<p>borgin, Thanks. If the school is so isolated, how did they get Chinese food? Did they need to drive for 45 minutes, or was it delivered? Do you know if tripling is common there, and if there were 2 closets for 3 students? Was this a triple in a room meant for 2 students? Was bathroom area okay from what you remember?</p>
<p>I live in MD and know several students there. I ran into one last week and this is what she said to me. She is a sophomore Business major. She is very happy there. Moved off campus into an apt this year because she was assigned to the worst dorm on campus. Normally sophs have to live on campus but the college really needed rooms so they allowed it. The town is very small and there really is nothing to do in the town. She did not comment on the food. She is happy with her classes and likes the college, but I will say that one huge requirement for her was that any college she attended had to have facilities on campus or nearby for her horse. </p>
<p>If your child is an English/creative writing student, then Washington College may be what they are looking for. The Sophie Kerr award is a wonderful grant that one very talented senior receives each year.</p>
<p>I also know a student who was a biology major, she transferred out to attend nursing school after 2 years. She felt that she was slightly behind her new classmates in one subject but it did not hurt her in the transfer process.</p>
<p>Besides the NHS $40K, Washington also seems to be very generous with other scholarship money. I know 2 kids this year that were offered additional scholarships.</p>
<p>cmb, Thanks.</p>
<p>WAC is in (or next to) Chestertown, which is a small town. We drove a little while (maybe 5 minutes) to get food.</p>
<p>I don't remember the number of closets in the triple (I visited more than three years ago!), but the recent graduate I know did have a single for part of her time at the school - she might've lived a year on a sorority floor despite not being in the sorority to get one, though. Tripling seemed to be common for freshmen, but the sophomores I stayed with requested their triple specifically, if I recall recorrectly.</p>
<p>WAC has been in the process of building additional dorms for several years.
The double rooms have space for beds, desks, closets, dressers without bunking the beds.
There are also suites available for upperclass students: my daughter's senior year, she was in a new suite with 4 individual bedrooms, two full baths and a living room with a kitchenette.
Some of the dorms are very old (this is the 10th oldest school in the country) and have charm that replaces space...but they are special interest dorms not open to freshmen.</p>
<p>Again, the rooms are about the same size at all the schools I know of (Gettysburg, Whitman, Linfield, UCSC, Duke...)</p>
<p>We visited Washington College three weeks ago during a swing through the Mid-Atlantic region to look at schools that interested my D. WAC was the smallest school on my daughter's original list of 18 prospects, and we had viewed it as a possible safety school. </p>
<p>We departed a (typically) cold and overcast Upstate NY and five hours later arrived in sunny, mild Chestertown, where Spring was in full bloom. Our first impression was 180 degrees opposite of Moonmaids. The lawns were neatly mowed, garden beds well cared for, trees recently mulched and the buildings were clean and largely litter-free. We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly the grounds have recovered from the construction of the new lacrosse/soccer stadium and the expansion of the science center. We learned later that landcsaping improvements were identified as a priority in a strategic plan that was adopted a couple years back and I would say that the college is well on its way to achieving this goal. </p>
<p>Some other random observations:</p>
<p>1) All of the students we met or informally encountered were friendly and enthusiastic about their school. This included the senior interviewer in the admissions office, a theater/polical science double major from New Jersey, and our tour-guide, a second-year nursing student from suburban Philadelphia. After touring the college and checking into the nearby Comfort Suites my wife and D returned to the campus to take a walk and encountered another student who was working on a research project in the bio labs. She spent 15 minutes talking in very glowing terms about the support she has received from her professors with the project, opportunities available to motivated students and life in general at WAC. Since our return to NY my D has e-mailed our tour guide with follow-up questions and has received very prompt, friendly and candid responses.</p>
<p>2) I guess "isolation" is a relative term. My D never felt cut off from society during our visit, but perhaps that is because she lives in a rural/suburban community 20 miles from Albany. While she is fashion-concious, she has never had a great interest in mall culture, so the lack of a giant enclosed mall within walking distance of WAC didn't bother her in the least. Chestertown reminded her of the "City" of Hudson, a historic town not far from where we live that is noted for its architecture, galleries, antiques shops and independently-operated restaurants. Chestertown was, in fact, named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2007 list of "America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations". Somehow, despite the fact that my D is a "science kid," this appeals to her. She does appreciate that Annapolis and Newark, Delaware are only a 45-minute drive away (less than my daily one-way commute to work), and that Baltimore-Washington and Philly are within 90 minutes of the college. She likes the idea of being near a big city, but doesn't see the need as an undergrad to be in one. That being said, I can understand why some kids who have been raised in the congested big cities and suburbs of the northeast (as I was) might feel somewhat uneasy about small town life.</p>
<p>3) For the record, Chestertown has not one but two Chinese restaurants. You can also get pizza! However, just as we don't travel to Phoenix for pizza, we don't come to the Chesapeake for Chinese. There are plenty of independent restaurants, coffee houses, tea rooms and fast food places in Chestertown. We had lunch at Play It Again, Sam and a crab-cake dinner at the Old Wharf. Crab might be a little pricey for a college student to enjoy on a regular basis, but there are many more affordable alternatives around town.</p>
<p>4) I have to mention the dorm rooms. There is nothing special about the dorms at WAC. We were shown a room in Minta Martin, one of the older dorms on campus. It looked about the same as the dorm rooms we have seen at William & Mary, Dickinson, Brandeis and Lafayette (except it was cleaner). From what we were told two new buildings housing suites are slated to be completed in the next year, so tripling should not be an issue for the Class of 2012. </p>
<p>The bottom line was that after completing our southern tour my D has moved WAC towards the top of her list, along with William & Mary. Although her "stats" make her a viable candidate for the most selctive schools, she felt that with her interest in biology/environmental science, and a pre-med track, WAC's offerings and record of placement in med school commend this school. She also loves the idea of Chestertown's proximity to the Chesapeake and the (relatively) warm Maryland weather. </p>
<p>We'll see where things stand after her final round of college visits and after she has had time to think over the summer, but right now -- for this particular kid -- Washington College looks like a solid candidate.</p>
<p>We visited Washington College last year during an informational weekend and did not even notice the presence or absence of shrubs or quality of the dorm rooms. We liked the professors and instructors. We were positively impressed with the political science professor who spoke with us. He was dynamic, well spoken and thoughtful. S wanted to visit an education department presentation and the professor was amazing. He brought his love for teaching alive in just the 1/2 hour we were there and wowed us with the many projects the kids had done in his class. Another thing we did notice were the kids. You know when you see the kids if you can fit in or not. Also, there was a large beautiful recreational facility. S liked the school but wasn't needed on their tennis team so took a pass. Too bad.</p>
<p>BCG, and HudsonValley, Thanks for the feedback!</p>