputation, the big difference in W&M and VT is seen in tv shows. West Wing never made reference to VT, but I can think of multiple references to W&M (for example schools that inference Vincik (aka Alan Alda) a place to teach after finishing his senate term. I would rather go to a school that graduated Jon Stewart than Steve Bannon (or Richard Spencer : UVA).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since the .com boom people see liberal arts is silly, it's not as good as STEM.

Says the twit who does not realize that math and natural sciences are considered liberal arts.

And the twit who apparently cannot write a basic sentence without mangling it in multiple ways and probably should have paid a little more attention in English class.

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Anonymous wrote:Never heard of W&M until after I graduated college and definitely didn't (and don't... sorry W&M alums, it's nothing personal!) consider it superlatively prestigious, as some people are suggesting. I knew of Virginia Tech due to the shooting. That's pretty much it.

You sound depressing.

I mean it's like asking people what they think about Colorado School of Mines and University of South Carolina. Why would you expect anyone outside of Virginia to care about these schools? Doesn't mean they're depressing.

Why would I expect anyone outside of Virginia to care about a school of mines and South Carolina’s flagship? Not following you.

I'm talking about W&M and VT. Why would you expect anyone outside of Virginia to care about these schools, W&M and VT? In the same vein, I wouldn't expect someone outside of Colorado to care about the Colorado School of Mines, or someone outside of South Carolina to care about the University of South Carolina.

As a non-Virginian, why would you expect me to care much about W&M? And it's only natural that I only know of Virginia Tech because of the shooting (I suspect this is the case for many people across the country). Doesn't mean that I'm depressing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of W&M until after I graduated college and definitely didn't (and don't... sorry W&M alums, it's nothing personal!) consider it superlatively prestigious, as some people are suggesting. I knew of Virginia Tech due to the shooting. That's pretty much it.

You sound depressing.

I mean it's like asking people what they think about Colorado School of Mines and University of South Carolina. Why would you expect anyone outside of Virginia to care about these schools? Doesn't mean they're depressing.

Why would I expect anyone outside of Virginia to care about a school of mines and South Carolina’s flagship? Not following you.

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary has a much nicer campus than I expected. Didn’t know Jen Psaki went there, but I’ll throw in Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis.

The campus is one of the 50 best. Not sure the two people you listed advance the ball.