The University of Mary Washington

Date: Sep 12 2014
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
Recent grad here. I watched the schools new promotional video i saw on fb (i dont know where they will be advertising it), it's about 4 minutes long I think it's called

UMW: where great minds get to work!

And i wrote this review because watching that video upset me because it was complete bs. I've read a few negative reviews on this site and i'd agree with all of them but rather than regurgitate whats already been said i will comment on the video i just watched. I have to say, if you don't know any better, the video does a good job of really selling you. The video was put together by a professional company hired by the school so it doesn't surprise me; this school is slowly dying because people realize how fake and glamorized this school is and people leave when its not what they were told it would be.

This school has a lot of drones who blindly support the school and get personally offended if you say you want to transfer, it's weird that they get so upset that you have an opinion. Some of the speakers in the video are those people. Oddly enough, I know one of the speakers and i am CONVINCED it is scripted. I laughed SO hard watching this person talk because that is not like them at all in real life and everybody who knows him knows this.

The video uses very manipulative camera shots. For example at the basketball game; if the camera panned out and wasn't zoomed in, you'd notice theres like no one at the game OR it's possible that was a play off game and we happened to be doing somewhat well (we suck). People attending any sports event is RARE at this school and only this school. Zero school spirit.

There are also shots of some "big" events that happen on campus to make it look like there's a lot to do and people are enjoying themselves; the thing is, these events happen like 3 times a year. Couple inflatable things, popcorn, pizza, snowcones, face painting. Stuff catered more towards kids but its so boring here it'll dolol. These are NOT everyday things. On most days most people are justhiding in their dorms or they go home on the weekend cuz theres nothing to do down here (again, the video tries to make it look otherwise and make it look like theres so much).

The

30 kids to a class at the most

is not true. All lower level classes (100-200 levels) have closer to 50-100. I've been in classes closer to 100. The upper level (300-300 level) classes it shrinks down to 30 but thats it. They'll offer a fair amount of upper level classes in your major but only very limited times for each so often times the classes A) fill up fast because there are few seats B) time conflict with another class you need or C) the class is only offered every other semester. This puts off many peoples graduation cuz they cant get the classes they need to graduate so they have to spend a lot of money to take another semester and miss graduating with friends. I had friends who had aspirations for professional school and they needed certain classes for graduate level testingbut they couldn't get them because A, B, and C.

Professors only know you in the upper levels.Its hard to know your students when you're teaching 4 sections with 50+ students each.

The quality of the video is greatly enhanced to make the colors look more vibrant. Nice editing job!

Theres a lot of HW and busy work at this school. Kids will talk about how hard the school is and how rigorous the professors/courses are but the truth is A) it's NOT a lot of work, its that the school accepts +80% of students and these students have poor work ethic B) most of the students haven't taken a class at another school yet they ignorantly comment on how much superior the professors are here (a direct reflection of the general level of intellect here). C) there is a lot of stupid busy work though which is just annoying.

The classes aren't that interesting. The professors will talk about interesting SUBJECTS i suppose, but they just read off slides verbatim as others have said. Its not stimulating at all.

This school does NOT stack up pretty high against other schools as said in the video by one of the students (his opinion). It's one of the bottom schools in virginia and is a safety school for most VA students. The +80% acceptance rate reflects this. Can't deny the #'s. This past year ~25% of first years transfered. I'd bet my bottom dollar that would be closer to 50% of freshman if they could get the grades but its hard when you're not used to so much freedom/you dont take your classes seriously. They complain but end up getting stuck here and used to it.

This school ranks fairly well in things like

top liberal arts schools in the south

only because there aren't that many in the south. Very misleading statistic they love to brag about.

There aren't over a hundred clubs at least it doesnt seem that way. While many exist most are inactive and don't meet; i'd been to 'club carnival' where all the clubs come out to recruit and i'veonly seen 2 of the clubs listed in the video. Its NOT easy to start a club as stated in the video, there is a lot of unnecessary work that goes into it and the administration can be unhelpful; it can take as long as a semester or a year (this is from personal experience); my other club wasn't able to be made. There are also about 22 pages of rules and reg's for requesting money for your club so its virtually impossible to actually get money for your club from the school. The school will tell you though that they'll provide you with money, which isn't necessarily a lie, theres just like a 1% they'll give it to you. All money has to come from your own pocket. The school loves to take the credit of its clubs.

Look at womens rugby, the students had to raise the money out of their own pocket to go to CA (25k to be exact). To my knowledge, teh school provided no money and it all had to be raised at their own expenditure. The school of course takes credit for the team winning the championship though (just like they do for 'having over 100 clubs). The school had nothing to do with the win. The students pay their dues and hire their own coaches.

Downtown fred is nothing but antique shops.

The honor code while i support it there are a lot of cheaters out there and hypocrites on the honor council who cheat themselves; I'm pretty sure some of the people in the video cheat as well lol. Can't say that forsure though but i thought it was funny. I will say though that it is nice that i can leave my laptop or cell phone at a table and come back 30 minutes later and it will still be there.

That's all im gonna say. My advice though is to skip over this school. Don't bother. As someone else said, listen to the reviews that tell you to listen to the reviews lol