Questions?

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I'm a freshman at W&L and College Confidential helped me a lot last year so I'm here to help anyone that needs it this fall.</p>

<p>Any questions about W&L you may have I can answer, about classes, AP's, social (and therefore often Greek) life. I don't have too much experience of course as I just started classes last week but I did do a lot of research last year like you are doing now before choosing to come to W&L so I know the answers to most questions prospective students might ask.</p>

<p>Just don't ask me to evaluate the chances for you to get in. There are books which list stats, websites where you can get stats of applicants (try registrar.wlu.edu), and a whole board on this website for people who love to tell other people where they can and can't get in. I'm not an admissions officer, I have no idea what they will be looking for this year.</p>

<p>Anything else though, ask away, I will do my best to check this site at least once a day, though college life is very busy (WARNING: If you don't like doing a lot of work, stay away from this school, the classwork isn't too bad but outside of classes it's intense, especially for heavy reading classes like history and even politics)</p>

<p>Glad to help,</p>

<p>Dima Slavin '09</p>

<p>"For W&L I yell, I yell, I yell
And for the University, I yell like hell!"
"And we will roll those WAHOOS! on the sod, yes by God!
RAH! RAH! RAAAH!"</p>

<p>Oh and one more thing, if you love good-ole Yankee ice tea (AND SNAPPLE!), a warning - the only thing you can get here is sweet tea, which is nice for a while but you start to miss Snapple real fast. Us New Yorkers are starting to suffer from Snapple withdrawal, I'm going to have to have my parents ship some over.</p>

<p>I know you've only been there for a couple of weeks but could you tell us a typical day at W&L. What is party life like? How are the professors? How are the new students that you're meeting? Dorms?</p>

<p>Sweet tea...... awesome.... i'm from SC and love it. Couldn't be without it.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>I guess to answer the "typical day" question I'll show you three days for me:</p>

<p>A Monday:
Got up, jogged, had breakfast and headed to a 10AM class (the earliest you can have classes is 8AM). After an hour of class, got lunch and did work-study at the admissions office. Then came my second class, which ends at 3:00. After that, I studied until 9 when I went to a frat to watch Monday Night Football. I came home just after midnight, studied for another hour and went to sleep.</p>

<p>A Tuesday:
Breakfast, an hour of class in the morning, an hour rest, lunch, two straight two-hour classes (neither of which usually last the full two hours) then dinner, half an hour in the pool (so much food here in college, you have to exercise as much as possible to stay in shape) and homework the rest of the night.</p>

<p>A Saturday: (life here isn't all work)
A rally on the Canaan Green featuring Mexican food and a couple of bands, a football game (ties and sundresses), a trip to Goshen (I didn't go but my friends did - it's a place north of town where you can swim, picnic, etc.) then at night at least three different frats had cover bands in their basements. There was a hip-hop cover band, an 80's cover band and a Southern rock (no idea what that is) cover band. Dancing all night! </p>

<p>Sunday it's back to studying for the week.</p>

<p>Party life here is amazing, frats are throwing parties all the time. You have to be smart here, if you go to all of them, you will not succeed academically. There are definitely way more than enough parties and they are open to all.</p>

<p>The professors here are extremely intelligent, as befits a school of W&L's caliber. They are also very friendly and always willing to talk and help you out - the benefits of being in a small school. They will even give you their home phone numbers. Before you meet with your advisors to schedule classes before your first term, you actually go to dinner with them and talk about your plans, your background and everything else. It's amazing how much all the staff at the school, from your professors to your advisors to the security guards, want to be your friends.</p>

<p>In terms of the students, I have never met nicer people. The only problem is that, with the exception of the international students, diversity is not W&L's strong point, though it is getting better every year, which is quite visible in my class.</p>

<p>The freshmen dorms can be better. Unless you're lucky, you're going to end up in Graham-Lees or one of the dorms of the quad, Baker, Davis or Gilliam (my dorm). I think about 60% of the rooms are singles, the rest are doubles. They're not too big, especially the doubles (my roomie and I literally have no room to unbunk our beds with the drawers, desks and sink taking up the rest of the space along the walls) and don't have air conditioning. The only exception is if you're one of the few freshmen to end up in Gaines (normally upperclass housing). Gaines has suite-style dorms with air conditioning (that you have no control of so it could actually get quite cold in the summer), a lounge area and its own fitness center so you don't need to use the one in the gym. After freshman year, housing gets much better. You can choose to live in a frat or a srat, upperclass housing (suite-style like Gaines or apartments in Woods Creek) or off-campus. </p>

