The University of Mary Washington

I don't want to completely bash on UMW. I'm going to talk about the negative things and then the positive things. However, as a senior applying to schools- there are things you need to know before applying. The negative reviews about UMW are 100% true- but the positive reviews are true as well. Let me explain...

Negative:
1) THIS SCHOOL IS BORING. I cannot exaggerate on that because it's true. It is *SO* boring and people go home on the weekends all the time. The campus is dead and SAE (the group in charge of making events) makes mediocre events. I've tried going, seriously. There are a few parties- but you have to make connections and sometimes they are really exclusive due to the athletic teams being annoying.

2) The students in the athletic department are really snooty, honestly. I met a few nice people, but they are just overall really exclusive. They have parties the majority of the time- but only THEY can go. I had a group of my friends somehow go to one of their parties, and one of the people said, "What are you doing here? This is an athlete party only." Like what??? That's just rude.

3) There's +100 clubs to join, but some of them are exclusive. And they hardly do anything. Ever. And it's hard to be active when you're focusing on classes. But it is possible to get involved.

4) THIS FREAKED ME OUT SO MUCH- one person wrote a negative review about the food with finding metal in it. One day, I was eating a wrap from The Nest (one of 3 dining options) and I found plastic inside of it. And I've also found plastic in ice cream from Seacobeck (another dining hall). It freaked me out so much that I got a panic attack.

5) Fredericksburg was not a college town at all. There is no "UMW pride" at all in the school or in Fredericksburg. Some of the local people are rude to the students, but some are friendly. There's NOTHING to due in Fredericksburg unless you have a car. And most people go home on the weekends, as mentioned.

6) I wanted to have a car my 2nd semester so I could take some classes at the community college so I could have the college experience, but get some of the classes I needed. However- I WAS DENIED. Apparently I couldn't have a car because it was "work or medical" related. That's not fair at all- I needed to have a car to take additional classes!

7) BE CAREFUL WITH CHOOSING CLASSES. There are certain classes you *NEED* before transferring: Math, Science w/ Lab, English, and History. These classes fill up, and sometimes not offered in the Fall or Spring. They also don't transfer sometimes. For an example: UMW's Biology 101 does not transfer to ECU, but a community college biology class will. It doesn't make sense.

8) The school is just way too small, and if you like that- awesome! But if not- I would highly suggest looking at places.

9) The food is not good. At all. There was a sickness spreading around at one point. Freaky.
10) NO SCHOOL SPIRIT OR PRIDE. At all. It was horrible. No one goes to any of the games because they are busy with school work, or just too lazy. I saw more VT apparel versus UMW apparel.

11) For dorm requests, they don't read them. They literally do it by random. It was kinda frustrating getting a choice not even listed on the request.

12) The administration is not very understanding about events on campus. They tend to shut down everything.

13) The police is worse. They bust parties before 12am 90% of the time.
14) Most parties are off campus and a 30 minute walk at least.
Now for the positives:
1) Even though Fredericksburg is boring, I felt safe there. I walked around at 3 am with a buddy- you just need to have a friend with you. There was only two UMW alert about a homeless drunken guy walking around on campus, and a rumored shooting off campus.

2) Some of the friends I've made here I still communicate with. They were really supportive about my dislike for the college. And about 80% of the people here are very nice and friendly. The people at UMW either LOVE THE SCHOOL MORE THAN LIFE or just HATE it.

3) Without a doubt, I loved the professors at this university. They were so helpful, kind, understanding, and always answered my emails. If you work hard, you can do well. This college is notoriously known to have the work load of UVA and W&M. I was failing Psychology half way in the semester, and managed to get a B with the class because the professor offered so much extra credit opportunities. My previous roommate transferred to GMU, and said she missed the professors at UMW.

4) Even though the food sucks, there is plenty of food at the bookstore and there's a grocery store across the street from UMW. That was pretty nice.

5) The dorms are either pretty nice or kinda gross, but honestly it didn't bother me much. I lived in a no-AC dorm, and was fine.

