<p>As a current senior at William & Mary, I wanted to share my experiences with prospective students. I will start out by saying that if I had to do it again, I would NEVER EVER choose William & Mary again. I think it is safe to say, most students I have talked to feel the same way. These are the main reasons:</p>
<p>1.) Academics</p>
<p>William & Mary has the reputation of being a "sweat shop" where all students do is work. This is such a prevalent reputation, that the Admissions Office has instructed tour guides to make a special point to say "Yes, William & Mary is hard, but it's manageable" or "No, William & Mary students do not work all the time" in an effort to dismiss these rumors. The tour guides' statements are completely false, and all of the tour guides know this. All W&M students do is work. My freshmen year, our library had to institute a policy that closed the group study rooms from 4AM - 8AM during exams because students would camp out, sleep, and eat there. What kind of school has that kind of culture? A few years ago, a viral video went around of the literal stampede that occurred when the library opened its doors for exam hours. A girl was trampled. I am serious. This actually happens here.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there is a strong culture of grade deflation at W&M. In one of the General Education Requirement courses I took my freshmen year, the professor said most students scored in the B and C range on our first midterm. The professor then said "so everyone is exactly where they should be." Professors aim for these grades at William & Mary. This puts students at a severe disadvantage when applying for jobs and grad schools. So many of the Ivy League schools do inflate their grades, that is makes it hard for William & Mary students to remain competitive. This only adds to students' stress and forces them to work harder.</p>
<p>The reality of graduation has just hit one of my good friends here particularly hard. He realizes his time is up, and he keeps telling me how sorry he is that he worked so much through school. He feels like his entire college career was spent in the library. </p>
<p>2.) Fun</p>
<p>All of the rumors about W&M not being a "fun" school are 100% true. Students lie and say they have fun, but if you are looking for a "party" atmosphere, run away. The main part of this problem is #1...all students do is work, but there are other factors as well.</p>
<p>Greek Life is one of the only things that keeps people at this school. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a student say "if it wasn't for my fraternity/sorority, I would have transferred my freshmen year." It's a shame that people feel stuck to a school just because they already joined a greek organization. Although the school recently built us new fraternity houses, do not be fooled and think that the school is trying to improve greek life (more on this later).</p>
<p>Further compounding the problem is the the school does not support Greek Life at all. They built the new frat houses to make it look like William & Mary has a "roaring Greek Life", but in reality, we do not. There is absolutely no partying in the houses, and 21 year olds can't even be in possession of one can of beer outside their personal bedroom. These new houses have also pushed all of the partying off-campus. This means that students are wondering around Williamsburg late at night, looking for parties. It also makes them much more likely to get picked up by the miserable Williamsburg Police (William & Mary police patrol the school and definitely look out for the students...not the case of the Williamsburg PD. They just want to fill their quotas).</p>
<p>Providing further proof that the school didnt build the houses for the benefit of the fraternities: in the first year the houses were around, 2 of the 14 fraternities were never allowed to move in because of silly rule infractions. Regular students filled these houses. There is a rumor of a third house becoming regular housing next year. One year out and already 15% of the greek houses aren't greek. I don't even want to know what the percentage will be in 5 years. 50%?</p>
<p>The other problem with "fun" at William & Mary is Williamsburg is hopelessly isolated. We have every chain restaurant you could possibly imagine, but that's pretty much it. When friends from other schools come to visit, they cannot believe how little there is to do. Even the bar scene is hopelessly pathetic.</p>
<p>3.) School Pride</p>
<p>The Admissions Office makes a special point of telling Tour Guides to talk about our "Green and Gold Tribe Pride" on tours. They do this because William & Mary has a reputation of no school spirit. This is a wise move by the Admissions Office because it is 100% true. There is virtually zero school spirit on campus, and most students will never go to an athletic event while at W&M. Luckily, our athletic teams are almost always terrible, so I guess we are not missing out on much.</p>
<p>On the non-athletic side of things, students just don't feel a strong bond to William & Mary. Most students laugh when alumni giving is discussed, and the only reason the senior gift is mildly successful is because they give students mugs for donating that entitles them to discounted beer at a local bar. Apparently this has been a problem for years because our alumni giving is abysmal. We have one of the smallest endowments compared to similar schools, and the lack of money at William & Mary really shows. Registration is an absolute nightmare because there are not enough classes/professors, and the school is in dire need of some serious infrastructure improvements. As an example, one of our main academic buildings, Morton, which houses some of the schools biggest departments (gov, econ, and others) is sinking each year and is a total dump. As of now, there have been no plans to upgrade the building. There are numerous examples of this all over campus. The freshmen dorm that tours see is a palace compared to some of the other freshmen dorms.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the brand new fraternity houses that were just build were obviously constructed as cheaply as possible. There have been numerous flooding problems, and the heat/AC is constantly broken.</p>
<p>A few times in this article, I have pointed out moments where I say the tour guides lie. This may seem strange to you. Why would someone volunteer an hour of their day to lie to people about a school they don't even like? One reason is you can apply to be a tour guide as early as November of your freshmen year. Many times, students are already tour guides before they know whether they like the school or not. So why don't they quit? Many do. However, along with the high-stress academic culture I described earlier, there is also a "I must get involved with as much as possible"
culture. In part due to the grade deflation leading to low GPAs, W&M students feel pressured to get involved in as many extracurriculars as possible in order to be competitive for jobs and grad school.</p>
<p>Some of the common, negative stereotypes about William & Mary include "where dreams go to die" and "the suicide school." Do I think it is this bad? No, but I sure would never in a million years choose this place again. Many say college is the "best four years of your life." My time at William & Mary has been far from it. Don't make the same mistake I made. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them.</p>