<p>Well, I hope I answered your questions. I'm going to take a quick dip in the pool and then I have a LOT of reading and studying to do tonight (I'm not kidding guys, W&L is a lot of reading, a lot of note-taking and a lot of note-taking, I've only had two history classes so far yet I already have 5-pages of notes just on her lectures).</p>

<p>Later,</p>

<p>Dima, Class of '09</p>

<p>PS: Only at W&L do you get an e-mail from your DEAN inviting you to go bridge jumping into the James River as a freshman class activity.</p>

<p>WOW...You're full of useful information :) I loved W&L when I visited (the weekend freshmen were moving in), and definitely plan to head down sometime when everything is full swing to observe the whole campus scene better. I'm glad to hear that everyone is as nice as I perceived them to be when I was visiting! Not a single person walked by me without saying hello and/or making polite conversation. If I think of any questions, I'll be sure to ask you!!</p>

<p>DIMA343 - sooooo glad to hear/see you like W&L sooo much and are happy - hope all the other kids on this board last year who are attending there are happy and adjusting well - makes my heart feel good LOL. Glad to see you here on this board to help out too - hope some others take a gander here as well.</p>

<p>CZECHITOUT - great to see you have your eyes open about W&L - great school - ooooo and the every one walking by and saying hello thing - that is a tradition - the speaking tradition - that is pretty unique to W&L - very friendly place to be.</p>

<p>Czechitout - I have never met nicer people than here at W&L, and come down anytime, i'll be glad to give you a personal tour or you can get one from the admissions office (where you might see me anyway as i'm doing my work-study there). You'll love it, this campus is very easy to fall in love with.</p>

<p><em>Yawn</em> Really takes a toll on you being here though, it's 10:00 on a Thursday and I'm falling asleep. I'm going to have to turn in early tonight if I want to party tomorrow and Saturday and there are a LOT of parties going on - band parties, dj parties, theme party, I've heard there's even supposed to be a foam party!</p>

<p>i think you were my sports editor at school my dear...</p>

<p>when i went to W&L, there was this chinese resturant hidden at a corner of some mall and they had snapple, i swear!</p>

<p>i guess my ques is, if possible, how would you compare W&L to our school?</p>

<p>Yes I was your sports editor, and I already knew you were looking at W&L cause I work at the admissions office and the woman who interviewed you (it was Erin, right?) told me, hehehe</p>

<p>Anyway, think about Stuy, then think the exact opposite, that's W&L. If I were at Stuy, I'd be up this late because I was doing HW. Here, I'm up this late because I went to three different frat Monday Night Football parties (happen every week). My goal was to go to five, trying to meet as many brothers as I can before rush, but after the first two I was tired and just went to the one that's most familiar.</p>

<p>The biggest difference (and the only one I will mention today as I am falling asleep and I need to wake up early tomorrow to jog because I need to stay in shape for the IM soccer season) is the culture. People here are southern ladies and gentlemen. They are the nicest people you will ever meet. There is also no cheating or stealing, dump your stuff outside the D-Hall and rest assured it won't be taken. I admit it was a bit of a shock to first walk down the street and see all of the cars with windows open, that just doesn't happen in NY. Also, it's a small school so you get to know everyone real quickly.</p>

<p>sorry, too tired to right more so i will continue tomorrow (if i have time, tuesday and thursday i have five hours of classes)</p>

<p>oh i have another question, what frats jump out at you at the most fun, wild, boring, etc.</p>

<p>honestly, I've been to maybe a fifth of all the frats on campus, I can't make a decision yet. I'll get back to you around January.</p>

<p>Every frat is unique though and every person fits in best with a different frat, some don't fit in with any at all. That's why W&L has a Winter Rush, so you have a term to get to know the frats before deciding which, if any, is right for you.</p>

<p>DIMA they used to have fall rush - that was a really difficult thing for freshman at the time - glad it is now winter/spring rush - you have a much better opportunity to figure out the frat life there - good luck to ya - you will find a 'home' that is just right for you - have fun!!</p>

<p>Have ya checked out PKA yet?? just curious lol</p>

<p>Actually, PiKA had a very successful foam party this past saturday that I went to. It's probably been the single most fun thing I've been to since getting to campus.</p>

<p>DIMA hahaha sounds like FUN!!!! Yup them Pika's sure do a good job of things lol - know a few of them from years past lol - have had some good times with them also hahaha.</p>

<p>We have all heard from everywhere and you how wild the parties are but how is it for the freshmen? Are freshmen allowed to drink? What are the details on this?</p>

