University of Mary Washington Top Questions

People come from a lot of different backgrounds, I think Mary Wash is comprised of a friendly and open-minded student body.

The community of students is very open and accepting. PRISM had a large prescence on campus, which is fantastic. All the students seem to come from the same economic background however, middle to upper middle class. Perhaps the school doesn't have enough financial resources to give those from working class families full scholarships to attend, which is really a shame. It's so aggravating to see even a lack of diversity among socio-economic classes.

It is pretty diverse, no one would really feel out of place. As a whole, the student body is friendly and trustworthy.

I am very active in InterVarsity which is an on-campus Christian organization. We strive to let the campus know they are loved and to be an outlet for sharing the common ground of our faith. I have had many LGBT friends and value all of my friendships with them; I strongly feel that Mary Wash is a friendly environment no matter who you are or where you place your identity.

There is not a great deal of racial diversity in the student body, but even that is improving. The amount of interaction between groups is refreshing and the spectrum of political and religious beliefs is a large one. The general student body is very aware of current events because the campus is located halfway between Richmond VA and Washington DC. Also there are three different newspapers provided daily for the students. Oh yeah and the ration of females to males still hovers at or above 2-1.

Not too bad.

The student body would not be classified as very diversed-racially, religiously, or socio-economically. And as an out-of-stater, i found there to be very few students from outside the state of VA. I understand that it is a state school but many of my friends at other universities in the state found that they were not alone as an out-of-stater all the time-as I felt. The student body is mostly white, middle to upper class women who are either Christian or non-practicing. There is a strong gay community at the school, and I feel that there is a comfortable amount of gays for such a small school.

Very liberal campus. Lots of gay people... and people who could / will be gay by the time they graduate. Not that many preps / snobs. Everyone is pretty down the earth and laid back. There are hardly any black people. It's mostly white females. If you're a straight guy, you'll get a ton of action.

One of the things that struck me about college and classes was the dress code. There is none really. You obviously can't walk around naked, but unlike high school, things are surprisingly chill when it comes to what to wear. A student can wear pajamas to class every day if they'd like. Jeans and sweat pants actually become a staple of what to wear to class (sweats are especially good for those vicious 8 am classes). It's a very casual atmosphere, with no pressure to wear something like khakis and a sweater vest everyday.

I would say I had a very sheltered UMW experience because the atheltic community is so tight nit that's the majority of the people I was surrounded by and we all seem to have very similiar interests and opinions. However, it was in the classroom discussions (upper level classes) where I really became aware about the broad UMW student sentiments.