Hey all! I am trying to make my final college decision and am stuck between William and Mary and Christopher Newport. I want to major in accounting and environmental studies to one day become an environmental accountant.
At Christopher Newport I am a presidential scholar meaning I’d already be top 25 of the incoming class with a $10,000 scholarship, skip general education requirements, trip to Oxford, England, and priority class registration and housing. CNU would offer a lot of personalized attention with its small classes and honors program faculty. However, it doesn’t have the brand name that William and Mary does. I am concerned with William and Mary though because of the stereotype that the students are constantly stressed and have no social life. While academics are very important to me I don’t want to spend four years being miserable. In addition, I have heard that professors at William and Mary deflate the grades.
I recognize that I could always transfer, but if I start at William and Mary I’ll lose the presidential scholarship at CNU and if I start at CNU I may not get back into William and Mary or won’t have as many job opportunities because it isn’t a brand name school.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
William and Mary doesn’t just have the name, it has the broader course offerings. CNU is very small. Pull up the course catalog, and map out your 4 years. Are you able to fill it with the classes you would like to take? How does it copmare to W7M? CNU offers alot of individual attention - it is one of the impressive things about the school. I don’t think CNU is a wild party school either. Make sure you are looking at the substance of the coursework you want along with affordability.
Congratulations on your acceptances, and the scholarship!
The CNU scholarship and the opportunities that come with it are certainly something to consider. However, I’d advise not making the decision based on academic stress or grade deflation at William and Mary. Like at most schools, many, many William and Mary students love their college experience. They have fun and do lots of cool things. Of course, some students will be stressed at any given time. That’s also true at every school. The important thing, to me, is that stress is an individual response. It may or may not be something that a student can control. But if some students are stressed, to whatever degree, that really has little to do with your own response to things. I’m often around WM students and really don’t see any inordinate stress, compared to students at other schools.
In terms of grade deflation, grades at William and Mary, like most other schools, has actually seen grades rise (grade inflation!), from about a 2.9 to a 3.3 over the last 3-4 decades. Is it easy to get an “A”? Not always. Would you want it to be? If it’s easy, is it a satisfying result? Anyway, I don’t think WM is exceptional in any way in terms of grade deflation/inflation. I know a student who attended another Top 30 national university and William and Mary. They found science classes slightly more challenging at the other school and humanities classes slightly more demanding (more reading) at WM. But nothing dramatic either way.
I know a prof at another top quality, rigorous university. They have high standards and push back against school efforts to encourage a lighter touch on grading. They find they have a certain % of students doing truly outstanding work. They feel like it would cheat them to give A’s more broadly to students whose work is not quite as outstanding.
Bottom line, for you their are pros and cons in the choice. I just wouldn’t base it on those particular stereotypes, which I think are not in line with the facts. Good luck with your decision. You sound hard working, and I’m sure you’ll do well at either school.
William & Mary is going to be much better known and students overall will be at a higher academic level, so you should probably factor that in.
I had a nephew in a similar situation so I will relate his story for consideration. He went to George Mason Honors and then ended up transferring to UVA. He thought there were some academic
You can see data on grade inflation here: http://www.gradeinflation.com. As TTG indicates, there is actually grade inflation almost everywhere and W&M is actually on the high end of average grades at >3.3. I don’t think CNU is in the data set.
I seem to have not finished what I was writing about the experience of a nephew, who might have had an analogous situation. He initially attended GMU honors program, and then transferred to UVA. He thought there were advantages in the GMU program in seminars, direct access to professors, etc., but in the end he thought the overall experience at UVA was clearly superior.
My impression is that W&M, at 6,300 undergrads and not that many grad students, has more individual attention, interaction with professors, and smaller classes than most universities of its level. Being a Presidential scholar at CNU (5,000 undergrads) would have somewhat more of those things, but I don’t know if the difference is that huge.
My feeling is the individual attention and opportunities of a Presidential Scholar at CNU might put it ahead of much larger schools like James Madison and possibly Virginia Tech, if those things are a priority for you, but probably not William and Mary, which is both smaller than they are and generally better regarded.
And I’ll second the idea that William and Mary may have somewhat more stress and work overall, but that most students manage to do a number of things and are pretty happy.