Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

There is indeed very little to do outside of campus in the college town itself, but there is indeed a frat scene with ~35% in frats/sororities. But don't expect anything to be set around the town itself (i.e. no movie theaters/concerts/clubs etc.). Mostly house parties.
There is school spirit but its a different kind from VT and UVA. It's not based around sports, its more of what you might expect at a private liberal arts school.
Some kids do seem to outright hate the school initially though; there are a lot of male students that did not get into their first choice of UVA who come to W&M and would much prefer the environment of UVA i.e. large population, big-time sports, huge frat scene, undergrad business school, Charlottesville.

The outright best part of W&M is their humanities, government, and related majors i.e. international relations. The small class size, generally 20-30 students per class in even freshman classes, is very good and necessary for those types of majors because it allows class discussions, and the professors in those majors are generally great and come from great schools. I would say this is a huge advantage that W&M has over UVA, VT and other top public universities.

Majors like Economics are not as good and you don't need small class size for those types of majors. Not much course choice. Computer Science major is extremely mediocre.

UVA business school is probably better than W&M's and certainly has more prestigious employers i.e. investment banks, top management consulting firms recruiting that W&M doesn't have.

No movie theaters? There are about 20 screens in Williamsburg. The Regal alone has 12 screens.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

There is indeed very little to do outside of campus in the college town itself, but there is indeed a frat scene with ~35% in frats/sororities. But don't expect anything to be set around the town itself (i.e. no movie theaters/concerts/clubs etc.). Mostly house parties.
There is school spirit but its a different kind from VT and UVA. It's not based around sports, its more of what you might expect at a private liberal arts school.
Some kids do seem to outright hate the school initially though; there are a lot of male students that did not get into their first choice of UVA who come to W&M and would much prefer the environment of UVA i.e. large population, big-time sports, huge frat scene, undergrad business school, Charlottesville.

The outright best part of W&M is their humanities, government, and related majors i.e. international relations. The small class size, generally 20-30 students per class in even freshman classes, is very good and necessary for those types of majors because it allows class discussions, and the professors in those majors are generally great and come from great schools. I would say this is a huge advantage that W&M has over UVA, VT and other top public universities.

Majors like Economics are not as good and you don't need small class size for those types of majors. Not much course choice. Computer Science major is extremely mediocre.

UVA business school is probably better than W&M's and certainly has more prestigious employers i.e. investment banks, top management consulting firms recruiting that W&M doesn't have.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I'd argue W&M is a very good school or pre-med, although one has to recognize its limits i.e. very small research program which translates to not much research and not as many courses offered as large publics i.e. Berkeley, Michigan and UNC. Although I believe it does have a good amount of research in Physics (NASA Langley is 20 minutes away) and Marine Science (Virginia Institute of Marine Science)

The small class size is a massive advantage when getting letters of recommendations for medical school and getting to know professors.

There's also a recent program whereby those with a certain GPA at W&M of about ~3.4 and ~509 MCAT score can get guaranteed admissions to Eastern Virginia Medical School and possibly VCU (not sure). That is a massive advantage considering many pre-med students struggle to get into medical school in the US and have to go to medical school in the Caribbean instead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

There is indeed very little to do outside of campus in the college town itself, but there is indeed a frat scene with ~35% in frats/sororities. But don't expect anything to be set around the town itself (i.e. no movie theaters/concerts/clubs etc.). Mostly house parties.
There is school spirit but its a different kind from VT and UVA. It's not based around sports, its more of what you might expect at a private liberal arts school.
Some kids do seem to outright hate the school initially though; there are a lot of male students that did not get into their first choice of UVA who come to W&M and would much prefer the environment of UVA i.e. large population, big-time sports, huge frat scene, undergrad business school, Charlottesville.

The outright best part of W&M is their humanities, government, and related majors i.e. international relations. The small class size, generally 20-30 students per class in even freshman classes, is very good and necessary for those types of majors because it allows class discussions, and the professors in those majors are generally great and come from great schools. I would say this is a huge advantage that W&M has over UVA, VT and other top public universities.

Majors like Economics are not as good and you don't need small class size for those types of majors. Not much course choice. Computer Science major is extremely mediocre.

UVA business school is probably better than W&M's and certainly has more prestigious employers i.e. investment banks, top management consulting firms recruiting that W&M doesn't have.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry you didn’t get into W&M but were forced to live there because your partner did. Made you very angry. Got it.

Your sensitivity to the merits of Williamsburg as a college town comes off as very insecure. It's not even criticism of the school itself, its criticism of the college town, which possibly could affect a student's desire to attend the school considering that they will be living there for some 4 years.

Your descriptions come off as someone with an ax to grind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry you didn’t get into W&M but were forced to live there because your partner did. Made you very angry. Got it.

Your sensitivity to the merits of Williamsburg as a college town comes off as very insecure. It's not even criticism of the school itself, its criticism of the college town, which possibly could affect a student's desire to attend the school considering that they will be living there for some 4 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

If he wants that kind of all college town all college spirit party a lot he should probably make another choice. Like VT.

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry you didn’t get into W&M but were forced to live there because your partner did. Made you very angry. Got it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you attended the school or even been to the campus? The average rent in the whole city does not matter.

My post has been specifically about the walkable area adjacent to campus, where most students would congregate if it was not so expensive cause - you know - college students tend not to have cars (and freshmen/sophomore actually can't get parking on campus regardless). The restaurants and shops there are extremely expensive and cater to tourists and wealthy retirees that live in Williamsburg. The area is a tourist destination because of Colonial Williamsburg. The rest of the area near campus consists of 3 restaurant/delis/bars total.
The comparison is to most college towns, such as UVA and even Virginia Tech, that have a walkable center right outside the university where a lot of students gather and afford to eat at. Williamsburg does not have that. It's a terrible college town by any standard as soon as you set a foot outside of campus. It's essentially a dead town.

So many students have cars and simply drive themselves to local places which are cheap once you leave the very small historic area. Your hate says more about you than Williamsburg.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

If he wants that kind of all college town all college spirit party a lot he should probably make another choice. Like VT.

Anonymous wrote:My son is strongly considering W&M and likes the size, teacher/student ratio and the good things he has heard about the Business school. His only concern is that he has heard there is little to do outside of studying and that Williamsburg is very boring for college students. He has heard great things about the school spirit at UVA and VT. He wants a good balance of academics/social life.

Anonymous wrote:Have you attended the school or even been to the campus? The average rent in the whole city does not matter.

My post has been specifically about the walkable area adjacent to campus, where most students would congregate if it was not so expensive cause - you know - college students tend not to have cars (and freshmen/sophomore actually can't get parking on campus regardless). The restaurants and shops there are extremely expensive and cater to tourists and wealthy retirees that live in Williamsburg. The area is a tourist destination because of Colonial Williamsburg. The rest of the area near campus consists of 3 restaurant/delis/bars total.
The comparison is to most college towns, such as UVA and even Virginia Tech, that have a walkable center right outside the university where a lot of students gather and afford to eat at. Williamsburg does not have that. It's a terrible college town by any standard as soon as you set a foot outside of campus. It's essentially a dead town.