The College of William and Mary

The students at William and Mary are friendly and passionate, and usually inspiring in some way. Make friends here, because the time you spend with them - discussing ideas from an Intro to Philosophy class into the early hours of the morning, going out to some parties for the night, or streaking the Sunken Gardens - will shape the way that you grow in college even more than the coursework will. Your time here will be meaningful in ways you couldn't anticipate.

4th Year Male -- Class 2014

Education Quality: A+, Social Life: B

Honestly guys, if you're a prospective student you should hear me out. There are some students who absolutely love this school and others who dislike it. After just a year here I have 2 friends transferring and 4 or 5 who are thinking about it. (of my circle of like 20-30 closeish friends). That seems like a lot, in my opinion. The people who tend to love WM are the quieter, more studious, liberal artsy, "nerdy" kids. Theyll go on and on about Harry Potter and Dr. Who and Star Trek and spend hours at the library. Their idea of fun is playing video games in a room with some friends or just watching tv or going to a nerd club meeting.

The people who dislike this school are the ones who got in more on natural intelligence and aren't as studious. And people who love social interactions usually dislike the school because the town has next to nothing to do. I read a post about someone talking about "all the fun stuff WM has to do." They mentioned ghost tours, faculty and guest lectures, and getting drinks and playing games at a local tavern and stuff. If that's your idea of fun then yes go here. But honestly, youre not gonna go on ghost tours more than once a year, you can grab the drinks at one of the bars, and faculty lectures can get boring or are at random hours (like when you have class). If you want to party or at least be social, have some fun events like formals and date parties, then you need to go greek or join the rugby team or IR club.

Oh also, this place has zero diversity. No hispanics or blacks except for a few on the football team, 62% of students (rising to 68% over the next 4 years) are in state. And 80% of the instate students are from the same few counties in Northern Virginia. So they all sorta live in this bubble of upper middle class wealth and whiteness/asianness. 8% or so of the students are international, and 90% of that is Chinese students. And they just talk to each other in Chinese and don't mingle with anyone else at all or enrich your cultural experience in any way. That leave 30% for out of state students, who are almost all from New England or the Mid Atlantic and middle class and white.

oh and some kids here are borderline stupid. A lot of the athletes are (not a knock on them as a whole though, a few athletes I've met are geniuses) below average intelligence for the school (we're talking they got 1500-1800 SAT scores). And other kids will study excessively (people take tooth brushes and snacks and stuff to the library and sorta live there for up to a couple days some times during finals) and still get a poor grade on their exam.

On to financial aid. It's pretty bad compared to other schools of the same caliber. An out of state family making around 40,000 a year is going to pay 20,000 a year. But for upper/middle class in state kids it's a great value because they wouldnt get much money from anywhere anyways.All in all, it's an above average school. The academics are top notch. The dorms are okay (some good ones, some bad ones, and some okay ones). The facilities are above average. The Faculty is good. The city is pretty boring. The student culture is nerdy. Sports aren't big at all (like maybe 200 students max will be in the student section at a basketball game). Social life is lacking unless you're greek. Greek life is great, but not SEC level, so it's a bit more toned down and just a part of life, rather than your entire life.

1st Year Male -- Class 2016

Extracurricular Activities: A+, Surrounding City: D+

2nd Year Female -- Class 2015

Useful Schoolwork: A+, Social Life: C+