<p>How is the workload? I'm thinking about going here next fall but I've never been a big worker unless it's something I'm highly interested in. Could someone give an example of a typical week's work or something along those lines?</p>
<p>There's a few current students on here... Like any school, you can work as much or as little as you want. Some people study 8-10 hours a day. Some people hardly do any work a day. Most people probably do 3-5 hours, but I'm just guessing on that. I definitely know people at both of the extremes.</p>
<p>My freshman son tells me he is not studying much. He does his homework assignments, but doesn't really study other than that. I believe he will make 3 A's and a B if his finals go well. Not trying to brag, but he says it isn't as hard as he expected.</p>
<p>My freshman daughter is working harder than in HS but has also found time to get more involved in clubs and with friends than in HS (and internet games, grump). She does a bit of work between classes, but probably does most of her studying after dinner...until 1am or 4am depending on what she had to do and the next day's early class... The biggest issue for her has been that two of her four classes involve a lot of writing and that's not her forte; she said the biggest thing she's learned in her English class was not to take any more English classes. I'm expecting pretty decent grades, but am still holding my breath...</p>
<p>im a freshman girl at william and mary and its honestly not that bad. between pledging, writing for the paper and going out every weekend night i've never been stressed for work. sure the tests are hard and professors expect more than many other schools but its never unbearable. i coasted through highschool, and although i don't think anyone can coast here, its not impossible and actually very easy if you keep up. </p>
<p>dont let the rep scare you-- youll be fine!</p>
<p>I'm a current sophomore. My freshman year was a breeze compared to my current workload, though they ease you into it. Freshmen seminars are never very difficult, the intro classes are exactly what they say they are, introductions. As you go deeper in your chosen field the classes get harder, at least that's the case with my linguistics major.</p>
<p>If you are not a hard worker, I would suggest you go somewhere else. Trust me, it will save you a lot of trouble.</p>
<p>This is my take on it. You can do moderately little work and get by with a 3.3 or so. A normal amount of work should be good for a 3.5-3.6, etc. The hardest part is when you are trying to get perfect or near perfect grades. The amount of work you have to do as your ideal GPA approaches a 4.0 increases exponentially. If that makes sense.</p>
<p>To clarify, though, this is in regards to the social sciences and humanities. I don't have much experience with the hard sciences and assume more work is necessary.</p>
<p>Just to brag on my son, or to tell you it's not so hard (he doesn't study much). Take your pick. First semester grades freshman year:</p>
<p>Elementary Arabic: A
Computer Science 241: A-
French 305, Advanced Writing: A
English 220, Study of Language: B+
Military Science: A-</p>
<p>Cumulative GPA: 3.73</p>
<p>Done well, I'd say! Congrats!! Keep it up!!! I always tell mine ... not how you start the race, rather how you finish. Keep running.</p>
<p>okay, I'm going to brag on my girl too
European History: A
Italian 1: A
Responses to the Holocaust (Freshman Seminar) A-
Microeconomics- B+</p>
<p>She said her cumulative GPA is 3.72...not bad for the first semester in college
plus had a lot of fun along the way</p>
<p>We have some smart kids!</p>
<p>He definitely took after his mom! lol</p>
<p>I told my son, "just think how well you would have done if you studied a little."</p>
<p>Wow - our mileage varied! Really bright kid: Monroe Scholar, 1520 SAT 1st and only time, very solid A average at a mid-sized public high school that sends a dozen or more kids to top 10 schools each year. Okay, bragging done. She worked a good deal harder than "moderately," and wound up with a 3.4 GPA as a Bio major. She'd have been thrilled to manage a 3.7 even one semester - never happened.</p>
<p>Maybe she could have worked harder - but believe me, she worked. One issue might have been that she'd never really had to exert herself in high school, so when it came time to do so in college, she had to figure out what that meant.</p>
<p>Other issues - she had a job (likes money). She was sick one semester, injured another, had a boyfriend problem during a third. She always took an overload, in large part because she wanted as many credits as possible to get a better number in the housing lottery (or so she told us - does that even make sense?). Finally, the one semester she didn't take an overload, she had a killer bio course (endocrinology, maybe?) she couldn't drop by the time she figured out that she just wasn't gonna make it in class.</p>
<p>Oh, yes - she had lots of fun, too. :)</p>
<p>frazzled1, our eldest son was like that too. He's a senior at the Naval Academy and was like your daughter, didn't tax himself to do well in high school (graduated with a 3.9 but should have had a 4.0) but hit the reality wall his first semester of his freshman year and made a major course correction. He'll graduated with a 3.5 but more importantly, he did well enough to get his first choice for service selection so he'll be heading to flight school sometime after graduation. </p>
<p>On the other hand, our daughter always worked hard in high school so college wasn't much of a change.</p>
<p>I'm here right now, and it was a great deal easier than I expected. In high school I got more B's than A's my last couple years, so I was surprised how well I did this semester.</p>
<p>FRSEM: Philosophy - A - I did perhaps half the readings, said little and sometimes slept in class. Guess the prof liked my papers.
