<p>Wow, Dima, I am so glad to hear how much fun W & L is! You should work as a recruiter. We are planning a spring break sweep of VA and NC schools, W & M, Richmond, W & L, Davidson and Duke. I hope schools are in session so my son can get an idea of what the student body is like. The kids sure sound great at your school.</p>
<p>AG54 - good choices - tho I am very partial to W&L - DS graduated 2000 from there - loved it - would not have had it any other way!!! Enjoy your visits</p>
<p>My daughter is seriously considering applying to W&L. We have been very impressed with the college, professors, etc. One of my concerns is that we are a middle income family. I am assuming that many of the students at W&L are in the upper income level. Do you believe this will present a problem for my daughter. Will she feel out of place/in the minority. What has been your experience with the attitude of the students. Just wanted an opinion from someone who knows. Thanks!</p>
<p>GILMORE - our experience was in one word - WONDERFUL!!! </p>
<p>Regarding the 'income levels' - you are a bit misguided - yes - many of the students seem to come from $$ - but not all - it is/was actually a place where some less $$ fortunate students fit in quite well - like us at the time or our DS's time there - so NO - your DD will NOT feel out of place or be a minority there by any means. We actually found that it was a very accepting attitude there over all - even us/DD being a ''northerner'' in what used to be a ''southern gentlemen's'' school.</p>
<p>There were actually 3 students - within 4 years - from our town who attended W&L and I would say all were from fairly well below the mid-income levels - 1 from a single parent home. </p>
<p>If your DD is very interested in W&L - my advice would be - take the shot - go for it - it is a wonderful education experience there - and I believe the income situation will have little effect on her fitting in at all. While our DD was there - going into his senior year - we had a horrendous situation occur here and both of us ended up job hunting at the same time - the fin aid folks at W&L were awesome to us - very helpful and supportive - to keep him there so he could graduate on time - I don't think many schools would have assisted us as W&L did - they really wanted him there and helped us to make it happen.</p>
<p>DIMA if you see this - what would your input be?? Any thoughts on this now-a-days??</p>
<p>I appreciate the information! From reading all of the posts, it appears that our impression of W&L was correct - an amazing place!</p>
<p>I would agree completely with JeepMOM's sentiments. Although there are quite a few students here who think it normal to shop casually online for a $2000 purse, they don't consider themselves above the rest for it - probably for the same reason that there are too many to make an 'elite'. The only time you really know what someone's monetary situation is is when you go to the parking lots and see the types of cars some people drive but as many people don't bring cars with them at all - you're not considered 'poor' if you don't have one.</p>
<p>So it seems to me that with the exception of some frats and srats - KD and Kappa come to mind as srats - that are supposedly meant for the rich and snobby elite, you can't really tell who is where and no one really cares.</p>
<p>well, i dont think ppl here will know this, but sure would help if anyone had a faintest clue.</p>
<p>any idea of the number of internationals that apply each year?</p>
<p>I'm going to be working in admissions tomorrow and will try to ask your questions for you, although i dont know if i will be online at all this weekend since it is parents weekend and sunday i am in dc.</p>
<p>appreciate it!</p>
<p>dima. do you have any messenger? id like to talk to you, if possible.</p>
<p>hmm, not that it matters, but still. WLU has a very good ranking, good professors, friendly students, fun school..then why is so less reknowned?i mean when i say Wash & lee, ppl dont really know the college</p>
<p>cause:
a) it's an LAC: look at the top 20 national universities and the top twenty LAC's, the national u's will sound a lot more familiar
b) it's in the south: northern colleges like williams, amherst and oberlin are much better known than W&L and Davidson</p>
<p>are LA students less preffered in carrer recruitment in comparison to a student whose done a normal major?</p>
<p>How's the pre-med program?</p>
<p>To be honest, all I know about the pre-med program is that it is killing my friends social lives.</p>
