The College of William and Mary

W&M is a solid school where you can get a good education. The only real weakness was coursework on computer applications and information systems. Be prepared to work very hard for anything and everything you get - this is a much more difficult than average academic experience and even fantastic students will have some setbacks here; but that would be a good dose of reality to prepare anyone for their future work experiences. The student body is about 1/3 NOVA, 1/3 rest of VA, and 1/3 out of state (mostly Northeasterners that got rejected by the Ivy's) - and universally people that are smart and take pride in success. I was always amused by how rarely any of my peers ever admitted to finishing below average on an exam, or having a below average GPA - somehow these folks' academic performances consistently defied the rules of statistics. Still, don't be surprised if you graduate with under a 3.0, even with a LOT of hard work.

The good news is that with the exception of grad schools and possibly the first job, undergrad grades don't really matter to anyone in the real world. The bad news is that the school suffers in annual university rankings due to poor funding and while it has a good reputation on the east coast, you will run into a lot of powerful professionals in the mid-west and west who know nothing of the College.

In spite of the academic pressure, both students and professors are generally pretty friendly here. The social life is dominated by the Greeks, but if you a social mover and shaker you may be able to create your own opportunities in spite of that - there are a number of good extracurricural opportunities relating to charity and public service work, as well as religious groups. Also, there seems to be an unusually large gay and lesbian population (not that there is anything wrong with that). In fact, here, most students here probably would admit they are gay before they would admit they got a 'D' in Biology 101.

At the time (late 80's/early 90's), the College seemed ineptly run from an administrative standpoint - particularly in areas such as course registration and student housing. Also, they had a real racket going on with a crew of overzealous parking ticketers.Nonetheless, in retrospect it was a pretty good place to spend 4 years. I'd do it again, but much differently with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000