Washington & Jefferson College Snapshot

Written by Alexandra Sossi

Alexandra Sossi

Hometown

Peters Township, PA

Major

English

Grad Year

2013

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Not many students walk out of W&J with feelings that it was "alright" or "so-so." Most shoot off to either extreme of loving it or despising its very existence. Come to think of it, many are a complicated mix of both. Regardless of where their loyalties lie at graduation, students seem to share a strikingly common belief that succeeding at W&J makes the rest of the challenges still to come comparably easier. Grads leave here with feelings of tremendous relief that they passed their classes and they know that the education they received has helped get them one step closer to the next phase of their lives. Even though many are racked with doubt about exactly what that phase is, the general attitude is positive and optimistic. It's difficult to write a summary about students' overall experience here because, to put it bluntly, it's so varied and complex that one person simply cannot capture it all. I consider it safe to say that no one leaves W&J just how they expected they would be when they came here as freshmen. Four years at W&J has burned some students out and made some wish they had considered going somewhere less rigorous, but it has given others boundless confidence in their academic abilities. Those four years have also given students cause to think about their lives from entirely new perspectives. Sometimes this works for the best, and the student finds some avenue to pursue that will bring them fulfillment and happiness, while others become disillusioned and even more confused about the future than when they first set foot on campus. At graduation time, what seems to matter most is how engaged you were with your education rather than how well your grades turned out. For being as small as it is, W&J can exert a remarkable amount of pressure on its students. How students deal with that pressure and how their efforts are directed seem to define their overall experience more than anything else.