<p>I have heard that some are newer and air conditioned, but others kind of run-down and lacking A/C. Are there more of the former or the latter? Lack of A/C can be an issue for us big seasonal allergy sufferers.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I PMed you my dorm/stats/major to keep my identity private. Also, the courses I am taking.</p>
<p>How is the atmosphere around the campus and around Williamsburg?
I’m not going to lie, it is very different from where I am from. Some see it as boring. Not much is open late/the town does not cater to college kids especially. There are a lot of shops (perfect for Christmas shopping!) and great restaurants. During the day it’s very busy with tourists, but like I said, past 8 oclock, it is empty. Busch Gardens is great and right next door. We have a Busch Gardens day where students get reduced priced tickets and most kids go for the day. It was so much fun. Basically, Williamsburg is what you make of it. Now, onto the campus itself. I love the campus. It’s so beautiful and the perfect size. There are always people around and it has a great community feel. It is a very academically focused school, but students still know how to keep themselves busy with other things and have a good time. </p>
<p>What kind of clubs are you in?
I joined a few. There are so many on campus and most people join around 2. We have an activities fair in the beginning of the semester where you can learn more about all the organizations on campus. </p>
<p>What classes are you taking and what do you think of them?
I thought my courses were great. I learned a lot. However, they were much much harder than I expected. My professors were great. Kids here study, a lot. </p>
<p>What is your favorite and least favorite thing about campus?
favorites: the size, sunken garden, buildings around the sunken garden, all the new buildings on campus (library, rec center, business school, physics building, dining hall, career center), perfect biking campus</p>
<p>least favorite: area around campus doesn’t have much/is boring</p>
<p>I have heard that some are newer and air conditioned, but others kind of run-down and lacking A/C. Are there more of the former or the latter? Lack of A/C can be an issue for us big seasonal allergy sufferers.
As a freshman, you randomly get put into an all freshmen hall. You fill out a survey in the summer before you arrive to campus to be matched up with a roommate and they also ask you whether you prefer a large or small dorm. Most people get what they request. The large dorms on campus are: Yates, Dupont, and Barrett. (Also, almost all rooms are doubles). Yates and Dupont both have AC and are on one side of campus. Barrett does not and is on the other side of campus (i think in the best spot). Barrett is the most beautiful. If you are assigned Barrett or a small dorm with no AC (most smalls don’t have AC), then if you get a note from your doctor saying you have allergies, you can bring an AC unit to put in your room. All in all, I wouldn’t worry about it. Housing here is decently nice.</p>
<p>Do most students stay on campus over the weekend or do a lot of students go home?</p>
<p>Most students stay on campus. W&M is not at all a suitcase campus. We have over 400 student-run clubs and organizations including AMP (our student-run campus programming board), 23 Division I varsity sports, club and intramural sports, fraternities and sororities,…literally hundreds if not thousands of opportunities to pursue.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking questions! Does W&M Hall still bring in “big” name bands? Back in the 80’s ,I saw bands such as The Police, U2, Talking Heads, Neil Young,The Cars etc. Having an incoming freshman in the fall of 2011, I have been searching for info in this regard. I have not been able to find a link to the Hall’s schedule. What information do you have about this topic? Thanks!</p>
<p>The Roots are a great example. They are playing our inagural Charter Day Concert this February. Generally, AMP (our student-run campus programming board) brings one big concert per semester. We also now have a lot of concerts put on at our newly-rennovated Lake Mataoka Amphitheatre instead of the Hall</p>
<p>berliner - [AMP:</a> Music](<a href=“http://web.wm.edu/amp/index.php/page/p/31]AMP:”>http://web.wm.edu/amp/index.php/page/p/31)
also brought in Wale and K’naan recently.</p>
<p>To whomever feels the urge:</p>
<p>How conservative/liberal is W&M?</p>
<p>How diverse is the student body?</p>
<p>Class sizes?</p>
<p>Closet sizes?</p>
<p>Also, how are the bathrooms?</p>
<p>^ I remember taking a tour two years ago and, I must say, W and M had nicest dorm bathrooms I had seen. XD</p>
<p>WhichDoIChoose- By big and small dorms do you mean building size and population or room sizes? And do people seem happy in both sizes or does one tend to be nicer?</p>
<p>where would you recommend transfer students live their first year? if it makes any difference, a sophomore transfer student</p>
