<p>Can anyone speak about what it is like to attend UMW as an OOS student? There are alot of things that attract D to this school, but wondering what it is like for a northeast student???</p>
<p>It shouldn't be a problem at all. The vast majority of the out-of-staters are from either Maryland, New Jersey, New York (Long Island in particular), Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Northeasterners won't be a rarity at all on campus.</p>
<p>Also, even though UMW is technically a southern school, a good chunk of the student body is from Northern Virginia (jokingly referred to by many in the area as a separate state) and they have a lot more in common with people from New England and the Mid-Atlantic states culturally in my opinion, then they do with the south.</p>
<p>Thank you Patriarch. I read somewhere that the OOS number is up to 35% so we are feeling better about that. We are wondering how the freshman dorms are assigned. Does it help to be honors admission?</p>
<p>What can you walk to in town that is attractive to college students? Is it a safe area? How far is the closest real mall?</p>
<p>After reading the catalogue, it seems like there are alot of requirements. Is it possible to finish everything if you enter without AP's? D's school does not offer them. Can some classes furfill two requirements?</p>
<p>D will be scheduling an overnite visit, so she is excited to finally see the campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>ApplicantMum:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Freshmen dorms, at least to the best of my knowledge, are assigned randomly. When I was a freshman in 2004 they sent out a simple questionnaire with some basic lifestyle and roommate questions like "are you a night or a morning person? " and "would you describe yourself as messy or neat?" That's really the only factor that determines where you'll live. Honors admission doesn't get you anything special except that they fast-track your application.</p></li>
<li><p>The campus itself is near the old downtown area (about half a mile or so) and there's a few really good student hangouts. If you come in for a visit, ask anyone for directions to Hyperion Espresso, it's a very good local cafe that you'll see UMW students at at any given time of the week, and they have GREAT coffee. There are also a bunch of local restaurants like Sammy T's, Fortunes, Bangkok Cafe etc. that are all very good but can get pricey on a college student's budget. There are also a couple of good bars in the area that have student bands that play semi-regularly, the Loft being the most prominent. I will be honest, Fredericksburg isn't much of a college town, but there are a few places that you can have fun at if you know about them.</p></li>
<li><p>Fredericksburg itself is pretty safe. The campus is located right in the middle of a residential neighborhood that is made up largely of college students and older people, the whole area is very safe.</p></li>
<li><p>There are two big shopping areas in Fredericksburg: Central Park and the Spotsylvania Mall. Central Park is a huge outdoor shopping center (you really need a car to navigate it) but it has all the big chains like Best Buy, Borders, Target etc. and a movie theatre in addition to chain restaurants like Bonefish Grill, Olive Garden etc. The Spotsylvania Mall is much less popular due to it being located across the highway from Central Park and being made obsolete for the most part, but apparently it's under new management and they're going to really renovate it and make it nice, so within the next year or two it might be a good place to go to.</p></li>
<li><p>The school does have a lot of gen eds, but luckily UMW is in the process of changing them (not sure if you saw the old reqs or the new ones) and making them much easier and simpler. I came in with a decent number of AP credits, and it definitely saved me some time, but even without them people here have graduated on time and met them. I imagine it will only become easier with the new requirements as well.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Good luck with your daughter's visit too by the way, it's a great campus.</p>
<p>Patriarch, I found your review interesting as well, so thank you. Can you tell me if the reputation of UMW as a suitcase school is really true? "Suitcase", meaning that a large number of students leave campus for the weekends.</p>
<p>Northeastmom:</p>
<p>I've found the "suitcase school" label to be a little unfair actually. At least in my experiences here, most people stay on campus on weekends. The one area where it might be true is with the freshmen though. A good number of them have trouble adjusting to college life (or at least they did when I was a freshman), so many of them would go home on weekends (especially the first semester) to see their parents or go to neighboring colleges like JMU or Tech to see their friends from high school. It usually settles down by spring semester, and after that first year it's usually gone completely, but it is there. If you can make it through that freshman year, the vast majority of people stay on campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. My other son goes to JMU, and he says that a lot of kids from other colleges go to JMU on weekends for the social life. What % of freshman leave on weekends? Just an educated guess, I know that you don't really know, but it would it be 25%, or more than 60, or 80%, for example?</p>
<p>Northeastmom:</p>
<p>I couldn't tell you to be honest. I doubt it's even 25%, and even then the number of freshmen who leave on weekends drop after the first couple of weeks once they adjust to college life.</p>
<p>Patriarch86, thanks.</p>
<p>My son just got his acceptance letter yesterday. Only school he applied for and we are thankful that he got accepted given that he was homeschooled since we move around so much (military). I am a bit worried about what he will do on the weekends because there is no way he can come home since we are moving to Guam this summer.</p>