William & Mary vs Mount Holyoke College

College Search & Selection
1

I’m currently deciding between these two colleges! Because the admitted student days were cancelled, I would really appreciate any insight.

I’m planning on studying Cognitive Science and following the pre-med track. Neither of these schools have a formal CogSci major-- I would design my own CogSci major at W&M (a combination of CS, psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience) and study Chemistry/CS at MHC.

Mount Holyoke College

Pros:

-Small class sizes (lots of opportunities to get close with professors)

-Beautiful campus and great food

-Part of the Five College Consortium (can take classes at Amherst)

-Diverse student body

-Lots of support for internships (+ really good grad school placement) → well-known/respected amongst employers and grad school programs

-More laid back and supportive attitude amongst student body

-Lots of opportunities to go hiking in the surrounding mountains

Cons:

-Significantly more expensive (I got a 20k/year scholarship, but no financial aid, so it’s ~$48k/year)

-The surrounding college town is pretty small/boring

-Not many opportunities for shadowing doctors/volunteering for pre-med

-In a rural part of Massachusetts (harder to go to Boston/any major city)

-The CS department is underfunded and understaffed, but current students say that they have support when getting internships/jobs

-Challenging coursework (but less grade deflation than William & Mary)

William & Mary

Pros:

-In-state tuition + 529 plan means that it’s significantly more affordable ($20k/year)

-Williamsburg is larger, more historic, more entertaining, and has more opportunities for pre-med volunteering

-Excellent humanities programs (i.e. IR, economics, pre-law)

-Great overall academics (and more course options)

-Tons of opportunities for biology-adjacent research

Cons:

-A lot of grade deflation and stress culture (this is a really big deciding factor for me because of how important GPA is for med school)

-Lots of depression/mental health issues on campus

-Weak CS program

-Will have to take several large lecture-style classes

-Intense weedout programs for pre-med classes

-Seems to have less prestige than MHC when applying for grad school programs

2

In favor of MHC, it seems you would be a good candidate for the available Five College certificate in Cognitive Neuroscience.

https://www.fivecolleges.edu/cogneuro

3

Based on your own pros/cons, it appears to me that you favor Mount Holyoke, which is fine. But I think your cons on W&M are not based in fact and you should do some more research on these points.

Grade deflation – almost all schools actually have grade inflation. Look at http://www.gradeinflation.com/ and you will see W&M actually has quite high average GPA (3.33 back in 2014 and probably higher today).

Seems to have less prestige than MHC for graduate programs. Not sure what you base this on. W&M has produced more undergraduates that go on to earn Doctorates per capita than all other public universities and is #3 I believe in STEM. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-50-schools-that-produce-science-phds/ I don’t see There is an NSF database (if you can figure out how to use it that has this data.

Depression/mental health – not sure what this is based on. Princeton Review has W&M #6 for “Happiest Students” based on survey data. W&M has one of the highest graduation rates and the highest alumni giving rate of all public universities, which also wouldn’t be consistent. A new wellness center was just opened on campus.

Weak CS – the program is expanding significantly as a result of the Amazon HQ deal. A new CS building in the integrated science center is being built. I believe placement is strong and W&M ranks high in CS ROI evaluations

Intense weedout in pre-med – Pre-med is tough, but W&M doesn’t have a reputation as a weedout school. I’d suggest contacting the pre-med advisor. E-mail should be on the website.

4

Congratulations for getting into two fantastic schools! I agree with @IzzoOne that it is important to challenge your assumptions about both schools. Having gone to William & Mary, I can provide you some more details about that:

  1. Academics: Your academics are going to be top-notch from both schools. While I have not been to Mount Holyoke, I have great respect for it. I remember a couple of years ago the Princeton Review published the best 300 professors in the nation. William & Mary and Princeton Review were both tied for having most professors on that list. Having gone to William & Mary, I can confirm that they are top notch, and I had the privilege of taking several classes with professors on that list.

  2. Research: This will be important as you are applying to medical schools. At William & Mary, about three quarters of students do some sort of undergraduate research and a great deal of them get published. From my personal experience, I have had several friends do research as early as freshman year, and they have incredibly fascinating research going on. Even as a non major, I participated as a research assistant on a project called the “Meaning of Life,” if that goes to show you how accessible research is. Most students get involved just by asking their professors. As you do your own research, look at the departments that you are interested in and read about whether professors have research interests that align with your own. That will greatly help identify what opportunities that you will have when you are on campus. You mentioned that W&M has a lot more opportunities for pre-med volunteering, that will also be a factor as you apply to medical schools.

  3. Happiness: Yes, students at William & Mary, for the most part are pretty happy with their choice. A couple of years ago William & Mary was ranked #1 for Happiest Students. Now, I am not a believer in rankings, and for sure there are people that have different experiences, but one thing that shows is that many people are immensely happy with their experience and their choice. Students at William & Mary are also rather social, and generally have a vibrant social life outside of the classroom. Depending on your interests, I can also talk more about specific organizations.

  4. Graduate school placement: As a person who attended William & Mary, I am always impressed by the graduate schools that my friends have gotten into. It has made me reconsider whether I would be interested in grad school. Like seriously, when it comes to graduate schools, they really rock it, to name a few: Penn, JHU, Harvard, Emory, W&M, UVA, Berkley, Colombia, Princeton, GW, and more. Like, small sample size (perhaps W&M just attracts really great students), and maybe I just have really talented friends, but I don’t think William & Mary will hold you back from graduate schools. William & Mary has a pretty high acceptance to medical school rate, and even after graduation I have friends that have reported that the Pre-Med advisor is incredibly helpful. Something you may or may not know is that W&M has a guaranteed admissions program into medical school if you meet the criteria. That can definitely help out and relieve some stress from the whole medical school process.

  5. Tuition: I would not mention this specifically if you hadn’t mentioned that you were interested in medical school. I would definitely talk about this with your parents, but cost is a significant factor. You’ll get a fantastic education at both schools, no doubt. And you’ll have a great time! But if one school is like 28K cheaper per year, that is about 118,000 dollars over four years. I’ll be the first to admit: when I was looking at schools, I relegated cost to the end and didn’t really consider it, but if you are considering medical school (which is like a 7 year commitment) that is significant.

Ask your parents how much they would be willing to support you, depending on the options that you choose. Essentially, would they be able to contribute to medical school? If you are going down that route, speaking from friend’s experiences, you don’t want to be in more debt than you have to, or have to work multiple jobs while going through medical school. That’s another factor to consider.

  1. Miscellaneous: William & Mary’s student body is incredibly supportive of each other, I highly recommend getting to know some of them. The Outdoors Club and the Tribe Adventure Trips take outdoor trips into the mountains frequently: backpacking, camping, canoeing, hiking, you name it. You mentioned interest in designing a major, that is very easy to do at William & Mary and I have many friends that have done it. The nature of the curriculum itself is interdisciplinary. This is also random, but you mentioned that Williamsburg was more lively and interesting than where Mount Holyoke is located, which I found amusing because Williamsburg feels small at times, but if you’re going to choose, I would lean towards the one that is a bit more lively.

Feel free to ask any other questions!