6) The campus is BEAUTIFUL. So pretty, and enjoyable to walk around in the fall/ spring.
7) If you're +21 there are a few clubs, but not much in the area.
8) If you want to leave UMW and transfer to another school- it's not hard. The staff is so supportive if the school isn't for you. The dean is so wonderful and he's great. He will schedule a meeting with you and have you explain on why UMW isn't for you. The staff will provide transcripts when you request them, and they are helpful. Just get the best grades you can, and GET ABOVE A 3.0 for transferring.

Those are my negative and positive points about UMW. I tried not to be too mean, but I wanted to be honest about the school. If you go to UMW, you will either love it or hate it. Good luck with the college process. If you are at UMW for one semester, and hate it- I would go to community college the second semester, or apply to other schools.

Good luck!

1st Year Female -- Class 2018

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Social Life: F

Let me begin with, I really wanted to enjoy my expireince here, especially as a freshman coming into something new, what freshmen doesn't? First, i wanted to say, I am going to honest and tell my point of view on things, so that means I will obviously be subjective towards this, some may agree and some may disagree. Okay, so I got accepted into UMW this past spring (I guess that was a no brainer). Immediately, I started looking about on websites to see what the students had to say about the school and stuff itself, because let's be honest when you tour or have orientation there, well the objective is to convince you to go there. I read the reviews including this website and most of them were negative, and the same issue for many poopped up, I ingnored it thinking it was just someone was trying to be negative and cause drama. Well, in the end, in my own opinion, they were correct and i agreed. Okay, so enough of that, I am not going to completely bash everything about this place, I will admit the campus is very beautiful and I did have the fortune for having professors that were actually nice, knowledgeable, and genuinly wanted to see the students pass. But, that is all I can really think of in terms of what I can look at as being a positive. Now, moving on to the not so lovely things... so, this campus is small, and it works for some, and for others like me, not so much, so don't expect really anything to go on during the week and especially the weekends ( A lot of people go home on the weekends). Social life, is eh... I mean there is clubs, but depending on the club, not very many people meet. Party wise, non-existent or maybe i just don't know because half the time you have to keep it a secret because the party usually shuts down. I mean i get it drinking can be dangerous, but party life, believe it or not improves your social skills, you get out there, you talk to different people and have a good time, that's part of developing social skills and I hate to say this but "benching" is called people watching go to a mall and do it, like it's not a thing UMW made... sorry not sorry. No greek life, so if your looking for a school with that, hate to burst your bubble, it's not here, not that I wanted greek life, I could care less but I know people choose schools based on that sometimes and that whole topic is a whole other debate in itself. The food is eh. That's about it on that. In terms of classes, majors, and registrations, I'm neutral on this. Classes are small...if your in a seminar or upper level courses. Majors, well it's a small university so not many options will be available, they do offer Historic Preservation so if you like that sort of thing all the more power to you, the department is nice and really good. Registration time...seriously can be stressful, i remember my blood pressure went so high, oh my, i don't want to relive that. Anyways, around this time a lot of the classes you WANT AND NEED get filled up and fast to on the count of the fact everyone else is on the same boat as you, so you might or might not get in it. Now, on to my *personal favorite* the students, okay so I am no going to lie, there were some friendly, approachable, real, and down to earth people I enjoy talking to and being around. But, (there's always a but) most of the time, I found many of the students especially to be arrogant and very close-minded you don't agree with them...like uh? okay for a campus that promotes that kind of thing to be open minded and tolerent of people, it sure seems like the opposite to me. I tried being nice to many people and believe me, I am not a confrontatinal or mean spirited person at all, I guess people must've thought I was the spawn of satan, because hahaha god forbid if I saw "Hi, I like your sandals.", I am known to be weird (true story). But I mean it's whatever, there are like i said a few good hearted people. The majority also tear down other universites on that yik yak app and it brings it back to the fact that if many students preach and make an issue about being nice and open minded to others then why make fun of people that go to other schools? Like sit back down, you ( and I ) got into a school with an 80% acceptance rate. Stop acting like your the greatest creation of humanity. The only other thing I got to say about the student body is if your looking for a campus with like lots of diveristy then well "UMW...Univeristy of Mostly Whites" may not be the best call, but it's up to you. Now, safety and the surrounding town and locals and all that other stuff, safety well it's for the most part safe to walk around at night, the only things that happened are, is a girl got raped in the parking deck and someone got held at knife point infront of i believe it was George Washington hall... I can't remember, and some guy who was like a suspect escaped onto the campus one day...idk what that whole thing was about. The surrounding town, well being a local, I know Downtown Fredericksburg can be a cute little area to look around once in a while but there's not much there than antique shops and restaurants. There is a mall, but you have to find a way to get there and usually it's by the Fred Bus which a lot of people don't like to take, I don't know why, because I have been on it quite a bit, and I am still alive. Other than that, the surrounding areas and locals are 50//50- you either get nice ones or plain old grumpy ones. The dorms...hmmm... if you do go here I recommend Mason, Ball, Virginia, or Marshall (but it's down a hill). Another thing, I will talk about is financial aid, MY GOD, all i can say it was lackluster and frusturating. ONE LAST THING, I promise is the fact that I notice a lot of the time a so called "well-known" school shouldn't have to advertise on places such as Buzzfeed, Pandora, and Spotify, because being a top liberal arts school in the south (yes, VA is in the south) is well I hate to burst yet another bubble is kind of uncommon. Okay, well I think i pretty much said a mouthfull, I just wanted to tell the truth on how i expierianced things here, I was not satisfied and I am transferring, I just wanted to bring perspective on whether or not someone is on the line for going here. Me? If I had to do it over, I would choose my second choice school and not pay the money I had to out of both my pocket and my parents pockets for the somewhat mediorcre education and expireince I had there. I wanted this to be a neutral but unfortunately the bad far outweighed in the end. Well, this post is full of many commas and grammatical errors, but yeah, like I said think it over, listen to the reviews, and in my opinion don't go here or go here, it's up to you. Wheteher or not you agree or diagree with my review on this I sure hope you take the time to look over and think about coming here.