<p>pjben, I don't feel comfortable discussing such a topic on a public forum but you send me a PM if you're interested in the details and I will give you my screenname (I don't want to post that in public either)</p>

<p>I will say however, that if you want to drink, you will not have a problem finding a place to drink or people to drink with, in fact, it's very easy. At the same time, those who don't want to drink (and some of the people I go out with most often are non-drinkers) can have a good time too and there is plenty to do for those who don't want to be in a place where there is drinking: one of the best resources for non-partiers is the SAO (Student Activities Organization), which holds trips to Goshen and other places, fun on-campus activities like game and movie nights and fields teams for intramurals (most IM teams are frats/srats so the SAO is the best place to go for independents and freshman - like me - who can't play on a frat team but want to play IM sports). You can check out their website at sao.wlu.edu. The outing club is also a good place to turn as well as all the activities going on in the Elrod Commons (commons.wlu.edu) for those not into the Greek system.</p>

<p>JeepMOM, PiKA is definitely a fun group of guys, I'm hoping that I will be able to attend at least one of their Homecoming Weekend Festivities this weekend. Like most freshman guys, it's hard for me to choose which parties to go to this weekend as my roommate and I have gotten about 10 different invitations. My favorite houses right now are Lambda Chi Alpha and Chi Psi but that's liable to change as the three big weekends (homecoming, parents weekend and holiday weekend) are still to come.</p>

<p>Oh, and I'm going to reiterate, W&L is a lot of work. I just finished reading a 184-page book which is due tomorrow, 174 pages of which I read today, not because of procrastination (that was a tiny part of it though) but mostly because I simply did not have time to do it any earlier.</p>

<p>dima, good to know that you're having a blast in W&L!
i just had my little meeting w/ our college office and they're pretty much sure that i wouldnt fit in in W&L, olols.
nevertheless, since you work in admissions, are you familiar w/ the fin aid situation/merit scholarships, etc? is it fairly easy to get good fin aid?
alright, take care, don't party too hard, i know theres still some stuy left in ya to put the schoolwork first! :]</p>

<p>Why did they say you wouldn't fit in at W&L? I'll tell you, I thought I was the last person to fit in at W&L and, luckily, I was proven very wrong. There is a bit of a culture shock as the people are so different (mostly in a good way) and it's just strange to walk down the street and see cars with their windows open but this Russian immigrant New Yorker has had no trouble fitting in with the Southern conservatives, I've even gotten used to - nay, learned to love - the greek system. This school grows on you real quick. Who is your college counselor? Ms. Danaher very much encouraged me to be unique and go for W&L.</p>

<p>The financial aid topic is definitely one I can answer. I will tell you that the financial aid office is very generous. They gave me a lot of aid in grants, a small unsubsidized loan and work study. However, the grants turned out to be unnecessary as I won a George Washington Honors Scholarship which I very much recommend you apply for, just remember that ALL your paperwork, the regular application AND the scholarship app are due BY DECEMBER 15TH if you are applying for GWHS, which I HIGHLY recommend. My GWHS (added to a scholarship I got from W&L for being a National Merit Finalist) has paid for all of my tuition, room and board, various fees, all of my textbooks ($300+) AND even some club fees, I was even able to decline my loan. I will tell you that the Financial Aid office here is staffed with wonderful people and they are always willing to help you out. Once again, I HIGHLY recommend you apply for GWHS, and as a Stuy student, chances are you will at least be a finalist, and that is fun in and of itself, as you get an all-expense paid trip to campus to sit in on classes, do interviews and even party one night (I'd love to take you out and show you what the nightlife is like here).</p>

<p>And you bet Stuy has left a mark on me, Wednesday is one of the biggest party nights here at W&L but because of the way my schedule is arranged (insanely hard Thursdays), I have not gone out on Wed nights at all.</p>

<p>If you're worried about fitting in, feel free to send me a PM or an IM with your concerns and I will be glad to answer. The people who seem to have the hardest time fitting in are non-partiers (and I don't mean non-drinkers, I mean people who don't go out to parties at all - many of my friends go out to parties and just drink soda or water), but that goes away as soon as they find out about IM Sports, SAO, the Outing Club and everything that goes on in the Commons. W&L has one of the highest retention rates in the country, because once you get here, you are not going to want to leave.</p>

<p>I am in love with W &L. I didn't think I would like a small school, but I am in awe of this school with it's tradition, southern roots, academics, reputation, and its great party scene. Could you elaborate on how the school really is? Oh, and is there an opportunity to do an overnight visit.</p>