Student Profile
Anonymous
- Class: Junior
- Major: Theatre
- Gender: F
- High School: Pisgah High School
- Transfer Student: Y
Big Picture
I love the size of my school! It's just small enough that I know a lot of people and run into them randomly, but not so small that I can't be away from things. People, for the most part, are pretty impressed when I tell them I'm at William and Mary. I love that. And I love how everyone here understands me. There's definitely a WM "type." Even though we're all very different, there are people here who understand my jokes and I don't have to define the words I use. In fact, I often feel challenged to learn more just to keep up with the other students here! I love that. I end up in PBK most of the time; no, all of the time. But that's because I'm a theatre major. And Swem. Swem is good. I like that we actually have a slang term for the libraray. That's pretty impressive. The Gene Nichol thing really upset me. I have even less faith in the administration than I did before. WM confuses me because some of the greatest minds in the country are students here, the professors have all done things that I can only dream of, yet the administration seems to have no idea what they are doing. Housing is awful. And parking is stupid. I liked seeing that everybody banded together during the Solidarity Movement. That's not normal. That day, I was so ashamed of my school at first. I didn't want to tell people what had happened. But then the professors started striking and the students started taking things into their own hands and soon I was prouder of WM than I could have imagined. That night at President Nichol's house, singing the alma mater, is a night I'll never forget.
Academic Life
Most of my professors know my name and are willing to help me in any way they can. My favorite class so far has been musical theatre. My least favorite was astronomy. Students study all the time, but we have perfected the art of procrastination. Intellectual discussions outside of class are completely normal, ranging from politics to religion to scientific principles to Broadway. Theatre is a wonderful place because we are intellectual and artistic. People can really see the whole picture and love to talk about methods and feelings. We practically live in PBK, so we're all pretty close. Professors hang out with us in the theatre department, but I haven't had my GER profs do that. They are willing to talk to me if I run into them, though. It's almost impossible to have a 4.0 if you want to actually enjoy college, but most students realize that and are okay. Standards here are different, and I'm completely satisfied with B's, even high C's in really difficult classes. It's more normal. And here, for the first time, I am normal. I think WM is geared towards both preparing us for the real world and learning for its own sake. That's really nice, because I can take classes I like even if I'm not the major, but I also get a lot of freedom in the classes I need and they prepare me well.
Student Body
The Best Things
Students and faculty
The Worst Things
ResLife
