<p>I know very, very little about St. Mary’s but I’m perplexed about the seemingly abundant comments complaining that it is located in a “too rural” of an area.</p>
<p>Every LAC-type school my D is considering is hardly located in a huge metropolis.</p>
<p>It seems like a cool area to me (though La Plata does seem to get a lot of tornadoes) and if we lived in Maryland we would definitely consider it.</p>
<p>Ummm, GolfFather. It is in a reallllllly remote location. The town is LITERALLY dead. It is the true Williamsburg, IMO. It’s worth a visit, if you come out Richmond or Baltimore way, but it’s about as remote as anything on the East coast. I can understand why a Chick Filet boycott there would not be supported even by a gay students’ group. That’s how remote it was. Maybe things have changed.</p>
<p>My son went to a CTY session in the summer, and the campus is very nice. But it is really quite remote. There are plenty of other remote LACs, of course–Kenyon, for example.</p>
<p>Gambier is a big time metropolis compared to St Mary’s unless things have changed since I visited it. The town is a ghost town. Literally. They have actors in costume there for certain days, but there is NO real St Mary’s. I believe the nearest town is some miles away from the school. Lexington Park, or something like that. I can’t think of another school so far away from towns and businesses. I don’t consider the historic City of St Mary’s a working town.</p>
<p>There is NO town or other store/etc. within about a 10 minute drive of campus. And then what there is isn’t very… attractive. A bit strip-mallish, if I remember. Even Kenyon and Grinnell have something – coffee shop, small restaurant, gas station, etc. There is nothing… this is the most rural school we ever visited. The campus is ALL there is.</p>
<p>BUT, it is also on the St. Mary’s River, and is truly a lovely setting. I think it skunks Grinnell in the respect. Although I also think Kenyon is very pretty.</p>
<p>To also be clear, I think the Chick Fil A boycott WAS supported by many students on campus. There was both a sentiment that CFA was not gay-friendly AND that there were local restaurants who would love the business of feeding the campus periodically.</p>
<p>cpt,</p>
<p>I know exactly where it is and I’ve been in that area a few times. (I had a friend who docked his boat at Solomons Island.)</p>
<p>It’s only 70 miles to DC!
Heck, that’s practically downtown compared to some of the schools we’ve visited. <cough>Hamilton<cough></cough></cough></p>
<p>In Southern Cal St Mary’s is known as a top Sailing Team school. My D’s high school is the #1 ranked HS sailing team in US and we know several guys going to St Marys. I’m guessing there are some type of athletic scholarships involved.</p>
<p>Of course that probably effects only about 10 incoming students a year but they need to capitalize on that somehow. Otherwise I can bet that no one else has ever heard of that small Maryland college in California</p>
<p>Sent from my Nexus S 4G using CC</p>
<p>Seems to be a number of people making comments based on a visit or two several years ago. I’d like to balance that a bit.</p>
<p>I live in Maryland. I personally know ten kids who are presently attending St. Mary’s right now. It is very well regarded in our area, which is suburban, but half an hour from both DC and Baltimore. </p>
<p>The kids I know who choose to attend St. Mary’s are, without exception, absolutely happy with their college choice. It is remote, but no more remote than the tons of more expensive small LACs in Pennsylvania. (You can’t swing a cat without hitting a small LAC in Pennsylvania.) </p>
<p>I’ve never heard a word from any kid or parent that would imply any lack of tolerance of LGBT students.</p>
<p>The LAXbro vibe may be due more to the fact that, as a smallish school in a ruralish area, many, many of students are able to continue to play their sports there. </p>
<p>The biggest complaint I hear is that opportunities for internships and connections are limited. I keep in mind this discussion is coming from high school friends comparing opportunities available through other area schools: Hopkins, UMD, GW, Georgetown, American, Catholic, and other colleges and universities in the Maryland/DC area. Another complaint I hear is the same I hear about other small LACs: the school begins to feel a bit stifling by a student’s last year. </p>
<p>Every year our high school sends several students to St. Mary’s. I could easily see my youngest going there in a few years.</p>
<p>I have to laugh at the LAXbro comments. Lacrosse is the state team sport of Maryland and widely played. Sort of like saying there’s a big hockey vibe in Canada.</p>
<p>I definitely don’t mean to be overly critical of SM. We tend to go over colleges with a fine-toothed comb, and I could give you a list of these types of pros and cons for every single one of the 40 colleges my kids visited. I think it is actually a very good school in spite of the small number of things I have mentioned that concerned us. Mentioning the LACs in PA, my older D went to Dickinson, but I could very, very easily have seen her at SM. I asked her boyfriend from Dickinson, who is from MD, whether he considered it. He said he hadn’t really, but he wasn’t sure why… he said, maybe he just wanted to be outside the state of MD? He didn’t have a negative impression, he just had no impression. He is a Baltimore kid, attended Georgetown Day. I also could have seen him being very happy there. I also think that the price is not that out of line with LACs that are similar in many ways… BUT, they have got to advertise more broadly to get the message out to draw the kids in who like that type of school. And maybe build a REALLY good coffee shop right next to campus, unless they have done that already. :)</p>