Principles of Inorganic Chem - A - I went to about 70% of the classes, did the required psets, and studied for 4 hours or so the night before each test.
Physics 101 - A - Only showed up for the tests, but did the psets and labs each week.
Linear Algebra - A - I went to class half the time to pick up home quizzes, but I either sat in class to read the book and do them or left immediately. Hw was optional and I opted not to. This is probably one of the easiest math classes offered, though. My friends in Calc I and II had a much harder time.
Foundations of Math - B+ - This was my hardest class, but I probably would have had an A if I attended the 40% or so of classes I missed. I did a sloppy job on the hw because it was graded for completion, but I did spend 6 hours studying for the final.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if my experiences were typical. Some of my friends are in classes with compulsory attendance or pop quizzes, and I've heard upper level courses are harder.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that you'll have a lot more choice over what you take than in high school. I was at least somewhat interested in all my courses this semester. You need to fufill GERs, but there are many of options for satisfying any one of them.</p>
<p>i am also a freshman at W&M (lot of freshmen posting here) and i also did very well first semester. all of my intro classes were fairly easy, though, i did have to pull a few all nighters to write papers due to heavy procrastination. but first semester was really awesome.</p>
<p>i've heard that it gets much harder once you get past intro classes, though. </p>
<p>i remember reading in the academic planner (the one that was in the green W&M orientation bag), that approximately 20% of all W&M freshmen have a 3.50 or above at the end of the first year and are invited to join some freshmen honor fraternity. i also remember someone telling me that approximately 100 students in the class (out of the 1350 or so) have a GPA above a 3.80 at the end of their freshmen year. so that should give you an idea about GPA distribution at the higher end of the GPA spectrum.</p>
<p>my APUSh teacher, he's crazy</p>
<p>A # of these comments should disspell the earlier claim of "no grade inflation @ Wm&M." I'm sure there are many bright kids there, and hopefully one more next season. That said, 'twould seem there's plenty of A's to go around.</p>
<p>does your orientation info still say the average freshmen gpa is 2.9?</p>
<p>and Whistle Pig, there are also many bright kids who see what it feels like to get a C also ;) The professors are not unreasonable at all, and generally very helpful. Sometimes it feels like there's a wall in some classes between the B+ and A- though that's very hard to break through, in my experience.</p>
<p>
[quote]
FRSEM: Philosophy - A - I did perhaps half the readings, said little and sometimes slept in class. Guess the prof liked my papers.
Principles of Inorganic Chem - A - I went to about 70% of the classes, did the required psets, and studied for 4 hours or so the night before each test.
Physics 101 - A - Only showed up for the tests, but did the psets and labs each week.
Linear Algebra - A - I went to class half the time to pick up home quizzes, but I either sat in class to read the book and do them or left immediately. Hw was optional and I opted not to. This is probably one of the easiest math classes offered, though. My friends in Calc I and II had a much harder time.
Foundations of Math - B+ - This was my hardest class, but I probably would have had an A if I attended the 40% or so of classes I missed. I did a sloppy job on the hw because it was graded for completion, but I did spend 6 hours studying for the final.
[/quote]
Malvenuto - wow. You're obviously exceptionally bright. Am I reading you correctly - did you miss a significant number of classes in all your courses? I realize that few college students will/care to achieve perfect attendance. Still, the faculty at W & M is one of its outstanding assets. It's hard to understand why a student would choose to limit attendance so drastically, even at in-state tuition rates - and especially when the student is at least "somewhat interested" in all his/her classes.</p>
<p>Is it possible that your physics and math courses were subjects you also covered in high school? I actually think that's a good idea for kids who graduate with AP credit, especially in the sciences. I hope my youngest d will do that next year, to at least get her first semester off to a strong start.</p>