Anonymous wrote:To the OP: It sounds as if you have a great son. I am sure that he will be happy with whatever he chooses.

As a W&M alumnus who has posted earlier in this thread, I have two more thoughts: W&M has more of a national reputation, where as Colby's is more regional. If your son wants to stay in the northeast after graduation, this won't matter. If he wants to move elsewhere, it might. Also, if he likes to ski, Colby would be a great choice due to its proximity to ski country.

I would disagree about the reputation — I hadn’t really heard of W&M and assumed it was a second tier public school until I moved to the east coast. I had heard of Colby, and knew it as a top 50 LAC.

I’m from the West Coast.

Obviously now I know I was wrong about W&M but just saying.

All the students I know who attended W&M are delightful and delighted with their college experience. I know about a dozen (though I have no direct experience myself).
I would agree with the poster who says to look at the stats on student engagement/happiness.

I don't have experience with William and Mary but I have a lot with Colby. It is a lovely school and area if you are okay with snow and long winters, with a surprisingly wonderful art museum. Very good faculty that cares about teaching.
Personally I would not have wanted to attend as a student, though. The feel there is is very upper-middle class white. They have made a concerted effort to increase diversity to get it up to the levels of Bates and Bowdoin and I think that, to some extent, they have succeeded in he last ten years. Not that long ago, I think there was less than ten percent non-white.

That said, well a lot depends on your child. I think race may be less of an issue than socio-economic background or generally a comfort level with with the "culture" there. When I was last there, 7 or 8 years ago, most of the diversity came from out-of-state kids on scholarship or a decent-sized population of very bright international students. These students varied in socio-economic status but they were not necessarily likely to go skiing at Sugarloaf every other weekend like a lot of the kids. And, as a result, they seemed a little bit like outsiders, too.

In sum, my impression of Colby was that the school means to be friendly and accepting but that student body was very homogenous, with very few exceptions.

As for academics, I can't compare but I would say the Colby students are pretty mediocre compared to Williams/Amherst etc. i assume William and Mary has much stronger students.

Anonymous wrote:^ I really don't understand this since Princeton Review has W&M at 5th on the list of happiest students.
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=happiest-students

another list has W&M a litlle ahead of Colby for happiest students, although not by much: https://www.fastweb.com/college-search/articles/top-10-happiest-colleges-in-the-country

^ I really don't understand this since Princeton Review has W&M at 5th on the list of happiest students.
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=happiest-students

"I know a lot of kids in DCUM territory who have loved Colby and several who have not liked William & Mary - in fact, cannot think of one who was enthusiastic about William & Mary. Apparently W&M may have a sort of odd social scene - haven't attended myself, so I am not sure what it is exactly."

I have known and been impressed by and/or hired several W&M grads over the years so I tried to get my DC to visit.

DC has several friends who went to W&M from MCPS and they described (or maybe more accurately couldn't describe) this as well.

DC's translation was that it has something to do with being in the South. We never really figured it out but we never visited either.

Colby has a national reputation among people who understand SLACs (which I believe is most of the college educated population, at least, these days). William and Mary probably more overall name recognition because it's been around since the Colonial era.

To the OP: It sounds as if you have a great son. I am sure that he will be happy with whatever he chooses.

As a W&M alumnus who has posted earlier in this thread, I have two more thoughts: W&M has more of a national reputation, where as Colby's is more regional. If your son wants to stay in the northeast after graduation, this won't matter. If he wants to move elsewhere, it might. Also, if he likes to ski, Colby would be a great choice due to its proximity to ski country.

I didn’t go to Colby but I went to Bates, which is quite similar. Maine is definitely cold but it promotes a closeness on campus that I loved. I met some of my best friends there and also had great relationships with faculty. Lots of great winter traditions and rivalries with Bates and Bowdoin too. My husband isn’t Caucasian and never felt marginalized. I’d let you son go and see what he thinks.

