College of William and Mary

College of William and Mary Introduction

Visitors and tourists alike wander through William and Mary’s campus on a daily basis. They amble around old campus walking under a canopy of trees and on top of hundred-year-old bricks. Everyone stops to admire the Crim Dell, W&M’s supremely photogenic lake in the middle of campus. Surely, anyone who visits Williamsburg and has a look at William and Mary’s campus leaves knowing that it is a gorgeous and pleasant place; that it’s the home of one of America’s oldest and finest universities.

And these visitors are correct. W&M is the second oldest college in America, founded in 1693. It is known as the “Alma Mater of a Nation” as the Tribe credits four American presidents and sixteen members of the Continental Congress in the ranks of alumni. These visitors will also certainly notice that W&M is not stuck in the past. Anyone who walks around campus will hear tales of our thirty-nine Fulbright Scholars since the year 2000. A tourist might stroll past a club meeting, ranging from Belly Dancing to the Harry Potter appreciation club. They’ll even see evidence of the Tribe athletic teams truly defining the term “student athlete,” winning championships and scholarships at the same time.

Yet, these visitors, most people who come to look at William and Mary, are missing the best part of campus! Actually, it’s hard to blame them, since the best part of William and Mary can’t be experienced just by a casual stroll through grounds. In fact, the best part about William and Mary isn’t even visible at all. What defines the William and Mary experience, what will make your next four years outstanding beyond imagination, is the community spirit that reaches from every person to every corner of campus.

This family spirit lies in the interactions between students and professors. The relationships formed extend far beyond the classroom, reaching into real collaborative research and lasting friendships. W&M students aren’t confined to doing menial research; they regularly publish professional articles side-by-side with their professors.

The W&M life-blood pulses and thrives in our residence halls, governed by a policy of self-determination. Self-determination allows your hall, the people you live with, to determine the rules that you will live by. I’m sure Thomas Jefferson, Class of 1762, is smiling at this adaptation of democracy to the policies governing your new home.

The community shows its strength in our students helping friends and strangers, on campus and off. One doesn’t have to look far to find students volunteering and helping others; the majority of W&M students volunteer on a regular basis. But the students’ volunteering interests aren’t confined to typical pursuits; it reaches even to the incoming freshman each year. Hundreds of upperclassmen move down to Williamsburg a week early for the sole purpose of helping incoming freshmen carry their things into their rooms, and settle in their new homes!

Our community shows off its muscle in our athletic teams. Our varsity athletes truly define the phrase “student athlete.” The Tribe is theColonial Athletic Association (CAA) powerhouse among all sports, having won more than eighty conference championships. But this athletic prowess does not come at the expense of academic success, no not at all. The Tribe athletic teams can claim a 95 percent graduation rate, fifth best among all universities in the country. “Student-Athlete” indeed.

But, what if a student isn’t interested in participating in sports at a varsity level, just for recreation? No problem. The campus recreation center has just finished a renovation project that doubled its size. Last year, Men’s Health & Fitness Magazineranked W&M as the seven-teenth fittest college in the country, highlighting our healthy options available at all dining halls. Our spirit certainly runs strong through many different kinds of athletic endeavors.

W&M’s community spirit whips through campus like a winter wind. It moves, it morphs, it pervades. It runs from every dorm to classroom to concerts to coffeehouses. The spirit burns inside every member of the Tribe, bursting through in the form of smiles, laughs, and friendships formed. This community spirit shows in our acceptance and tolerance of others. There is no other university in the country like William and Mary. It is singularly unique in the combination of personal attention, extraordinary academic opportunities, research capability, and on-campus student community.

The community spirit, the fire inside William and Mary students’ hearts, can be yours. But just touring the college, just visiting and admiring the pretty buildings, won’t reveal to you the true extent of our community. This spirit, this fire, is best experienced from within, as a member of the Tribe.

The current President of William and Mary, Gene R. Nichol, loves to end all of his speeches, e-mails, and official communication with the phrase “Hark Upon the Gale.” The phrase comes from the refrain of William and Mary’s Alma Mater:

William and Mary loved of old, Hark Upon the Gale! Hear the thunder of our chorus, Alma Mater Hail!

