I was wondering if current students or recent alumni could offer some input. My son is deciding between W & L and Pomona. We loved the atmosphere at W & L - staff and professors seem wonderful, and although we didn’t have much time to spend with students, we were impressed by those we met. We have several questions:
- Internship opportunities for students - it seemed as though many of the internship opportunities were with professors. Is there any on-campus recruiting and are there many opportunities with outside firms?
- How is graduate school placement for business and law school? Are students being accepted into the more highly-ranked graduate schools?
- Social Life - Do students living in sororities and fraternities become isolated from the rest of campus? We've seen frequent references to the binge-drinking. How is life on campus, relationships between male and female students, ambiance?
- With the rural setting, do students become bored?
- How helpful is the alumni network?
Thank you so much for any help you can offer.
Congrats on your son getting into two amazing schools! As a current student at W&L, I hope to shed some light into some of those questions:
- Yes, there are many internship opportunities for W&L students, both through the school (Washington Term, Amcham in the German Department, the Sheppard Internships etc) and through outside firms. Many firms do recruit on campus, and the alumni network is truly amazing, probably one of the biggest selling points of the school.
- Students go to top 10, 15 Business and Law schools routinely, though they are usually at the upper echelons of their class.
- They do not become isolated from campus - most still spend most of their time on the Hill. There can be, however, some difficulty maintaining cross-fraternity relationships (more so than cross-sorority ones). It's far from impossible, though.
- Not usually. There is plenty to do at W&L and in Lexington, but a lot of it does involve partying.
- Like I said on 1., the alumni network is very very very good. Probably one of the best among liberal arts colleges, and definitely rivaling large elite schools.
Thank you so much for your very helpful reply. We did love your school when we visited - we visited at least 15 different very competitive colleges and it was the one that we, the parents, really fell in love with. We’ll see what transpires …
@stndacy what was your son’s decision? 
@froshkiddo
Does everyone party and Washington and Lee? Are the kids who don’t party isolated and looked down upon by everyone else?