University of Mary Washington Top Questions

Absolutely not. I dont know a single person that goes home regularly on the weekends and as far as the lesbian thing goes, every campus is going to have them. The population at Mary Washington is well over half-female and because of that youre going to have a larger than normal population of lesbian women, but the vast majority are heterosexual girls.

Some. Students should know coming in whats true and not obsess about it. UMW when you visit isn't much different from reality. There is less diversity than some campuses but its way overblown, don't come here if it aggravates you. Fredericksburg is a nice quiet town, those who are bored complain but never take advantage of what it has to offer. Food on campus is not very good. Housing is ok, better for guys. School is improving but is what its advertised as a small liberal arts school in a nice non-college town.

Some of these ideas are true. There is a big population of conservative, stuck-up white southerners at UMW, and there are a lot of liberal hippie types, too. But it's definitely not true that UMW students don't like to have fun. Beer pong is played in the dorms and once students are 21, they frequent the local bars. There are just as many parties at MW as any other school -- we just have fewer people and smaller groups of friends.

NO! Except for the part about squirrels, the other statements are mostly false. Many students chose UMW as their first choice, and definitely not as a backup for UVA. UVA's a great school, but UMW has unique qualities too; beautiful campus, great location (DC and Richmond are less than an hour away each way), intimate class settings, and a growing future. We are small, but not small enough that you know everyone. And being small has its advantages too! I actually speak with my professors, not a graduate aid, and I've never had a class bigger than maybe 45 people in it. I am able to hold leadership positions and be really involved on campus. And no we don't have frats. But we do have good parties and there's ALWAYS something to do on-campus, you just can't be lazy and you can't be blind to the opportunities around you!

Yes, they are fairly accurate

Not at all. Mary Washington has a much different acceptance policy then other public VA schools, say, for example, UVA. UVA uses a strict, numerical rubric to calculate whether or not someone has scored high enough to enter their university. With a lot of applicants, it's an efficient way to choose the most qualified, I'm sure. However, what Mary Washington (mdub) does is much more personal. There is no rating an applicant must get, but rather, the review board judges the applicants on many levels, including their personality, demeanor, and overall capability, not just academic (or at least they do the best they can according to what the apps say). The point of this culminates in a very animated, exciting, and fun student atmosphere, which makes this place very enjoyable to live in. The students chosen are all cool people-- I can vouch for that. Most of the uncool people transfer anyway :-P But in all seriousness, the people make this school. The city of Fredericksburg is a small city, so it has lots of opportunities, but they're not as visible. Anything is available, it might just take some searching. Internship opportunities are abundant, there are plenty of places to chill at, and it's hard to find anywhere else in the nation with so many places to eat, with Central Park being right around the corner, ad downtown right down the street.

I'd like to think that neither of the first two are true, seeing as I know plenty of kids that got into UVA and W&M and chose to come here for the small, and friendly atmosphere. As for the tuition, I can't comment too much, but from my experience it doesn't seem that way. As for the commuter story, UMW has plenty of kids that life off campus, meaning they live around the school with other students, not living with their families. Finally, the idea that we have a poor social scene is a stereotype that I wonder about its origins. UMW has an extremely big party scene for the weekends, and although we have no Greek life, we have plenty of sports teams that fuel the social fire. I think urbandictionary.com has a great definition about the University of Mary Washington, that illustrates the light-hearted and very social atmosphere on the weekends.

Pretty much. Unless you want to exert the energy to change it.

most are white, some are racist, and prism (gay straight alliance) is one of the most active organizations on campus

Yeah, pretty much.