The word harkcan be interpreted two ways, as “to listen” and “to think back on something.” The word galeis usually defined as a “very strong wind” but can also mean “a noisy outburst.” So one can interpret this in two ways, both seem quite appropriate to the college. Hark Upon the Gale! Listen to the strong wind! Remember our actions! Put in more direct terms: Feel our impact!

William and Mary is a university that has a very strong impact: an impact on the nation and local community, the alumnae, the current students, and you, the future students. William and Mary has the nickname of “Alma Mater of a Nation” for a reason: Our litany of successful alumnae from Thomas Jefferson to Jon Stewart and everyone in between has truly shaped the history of our great nation. The strong scientific and research contributions made not only by our professors, but also our undergraduate students (a rare combination for any university) has also made an impact felt throughout academic circles.

Students who consider William and Mary are looking for a university that isn’t so large that they become lost in the crowd or just another number passed from one teaching assistant to another. They want a school that is big enough for a diverse student population and for a variety of academic and social options to be available. They want a school that has a personal touch and has a staff that is there to help with any problems the students face. Yet, they also want a school that allows its students the personal freedom to decide what classes to schedule and when, when to come and go from residence halls, and when to study and when to play.

This is a special kind of place that has a palpable and tangible soul. You can literally feel the college as you are walking around. The history, the community, the scholarship, and the excitement: It is all here for you to feel and experience. I invite you to apply and join the William and Mary family. It’s a dynamic community, one where you will certainly have the opportunity to be a leader in our collective “gale,” our impact. Join us, and be a part of our great impact on the world. Let William and Mary also impart her wisdom on you, for this is a place where you will grow to achieve your potential. “William and Mary loved of old, Hark Upon the Gale!”

College of William and Mary Academics

A university’s charge is not just to teach facts, formulas, and procedures. The true mark of a university is how well it can help to mold and meld the nubile minds of freshmen into cogent, prepared, and mature adults ready to start the path towards leading the future. Many universities accomplish this, but to varying degrees. William and Mary meets this charge to the highest degree.

Here, in our school’s academic setting, you will, without a doubt, be challenged on a daily basis. However, do not confuse the word “challenged” with “unbelievably difficult.” Believe me, if you are admitted, we know you can do the work that lies ahead of you. But at William and Mary, challenging means more than this. It means you will have extremely dedicated faculty members seeking to draw out your best. It means you will have peers who are just as excited as you are about classes and studies. It means you will have the opportunity to, and many times be expected to, develop original and innovative research that is graduate level at many other schools. In short, the academics at William and Mary will challenge every inch of what you can do.

College of William and Mary Financial Aid

One of the things that makes a William and Mary education so special is not only the benefits outlined above, but also its comparatively low price tag in relation to schools of the same caliber. As an example, Kiplingerrecently ranked William and Mary third on the 50 Best Values in Public Colleges!

Nonetheless, the cost of a college education today is a difficult burden to bear for many families. Many students rely on financial aid for assistance in their quest for higher education.

At William and Mary, financial assistance can come in different forms, but most aid is distributed in the form of grants, loans, and work-study opportunity packages. William and Mary uses the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine each student’s unique need. Each student’s financial need is not just based on family income. It also takes into account family size, number in college, assets, and many other variables. Early Decision applicants should turn in their forms by November 1; Regular Decision applicants should turn in the FAFSA between January 1 and February 15.

William and Mary has three main merit scholarships. The William and Mary Scholars Award is available to twenty to twenty-five entering students who will greatly enhance the diversity of the student body. Awards are equal to the value of Virginia tuition and fees for four years. The second main award is the Monroe Scholars program. Between 8 and 10 percent of the entering freshman class is designated as a Monroe Scholar. Beyond academic benefits, recipients are provided a $3,000 research grant to pursue a specific academic interest. Both of these programs require no separate application.

The third main award is the Murray Scholars Program. Endowed by a multimillion dollar alumni gift, the Murray Scholars Program will provide four students per year with extensive benefits, including in-state tuition, fees, room and board annually, two separate $2,500 research grants towards their academic research interests, and the kind of academic attention reserved at most universities exclusively for graduate students. Murray Scholars candidates must be nominated by their guidance counselor, submit an additional essay, and submit their completed application by December 1 (for Regular Decision).

