<p>Hey.</p>
<p>Well first off, what made you want to come to this school? And secondly, how much are you enjoying it? Elaborate about that in terms of athletics, campus, clubs, curriculum, academics, food, social life, city life, things to do, student body, professors, financial help, everything else, etc.
From your overall experience at this university, rate how much you like it on a scale from 1-10.</p>
<p>Athletics: the football team has gotten very good student support this year. We play I-AA football, which basically mean the schools don't spend as much money on the program (ie: fewer scholarships, smaller stadiums). Our main football rival is JMU (James Madison, in Harrisonburg, VA). We beat them on a FG as time expired @ JMU last year, they beat us @ W&M in the national semi finals (I-AA has a 16 team playoff at the end of the year, not bowls), and they beat us @ W&M this year with a FG as time expired. Basketball team got a new coach, and his recruiting classes (this year, and next year's is already signed) seem to be a step up. Our bball team should probably be about .500 in 2 years. Not many people come out to the bball games, but that should change if they start winning more. IM sports are very popular.</p>
<p>Campus: quite frankly, one of the nicest campuses in the country, and it's full of history. I don't know what else to say about it. </p>
<p>Clubs: tons of clubs, and you can start your own. They have a club fair at the beginning of every year that you can check out and sign up to be on the email lists.</p>
<p>curriculum: prepare to be challenged. Your high school 3.9 will probably take at least a .5 to .8 hit by the time you graduate, and quite possibly a 1.0 hit the first year. TAs hardly exist at the College. I had a TA in charge of general chem lab, and a TA in charge of math lab (basically they gave out problem sets / quizes and then collected them at the end of class). All lectures are taught by professors, and the student:teacher ratio is quite small, especially for a public school. Popular majors include government, Econ, international relations etc. W&M has good placement into graduate schools (including medical schools). There is no engineering program, but I believe there is a 3+2 program with WUSTL and Columbia.</p>
<p>food: definitely better than some schools. But like anywhere, it's the ssame stuff over and over and eventually, yes it does get old. The Dominoes Pizza in the area takes "Flex Dollars" (they come with your meal plan), so 555 deals are very popular. One of the dining halls was just completely re-done, I personally don't think it's any better, but a lot of people think it's greatly improved.</p>
<p>social life: like any school, you can find your crowd. There are people who drink, and there are people who don't drink. There are people who go to parties and don't drink much. On the whole, W&M is not a "party school." Freshmen Halls bond VERY WELL. The people on your freshmen hall will be your friends for 4 years. As with any school, it's important to be involved. I feel a lot better this semester after pledging APO (the service fraternity on campus). There's like 230 people in it, and it's broken down into smaller familes (mine has like 20).</p>
<p>city life: no. But they are building in a shopping center place called "New Town" which is about 3-4 miles away that has a brand new movie theater (just opened on Thursday) with 12 screens, more restaurants, and the places there give student discounts. You can ride the Williamsburg buses to get there (ride for free with student ID). Also there is Merchant Square between the College and Colonial Williamsburg, though it is more upscale and caters to the tourist crowd, rather than the students.</p>
<p>things to do: frats etc on campus, bands come, UCAB organizes non partying things, like cheap movies on huge screens, bring comedians to campus (Lewis Black came last year), speakers, etc, hang with friends...</p>
<p>student body: moderate. It leans left politically, but there's heavy moderation. Not many extremes. Not many people with dyed spikey hair, not many people with 500 piercings, etc. Not many people sporting the $300 shirts, though they definitely exist. Student body is roughly 2/3 from Virginia, and half of those are from Northern VA. Student body is very nice, people always hold doors open, etc. You will see students talking to the people who serve the food, and the people who clean the dorms.</p>
<p>professors: professors at W&M are here to teach. They do research, but they teach, and are always very open and eager to meet with you outside of class. As I mentioned, professors don't use TAs to teach for them. They are the ones teaching the intro lecture classes. The head of some departments teach intro classes. Professors teach freshmen seminars. These are classes limited to 15 people, and every freshman must take one during their first year. The range of topics is amazing. Mine was "Nationalism in the Balkans", there's a Lord of the Rings one, there's a mystery novels one, there's one on Emerging Diseases, etc. The President of the College (this is his first year) teaches a freshmen seminar on Constitutional Law.</p>
<p>financial help: as a VA resident on the prepaid tuition plan... I can't really help with this.</p>
<p>overall: 9.5.... I'd rate it perfect if we had a marching band. (Obviously, fit is not the same for everyone.)</p>
<p>hope this helped... if my response brought any more questions, I'll do my best to answer those too.</p>
<p>So I realized I didn't answer your first question...</p>
<p>What made me want to come?</p>
<p>Honestly, being from Northern Virginia, I went on the round of Virginia college tours (James Madison, UVA, VTech, W&M, Mary Washington), and when I got to W&M, it just felt right. It was how I envisioned a college campus. Lots of trees, basically car free in the areas between academic buildings and dorms, and nice people. It had that "fit" that can't really be explained, but it just clicked.</p>
<p>I applied early to UVA because they have a marching band, but honestly W&M still felt better to me. I'm sure I would be very happy at UVA too, but I didn't get the same "this is perfect" feeling when I visited there.</p>
<p>Also, obviously the academics at W&M are very good, and the dedication of the professors to teaching and lack of TAs impressed me.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! You were exremely helpful.</p>
<p>Quick question, Soccerguy, how are race relations at William and Mary? Is it pretty self-segregated, or is everybody welcoming / friendly, and do different cultures and races interact?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>W&M is not very diverse, but I would say the majority of W&M students do not care what the color of your skin is.</p>
<p>The opening convocation this year was about diversity and the importance of diversity on campus as a big part of the learning experience. True, there is not a lot of diversity on campus. I think the new President is working to change that. I don't think William and Mary has "kept out" minorities...............not at all. I just think that perhaps there are not a lot of qualified minorities who apply or who choose to come. I see absolutely NO prejudice at William and Mary. Everyone is chill. No cut-throat competitiveness that you might find at other schools of the same caliber. William and Mary has exceeded my expectations as a Freshman. The people that I have met seem sincere, good natured and very ready to have fun when we're not studying. The workload has surprised me as well. Not as overwhelming as I thought it would be. I'm used to working hard though. Biology is kicking my a**, LOL! But it's all good.</p>
<p>I love the student body here...they rock.</p>
<p>compared to my high school, W&M is self segregated. My high school was aobut 50% white, and on breaks I've been with groups of 10 friends with only like 2 or 3 white people.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say there's tension between the different races at all, but it seems they do kind of keep to themselves. Everyone is definitely welcoming and friendly, I think it's just a matter of people hanging out with the people they feel they can relate to, and most of the students at W&M come from high schools that were pretty white (I have no stats for this, but I think it's accurate). I have friends of all races at W&M, though definitely not as many as in my group of friends from high school.</p>
<p>Everyone is very nice, and the groups are not segregated because they don't like each other, it just kind of happens in my opinion (as I said before) because that's what people are used to.</p>
<p>W&M is working on attracting more minority applicants (and therefore more qualified minority students) to apply to the school.</p>