<p>First off, my heartfelt congratulations to all of you. There were a lot of applications submitted this year so you guys were accepted when W&L has probably its highest standards in recent history. You all deserve this!</p>
<p>That said, I know that many of you have been accepted to many great schools, if you were accepted to W&L this year, I can imagine the other great options you have. Please use this thread to ask any questions at all that will help you make your decision. Specific questions are better as they are easier to answer but feel free to ask anything, almost nothing is off-limits. Though I will admit that I am biased as I would be at W&L even if every university in the world offered me a full ride (so don't ask me: where should I go, W&L or schoolH), I am not an admissions officer or someone just trying to sell the school to you guys. I will answer all your questions honestly from a student's perspective.</p>
<p>So fire away! And once again, Congratulations! and feel free to let this thread sit for a while while you celebrate.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for all of your posts.
I got my acceptance letter today (yay!) and I was just wondering if you knew when the financial aid information will be sent?</p>
<p>Dima (or any other current W&L students)- I'm probably coming down for Accepted Students Day on the 19th. I also want to do an overnight to get a feel for the campus life...would you suggest staying the Tuesday night before the Accepted Students Day, or the Wednesday night after?</p>
<p>Tuesday is a study night, Wed is a party nigth</p>
<p>Whichever you would prefer experiencing, just know that either way - not evey night is going to be exacly like that one, especially since it's just two or three days into Spring Term so people don't have much work yet.</p>
<p>Hey guys, I got accepted to W&L with a really good size scholarship, but my heart was originally set on William and Mary. The only fear I have at W&L is the size of the school. I come from a small high school (about 1,000 kids), and right now I can't wait to get out of here. I don't want to have the same experience with my college. Dima, do you ever find that Washington and Lee is just too small?</p>
<p>What a group of very different places! It's so hard to decide. Dima, I've been following you for several months since my son applied to W&L. Thanks for all your insights! We will be there on the 19th to finally visit. We've been to all the others, and originally thought of W&L as "too small." We remained intrigued enough to pursue it this far, so I hope some bells start to ring somewhere. So far he has liked WashU the most, with a close second at Miami. Maybe it's the size (8,000 - 10,000 undergrads). However, like I said, he remains intrigued by W&L. His AIM is HonorGuard57 -- do you know any football players or pre-med students he could talk to in the next week or so? Thanks -</p>
<p>Hmm . . . size. I went to a big high school - there were 800 kids in my graduating class. Before coming to W&L, I simply did not have classes with less than 34 students. And I hated the size. When looking at college, I always thought the bigger the worse. I hated not knowing most of my high school - it made me feel like the atmosphere was too serious and too competitive, it made social life worse, and it made watching school sports dull, if i wanted a bunch of people i didnt know who were supposed to represent me, I would watch professional sports. </p>
<p>I hated the amount of trouble I had to go through to get the classes I wanted, and how hard it was to even get the classes I needed to graduate (think 3 hour lines). Getting my advisors to meet with me was hard enough, getting them to actually know and understand me near impossible when they have so many other people to take care of.
My teachers would take forever to learn my name, and would forget it soon after I left the class. None of the administration knew me or really cared about me as a person.</p>
<p>I love going to a small university. My professors care about me, I know several administrators very well and they give me advice and help me out. I've even had a chance to have both lunch and dinner with the acting President of the University. No way any of that happens at a bigger school. Oh, and getting free coffee at the coop during finals - forget it at most other schools! I don't believe a large school has a sense of community like we do here at W&L, as strong a sense of tradition, honor, civility, and trust. Honor systems at big schools just dont work as well and I doubt I would be so willing to accept a ride home from a stranger. I think there are so many positives to small schools, and I get very jealous when I hear that many of you have had at least some of them all your life, while I grew up expecting unanimity in the classroom and being thrown in (even when I couldnt speak english) to fend for myself.</p>
<p>In the next week or so, all the football players, premedders and yours truly are going to be off enjoying spring break. A bunch of people have left campus already - I'm leaving tomorrow. Those that are still here are taking finals, so I don't think I can help you with that at this point.</p>
<p>I forgot it was spring break next week. My son's graduating class is slightly under 200 people, and he has been there since kindergarten. He LOVES it, but may be ready for something else. I see a lot of people ask about size -- I guess size matters after all! :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I really see your point, and I definitely realize now the advantages to being a part of a small school. I already ruled UVA out of my list, because I feel like if I go there, I will be just a number. Anyway, I'll most likely be coming to W&L, and am trying to make it to accepted students day on the 19th, but since its a long drive (8hrs) its gonna take a lot of convincing of my mom.</p>
<p>Dima, Talk about sorority life. I know WLU uses spring recruitment and that 80% of women join a sorority. Are all girls who want to join able to or do a lot of girls get cut from all 5 groups? Did you join one? If so, how was it coming from the Northeast (I think that's where you said you were from)? What about recs, etc?</p>
<p>JaxMo, I can hook your son up with a few kids to talk to. I'll send them an email with his SN on it soon. Tell him to be expecting some IMs!</p>
<p>Motherdear-- sororities-- there are some girls who get cut from all sororities, but it doesn't really matter too much. Really, being independent isn't terrible for girls (it isn't for guys either; I know some people who are very happy to be independent). It just depends on how big a deal you make out of it.</p>
<p>Also, it is false that W&L uses Spring Recruitment. We have "informal rush" in the Fall Term, where you get to just hang out and meet all the upperclassmen, and in the Winter Term is "Formal Rush" where you actually get bids. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Formal Recruitment is in the winter. It's the equivalent of Spring Rush at other schools because other schools Spring Term starts in January (and that is when rush is) while our Winter Term starts in January (again, this is when rush happens) and we have another Spring Term beginning in April.</p>
<p>Dima, I tried to email you directly with a private question, but it may not have worked. If you didn't receive the email, could you perhaps email me directly, and then I'll re-send the question? Thanks very much.</p>
<p>Well, I have a small one, but I don't know if you can answer it:</p>
<p>I was just informed that I have to take the SAT II's right away. I never did and didn't know that it was a requirement for W&L - they accepted me anyway, and just notified me of that. Nearest testing date is June 2nd. They say they want the scores by June. Think this'll work?</p>