Federally funded grants such as the Pell Grant and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant are available at William and Mary, as are federally sponsored loans such as the Perkins Loan and the Stafford Loan. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) awards the Virginia Transfer Grant for minority transfer students. Some academic departments give scholarships to students who demonstrate outstanding scholarship in that field. There are several other unique opportunities for assistance such as $1,500 scholarships offered by the Order of the White Jacket for students who are working in food service to help put themselves through school.

College of William and Mary Students

Obviously, the focus of transforming and molding young minds into educated adults is not contained within the classroom walls. A large part of learning in college comes outside of the classroom. What you do outside of those fifteen to twenty hours a week you spend in class really matters and can truly have an impact on the kind of person you develop into. Simply put, ordering pizza, watching movies, and playing video games is not the best way to spend all of your extracurricular time as an undergraduate. Thankfully, William and Mary recognizes this and has more than you could possibly ask for to make your life at college more fun than you can even imagine.

One of the most popular ways to enrich your life outside of classes is by getting involved with any of our more than 300 student organizations, most of which are organized and run solely by students. William and Mary has a wide and varied selection of groups to capture the interests of most students. Walking across campus, you might run into the Club cross-country team out for a run, an a capella team staging an impromptu concert, the geology club digging up some treasures, or even the Harry Potter fan club staging a mock-quidditch game! W&M also has several service-oriented clubs, cultural groups, social fraternities and sororities, literary magazines and newspapers, yearbook, student government, and many performing groups. The point is William and Mary has a club for every kind of interest you could have. If by some chance we don’t, then you have the opportunity to create the club with some friends.

Something else that must be mentioned: William and Mary is not a commuter school; that is to say, on the weekend, our students do not vacate the grounds to go back home. People live here, stay here, and have their friends here on campus. The residence hall is the basic organizing unit of W&M dormitories, and coincidentally, it is where most students meet their best friends. Many students spend the weekend hanging out and relaxing with their friends all over campus and off campus too.

In your freshman year you’ll have a roommate that is usually matched up with you by the Office of Residence Life. It’s a scary thought to live with somebody you haven’t met yet, but they have a great track record and do an amazing job of matching up roommates.

My roommate and I had talked a few times on the phone over the summer, but we met for the first time on move-in day. I’m a big guy, about six feet tall, strong, and have a body type similar to a refrigerator. My roommate was maybe five feet six inches tall with a distance runner’s body. We certainly looked like an opposite and odd pair at first, but everything turned out great through the year! We were great friends all through university, and Joe and I remain great friends to this day. We are one of thousands of examples of the Office of Residence Life doing a fantastic job of matching up freshman roommates!

The largest source of weekend events is the campus events programming group, UCAB. They are responsible for bringing hundreds of events to the campus with something going on every weekend and most weeknights. Every year, UCAB brings comedians, hypnotists, prominent speakers, entertainers, new movies, debates, and lots of concerts to campus. Recent years have seen bands like Wilco and The Roots, comedians like Jon Stewart and Dave Attell, and speakers like Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Archbishop Desmond Tutu come to Williamsburg!

William and Mary performing arts also doesn’t disappoint when it comes to social life fun. The theatre department puts on several high-quality productions each year, including many that are student-directed. The campus also has a wildly popular improvisational theatre group (think Whose Line Is It Anyway?) that perform all over campus, much to the delight of students, faculty, and staff. William and Mary is also fortunate enough to have so many student-run a capella student groups that you might think there is a concert going on every night of the week!

For students interested in Greek organizations, William and Mary does not disappoint. About one quarter of the William and Mary student body is in one of fifteen social fraternities or twelve social sororities. Think you know all there is to know about Greek organizations after watching some Hollywood movies? Think again! William and Mary Greek organizations not only serve a social purpose but also commit large amounts of time to philanthropic endeavors. Every Greek organization puts on philanthropy events all through the year. These events are hugely popular and regularly raise thousands of dollars for the organizations’ charities.