1st Year Female -- Class 2019

Faculty Accessibility: B+, Useful Schoolwork: F

I'm Bio/premed and am not impressed at all. From all the professors I've taken and professors that my friends have taken we all agree on one thing: The professors just read verbatim off the slides; I am unsure whether they even have phD's because even a Highschooler can do this. Chemistry department is OK, its hit or miss with quality teachers. Physics is a JOKE at this school; its convoluted and you don't learn anything but you still walk away with an A lol. The only bigger joke is the premed program. Don't let the advisor fool you when/if he gave you a tour when you were a prospective student. When he is not in front of parents he is unhelpful, condescending, rude etc. Read his reviews on rate my professor to verify what I just said. The "pre med program" is a bulletin board with brochures sloppily stapled on that are out of date by about 5+ years. Everything I know I know from doing my own research because the program is useless here. No wonder only about 5 students get into medical school each year here (mostly DO schools; not an MD school). Here is the WORST part. The school offers very few classes with very small sections. Wanna take anatomy/histology/virology etc? Sorry, we only offer it ever other semester or once every other year. OR we only offer one/two sections with a class size of 10. Also, sorry it overlaps with your other classes you need to graduate; stay another year! This affects you because 1) you cannot graduate on time which makes you spend an extra semester's of tuition/room/board money (and time/money you could've used getting a job so you end up losing a lot more- this is called opportunity cost; this applies to all majors here) 2) You can't get the classes you need to be prepared for material tested on the MCAT. I'm positive point #1 affects all majors, not just bio/premed. Lastly, I cannot verify this or provide proof but I give you my word (for what it's worth), I read a recent article that was praising the school but then went on saying that 74% of students of entering students graduate in 6 years. Read that again. 3/4 STUDENTS TAKE 6+ YEARS TO GRADUATE. Refer to point #1 for the explaination.

4th Year Female -- Class 2019

Innovation: D, Education Quality: F