<p>First of all I don't mean to come off as pretentious or elitist or anything...</p>
<p>But, one of my concerns about William and Mary was whether the college has a substantial population, as Princeton Review likes to call them, of "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking, Vegetarian Hipsters". Most of LAC's I applied to were largely schools whose students were described as intellectual, creative, left-wing, and independent music/film enthusiasts. These type of people form the majority (not the whole) of my peer group at the moment, as well as my interests. I feel like William and Mary is a diverse school with many different kinds of people into many different things. Are there people into what I'm into?</p>
<p>Could anyone elaborate if such a population exists at William and Mary?</p>
<p>Hahahaha, I’m sorry but the Princeton Review’s description sounds much more like a small secluded village in Vermont than Williamsburg. (no offense to Vermonters out there, Vermont’s a great state). You can find a few vegetarian hipsters at WM, but that description definitely doesn’t fit the student body in general. There are both left-wingers and right-wingers at WM, but in my experience the student body leans a little more to the left. There are definitely intellectual, creative, music/film enthusiasts. There are people who come from rural high schools and ones who come from some of the best boarding schools in the biggest cities. It’s really quite a mix to be honest… I kind of hate it when companies like the Princeton Review try to sum up student bodies in a paragraph. You would have to write much more in order to come close to explaining the student body at WM. You truly have people with every interest and from every background you could imagine.</p>
<p>“in my experience the student body leans a little more to the left”</p>
<p>Very student bodies don’t. We have often joked to D. that there is unlikely to be a university that is as conservative than she is.</p>
<p>Our impression of Wm and Mary was that the students were remarkably engaged–working with profs, taking internship, study abroad, and relief mission opportunities. They were not pretentious but obviously bright and driven.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed that D. gets good news this week!</p>
<p>They do exist at W&M.</p>
<p>If you ONLY want to be surrounded by those kids, then you should probably look elsewhere. But if you want some friends like that, and some friends who focus on other stuff, then W&M will fit your needs.</p>
<p>There are enough tree huggers at W&M to vote for their parents to pay a “green fee” every semester, if that helps you.</p>
<p>And that $15 a semester Green Fee is being put to good use too! Some of it went towards automating the lights in the study rooms in Swem - and is predicted to pay for itself within a few years in energy savings. And at least half our power comes from a coal fired power plant so things like this really make a difference.
The Sustainable Endowment Institute gave us a D- in environmental sustainability in 2007, but by 2008 it was a C. Now that the Committee on Sustainability has been formed and begun meeting, we hope that our concrete actions will continue to improve not only our “ratings”, but our actual impact as well.</p>
<p>[William</a> & Mary - College’s green grades improving](<a href=“http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2008/wmgreengradesimprove-002.php]William”>College's green grades improving | W&M News Archive | William & Mary)
[url=<a href=“http://sustainability.wmblogs.net/]Sustainability”>http://sustainability.wmblogs.net/]Sustainability</a> at William & Mary<a href=“Still%20under%20construction%20-%20regular%20updates%20will%20begin%20soon!”>/url</a></p>
<p>My sophomore daughter is definitely of that ilk (no drugs, music though) and has found many sharing her interests and activities (with a big share into music). I do think the campus is quite diverse and accepting. good luck!</p>