Athletics at William and Mary are also a big draw for students. Students at W&M say they all have Tribe Pride running through their veins and bleed William and Mary’s colors, green and gold! At the varsity level, the Tribe is, statistically and historically, the best overall team among all sports in our conference, the Colonial Athletic Association. In the past years, you might have seen many of our teams streaking up the Division I Top 25 in men’s and women’s cross country, men’s gymnastics, women’s field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s tennis. Not interested in varsity sports? No problem. There are opportunities for you to compete against other colleges in our club sport program, or just relax and have some fun with intramurals. Overall, 85 percent of W&M undergrads participate in intercollegiate sports, club sports, and/or intramural programs. Also, Men’s Healthrecently named William and Mary students some of the fittest in the country.

Freshmen Move-In Day

Without doubt, one of the most exciting days of the whole school year at William and Mary is freshman move-in day. All 1,350 or so freshmen, in the peak of Virginia’s summer heat, move into their campus dorms at the same time; sounds stressful and hectic right? To make the process easier for you and your family, hundreds of William and Mary upperclassmen move back down to campus early just to come and help incoming freshmen move in. They wear shirts that say “Sweating for you!” and will gladly help carry all of your things from the curb up to your dorm. This lets you take a little load off and organize your room, while your parents can grab some much-deserved cold lemonade in the shade. It’s just another example of the amazing community spirit at W&M and shows the volunteer spirit that runs strong in the members of the Tribe.

College of William and Mary Local Community

For off-campus entertainment, there is more than you might think. True, Williamsburg is no New York City. But there is much more to the town than just touristy Colonial Williamsburg. Some of the more popular and student-friendly places in town are the delis. These three bars/restaurants are right off campus and, according to the students, have the best submarine sandwiches and cheese fries for miles around! They are great places to hang out with friends and watch a game, listen to live music, or just talk and unwind from the school week. Williamsburg also has numerous coffee shops, movie theatres, and restaurants, all right off campus. And how many colleges can claim to have Busch Gardens right in their backyard!

You want a night out in the big city? No problem: Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Richmond are all less than an hour’s drive away.

Finally, one of the biggest extracurricular pursuits for W&M students is community service. More than 70 percent of William and Mary students participate in public service activities during their time on campus, contributing over 150,000 volunteer hours every year. W&M students’ character really shows through when you see that our largest fraternity on campus is actually a coed service fraternity that is dedicated to service projects on campus and off.

The Bone Marrow Drive

Of all of W&M’s many service organizations, one stands out from the crowd. Each year, the William and Mary campus unites behind The Annual Alan Bukzin Memorial Bone Marrow Drive. William and Mary’s bone marrow drive is the largest on-campus bone marrow drive in the country and the second largest overall in the country! Since its inception at the college, almost 10,000 people have been added to the national registry, which has led to roughly sixty life-saving matches and donations.

The main reason why W&M’s drive is so special is that, on that day, it is free to join the registry. Normally, it costs $65 for someone to join the registry. This cost is a big deterrent for many people who could be saving lives. The Bone Marrow Drive committee makes it their goal to raise enough money so that all who wish to join the registry can do so free of charge. To this end, they will raise $55,000 this year!

College of William and Mary Alumni

It is quite understandable that your immediate focus is on getting in to William and Mary, and not particularly on what you will do after you graduate. However, the opportunities available to you post-W&M, and how we help prepare you for that time, is an important facet to consider in any school. William and Mary, in fact, does not disappoint in this respect.

To be competitive after graduation these days, more is required than just a diploma and good grades. Nobody will hand you a job just for that. Sorry. You must develop and demonstrate skills that do not come easily: leadership as well as humility, self-reliance and also the ability to work in a team, self-awareness while also being internationally knowledgeable. William and Mary is the place where you can learn and develop these skills. Memorizing some formulas won’t cut it, in the real world or at William and Mary. Here, students are given the well-rounded background they need to live life to the fullest once they graduate.

