W&M reputation

<p>W&M advertises itself as a quirky place with intellectual students.
To those who do and have attended: Do you find this characterization accurate?</p>

<p>I think it is accurate… if you look at the other top public schools, W&M is the outlier by far. Strong history, small classes, student body on the smaller side, and no big time sports. There is tons of school spirit. There are parties and great social lives to be had, but W&M will never be confused with a party school. The greek scene will never be confused with the greek scene at a big southern school. I think it feels more like a private school than “State U”. The students are definitely intellectual and quirky, IMO. I don’t now if that helped any, lol.</p>

<p>Thanks. I was hoping that was the case.</p>

<p>Yes, it is accurate for most of the student body.</p>

<p>soccerguy315 and Here<em>to</em>Help,</p>

<p>Other than being larger and not private, how would you compare it to Washington and Lee?
Is it more or less academic? More or less conservative? More or less Greek? </p>

<p>Any insights would be helpful.</p>

<p>Mom- the vibe is definitely accurate. Rare intellectual school in the South. Brown of the South.</p>

<p>Runman- More (slightly) academic, less conservative, less Greek than W&L. The gulf used to be wider when it was all-male. Both are very very good schools IMO.</p>

<p>Definitely way less conservative than W&L and probably less Greek oriented also. </p>

<p>For academic standing, I’d say they were both about the same.</p>

<p>Way less conservative. Quirky intellects really describes the place. Always, when driving through campus, I see at least one person, most of the time, many, running. I’ve never seen so many runners on any other college campus.</p>

<p>W&M is almost heaven for the non conformist who wants college and not 13th grade.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t quite go so far as to say non conformist. Quirky is as far as I would take it. As comparison to W&L, I think W&M has more opportunities as it is larger, yet it still has the personal feel. W&M is less Greek oriented, yet still has a large Greek population; I would call W&M a little more academic (just because there is less of a focus on alcohol) and much less conservative.</p>

<p>Thanks to all for responding to my question of W&L vs. W&M.
How would you rate W&M compared to Richmond?</p>

<p>another response for significantly less conservative. The greek scene at W&M is not dominate. My impression of W&L is the greek scene is very… everywhere. But I have never been there.</p>

<p>Richmond is a good school, though I would argue not as good as W&M (80% of W&M students in the top 10% of HS class, 1240-1450; 58% of UR students in the top 10% of HS class, 1170-1350). Half the size of W&M. Campus is nice (suburban, not downtown, though obviously closer to a mid-sized city than W&M). Lots of kids from the northeast. More preppy feel. I have a couple friends who went to UR (one from NJ, and one from VA on full ride), and they both had a great time.</p>

<p>numbers for W&M/UR from collegeboard.com</p>

<p>Ditto what soccerguy said. W&M has a slight bump in the academics. A big difference is Williamsburg vs Richmond and Colonial/Frisian Brick Architecture vs Collegiate Gothic.</p>

<p><< 80% of W&M students in the top 10% of HS class, 1240-1450 >></p>

<p>Given the way the applications have exploded the last couple of years, assume that those numbers have gone way up. College Board also says the admission rate is 34%, but this year it was 23%. My guess, based on how UVA went, is that 90+% are in the top 10% of their HS class, and the SAT mid-50 range was 1300-1500 (UVA was 94%, 1300-1480 this year).</p>

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<p>Are you quoting numbers for admits or matriculants? The numbers for admits are better than those for matriculants. I believe soccerguy is quoting numbers for matriculants, n’est-ce pas?</p>

<p>Also, W&M’s admission rate this year was 29% overall. As an institution, we try to admit a diverse, talent, intellectual, and quirky group of students who can bring a wide array of talents and perspective to campus thus making this community the dynamic and engaging student body that it is.</p>

<p>W&M Admission,
Do you have figures for the OOS admission rate?</p>