I typed this up for someone else who wanted to know more about WAC. My child goes there and the experience is great. She has not seen many cut backs, the professors are awesome, they have a new president who is making great strides. The business school just got a huge grant and some other school did too (I forget which one).
The sailing team seems very tight and the boat house area is gorgeous!
Here is my write up I did for someone else. Overall, my husband and I went to Univ of Maryland (Math and Engineering) and we feel like WAC is giving our child so much more academically, internship wise, and club-wise than we experienced at a large uni.
“First off, the college has a new president which is great. Washington college seems to excel in their sciences, English, and Psychology programs. Pre-law and pre-med are popular and the business dept just got a major grant so it is up and coming. WAC gives out the the Sophie Kerr writing award (google it) and has the Starr Center for internships (google again), an amazing connection for GIS internships, has a great on-campus literary house where 3-5 authors come to speak every year in a very intimate environment and where they have read-a-thons. The CES program for Enviro and Science students is great. The school prides itself in helping guide and prepare their students through Med School and Pre Law process.
The First year seminar for all freshmen is a writing course and you pick your class/interest. My daughter took a class on “what is freedom” and became pen pals with an incarcerated woman. The professor was actually teaching the same class to the women in prison. If it weren’t for covid, my daughter would have taken a trip to have class together with the women and meet her pen pal. The career center is very helpful and every freshman has to interview an alumni in their potential field for immediate connections. There are opportunities outside of class too, for example my daughter’s English major friend invited her to go to a novel writing seminar and my daughter said another professor (non-English professor) was a participant because he was interested in writing a novel. The professors are definitely part of the community here. In fact, the professors are what make this college shine. They really get to know their students and enjoy just chatting with them during office hours and push them to excel (for instance, one professor saw potential in my daughter and convinced her to double major in Env science and Chemistry and even sat down to help her plan out her 4 year of classes to be able to do that) If you are a top 10% student you will get a lot of opportunities to put on your resume. My daughter has an internship through the school at a GIS company in Chestertown and is also is a TA for chemistry. There is also the Cater Society you can apply for for research money. My daughter was accepted and will be doing science research but it seems like it spans all majors. All of these items are huge for her resume. Science classes take place in boats, wearing waders and wading in water, or in fields.
The student body is very diverse and eclectic; because it is a smaller school, the friend groups tend to be very diverse within groups (not just ethnically, but style of dress, music, majors, etc). As for social scene, there are a ton of clubs to join. My daughter was not in student gov in high school and tried it at WAC and loves it. There are a lot of different clubs (bee keeping, a group that designed & coded a bike share app for another group that organized the actual bike share program, engineering type clubs, student event planner club, etc) and they all host events open to all students through the week. There is pretty much a student club led event every Tues-fri. Some examples: Casino night, paint and movie night, karaoke night, gardening, poetry slams, bingo nights, family feud, laser tag, international board game night, bubble soccer, Mario kart competition. There could anywhere from 10-100 kids attending the events—some events are small, some are larger. Other example of clubs are dance clubs (multiple kinds of dance), soccer club, frisbee football, badminton, karate, yoga, a work out club for those that want a workout group, model UN, philosophy club, German club, BSU, to name a few. They had an international food night where anyone could sign up and the school drove them all to an ethnic grocery store together, came back to prepare the food in dorm kitchens and then the rest of student body came to try the food. There are band/orchestra concerts and plays put on by the students. There is a day_tripper club that organizes trips that any student can sign up for. Places they have gone are Philly Christmas market, NYC, Annapolis, Betterton beach, and Christiana mall. There are parties on weekends, but from what I hear they are small. The Greek system exists and what is cool is the kids in the Greek system are friends with kids not in it. Same with most athletes. If you are looking for huge parties with 100+ kids all jammed into a fraternity basement dancing on tables, you won’t find that here. But you will find small parties, sometimes beer pong, etc and kids who don’t drink are welcome to attend as well. There is no classic college town bar scene here, but two local restaurants are trying to start “college nights”. They serve beer to those over 21, but because it is a restaurant anyone of any age can be there. Again, this is kind of new and I don’t anticipate it being like a typical big or even medium “state college bar scene.” There are two big dances each year—shoremal and birthday ball and the whole school gets dressed up and goes. They serve alcohol at the dances to those over 21. BSU also hosts a dance open to all. There is also “May Day” (google it).
The dining hall is fine. Some good stuff, some not good, but it is not horrible. There is also a “Freshens” and “Java George (Starbucks coffee)” on campus that the students seem to love. A hoagie place is opening on campus in 2023. You can walk to a Taco Bell, Arby’s, Walgreens, pizza place, and acme—all in a local strip mall. If you go in the other direction you will go to cute Chestertown. Oh my gosh, this town is adorable. There is a farmers market every Saturday and my daughter goes almost every weekend. She typically sees a ton of her friends walking around and often a professor too. It is one of her favorite things to do. The town also has great festivals there like Down-rigging and Dickens Christmas. The bakeries and coffee shops are student favorites (the cashier knows my daughter and her order). There is a gluten free bakery too. Also a book store, a record store, a cat cafe, icecream, and lots of boutique type gift shops and mid priced restaurants. Unfortunately the town does seem to shut down around 8pm—so, like I said, not a college bar scene. Next to the town is the river. On nice days you will see a few students studying there—not a ton because it is a bit of a walk but a few are usually there. There are free kayaks for students to borrow. Students study outside by the library under the trees.
There are semester long study abroads but also short study abroads too (this winter is 2 weeks in Asia, this spring 2 weeks in Bermuda). Check out Chesapeake semester—another cool opportunity. It’s a small enough school that the opportunities are easy to navigate.
My daughter is so busy every day. She leaves her dorm at 9am and gets back around 9pm between clubs, classes, visiting professors, study at library, dinner with friends, and the other events like painting, bingo, etc. There are no big box stores near by—you will use acme and dollar store and Amazon for essentials. Middletown, DE for shopping is 30 min. Some WAC kids do go to Annapolis or DC for the day but it is a trek. If you were dreaming of big parties and a lot of 2am loud activity in a college town, then Washington college isn’t the place to fit those dreams as the parties are smaller. But if that isn’t high on your list, you really care about professors who care, an “academic environment” (although I will say there are pre med kids who study all the time and also other kids who aren’t as intense, so there is a definite variety), are open to smaller weekend parties, want to have your voice heard on campus, want to join clubs you never tried before and feel comfortable in them, or even start your own club, this is a great school.”