Anonymous wrote:I heard of William & Mary vaguely decades ago. I only heard of VA Tech after some Asian guy shot a bunch of people there.

Not even remotely funny or clever. Don't quit your day job.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in CA and applied to William & Mary (got in but my parents decided it was too expensive OOS). Don't know that I ever heard of VT but would have assumed it was similar to plenty of other state "tech" colleges.

My son is a HS senior in VA and even he initially thought William & Mary was a private school.

I've known people who have visited William & Mary and not realize it is a public school. It sounds and looks like a private school.

VT is well known in IT fields.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W and L is private and therefore more expensive in state. It’s also got some of the worst qualities of UVA. Southern, fratty, etc, but smaller and in a more red state area of VA. Its also 2/3 male and in the same town as VMI, Lexington VA. It’s got a great poli sci dept but so does UVA. And W and M.

I wouldn’t compare W and L to any of these schools, and it’s got bigger issues than Lee in its name, although that is clearly one of them.

You seem bright.

They may be bright, but W&L is now 50/50 male female, not 2/3 male. In-state, there is a state Tuition Assistance Grant, which offsets some of the cost differential. W&L is a great school for the right person. The PP evaluated it from their own perspective (Southern, fratty, etc.). In a study by the Economist a few years ago, W&L had the highest value add for income of all colleges and universities in the U.S.

Small sample size, but I've seen William & Mary as the answer on Jeopardy probably 10 times or so. I've never seen it missed.

Virginia Tech is going to be well known through sports. Being known for sports is OK, but that doesn't necessarily translate to academic reputation. Everyone knows Alabama and Clemson from football success, and it has probably netted them additional applications, but they certainly haven't entered the same academic reputation tier as Michigan, for instance.

Anonymous wrote:W and L is private and therefore more expensive in state. It’s also got some of the worst qualities of UVA. Southern, fratty, etc, but smaller and in a more red state area of VA. Its also 2/3 male and in the same town as VMI, Lexington VA. It’s got a great poli sci dept but so does UVA. And W and M.

I wouldn’t compare W and L to any of these schools, and it’s got bigger issues than Lee in its name, although that is clearly one of them.

You seem bright.

The deciding factor is, what does she want to study?

If she wants to go into engineering, computer science, architecture/design or become a veterinarian, then she should choose Virginia Tech.
Most other things, choose William & Mary.

I grew up in the Midwest. My family was pretty sporty, so I knew of Virginia Tech because it is a Power 5 D1 school, so I saw them a lot on TV, NCAA tournament, Bowl games, etc. I think the recognition from sports is probably pretty common. William and Mary was never really on my radar screen until I started my professional life - then I knew it was a fantastic school, but didn't realize it was public for the longest time!

FWIW, I went to Williams College (SLAC in MA) and have been asked many times over the years "You mean William & Mary?"

Probably depends on the career field also.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National VT is the murder school

Sadly, this is the case. Outside the mid-Atlantic it was unknown before that.

Actually, it got on the national stage with Vick first. Which isn’t good either.

Washington and Lee is 51% male, 49% female. PP, I'm not sure where your stats come from.

I grew up in CA and applied to William & Mary (got in but my parents decided it was too expensive OOS). Don't know that I ever heard of VT but would have assumed it was similar to plenty of other state "tech" colleges.

My son is a HS senior in VA and even he initially thought William & Mary was a private school.

W and L is private and therefore more expensive in state. It’s also got some of the worst qualities of UVA. Southern, fratty, etc, but smaller and in a more red state area of VA. Its also 2/3 male and in the same town as VMI, Lexington VA. It’s got a great poli sci dept but so does UVA. And W and M.

I wouldn’t compare W and L to any of these schools, and it’s got bigger issues than Lee in its name, although that is clearly one of them.

I'm from NY. William and Mary is well known as an excellent school academically. Right up there with Berkeley, UVA, Chapel Hill.

VTech is known only for sports, and the shooting.

Anonymous wrote:I am not from this area and I heard of William and Mary well before I heard of VT. (Actually I think the first time I heard of it was probably after the shooting.)

Same. Definitely had never heard of VT before moving to VA.

Although I will add, most people don't know schools outside their own state unless the schools are Harvard-level famous. I went to U of M which was highly ranked in my field, tried to get a job in CA, and got a ton of questions about why I couldn't get into the local Cal State.