<p>Hello everyone, i am a WM student willing to help with concerns or questions, so fire away.</p>
<p>When do they mail acceptance letters?</p>
<p>please comment on academics,social life,and reality of living in williamsburgh. please comment on what it is like to travel to and from williamsburgh without a car.</p>
<p>Is williamsburg as dead as it seems? I live in Houston so I'm thinking the transition will be kinda rough. I know there are parts to williamsburg outside of the colonial stuff but it still doesn't seem like there is that much to do. </p>
<p>Also, is greek life a big deal on campus?</p>
<p>Do you like the people you've met at WM? Are the academics really tough? What are the best departments?</p>
<p>I love Williamsburg, yes I'm a nut! what do you do for fun?</p>
<p>amdandrew...acceptance letters are usually mailed anytime between now and the end of april/early may. I remember i got mine end april, so if you havent recieved anything as yet dont worry.</p>
<p>ursdad....WM is a very academic oriented school, professors are great..always willing to help you out. Although the social life may not be as exciting as any other college, there is something always to do on the weekends. Frats throw parties every weekend where anyone can enter and at times there are off campus parties as well. Honestly, it took me a while to get used to life here, but i have found some cool friends and i guess thats whats important living in a town like Williamsburg. About the car issue, i still dont have a car and i havent had a problem getting around. But it would be helpful getting one.....makes life much easier.</p>
<p>untie<em>the</em>cows...the transition shouldnt be too bad, im sure ull manage im from Karachi Pakistan...took a while for me to adjust since ive always been used to the city life. Frats and Sororities dominate the social scene here...if ure not into the whole greek life or house parties....clubs in d.c. or richmond arent too far away but one would need a car for that.</p>
<p>wildflower1470.....Well the average WM student is not my type, but that hasnt stopped me from finding my niche. Students here study quite a bit and getting an A is not easy...no grade inflation. But once u do get an A u know uve earned it. Most grad schools and employers have high respect a WM degree. The International Relations program here is solid. We have the best Model Un team in the world. Along with IR, the History, Govt, Econ, Pre-Med, Business depts are good from what ive heard.....mostly everything is decent.</p>
<p>I got my acceptance letter in late March. I remember it was before the published April 1 deadline.</p>
<p>ursdad - as you're from NY, there are many people here from that part of the woods. The train station is a 5-10 minute walk, and you can take the Amtrac as far as you want, north or south. Also, the school offers shuttles on breaks to and from the airports in Richmond and Norfolk.</p>
<p>The frat parties are not usually exclusive, and if you find one that is, you can keep wandering the row until you find one that isn't. There are also off campus parties. The Delis are a big draw for the 21 and over crowd, especially Paul's and the Green Leafe (famous for its huge selection of drinks, best in VA). There is also a student group that puts together activities if the frat parties aren't your thing.</p>
<p>Hmm... the Williamsburg buses stop running fairly early it seems. If you're from a heavily populated area like northern VA or a city, things will seem to close pretty early. But, the bus system is very good, and students can ride for free. There's a Busch Gardens day in the fall where you get half off on park admission, and they give buses to take the students.</p>
<p>A degree in anything from WM will take you to where you need to be. As akpat alluded to, WM has a defending champion MUN team. Departments are strong all the way around. Grading is sometimes very harsh. Average GPA is between a 3.0 and 3.1. Kinda shocking for all the 4.0 HS kids to come in and get a 2.X their 1st semester. Class of 2004 had 2 4.0 graduates, class of 2003 had 1. A lecture intro psych class of like 300 kids had a average grade of a 70 for one test last semester. No curve. So half the class got a D+ or worse.</p>
<p>Class size can vary... the traditionally big classes are still lecture style, as in intro psych, intro sciences, micro and macro econ. After that though they will be pretty small. My first semester I had 1 lecture class, and 3 classes with 23, 28, and 15 kids. All freshman are required to take a class with 15 people, called a "freshman seminar". Topics in these classes cover many things imaginable. One of the candidates for the next President of the College said he would teach a seminar if he gets the job.</p>
<p>I dont' really see many people going to DC or Richmond to party for the weekend. A huge new place is being built that is going to have a full movie theater, and more student friendly stores and such. Don't believe construction has started on it though.</p>
<p>Hopefully the success of the football team last year will carry over to this year and more people will come out to the games... the student section was half full for most of the season, but it was rockin for the playoffs.</p>
<p>is the college as intense and stessful as the guides make it out to be? is there really an unbelievable workload? do you know whihc departments are easier than others?</p>
<p>the College has earned the nickname among some as "the academic boot camp of the east coast."</p>
<p>Academics here, are tough. Honestly... I don't do that much work, and I got more or less the average undergrad GPA my 1st semester. You'll be hard pressed to find a top school with a lower average GPA than W&M. Tests being curved down is not rare, and tests with class averages well into the C range are often not curved.</p>
<p>That said, I studied for 25 hours for one of my midterms this semester. And I got a nice F. If I got every other point available to me this semester, I would get an 84. Realistically the highest grade I could hope for is a C. I'm dropping the class.</p>
<p>One of my daughter's friends was nicknamed "Two Thirds" after his first semester at W & M - that was his GPA. The average freshman GPA is, I think, 2.9 (?), but goes up to like 3.4 over the next 3 years.</p>
<p>kids with a 3.4 at W&M are few and far between. This would mean there are as many 3.8s as 3.0s... definitely not true.</p>
<p>Sorry, soccerguy - I was way off on the GPA issue. According to the Parents Handbook, the average GPA for seniors is 3.12, and starts out as something like 3.01 for freshmen. (I know the average was 2.9 for freshman when my daughter was one.) My daughter will graduate as a bio major with a 3.4 GPA, so she's actually doing better than I realized! She has a friend with a 4.0 in history who has done his best to kill off any non-vital brain cells 3 nights a week - but he does work his tail off the other nights.</p>
<p>How far away is WM from Washington? I am planning on moving there after graduation, and someone told me that the drive was 6 hrs. Please tell me that's not true.</p>
<p>Also:</p>
<p>What do students do for fun there? From what I've gathered, it's not big on partying, and there aren't any big cities nearby.</p>
<p>haha no troubles frazzled... your daughter will be in very good shape with that 3.4 =]</p>
<p>savehockey</p>
<p>WM is 150 miles from DC.
2.5 hours in perfect conditions.
good time = 3
bad time = 4 or more</p>
<p>I95 can be full, especially between DC + Fredricksburg. And accidents back it up for the whole day, it just can't get moving again.</p>
<p>If you want to party, you can party. Lots of my friends go out. The parties are kind of hard to find, but you make conncetions, especially if you go out to the frats a lot at the beginning for the rush events, even if you don't join, you'll meet a lot of people who enjoy the party scene.</p>
<p>Otherwise, you can just hang out with friends and do whatever.</p>
<p>reading the posts on this thread and hearing a lot about how hard w&m is, do you find the difficultly to be a negative factor (ex. does it then boost a competitive atmosphere or a cutthroat environment)?</p>
<p>actually, I think the difficulty brings a "we're all in this together" kind of attitude among the students. Lots of study groups happen for the classes that lots of people take (eg: sciences, intro econs, psych classes).</p>
<p>Definitely not cutthroat, and it seems to me, that people don't really talk about their grades that much. People don't really try to outdo each other, just do the best for themselves.</p>