<p>Also… I find it interesting that this is FAR more discussion than has been generated about this school on the St. Mary’s specific forum over the past couple of years. I check it from time to time, and it is awful quiet. Just goes to show that there are a lot of college not on the “front page” of CC that are really good options, but it is so hard to get noticed.</p>
<p>I am absolutely not bashing this school. I loved the visit and I personally think it would have been a better pick for my son than what he chose. For the right students, it is truly a paradise. </p>
<p>But, yes, it is remote. Even more so than Hamilton, Kenyon, really any school though I am sure outside of the east coast there are schools that are even more isolated (Deep Springs, maybe?) </p>
<p>The campus is gorgeous, and the facilities first class. The students seemed to be wonderful. The course descriptions and the math class that I sat in on was first rate. I’d have no compunction paying for one of my kids to go there.</p>
<p>Looking at the list of colleges with space, it looks like MD has a lot of space available. Both Frostberg and UMD have room for more kids as well as St Mary’s.</p>
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<p>exactly what I was thinking</p>
<p>I know I used the words ‘remote location’ too, but some of you folks are giving it overkill. I mean come on, you can pick-up New York City radio stations in the Saint Mary’s area. Try to get a NYC station on your car radio in State College, PA or Williamstown,MA. Just saying.</p>
<p>And which college students listen to the radio in their dorm rooms these days? Again… not knocking it, love the college, but I don’t see how that is relevant to an 18 year old.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, no offense taken at all, in any way. This has been an interesting discussion. </p>
<p>It is remote, I agree, in that there is literally not one single thing within walking distance of campus. Not a gas station, a Sheetz, nothing at all. But, I will counter that by saying that a seven mile drive away (less than 10 minutes) has literally everything one could ask for, from smaller shops (not quaint though- the small town quaint thing is not there) to chains like Cracker Barrel, Texas Roadhouse, WalMart etc. We had not planned to send our daughter with a car her first year of college but we are giving it a strong consideration now because otherwise she is literally stuck at the mercy of others. Any year, from Freshman on up, can bring a car to campus.</p>
<p>For us, the strong points of the school were its academics, the less competitive feel of the campus, the idea that individuality is promoted: “Keep St Mary’s Weird” and that it seemed to be okay to just be whoever you are. Obviously the setting is beyond gorgeous too and that doesn’t hurt a bit!</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what happens with enrollment over the next few years that my daughter attends.</p>
<p>I was curious so I checked out the website and looked at the dozens of photos. It looks like a perfect setting. It’s hard to believe that a school with the curb appeal plus academics of St. Mary’s is struggling.</p>
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<p>**if ** I was a 17 year old now looking at colleges, I think I would much prefer that to the strip malls I see around most campuses.</p>
<p>I hardly think they’re struggling, my son’s girlfriend attends there, and as I said, I live near there. One year of miscalculating yield is not a school in peril.</p>
<p>It’s not a conservative area - they voted overwhelmingly in that county for gay marriage and giving illegals in state tuition. Though PAX River Naval Airbase is right there and tons of internships are available through them and all the contractors. It’s a more educated and sophisticated population than you could imagine because of the base, it’s the primary employer of the county.</p>
<p>There are plenty of things around there, but you’d need a car. From some charming restaurants and quaint little towns, to the typical strip mall stuff. Plus the water, the beautiful water. You can be in DC in 90 minutes or Baltimore. Most kids live on campus all 4 years. My daughters sailing hs sailing coach attended there while coaching her team, he was from the NE and enjoyed his time there.</p>
<p>It’s definitely not for everyone, but I hardly thing most rural LAC’s are for everyone.</p>
<p>I am telling you, a big part of it is marketing. D2 and I were chatting about this tonight, and she listed 3 or 4 kids she knew who would love St. Mary’s, and it would be perfect for them. But we live in the midwest, and they have never heard of it. These are kids who are going several states away to college, too, and I think would have considered it if they knew about it. I think this is a school that could really gain some ground with stronger marketing, IMHO.</p>
<p>Another thing my D liked while we were on campus… they were putting on the musical “Title of Show” the next week. We LOVE that musical, we listen to the music all the time. And she liked that she could NOT get run over by a car there (would be almost impossible – believe it or not, this is actually a strong possibility for her, crossing streets and parking lots is a problem). </p>
<p><em>inparent leaves to walk the dog, humming “Nine People’s Favorite Thing”</em></p>