Thank you all for the feedback, insights, and opinions. I know my son has 2 fantastic, albeit, very different choices. He is a social, flexible kid who can fit in anywhere and would be happy in most settings. He didn't really have a set idea or criteria of a school that he wanted to attend; he wanted to go to the "best" college that he could get into. His final application list was comprised of schools that he had a fairly good chance of being admitted to, some low and high matchs, and a few reaches. He applied to 11 colleges; was admitted to 8 schools, waitlisted at 1, and rejected from 2. True to his original thought process,
W & M and Colby are the schools that are ranked highest academically that he was admitted to. His Dad and I are now encouraging him to look beyond the rankings and consider other factors that make college meaningful and fun! Both schools have characteristics that he appreciates and I'm sure he will have a clearer idea after his overnight visits. We did tour W& M in the summer and we visited Colby during a fall weekend when he stayed overnight in the dorms. I spent the weekend in Waterville and it is a very small town. I did enjoy it though and the people were friendly. We also like Williamsburg and have spent time there for my son's basketball AAU tournaments. I would love to hear more feedback from anyone who has direct experience with either school and especially if anyone has any first hand knowledge of experiences of kids of color at Colby.

Anonymous wrote:My husband's cousin went to W&M undergrad. I went for grad. I loved it. However, the alumnae network was of higher caliber when it came to my undergraduate alma mater, a NE SLAC. You might have the same company recruiting but the jobs would be different. For example, a wall Street bank would have on campus recruiting for jobs in operations or investment banking. My alma mater only placed graduates in the investment banking group with first round interviews on campus. This made job hunting very easy rather than trying to send letters in to the right personow and having to have them try to get you on the interviewing schedule. I have also heard recently that there have been a number of suicides at W&M in recent years. With that said, our family loved W&M. Just know you might have to expend more energy to get into the better firms upon graduation.

Weird post.

My husband's cousin went to W&M undergrad. I went for grad. I loved it. However, the alumnae network was of higher caliber when it came to my undergraduate alma mater, a NE SLAC. You might have the same company recruiting but the jobs would be different. For example, a wall Street bank would have on campus recruiting for jobs in operations or investment banking. My alma mater only placed graduates in the investment banking group with first round interviews on campus. This made job hunting very easy rather than trying to send letters in to the right personow and having to have them try to get you on the interviewing schedule. I have also heard recently that there have been a number of suicides at W&M in recent years. With that said, our family loved W&M. Just know you might have to expend more energy to get into the better firms upon graduation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid loves W&M and probably would feel stifled at Colby because of its location and size. One advantage of Colby though is that it's a private SLAC and from my experience with my other child at a private SLAC, they will be deeply invested in making sure your child succeeds. For a public college, though, W&M is very well-run, but it just doesn't have the extra resources (ie: tutoring, career counseling, alumni network) that a private SLAC has. It's a tough choice, OP. I think your DC will be able to decide after his overnight at Colby.

Not sure what you mean. I found the career services st William and Mary to be excellent, and the alumni network to be helpful. YMMV.

When we visited there they really made a big deal about the career services center and how many of the students used it. I remember commenting to spouse that was one of the things I liked about the school. i'd say this is one of its strengths, not a weakness.

Anonymous wrote:My kid loves W&M and probably would feel stifled at Colby because of its location and size. One advantage of Colby though is that it's a private SLAC and from my experience with my other child at a private SLAC, they will be deeply invested in making sure your child succeeds. For a public college, though, W&M is very well-run, but it just doesn't have the extra resources (ie: tutoring, career counseling, alumni network) that a private SLAC has. It's a tough choice, OP. I think your DC will be able to decide after his overnight at Colby.

Not sure what you mean. I found the career services st William and Mary to be excellent, and the alumni network to be helpful. YMMV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The list of William and Mary alumni is deeply impressive. It has a beautiful campus and excellent undergraduate teaching (as reflected in US News rankings). I would go with William and Mary if the finances allow it. This isn’t even a close question.

Although I agree with this, OP doesn't say how her kid came to choose these two schools. Seems very apples and oranges to me; very different.
Have also heard Waterville Maine is very sketchy town.

Extremely apples and eggs.