I am strongly considering applying ED to W&M after visiting the campus and “feeling” a fit, but I have some concerns regarding the rumoured difficulty of receiving a respectable GPA, especially since I am thinking about going on to law school after completing my undergraduate education. I have read many student posts about how much of one’s time at W&M is spent studying (for the most part) in vain, as it is extraordinarily difficult to receive a GPA above a 3.5. Throughout high school, I have always pushed myself to take hard classes and continue to pride myself for my academic motivation, yet I am slightly alarmed by the trend I have been seeing in college reviews. By the time I graduate, I will have taken 8 AP courses (all honors for the rest of my classes); I have taken 4 so far, and have received high As in all of them & will receive credit for my scores on the exams. In addition, my GPA is a 4.7 (weighted; 3.91 unweighted) and my school is one of the top ranked public high schools in the nation, resulting in a rigorous and highly competitive academic environment. In this context, am I adequately prepared for an education at W&M?
Congratulations on your hard work and success! Glad you loved William and Mary.
I am very familiar with academics at William and Mary, past and present, and with academics at several peer schools. I don’t think academics or academic pressure are significantly different from those at peer schools. Like many schools, it has experienced a moderate amount of grade inflation over the last 4-5 decades. Classes are rigorous, which I’m sure you’d want, but grading is not out of line with what one might expect. The Dean’s List requires a 3.6. You can google that, and you will find plenty of names on it each semester. I know a student who transferred from a very similar national university. They found the sciences classes at William and Mary a little easier in terms of grades but found that they were doing more reading in the humanities classes. But overall no significant difference.
When a student, and now, I viewed academic pressure as something that one can control. I did know fellow students who were stressed about grades (and some who were not). But I chose not to be. I’d work hard and let things fall where they may. Worrying about it just didn’t seem productive. Of course, there were successes and disappointments, but worrying about it would not have improved anything. Instead it would have just made things unpleasant.
It sounds like you are well prepared. You’ll do fine. Work hard, have fun, take advantage of opportunities, create opportunities, treat everyone with dignity and respect, and you’ll do well. Good luck!
Yes, you have to work for it, as you should, but good grades are definitely attainable. Look at this site and see that W&M, like almost all other colleges, actually is experiencing grade inflation and has an average GPA in excess of 3.3. http://www.gradeinflation.com/
There was a survey done in a Virginia newspaper that showed number of hours spent studying per week at Virginia universities. W&M was one hour more than UVA if I recall and less than W&L.
I believe W&M grads do pretty well with law school applications. You can see W&M is one of the top feeders for UVA law in the links below. This is a good performance given W&M is relatively small.
We had this conversation with a current W&M student recently. He assured us that the “stress culture” was vastly exaggerated and that if the people hanging out at the library for endless hours were actually studying, they wouldn’t need to be there so long!
I think if a student has good time management, it isn’t a problem. I hope so, anyway!