As for what our graduates do after graduation, William and Mary students are known for their passion in learning and education. Towards this end, between one third and one half choose to go directly to graduate school. Acceptance rates for graduate schools (including medical schools and law schools) hover in the 75 to 80 percent range, well above any national average. Students with a B or B+ average have a 75 to 85 percent acceptance rate for medical school, far above the national average. Interested in a job after graduation? The college will give you more help than you can imagine in finding one. The Career Center brings approximately 750 employers to recruit on campus each year. They also host over a hundred sessions each year to help students with resume and cover letter writing as well as job searching. Not ready for graduation you say? They also coordinate internships on campus and will help you prepare for and land that connection-making summer internship you can only now dream about. Also, many of the companies who recruit at William and Mary have a large body of W&M grads already employed. They know the caliber of our students and come looking for more!

Prominent Grads

• Carter Braxton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
• Glenn Close, Actress
• Benjamin Harrison, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States
• Linda Lavin, Actress James Monroe, Fifth President of the United States
• Darren Sharper, NFL Football Player for the Minnesota Vikings
• Jon Stewart, Comedian, host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• John Tyler, Tenth President of the United States
• George Wythe, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
• John Marshall, Supreme Court Justice
• Robert Gates, Former Director of CIA,
• Current U.S. Secretary of Defense
• Perry Ellis, Fashion Designer
• Mark McCormack, Founder of IMG, World’s Largest Sports Marketing Agency

College of William and Mary Faculty

William and Mary encourages students to develop a very well-rounded educational base while at the college. It requires that students take classes in all of the different types of disciplines, but leaves the students a lot of flexibility when it comes to choosing which specific courses to take. For example, the requirements don’t say students must take one course in the English department; one of the requirements is for students to take one course in literature and history of the arts, of which many English department courses qualify.

Because of William and Mary’s smaller size, most classes are small enough for students to interact regularly with the professor and with fellow classmates. The student-to-faculty ratio is eleven-to-one, one of the lowest of any public school in the country! Here are some more stats to further set your mind at ease: Introductory courses are taught by professors, not graduate students, the majority of classes have between ten and thirty students, and your professors are really committed to teaching you, not just to completing their research. These are all things that might not be true at larger universities. See, you really won’t be just a number at William and Mary!

Special mention must go to our professors. The dedication of the William and Mary faculty to teaching was recently ranked third in the country, and first among public schools in a national poll. For W&M professors, research and publication are important, but teaching always comes first. William and Mary undergraduates do the kind of research and work with their professors that is rarely seen at other universities until work begins for the Ph.D.

Another special facet of the William and Mary education is the freshman seminar, guaranteed and required for all first-year students. The classes, taught by full-time professors, are all topical in nature and work to greatly advance students’ writing and critical thinking skills while also providing an in-depth examination of the subject. One of the best facets of these seminars is that the maximum number of students allowed in them is fifteen. Past years have seen seminars like “Reading the Romance Novels,” “The Literature of Baseball,” and “J.R.R. Tolkien’s World.” Many graduates have fond memories of their freshman seminar, and many credit it with introducing them to their major, research interest, or faculty advisor.

My freshman seminar was in the music department and was called “Sound and Image.” The course explored the relation between the two, specifically sound and music used in movies. We watched plenty of films for the course and spent time training our brains to listento movies rather than watch movies. It was a fascinating process, and I can credit that course with advancing my writing and critical thinking skills more than any other course I took at W&M.

Majors

William and Mary offers about forty undergraduate majors, as well as an opportunity for students to create their own major combining various disciplines. There are also many opportunities to explore personal interests in one’s major through independent study, senior honors projects, and even collaboration on scholarly publishing with professors. Recently, the most popular majors have been in the School of Business Administration, psychology, government, English, history, and biology.

Also, in William and Mary’s academic system, students are encouraged to explore all facets of our academic offerings. This also makes it very easy for students to double major or have a minor and still graduate in four years. Double majoring is very popular at W&M and allows many students to gain a more specific skill-set that might take a graduate degree at other colleges.

Carnegie Foundation Classification

Research Universities (high research activity)

General Characteristics

Highest offering	Doctoral degree
Calendar System	Semester
Years of college work required	N/A
Variable Tuition

Special Learning Opportunities

Distance Learning
ROTC — Army / Navy / Air Force	— / /
Study Abroad
Weekend College
Teacher Certification