Wondering about overall friendships, academic and dating climate and overall student experience? Is there a well-designed freshman program?
Although I can’t speak to the dating scene ha ha, my son found the freshman program very thorough. Arriving on campus he was told by the swarms of helper kids that show up to unload your car (literally, I didn’t carry a tissue box) that the next few weeks were going to be realllllly busy!!! It worked out great - he made friends very quickly, and later reported he didn’t have time for home sickness. There are Dons (faculty members) appointed to the dorms, as well as smaller community of houses ( Harry potter style) this worked well for my son - he’s not a kid to dive into a club, and usually frowns at forced social gatherings. The cool thing is every kid has their own biases/anxieties to deal with, and the structured social fun becomes a great distraction.
Hey there, I graduated from F&M a few years ago. My experience at F&M, in all honesty, was very “meh”… not terrible, but not amazing either… it was a very bland “good” experience. The people I met made my experience. A little about myself; I came from an okay high school, pretty small about 200 in my graduating class… At F&M, I was a member of many clubs, ranging from student government to Greek life, and majored in the sciences. I came into F&M wanting to be “pre-med” (you will notice half of your class comes in “pre-med”) but sadly it didn’t work out (still a little bitter about it….life moves on though, more on this later)… I was not anti-social while attending F&M, I made a genuine effort to meet new people and explore the possibilities the school had to offer. Finished in 4 years and got a job offer (woo-hoo!) a few weeks after graduation… For some people their time at F&M are the best years of their lives, for me it wasn’t. If I had not made such good friends, going to F&M would have been one of my biggest regrets
Social Scene
I always found F&M’s student body really odd. There are two groups of students who attend: students who like to go out on the weekends, who honestly just want to drink/do drugs/have sex as much as they can in 4 years, and students who don’t like to go out, who don’t really enjoy the party scene and find fun in other ways (still drink, have sex, and do drugs though! Just not as open about it I guess?)… I was a member of the former group, but had some wonderful friends who were not about the weekend nightlife (and that is OKAY!!). The odd thing about F&M is that both groups kind of despise each other… the party group thinks the non-partiers are lame and visa-versa. It doesn’t help that the school is small and each graduating class is split 50-50 into these categories, so there really is an “us vs. them” mentality between the two groups. Yes, I am being very general with the categories but MOST students either work (as in schoolwork, clubs, sports, etc…) for the weekend (as in party) or do not work for the weekend (they stay in, watch movies with friends or do something else)… Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. I cannot speak much about what people would do if they did not go out on Thursday-Saturday nights, but for those who did go out Sports teams and Fraternities are a HUGE part of the social scene (do not listen to the tour guides!!!). If you are not at a fraternity party, you are at a sports team party… plain and simple. Yes, the arts house and whoever else… do throw parties at their off-campus houses occasionally, but I promise you they are not the regular go-to place. For Fraternity parties, open to all freshman in the Fall but once spring rolls around you either pledge or get on a guest list spot by befriending a brother…At these parties, expect some left-over liquor from the mixers with sororities and lots of natty lite!!. Sport team parties are at a loft apartment, so there not as much room as the fraternities but they are fun nonetheless… beer and liquor can be found but maybe not in the same amounts as a fraternity. This isn’t Blue Mountain State, you will never have that kind of experience at F&M but it is still fun. The hookup culture, due to the size of the school is very high-school ish. Freshman year everyone will hook up with everyone (especially in the Fall semesters), random hookups exponentially drop as the academic years go by. You can get a reputation and people will know you (the school is that small!). So if you are someone who really cares about their “image” be mindful and don’t cause yourself unnecessary stress… Have fun though, you only get this kind of mindless hook up culture once. The dating scene is a thing especially in the upper class years (junior and senior). There are lots of interesting people at F&M and you can find a very nice, healthy, rewarding relationship. My biggest advice is to go out, join clubs, meet new people… staying in your room will not help your cause for a bf/gf.
Academics
The academics are hard*, F&M does not curve so technically everybody can get an A… this also means everybody can get a C too… I put an asterisk on “hard” because I honestly feel your major will dictate how stressful your schoolwork is. Please remember regardless of what major you choose, you are bound to find difficult courses. But a biochemistry major has a significantly harder course load than an American Studies major. Science classes are inherently harder (read Chem 1 is a lot harder than Intro to American Studies) and having 2-3 labs a week is brutal, it equals an extra 8-12 hours in the classroom. Not to mention you don’t get extra credit hours for your lab course, the lecture and lab are counted as one class. Some people will try and make up some bullshit that being a humanities major equals less time in class but they have to make up that (lets call it “productive time”) with clubs/community service/ being a TA etc… But I promise you doing community service is a lot easier lab work. In most non-science courses, if you pick up your textbook and pay attention in class you are bound to get at least a B-. In science courses, if you do not stay on top of your practice problems/readings you will struggle. Even in those intro geology courses that everybody labels “rocks for jocks”… I have seen people get a “23/100%” on an exam because they thought geology would be easy… It’s no chemistry but you must put the necessary work in. This little explanation of course rigor is in no way trying to bash on anyone’s interests, there are some very talented and smart kids in both the humanities and sciences at F&M who go on to do some great things post-grad! So please pursue your interests, unless of course you are interested in “pre-med.” I am not saying to not pursue medicine, but please know your chances for success are not very good so please have a back up plan. F&M likes to brag about their 90% med school acceptance rate, but in all honesty its like 10-20 kids who go to med school each year. This number is even worse when you realize half of each entering class (roughly 250 students) enter F&M as “pre-med.” Why people quit pursuing medicine varies… For me, it was because I did not fit in with the whole F&M culture/small class size/ community thing F&M offers. I was an alright student at F&M, not straight A’s, mostly B’s, and I could have definitely worked harder used resources and all that stuff… but the culture of the school just was not the right fit for me, and I unfortunately didn’t realize that before making my college decision. I kind of lost my drive to pursue medicine/anything because something always felt “off”, very philosophical but the whole “you will know if the school is right is for you” does ring true. I sort of drifted through my academic time at F&M, sad but true 
. Due to my circumstances I never visited F&M prior to matriculating but the financial aid (which they give a lot of btw) was too good to pass up. So make sure you visit and do your research! To lighten the mood up, the professors are truly one of the best things that F&M has to offer, always available, amazing research opportunities, and just awesome people… and because of their awesomeness they help create the F&M culture. Small class sizes are a thing…not my cup of tea, but if that’s what you are looking for this is a good place for you. Largest class for me was 20 people. If there is one good thing about the average F&M student in terms of academics is that they have an honest work ethic, people want to do well and genuinely care about their futures. You will see all kinds of students in the library consistently. Some may take it a little more seriously than others, but most want to graduate and find a good job or go to grad school.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.