Washington and Lee University

Date: Sep 20 2010
Major: Neuroscience/Cognitive Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I am female, and I did NOT pledge a sorority. Granted, I'm a bit older than most of the posters here but when I was at W&L, the campus had only been co-ed for 9-12 years. Sororities didn't even have housing yet. Anyway, my point is that I was one of the individualistic, artsy ones and I STILL had a blast. I didn't let the Greek system choose my female friends—I found them through the extracurricular music and dance programs, and I even helped found a dance group. Do be prepared to consider what the best social options for you are. Drinking and partying are certainly part of the college scene. The work hard, play hard adage is especially true at W&L. And oh yes, if you are a minority student, if you're proud and comfortable in your identity, you won't be daunted by the white bread composition of the student body. If you make it a point to rub it in people's faces, that's when things get awkward, but that also applies to life in general.

And what you hear about the Honor System is true. It's an absolute—one infraction of lying, cheating or stealing, and you're gone if found guilty by a jury of your PEERS. That's the only option of punishment—getting kicked out. Ouch. In my 4 years, I knew of two students getting kicked out and it was a HUGE deal. The flip side is, I've never had anything stolen. Case in point: I accidentally left a light jacket in a dryer my freshman year. I came back the next day, and the following day I found it was dried and neatly folded on the communal table. What made me realize the honor code really worked was the crumpled $10 I accidentally left in the jacket was still zipped in a pocket and a note safety-pinned to it saying "FOUND [date 2 days ago]. SORRY FOR ACCIDENTALLY TAKING IT." I think in any other university the $10 (a nice amount of change for any college student) would've been gone, at least. So yeah, make sure your integrity is intact before freshman orientation. :)