<p>Here’s a question: How accurate are the rumors of William & Mary being ridiculously difficult, having rampant grade deflation, and requiring 20,000+ hours a week studying? I’d be particularly interested in any current student’s views on how deflated grades are at W&M since I’m interested in applying to graduate school following undergrad.</p>
<p>If you want to go to grad school, I don’t think there is another public school that could do any better for you. Grade deflation isn’t too much lower than other top public schools, but the one on one contact with professors and undergraduate research experience that you need to go to grad school cannot be beat. I think something like 50% of W&M grads go on to grad school within 5 years.</p>
<p>To answer your questions more directly: difficult? Yes. Manageable? Also yes. I would have plenty of free time if I didn’t spend so much time involved with the numerous extracurricular opportunities available.</p>
<p>McBain - what are your options?</p>
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<p>IMO W&M is on the liberal side of moderate. Not as liberal as some colleges, but I definitely wouldn’t characterize it as conservative. Gay students are very accepted. There are active chapters of both Young Democrats and College Republicans.</p>
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<p>W&M requires as much work as you want… if you want a 4.0 when you graduate, you will probably be working all the time (generally only 1-2 people graduate each year with a 4.0, sometimes none).</p>
<p>Lots of W&M students go to grad school (I think the percentage might even be higher than Here to Help stated), so obviously the academics at W&M are not keeping them from grad schools. Good grades are not going to be handed to you, but they are definitely attainable.</p>
<p>Calling W&M difficult may be the wrong word. While it’s a question of semantics, W&M is known for being challenging. Challenging does not necessarily mean difficult or unmanageable and we won’t admit any students who’s not capable of meeting the challenge. And hopefully students interested in W&M aren’t interested in cake-walking through college academics.</p>
<p>A fair estimate is likely that W&M students have about 3 hours of homework/research/studying/prep to do each day but of course they’re only in class 3 hours a day so that’s 6 hours a day on academics. Now of course there are times of year when it could be more than 3 hours (mid-terms, finals, etc) and that number might vary a bit based on major but hopefully that’s a pretty fair assessment.</p>
<p>As a result of the academic challenge presented by faculty, W&M enjoys a very strong reputation with grad schools and grad school admission offices know that W&M students have had a very strong undergraduate education. About 1/3 of W&M students go directly to grad school and 60% go within five years.</p>
<p>I’m going to be attending WM next year as a freshman. I’ve gotten my language credit satisfied with AP Spanish, but I’m definitely going to be taking a new language next year. My top choice would be Korean, but that’s not offered as far as I know, so I’m limited to Japanese and Chinese. Does either program at WM stand out as being much better than the other? Have you heard a lot of complaints about one, or a lot of comments about how much people enjoy one, or anything like that?</p>
<p>Still trying to decide, and I’m really torn. I’ve heard Japanese is much easier for somebody white (not a native speaker) to learn than Chinese is, just as far as pronunciation goes.</p>
<p>Any recommendations?</p>
<p>Eternal, you may want to consider visiting for one of our Admitted Student programs (you’ll get more info about those in the mail in March when you recieve your new admit pack and they’ll be linked from the admitted student web site) and meeting with foreign language faculty or sitting in on a Chinese and Japanese class to get a sense of which one might be the right fit for you. At W&M, Chinese is a major and Japanese a minor so there may be more class opportunities in Chinese thought our Modern Languages program overall is fantastic. </p>
<p>Also, there may be a student organization called Hello W&M that works to teach languages not offered as classes by using native speakers who are faculty or students on campus. This is a relatively new organization.</p>
<p>This is probably a silly factor, but do students generally take advantage of Colonial Williamsburg? Is it in walking distance, and do students go? I absolutely love museums and colonial/restored towns.</p>
<p>colonial williamsburg (CW) is definitely within walking distance. It is right across the street from the Wren building (and another block, after the stores). Students get free admission, so they can go as much as they want.</p>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg also holds events that many students attend (Grand Illumination in December for example) and ghost tours are a typical part of the W&M experience. The W&M Bookstore is in Merchant Square (the first block of Colonial Williamsburg) and there’s a house in Colonial Williamsburg that two students live in each year as an ind. study (they have a blog you can check out [W&M</a> Blogs CW House](<a href=“http://blogs.wm.edu/author/cwhouse/]W&M”>CW House, Author at Blogs))</p>