<p>is this school well known across the country?? does anyone else think it's kinda ranked low on usnews?</p>
<p>No I think William and Mary is ranked perfectly fine around 30. </p>
<p>And William and Mary is known all over the northeast and south...idk about the midwest/west.</p>
<p>so you would say that it is prestigious</p>
<p>it's known as the second best school in the state, after uva. it's also public, which might be a reason its not as well known as it should be.</p>
<p>It's a superior school, no doubt about it.</p>
<p>W&M is the second oldest institution in the country, so it's a very fine school.</p>
<p>Fine school, highly regarded, and very much in demand. A special place. Why is prestige so important?? ;)</p>
<p>lots of president went there i think but im not sure....</p>
<p>If it's good enough for my main man thomas jefferson, I'd reccomend it to anyone!</p>
<p>im not so sure its second best in VA. i think W&L is.</p>
<p>I think Thomas Jefferson is the only pres from W&M. It depends what you mean by best. W&L would have the highest avg SAT and lowest acceptance rate of the three, but is less known (even though it was founded ~ 70 years before UVA) at least partly because of having a class of only ~ 450 students a year. All three are respected top 50 schools. W&M does have a rep of a more nerdy, less fun atmosphere than the other two, but not really sure how justified it is.</p>
<p>James Monroe went there also.</p>
<p>Their honors program is named for him.</p>
<p>William and Mary is known in the nothern VA area. Here are my experiences with it from living my life in the Fairfax, VA area. </p>
<p>Our school sends most to UVA and then to William and Mary. I would not say that William and Mary is a "backup" for UVA but usually kids go to UVA if accepted to both. UVA and William are both considered "Top Tier" though but William has certain things that make it a bit undesirable by kids in my school:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Grade deflation. Frat parties at UVA vs. Studying hardcore at William and Mary. The stories of grade deflation and difficulty of getting into Top Grad/Law/Med schools make William a bit scary to any high school senior.</p></li>
<li><p>Liberal Arts environment. William is very small and resembles a Liberal Arts college. In fact it really should be considered one as it basically only deals with the liberal arts. UVA meanwhile has engineering/business for the kids who want to pursue these fields. </p></li>
<li><p>Endowment. William and Mary has a horrific endowment. 300 million I believe....</p></li>
<li><p>Social life. Let's just say it is rumored to be quite bad.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Conclusion: From my school, UVA will always be more prestigious and this is probably true for all of the VA area. However, William and Mary is known for intellectuals and those who care about their education rather than frat parties, hot girls, and concentrations of business/engineering at UVA. </p>
<p>It may not be prestigious but who needs it to be? It is a fantastic school but with all the reasons I listed above, will probably not be gaining any prestige outside of the area for a while. </p>
<p>I would definitely go if you want to attend a Top Tier Virginian school with a lot of history and culture. For an education you definitely want to go to William and Mary. It is a very intellectual place and they will work you pretty hard if you want to maintain that 3.0+.</p>
<p>It is not known on west coast. Not to say it isn't a great school.</p>
<p>West Coast people don't know about Brown or Dart either. If they do, its only because they know its an Ivy. Most people on West Coast don't know that UVa is on par academically with Berkeley.</p>
<p>A lot of west coast private school preps like Dartmouth, Brown and other excellent east coast schools.</p>
<p>UVA actually isn't on par academically with Berkeley. It scores better than most top public schools in the USNWR metrics (grad rates, donation rates etc), but I'm not sure it's even on par with Michigan as far as the academic component. It's more on the same level as UNC, Illinois, Wisconsin or Texas, which are other excellent public schools.</p>
<p>The difference between UVA and Berkeley is that UVA aspires to be the top public school in the USA while Berkeley feels that being labeled as the top public school in the USA is a slap in the face.</p>
<p>I have a friend attending William & Mary and she's finding it very hard to make friends. Keep in mind she definitely wasn't socially inept back in high school.</p>
<p>"The difference between UVA and Berkeley is that UVA aspires to be the top public school in the USA while Berkeley feels that being labeled as the top public school in the USA is a slap in the face."</p>
<p>LOL what a bunch of pretentious rubbish. As for worldwide (as it implies), the top public school is still Oxford.</p>
<p>I would much rather go to UVA than W&M. I visited William and Mary when I went to williamsburg on vacation. The school was nice, but it really didn't strike me as spectacular.</p>
<p>how is W&M for IR??</p>