<p>northwestern vandy and bucknell for w&m...possibly UVA.how about u?</p>
<p>I can see turning down Bucknell. I would have a hard time turning the other 3 down. All 5 schools are great though, and you must be a great student to have been accepted at all of them.</p>
<p>Probably turning down Bucknell, Colgate, Wesleyan and Emory for W & M</p>
<p>W&M is so great!! I don't think you'll regret your decision to attend...Tribe Pride!!!</p>
<p>I agree it's a great school. are you in-state? If so, look at UVA too. Also another good school with good grade inflation.</p>
<p>Right now W&M is first choice over uva, vandy and wake forest.</p>
<p>No doubt you've your good reasons dunks, but they're intriguing for sure ...</p>
<p>Absolutely, WP: With instate tuition, William and Mary and UVA are incredible values - would be very hard to justify paying $100,000+ more for one of the other two schools. Both W&M and UVA offer great academics - right now am leaning toward W&M for other reasons - the smaller school feel, smaller class sizes and in general, "the fit." Also, the campus is absolutely beautiful.</p>
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Absolutely, WP: With instate tuition, William and Mary and UVA are incredible values - would be very hard to justify paying $100,000+ more for one of the other two schools.
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<p>Seriously, D had the same situation, and turned down schools that were upwards of $30K more a year than W&M/UVA, and that's including the (rather sad) financial aid offers. I'd have had to auction some of my internal organs on Ebay to afford that. </p>
<p>Choice of UVA (Echols), W&M (Monroe), Ivy League, and 2 ultra-selective LACs would seem to be difficult choices, but only at the same cost. Factor the out-of-pockets costs, pffbt!, it wasn't even close. And after visiting both UVA and W&M, again, it wasn't even close. </p>
<p>These <em>are</em> undergrad schools; better to save that cash for grad school.</p>
<p>Squiddy, is your D going to Monroe Scholars day this weekend? My D is going because she's still deciding. Although my Ebay listings aren't getting many bids so we're taking that into consideration. </p>
<p>Seriously though, my thoughts are still with the difficulty of getting a high GPA at W & M to enable entry into a good grad/law school down the road. No question as to the great education she will get at W & M but that is also available at the other schools she's considering. She's a great student and used to getting straight A's. Wondering how she'll feel at W & M when that brick wall hits her.</p>
<p>Doesn't necessarily hit you.</p>
<p>My S had a 3.83 first semester of his freshman year, and has straight A's in semester 2 so far.</p>
<p>He was not straight A's in high school, either.</p>
<p>W&M is tough, but it's not impossible to do well. My S actually is talking about how easy it has been so far (and I am not trying to brag on him, just telling you what he has said to me.) He said he actually has a lot more time in college to do things than he did in HS.</p>
<p>Leibow,</p>
<pre><code>she's already enrolled, and is pretty happy there. I really can't say much about the GPA and grad school, except I'm pretty optimistic; the admission stats for W&M students into grad schools are among the best.
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<p>I think that particular wall can be a bit of a rude shock, if you're not prepared, but I think most kids survive with their psyches intact - just have to have realistic expectations - that 4.3 in high school isn't even possible, and a 4.0 after 4 years while at least possible is, for most, equally unrealistic as a 4.3. </p>
<p>The dean of student affairs had a schtick which, since it involves physical gestures, doesn't really translate well - badly paraphrasing, the idea is that everyone that attends W&M was the big fish where they came from; at W&M, they suddenly become "average"; but when they leave, they're the big fish again ...</p>
<p>Ugh, he said it a <em>lot</em> better ...</p>
<p>Squiddy, I get the gist........ thanks. I'll just you with the gestures. I understand the big fish issue. Happened to me when I got to college. Hated it the first semester because I was a "nobody" and knew "nothing" but it got progressively better and I was able to become a big fish again. My D is better and smarter than I am which is what we all want for our children. I think that everything I couldn't do my D will make up for.</p>
<p>Now a very candid question. If your D had to make the same decision again would it be the same?</p>
<p>"Now a very candid question. If your D had to make the same decision again would it be the same?"</p>
<p>Okay, I'll inject myself here, and another voice to the discussion. My son is a sophomore and doing well academically and extracurricularly (is that a word?) and enjoying himself. </p>
<p>Yes, he would make the same choice, although he has admitted and has advised his sister, a HS junior now going through the process, that the distance from home has turned out to be a bigger factor than he realized. We're in Delaware, so W&M is usually a 6 to 6-1/2 hour drive (took us 8-1/2 on one horrible trip last year, but others we know claim to have done it in 5), so coming home for a weekend is not really an option. Of course, both of my children have rejected the opposite extreme -- University of Delaware, which is 3 or 4 miles from our house, is considered "too close." (But, but, but . . . in-state tuition . . . oh, well.)</p>
<p>--K9Leader</p>
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Now a very candid question. If your D had to make the same decision again would it be the same?
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<p>I'd say she's even more certain now that it was the right choice for her; she's never even come close to saying "I wish I'd chosen ..." Of course, that just might be her pragmatism, too. </p>
<p>But, if money had been no object, would she have chosen, say, Stanford or Duke or Harvard or Williams? Probably. But since money <em>is</em> an object, she's tickled to be getting such a bargain, as am I, she loves her school, doesn't feel like she's compromised anything, and has no regrets. </p>
<p>Now, that doesn't mean that there weren't a few surprises along the way, some good, some not so.</p>
<p>I guess the one thing that's been a bit of an unwelcome surprise is that, as a small school, there aren't always many sections for particular classes offered, and very often, are only offered once a year. So, schedules and course selections have to be planned out far ahead, and can be something of a trial at times. The Monroe priority registration is wonderful; except it only applies for the first semester. Of course, it all works out, but is good for some stressful days at times. </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Yeah, my S wants to take French Philology (he is a French major), and it supposedly will not be offered the next 3 years, even though it is listed in the course catalog.</p>
<p>K9 Leader, thanks for the feedback. I understand the distance thing. We're from NJ so it's even farther (love that Washington traffic) but I can't let that be a deciding factor. IF D had gotten into Dartmouth (first choice) it would have been even farther...... and a lot colder. Although maybe the distance is a small factor with Emory. Knowing my D I don't feel not coming home for a weekend is really a big deal. We'll just deal with it.</p>
<p>Squiddy, my D actually wants a smaller school and some she applied, and been accepted to are even smaller than W & M. She's a "class participator" which is impossible with the larger schools. Yes, she may not get to take all the classes she wants but out of all the classes offered you can only take 32 or 33 anyway. I also imagine with a significant number of AP class credits it will allow her to avoid some of the entry level classes usually required and give her the opportunity to take more that interest her. In theory anyway.</p>
<p>Amen to the class participator role. Classes do fill up incredibly fast and sometimes you have to settle for 5th choices, but its worth it. I am a sophomore and I just transferred to W&M. To speak to the level of work, it is certainly manageable. I have solid A's in the majority of my classes and I am expecting something in the 3.6-3.8 range this semester. Given that I am no Noam Chomsky or anything I too have been surprised that the level of difficulty is not quite on the level of what I had expected. Grade deflation is obvious, but you deal. It is a wonderful place.</p>