<p>If you call the admissions office, I'm sure they can give you stats on our med school admissions rates, I don't know them by heart but I know them very well. Pre-med here is very hard because it's not technically a major, so you have to fulfill the pre-req meds as well as the reqs for a major (probably biology or biochem or something like that). Pre-meds get an insane amount of work and have much less opportunity to take electives than C-school, J-school and liberal arts majors.</p>
<p>Hey all, I'm also a Freshman at W&L. In fact, I live down the hall from Dima. I'm from Ohio and went to a high school that isn't very academically challenging compared to some of the schools people went to around here. I was on the waiting list and barely got in, but I'm very glad I did. It wasn't my first choice, but I can't imagine a better place to start college.</p>
<p>Here are my experiences with W&L:
It was quite a change. I have moved before (I'm an Air Force brat) but this was just...wow. The biggest thing is that a lot of people drink, and when they drink, they drink a lot. I wasn't the only one who was taken off-guard by this-a lot of people in my hall and a lot of my friends thought they were "the only one" that didn't drink or whatever, and they felt pretty isolated. But that was really only in the first week, which is all orientation and awkard moments.</p>
<p>Here are some potential issues with W&L:
- Tradition dominates, even if it doesn't make sense. Actually, especially if it doesn't make sense.
- If you're not Republican or at least conservative, welcome to a very small minority. I'm very conservative and a huge Republican, but I think this deserves to be said.
- The administration is<em>highy</em>complacent with underage drinking. Again, with the tradition dominating everything else. As a devoted non-drinker, this is pretty shocking to me. Maybe its because I was brought up to obey the law, but whatever.
- We may more or less scratch the honor system this year. Seriously.
- Lexington is small, and doesn't have much to do. But that's not that big an issue because you'll have a lot of work to do anyway.
- Speaking of work, it comes in waves here. Sometimes small, cute waves, othertimes, it comes in tsunamis and you begin wondering if the weekend will ever come.</p>
<p>All in all, I love W&L, even if I have some serious issues with it. Like all schools, it's a lot different once you get here. If anyone has any questions regarding study abroad or wants to hear anything else from my perspective, go for it. Dima's smarter than me, but I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has.</p>
<p>DIMA - my son was originally pre-med there - but alas...... followed his heart and changed direction - all for the best tho. I will say tho that the pre-med concentration is a tough one - but the other side of the coin is that the acceptance to med school is a very high percent of W&Ler's. If someone is seriously considering pursuing med school - they will have little trouble coming from W&L - as long as the GPA is up there and the MCAT score is as well.</p>
<p>SKIRBYY - aawww the traditions are the best part of W&L - enjoy them - LOL</p>
<p>Hey dudes, I'm also a frosh at W&L. Basically W&L is the best and you need to come here. I disagree with what Skirbyy said about the political thing. I feel that W&L has MUCH MORE intellectual diversity than many New England liberal arts schools that claim to be "diverse." Their definition of diverse is just lots of ethnic diversity, which doesn't always bring along with it varying political ideologies. I feel W&L is very receptive to open discussion about certain issues, whereas some other schools have had MAJOR problems with political correctness dominating the campus. Check out <a href="http://www.academicbias.com%5B/url%5D">www.academicbias.com</a> to see what I mean. If you have ANY questions, feel free to IM me at Ben jammun Hur or email me at <a href="mailto:harrismg@REMOVEwlu.edu">harrismg@REMOVEwlu.edu</a>. You can also private message me. If you post something on the board and I don't seem to respond, just send me an email to let me know you posed a question on it. Good luck with your applications!</p>
<p>I should also say that I should be able to provide a different insight than Dima and Skirbyy. I am a drinker unlike Skirbyy, and my favorite fraternities are Kappa Sig and Sigma Chi, which are a lot different than Lambda and Chi Psi.</p>
<p>I also agree with Dima's assessment of KD and Kappa, but, let's be honest, KDs all seem to be incredibly attractive.</p>