Student Profile
Kelly
- Class: Junior
- Major: English
- Gender: F
- High School:
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
The best thing about Washington and Lee is the faculty and the quality of the academics. The school is definitely too small--everyone knows everything about everyone. But if you want to graduate high school only to go to a college that is just like high school, you'll be right at home. Unless you are from the South, no one knows anything about Washington and Lee. It's almost like the best-kept Southern secret. In any event, people end up thinking you're either at William and Mary or at Washington University in St. Louis. Or, my favorite, William and Lee University.
Academic Life
The academics at Washington and Lee are absoultely top-notch. The professors are prepared, engaging, and genuinly interested in forming a relationship with students. The faculty is accessible, welcoming, and always willing to go the extra mile for you. The English Department is exceptional. The classes are very demanding and the grading is harsh to say the least, but you do become a better writer than you ever thought possible. And if you're willing to sell your soul to Leyburn Library, the English department at W&L will give you the kind of liberal arts education most schools can only dream to.
Student Body
Anyone who does not join a fraternity or sorority will be shunned from the social scene. Everyone at W&L is from the South. No one from different social circles interacts. You pretty much stick to your sorority/fraternity. Everyone is wealthy. Students are overwhelmingly conservative.
The Best Things
The academics, by far.
The Worst Things
The social system and Greek life. It perpetuates a cycle of drinking and drugging, hazing, backstabbing, and gossip that negates every good quality of the school.
