<p>Hi all! I was recently accepted at a number of colleges of which included UC Berkeley, LA, San Diego, Davidson, Colgate and William and Mary.</p>
<p>I visited William and Mary and fell in love but I continue to read about Berkeley and LA and can't help wondering if I am choosing the wrong school? I know the common answer to this question is to follow my heart, which leads me to William and Mary, but is this foolish?</p>
<p>Going to a university that produced 4 presidents is never a foolish choice. If you love W&M, go there. There isn't an educated person in the World who won't respect a W&M degree.</p>
<p>william and mary is a great school.... hell all the schools you got accepted to (ucla, uc berkeley, ucsd, davidson, colgate) are awesome schools congrats on your accpetances... choose the school that fits you best. i meen ucla ucsd uc berkeley and w&m are all top publics only seperated by a few ranking spots... i believe they are all in the top 7 publics in the country. if you love w&m go for it... its a great school, and in my opinion quite prestigious.</p>
<p>Are you in-state at any of these schools? It sounds as if you have never visited Berkeley and UCLA, but have visited W&M. If you loved W&M, go there. It means that you are less likely to like a huge campus such as the UC schools offer.</p>
<p>Cool thanks. I am out of state, but i will probably still choose William and Mary! Its just no one has heard of it where i live... it gets depressing!</p>
<p>It doesn't matter what the average person has heard of, as long as your future employers know.</p>
<p>The second oldest institution in this country. So what do you say?</p>
<p>As far as internationally UC Berkley and UCLA are a lot more famous than William & Mary. I have heard a lot about the school because of a lot of research but the average Joe in Europe or Asia has not. But if you plan to stay Stateside for your carrer I guess there is no difference between them.</p>
<p>Go to William and Mary. There are good colleges which are confusing and/or unknown to a lot of people (e.g., Wash U, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, Wesleyan). I WOULDN'T put William and Mary in this category.</p>
<p>It sounds like you're from California. I lived in Northern California (San Francisco and Monterey) for several years, and spent a lot of time in LA and San Diego. I was amazed by the general lack of awareness the people seemed to have of things that didn't involve the environment, radical politics, show biz, or tanning. On another board in recent days, someone from California said she wanted to go to Wake Forest, but nobody in California had heard of it. Now you're saying nobody has heard of William and Mary. I would take this as saying something bad about California, rather than something bad about William and Mary.</p>
<p>In the Movie "1776" I recall vaguely that there is a scene where the John Adams character boasts that his opionions are superior because he went to Harvard. And the Thomas Jefferson character retorts, "And I, sir, went to William & Mary!"</p>
<p>also note that in 1776 there were all of a handful of schools in the country, let alone the south ;-).</p>
<p>I think William and Mary's lower name recognition is in part a result of its smaller size. You can get the same "Huh? Where's that?" response if you mention other good smaller universities to people -- say, Tufts or Rice.</p>
<p>On the other hand, W & M's moderate size is an attraction for some students. Not everyone wants to go to a 20,000-student university just because the names of the really big schools are better known.</p>
<p>That is very true there are several large state universities that have big names but would be nothing as good as William & Mary.</p>
<p>William & Mary was probably the only college I had heard of before sixth grade, besides Harvard, Stanford and the University of Minnesota. So I would say William & Mary has a decent amount of prestige, athough my knowledge of the school came mostly from US History textbooks.</p>
<p>William & Mary is the most selective public US university. SAT scores are higher than Berkeley.</p>