Theatre and English at W&M

I’m thinking about transferring to William and Mary as a second year. How are the theatre and English departments here?

The English department is top notch, a real strength of the school. It’s also very nice that it’s in Tucker Hall, which is right next to the Wren Building on the Sunken Gardens, and close to the restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, etc. on and around DOG Street. I know less about the theatre department so can’t help you much there. It always seemed like a pretty close community though. Good luck with your decision!

Hoping that posting here will “bump” your thread up and get more responses, Frenchballadeer. My HS junior is very interested in both English (especially creative writing) and theater and is looking at William and Mary.

TTG, if you’re out there: Any knowledge of how well regarded creative writing is there? Looking at other schools with strong creative writing programs, I don’t get the same sense that creative writing has as many options or courses at WM as at some smaller LACs. Would love to be proved wrong.

Thanks for thinking of me. I know the English department in the more traditional sense of an old-school English major (I was actually at Tucker earlier this week), and not so much what the school currently offers in terms of creative writing. Sorry! Maybe someone else can weigh in, and maybe I will help keep this thread bumped up. I do know of one very successful western nature/humor writer who is a product of the W&M English department,

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2146437/michael-p-branch#events

@conrad2 While I have nothing to add here because I’m only a high school junior, I wanted to say that I also really want to go into creative writing, and William and Mary is one of my top choices.

To the OP, @frenchballadeer, from what I am heard from upperclassmen, people at W&M, others on here, rankings, and reviews, the language and arts programs are very good at W&M. However, due to my age and lack of experience, I am sorry I can’t really add any more information that is useful. Good luck to you.

Have a good day!

Bumping again to see who’s out there! We toured W&M this past weekend and my daughter met individually with theater and dance professors. We would like to hear from current or recent former W&M students on the subject of the college overall: The size seems ideal to us, large enough to have plenty of resources and opportunities for students, but small enough that students can get to know people and get involved in many things. (That wasn’t the vibe we had at UVA – UVA had a lot of things that impressed us including its facilities, but it seems so vast, and we were told by several current students that faculty advising is not at all good in the first two, pre-major years).

So–what do you think?
Is the size of W&M good, for the reasons I mention above?
What was your experience with faculty advising, especially in the first two years?
Did the same core of students seem to do everything and lead everything (a risk at some very small LACs we’re looking at) or were there chances for everyone to do their own thing if they seek the opportunities?
Did you feel you were in a tiny town or in a larger area? Although Williamsburg is actually small, and the nearest big city is an hour away, the area didn’t feel small-town in the way some LACs do–maybe because W’burg has so many tourists coming and going. Any thoughts appreciated.

I’m a big W&M fan, so take that into consideration in reading my comments.

Yes, I think the size is great. Big enough you can always meet new people but small enough you know people most places you go after freshman year (i.e. you stop by Lokal Praktice or Aromas for lunch and see a friend or dorm mate). I know a current student very well. They transferred from a top-ranked national university after a semester. They started working in a lab freshman year at W&M and got paid for it starting sophomore year. They were in a 15-student upper-level seminar class in their major first semester sophomore year. They also found the students relatively diverse and very friendly.

They also like that they can walk to the Colonial Williamsburg area and socialize and study at one of several coffee shops, cafes, pizza places, etc. It is small but now a pretty large number of places for students to go. Weather is nice (well, not this week, Hurricane Florence Henderson). It is all very walkable–campus, town, restaurants/coffee shops/bars, off-campus houses.

Good luck with the decision! Glad to hear you enjoyed the W&M visit!

How important do you think doing the on-campus interview is for admission? Yes, the web site says it’s optional and they said the same at our campus visit, but I know families who think it does make a difference. It’s going to be nearly impossible for us to get back down there to do this during the fall. Thoughts? Are people wrong to think the interview has so much sway if a candidate has a good application?