College of William & Mary Reviews

The girls aren't that great.

It's okay. The bus system works,...

It's okay. The bus system works, but it can sometimes take a while to get places. It's always better to make friends who have cars. That's the best way to make sure you can get where you need to go. Most places that you really need to be are within walking distance, though.

The bus system is free as long as...

The bus system is free as long as you have a student ID, but the latest they run is around 1 a.m., and that's not even every day. We do have Steer Clear to save you from off-campus parties and a golf-cart escort system to drive you around campus if you're too lazy to walk.

Public transportation is spotty....

Public transportation is spotty. The WAT (Williamsburg Area Transport) bus system has been getting better since my freshman year, and now it runs until pretty late, but it's still not great. There are two lines that have a few stops around campus, and the other lines take you to the most popular/useful destinations in town, like Target, grocery stores, the train station, and even the outlets! But if you need to go somewhere that's not on a bus route or off the beaten path, make friends with someone who has a car on campus! There are taxis that you can call in a pinch, but they are pretty expensive.

You're required to have a...

You're required to have a computer, and you can buy one pretty cheaply through the school. The library has a pretty good number of computers so you can usually get one, though you may have to wait a couple minutes for one to free up. The entire campus is wireless, which is awesome.

At William and Mary, you are...

At William and Mary, you are required to have your own laptop computer. Wireless access is campus-wide, and computer labs are fairly accessible and usually not too crowded.

Campus food is getting better.

I have seen weed, E, acid, and...

I have seen weed, E, acid, and speed, and I know of people who do heavier, but that's because my hallmates a few years back were scouting it out. Once I left them, I never saw anything other than weed again. If you don't want it, you'll never have to deal with it. I've NEVER been approached by someone trying to deal or trying to force drugs on me.

Campus Police keep an eye on...

Campus Police keep an eye on things to make sure nothing gets out of hand. Still, they certainly don’t look the other way if you’re flaunting it, but generally don’t give many people a hard time.

The school is pretty strict about...

The school is pretty strict about rules. However, a lot of faculty and administrators turn a blind eye to drinking. The Student Conduct Council and Honor Council are student organizations that handle these issues. The school considers tradition to be important, so the Honor Code is very, very important. So whatever you do, never lie, cheat, or steal here.

Both males and females are fairly...

Both males and females are fairly nice, personality-wise, though you’ll find a mixed group like you will anywhere else. Two things to remember: everyone’s really intelligent, so you find the arrogant guy and girls here and there, and everyone’s slightly dorky, usually in an endearing way. If you’ve gotten in, I’m sorry to inform you, but you’re probably slightly dorky in an endearing way, too. I find everyone to be fairly attractive, and my dad seems to think we have a pretty good-looking female crowd, since he always seems to be encouraging me to date.

The drug scene is not too bad. You...

The drug scene is not too bad. You see weed here and there, but not much else. If you choose you can live on a substance free hall which puts you with other people who definitely won’t be doing that. Usually you only see weed at the frats and sometimes at Dillard because it’s off campus.

There is little or no drug scene...

There is little or no drug scene on campus. The most popular drug, naturally, is pot, and you can seriously go all four years without even knowing anyone smokes up if it’s not what your friends are into. But it’s also not overly difficult to find people who do if that’s what you are into—it’s just a very low key, non-blatant thing. And drugs don’t get much harder than that.

Pot is easy enough to find if...

Pot is easy enough to find if you’re interested, but if you’re not the type, then you’d probably think that there wasn’t any at all on campus. Anything else is extremely rare.

There really isn’t much of a drug...

There really isn’t much of a drug scene. Aside from alcohol, pot’s the biggest drug, but not that many people smoke. Out of all my friends, I think three use it, and only one does it frequently. There are harder drugs being used, but you really have to search for the people who use them.

Varsity sports are big enough, but...

Varsity sports are big enough, but they’re not a huge deal, and neither are IM sports. But most students do participate in some sort of sport.

About a third of the campus is...

About a third of the campus is Greek, but you wouldn’t guess it. It’s one way of making some extra friends and having a place to hang out on the weekends.

They stress telling the truth. If...

They stress telling the truth. If they ask you if you’ve been drinking and you have, you need to say yes. If you lie, (a) it pisses them off, and (b) you’re liable to be kicked out of school for violating the honor code. (

I have loved my experience here so...

I have loved my experience here so far. I couldn’t imagine having a much better time at college. Although it is very academically challenging here, there are many social opportunities. With so much to offer, I think that anyone would be able to find their own niche at William & Mary.

I personally love the school....

I personally love the school. Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone to a bigger school (like UVA), but I feel like at W&M, I make more of a difference in the community. I think I stand out more as an individual. I have great relationships with most of my professors and find that that helps a lot academically. I’ve made a lot of great, quality friends that I wouldn’t give up for anything. This school is really what you make of it. It doesn’t mold you like other schools do—it helps you mold yourself and allows you to grow as an individual.

I’d do it all over again, and love...

I’d do it all over again, and love it. Go here.

Because of the budget cuts a few...

Because of the budget cuts a few years back, some of the labs have been shut down, so the few labs that are still opened can get crowded. Also, printing from the labs can get expensive.

All freshman dorms are pretty much...

All freshman dorms are pretty much created equal, except for Taliaferro and Hunt, which are located apart from other freshman dorms and generally suck. Other than those two, the rest all have their good and bad points. I lived in Botetourt, which is a complex of small dorms (80 people apiece), which I really liked because I knew everyone in the building, while most people only know their hall. Unfortunately, they like to make some of the doubles in that complex triples when they run out of rooms, so some of the rooms are really small.

Go to the Cheese Shop; you won’t...

Go to the Cheese Shop; you won’t be disappointed. Also, everyone has to eat at a colonial tavern at least once.

There are plenty of places to live...

There are plenty of places to live around here, some of which are even within walking distance. However, I would say that if you are going to live off campus, it is essential to have a car for transportation.