<p>I was accepted to William & Mary as an international student in France, and I was just wondering: </p>
<p>Is the workload really as bad as everyone says?</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, I don't mind hard work. I also can accept a school that gives "lower" grades, and even appreciate it: in the school I study in at France, a 10 out of 20 is a half-decent (if not brilliant) grade for an average-difficulty class, and one of the things that I dislike most in the US is the idea of "grade inflation". But I keep on hearing stories about students at W&M that are overworked to the point of breaking, have no free time on weekends year round, etc. Are these stories just exaggerations made by people who can't stand no longer getting straight A's, or is it the norm? Can anyone give me how much time they actually study a week? </p>
<p>Again, I don't mind if there* is *a huge workload. I just have a few school options I'm considering, and even though I really like W&M, I'd like to know what I'm getting into before making a decision.</p>
<p>It was difficult for my daughter not to receive A’s at first. She never had a B in anything during her school years. She soon realized A’s and B’s are perfectly acceptable. Her philosophy was to attend all classes, keep up with the reading assignments, and to learn coursework throughout the semester so no need to massive cram for a final. In fact, she has had a few semesters with the illusive 4.0. Trust me…she has plenty of times for things other than studies. This past semester, she was involved with a IM sports team, held down a part time job, and had a great semester. Horror stories are mostly from kids that forget college is about studying then, partying; or just zone out from society altogether.</p>
<p>W&M is for the serious student just like Swarthmore, Davidson, Yale, and Chicago. Its not impossible but you cant fool around all semester and then have Daddy write a check to get your grades up. Jefferson’s meritocracy lives here.</p>
<p>On my recent visit I talked to some students and they said you can get a high GPA if you work at it. I think this may be a case of people not understanding how much free time they have. I took AP bio/AP euro/AP gov/AP econ last semester ( 4 classes at 2x pace is the schedule for my school), and it honestly wasn’t that bad outside of some spikes in workload. My peers were complaining a lot but I doubt they realized that 3 hours of work at HS allows you a good 3 hours of play (if you need 8-9 hours of sleep) and 4-5 if you don’t need to sleep as much. People may be exaggerating a bit but I’m interested in hearing from current W&M students.</p>
<p>the workload is what you make of it. If you are trying to graduate with a 4.0, you will (1) be working all the time, (2) be really stressed, and (3) fail miserably at achieving your goal.</p>
<p>You can get B’s without too much trouble. Sometimes A’s are hard to find, depending on the classes and such. A ‘C’ or two won’t kill you either. At times, the workload can be tough, and expectations are generally high. If you are trying to get every possibly hundredth out of your GPA, you are just asking to not have fun.</p>
<p>Sometimes it sucks, if you have multiple midterms on the same day, or 3/4 in the same week. But, guess what? You have to deal with it. I am a big believe that people make their own stress.</p>
<p>Study when you need to. Play when you want to. Make friends. Join some clubs. Get involved, and you’ll be good to go.</p>
<p>Two years after you graduate, you’ll probably look back happily the time you stayed up until 4 am doing something with your friends, instead of the times you studied really hard and stressed yourself out and almost made yourself go crazy trying to get an A- instead of a B+</p>
<p>I think most students would tell you that the average work load is 3 hours of homework per night in a 15-credit semester. Usually, students are only in class 3-4 hours a day which makes a total of 7 hours spent on course work which is equal to the total number of hours one spent physically in high school so the work load is challenging but we wouldn’t have admitted you if we didn’t think you were up for the challenge.</p>
<p>Additionally, students have to realize that a 4.0 at a selective college is not a reasonable goal. Bs are perfectly acceptable.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that in College you have most of the day free. That was the one big thing that hit me I wasn’t used to waking up at 9:30, going to class at 10, and having all the time after 11am until 1am the next morning to myself. It all depends how you want to manage that time. You just have to find your own balance of schoolwork, clubs, sports, hanging out with friends, and other things.</p>