<p>D received acceptance but isn't sure about whether the social life on campus is right for her----any help from current students? What's it like on on weekends?</p>
<p>I don't know much about it, but there was a thread just a little while ago about this. There's a lot of info in it, it's a good read.</p>
<p>[thread]307791[/thread]</p>
<p>that's a good thread to read... if you have specific questions, feel free to throw them out, the current students will try to answer them =)</p>
<p>I'm a graduating senior at WM and have partied at various schools in Virginia. You will not find a keg at every apartment on friday night like you will at JMU. At the same time, some pretty crazy parties go down here on weekends and once you make some friends it is not difficult to find them. When your D enters WM, she will immediately make friends in her dorm and through other means. If she is really interested in getting in on the social scene the fastest way to do it would be to get involved with greek life. Sororities are always hosting parties, going to parties, and networking through these means. There is pretty much a sorority for every kind of girl so your D would be able to figure out through pledging which one suits her. The deal is pretty simple - by attending a rigorous school your social life is going to be put on hold sometimes and especially during the last month of the semester but weekends are alot of fun. You have to give and take, but when we party.... let me tell you we party. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Don't worry, I've woken up to plenty of puke in my dorm bathrooms. If your daughter wants a social life, it can be done. If not, that's perfectly acceptable around here too.</p>
<p>Tribe1693, if you had to do it again would you attend W & M? What is your major and what are your plans after graduation? We're from NJ and my D was accepted as a Monroe Scholar. Trying to decide between W & M, Wesleyan and Emory. Money isn't the issue although W & M is $11K less than the other schools. I'll be posting a request for overall opinions in another thread but I figured I'd reach out to you. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Sort of tongue in cheek to the O/P, I know I want my kids to pick school on where they can party the best! lol</p>
<p>Let me start by saying that being chosen as a Monroe scholar is an incredible distinction and you should be very proud of your D. It is not easy to distinguish yourself in a group of students which is already very distinguished. congrats. I personally am a history major and will say that my experience at William and Mary has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. I often tell people that I have learned more in my time here than I ever deemed possible. The WM experience is one in which the professors are personable and in general teach with a passion. I took a class a couple of semesters ago where a professor began the first day of class by pointing to our text and said "this is where my heart is, this is what I love". No matter what major your D plans to pursue, she will find that the professors who specialize in that field are willing to bolster her interests within that field, her goals, and her aspirations as far as she wants to take them. I have established many good relationships with various professors. One is even helping a good friend of mine through the graduate school application process even though he's not his advisor. Back to the rigor of the coursework, there will be testing times when your D wonders how she will get everything accomplished by certain deadlines and with quality. There have been times for me personally where I have called my dad to vent. However, she will rise to the occasion and her experience in learning time management will be crucial. WM has a way of throwing more reading at you than is humanly possible... you just have to learn how to focus on what is most important. You learn what to scan, what to read in its entirety, and the importance of just taking each hurdle at a time before focusing on upcoming tests/presentations/papers. In my view, it is definitely possible to achieve a healthy balance. I have managed to have a social life while becoming inducted into an honor society which puts me in the top 15 % of my class. I have also managed to maintain an “A” average in my History courses. There will always be some negative aspects of any person’s experience in college, but in my opinion WM is the kind of opportunity that I would hate to see your D turn down. I will be attending law school after I am done with WM this spring and can tell you that all of the law schools I gave serious consideration to during the phase when I was making my decision continually emphasized their respect for WM. In speaking with them, they discussed the quality of students coming out of WM as being in the company of grads from schools such as Cornell, Brown, and Notre Dame. From talking to my friends who will be going into med school in the fall, they are given similar treatment. I guess what I am emphasizing is that WM is well known by the admissions dept’s of various types of grad. schools and while one’s school is not the sole component of his or her application, it can definitely be that extra factor which puts one in the “accepted” pile rather than the “waitlisted” pile. Graduate schools like to feel confident in what they are getting in an applicant and it seems as though they feel very confident in what they are getting from a student who makes it through WM. On whether I would do it again, yes I definitely would. I feel like this is the kind of experience that will always stick with me and that anything I do in the future I will do with more confidence than I would have had I attended another school. WM teaches you how to become comfortable in tough situations, to be able to relay a quick and understandable answer while under the gun. I was given an interview at a law school with a very low acceptance rate where I had to meet one on one with the dean and then meet with the dean of admissions and a professor at the same time. I was grilled with some tough questions, but was able to answer quickly and decisively. When I walked out of the law school, I knew right away that I would be accepted. Sure enough, I was. I don’t mean to babble about my own accomplishments, but what I am trying to say is that I feel as though the confidence I exuded in the interview can only be attributed to my experience at WM. In the end, your D will know in her heart what the right place for her will be. However, I can tell you that the WM experience is one that will benefit me for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>Tribe1693: Thank you so much for the input. Your insight was great and very much appreciated. And I don't know whether you learned to write before you got to WM or learned while you were there but you do it beautifully! I wish you the best of luck in Law School. You sound like you have a lot of confidence. Don't ever lose that.</p>
<p>no problem Leibow11! If you have any more questions, please let me know. Also, thanks for the compliment (:</p>
<p>I graduated from W&M 30 years ago and I really feel the same way that Tribe does about my experience there. I love going back and have maintained close relationships from there. I can say that I did not have a bad professor at W&M in my many years there. I went on to graduate school and returned there for law school. I was an English major undergrad, and I agree that the amount of reading was seemingly insurmountable. However, I was more than prepared for the amount of reading in law school - many of my fellow students were not. I was in a sorority at W&M and I won't deny that we had a good time. I never had to look for something to do. I have found that, to this day, there are few things I have enjoyed more than a bike ride or a walk through Colonial Williamsburg. The English Department was housed in the Wren Building at the time and I loved having classes there and in the historic buildings nearby. I would absolutely go back and do it all again tomorrow.</p>
<p>-OP-
If your D wants to party on the weekend, she will find people like her at WM. I know people who go out Tuesday through Sunday, though they are definitely in the minority. Once you get into the partying group of people on campus, you will find out where things are and what's up. There are a fair number of off campus houses that are home to parties on the weekends, in addition to the frats and such.</p>
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[quote]
Tribe1693, if you had to do it again would you attend W & M? What is your major and what are your plans after graduation? We're from NJ and my D was accepted as a Monroe Scholar. Trying to decide between W & M, Wesleyan and Emory. Money isn't the issue although W & M is $11K less than the other schools. I'll be posting a request for overall opinions in another thread but I figured I'd reach out to you. Thanks for your help.
[/quote]
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<p>I am also a graduating senior. When I came to visit during high school, I just had the "it felt right" feeling. Can't put a finger on exactly what it was, but 4 years later, I would make the same choice again. Being a Monroe scholar is an excellent distinction. You can do almost anything you want with that money. You can use it to travel, or do research. One of my friends wrote the script and music for his own musical, and took it to NYC.</p>
<p>Tribe1693's academic credentials are significantly better than mine (and quite impressive, congrats), but I have also heard from friends applying to further schooling about the respect that WM has. Joe Schmo on the street might not have heard of WM, but the people in positions that matter know. There are jobs that come through the career center that are specifically looking for WM grads, because of the reputation of the school, and previous grads that have worked for them. The workload can be tough, but most of it is knowing what to concentrate on when, and that all assignments are not created equal. If you have an exam tomorrow, it's ok to skip (or quickly skim) the 100 pages of reading for your other class. Really, it's ok. William and Mary students demand so much from themselves, and are very involved, sometimes overly involved. The people who get overly stressed are usually the ones taking 18+ credits and involved in lots of organizations.</p>
<p>I don't think you can really go wrong choosing William and Mary. The only thing I personally feel it lacks is a big time sports feel. But that would certainly come with downsides as well. As for my post graduation plans, I will be doing at least one year with Americorps here in Virginia. Then maybe another year, but probably look for a government or nonprofit job. My major is international relations.</p>
<p>As Tribe said also, the professors have a passion for teaching. They are there to teach, not live in the lab or run away to write books. They are happy to engage students outside of class, and are just very, very helpful. You hear stories about other schools where it seems like students take a back seat, and professor teach because they have to, not because they want to. This is not the case at WM. Also TAs... hardly ever found. They run intro language class drills, there is one in each science lab session, and they run low level math problem sessions (professor 3 days a week, problem session 1 day)</p>