University of Mary Washington Top Questions

The academics here are pretty challenging. I don't believe the school gets enough credit for its academics. The courses can be difficult but the professors are wonderful and genuinely care about each of their students. They challenge their students to think critically and participate frequently. I have really enjoyed most of my courses here at UMW and I have never found a professor that I really disliked. Everyone is helpful in class as well. Students help each other study and generally, they come to class because they want to be there and they find value in the work they are doing. I have heard countless alumni say that UMW prepared them very well for their career and the work force and that having an education here is a great asset.

The academics here are pretty challenging. I don't believe the school gets enough credit for its academics. The courses can be difficult but the professors are wonderful and genuinely care about each of their students. They challenge their students to think critically and participate frequently. I have really enjoyed most of my courses here at UMW and I have never found a professor that I really disliked. Everyone is helpful in class as well. Students help each other study and generally, they come to class because they want to be there and they find value in the work they are doing. I have heard countless alumni say that UMW prepared them very well for their career and the work force and that having an education here is a great asset.

The professors at UMW are really involved and love to help out their students. My department, Psychology, was great. The professors were super helpful and even gave out their private cell phone numbers and emails if you needed help! I can honestly say that most of the students I met were hard-working, smart, and, in general, great people. Everyone was willing to meet new people. The education at UMW helped prepare me for graduate school, which is where I am now.

My major is psychology, and I am also doing the five-year program for elementary education. Both of these departments are well-established at UMW. A majority of professors know my name. I believe the only classes where a professor has not has been intro classes. My favorite class this year is probably my primary literacy class. I love teaching and being around kids, so most of my education classes are my favorite. Students are very studious here. I know I spend a great amount of time studying and working on papers. I know that when I have to go to the library, it is usually packed of students working. Class participation is usually a common occurrence in class. This does depend on how engaging the professor is. The professor really does set the entire tone for the class. I have only experienced one horrible professor, and he does not teach here any longer. The professors are always willing to help during office hours or schedule another time if that does not work for you. All of my professors are very prompt on emailing me back and helping the best they can. Classes are very competitive. Students want to be the best and be remembered by professors. This can ensure that they will have good recommendations at the end of their college career or be able to force add a class if needed. It's also great to have relationships with your professors because they are very insightful and have a lot of great life advice for inside and outside of the classroom. All of the majors at this school that I am aware of try to prepare you for either graduate school or a job. We have a great resource center for careers and internships. They are always sending out emails for resume workshops and other events to help students with getting a job or applying for graduate school.

Class sizes are really small, usually 15-20 people per class. Class participation is usually dominated by two or three loudmouths in the class. But you can't sleep in class cause the teachers can see you, and they WILL remember you. I feel like I am in a noncompetitive environment... in fact, I feel like many people are just plain ignorant and dumb. I did a survey for a paper this year and half of the 40 people I surveyed did not know what the word "amnesty" meant... God help me. The general education requirements are obnoxious but they help "undecided" people determine which field is appealing to them. I really feel like taking courses I may not have without the requirements has opened my mind and expanded my views. Most interesting/unique course was Social Problems... our final consisted of Pornography, Homosexuality, and Prostitution... THAT was fun to study for!

Professors definitely know you by name, and most of them make class a lot of fun. Freshman classes tend to be the worst of the 4 years, because they are mostly large (70+ students) intro classes with grades essentially based on 2 or 3 tests. My favorite class at UMW was a Philosophy of Religion course -- the professor who taught it is awesome (he drew great pictures!) and there was a lot of discussion and debate. In most of my classes throughout my time students tended to participate a lot which made class more interesting. Students are generally not very competitive. Everyone tries to do well of course, but we like to help each other out with study groups rather than fight each other for grades. It is not uncommon to spend time with professors out of the classroom -- be it during office hours, to talk about our futures, or at an academic picnic... many of which include kegs. Academic requirements were a huge pain for me, but the school has implemented new, more lenient requirements for future incoming classes which is a definite improvement

I have had nothing but great professors. They really take the time to get to know you, and genuinely care about each and every student in their class. Classes rarely have more than 20 students in them, and even when they do, the professors still make an effort to get to know everyone's names.

I'm a huge nerd, but I loved the academics at UMW. Don't get me wrong, they're no walk in the park. At least within my major, you had to study. There was no way of getting around that. Sure, people skipped out on readings, but it generally showed in the classroom. The professors all knew my name, with the exception of a few random classes. But, within my department, my professors knew me. My favorite class was a political science/international relations class, but I have so many favorites. The faculty know that you can produce wonderful work, and they expect it from you. They push you to perform at the highest level. While that is difficult, I feel as though I've grown personally, academically, socially...all of the above due to my experiences at UMW. I'd say UMW students definitely have intellectual conversations outside of class. I mean, it's not all the time, but it definitely does happen a lot. I'm biased, but I thought my department was the best. The professors, beside being brilliant, were really cool people. I got the opportunity to spend some time with many of them outside of class, and that's pretty common for UMW. I think that's pretty amazing and a wonderful opportunity. They're also pretty hilarious. I'm an easy audience, but the majority of them cracked me up during class. The academic requirements, like I said, are tough at UMW. It's considerably difficult, but it's worth it. I have a job now, and I feel prepared. It's not just "learning for the sake of learning." My academic experience at UMW was challenging, fun, engaging, and overall-- awesome.

If you are shy and don't like to talk too much in class, don't worry. Yes, the professors know you by name and they will know if you miss class, but they are also good about not calling you out. I'm a shy person and I love classes at UMW. There is a lot of participation in class, and in my classes I've found that it's mostly student driven, depending on the professor. UMW just changed/updated their requirements, and I agree with all of them. There are typical general education requirements like every school. Many of the students don't like the foreign language requirement, which requires students to reach an intermediate level in their language of choice, or four semesters of the language if you start at the beginning.

All of the professors I have had know my name. Fav class had to do with computers...surprise because I hate computers...but the professor was AWESOME (Davies). Least favorite: Economics, because the teacher was horrible. AKA the "anti-christ" on ratemyprof.com. students are very smart and active, and I would say competitive, but not in the rutheless negative way. All departments have barbeques for their majors, and that's when a lot of students get to hang out with their professors outside of class. UMW's academic requirements change often, especially particular gen-ed's, which is always a pain.

I switched majors about three times at Mary Wash and still graduated on time, so if you are unsure of what you'd like to major in, don't worry, there's plenty of time to decide what department you find the most interesting. Class participation kind of depends on your department. I find it a lot of fun because in my experience the professors are great moderators, and people are polite, mature and respectful of each other's opinions and time to talk, making it a very comfortable atmosphere. Since the class sizes are quite small this also makes it less intimidating to speak in front of the class during presentations. A lot of students definitely care about their grades, however, I don't feel like there was a lot of competition, people are often supportive and if you have questions, you don't always have to ask the professor, you can ask students also. Some departments have a lot of group projects and most of the time I think that people have been helpful as they are used to being the ones who do a lot of work in high school group projects and therefore they care about getting the work done and so the work is evenly distributed. Professors are often very friendly outside class and a bit more laid-back than in the classroom. Their office hours are there so students can come talk to them if they have any questions about an assignment, and the professors I've had have been very helpful and nice.

Art Department Head and Ceramics professor Lorene Nickel is fantastic. But she expects alot out of all levels of her students and is a very tough grader. She takes her students on a trip to her house, every semester.

The workload is always a bit time-consuming, but I've never heard of it being unreasonable. The classes are small enough where your professor knows your name; in most cases students stay after class to chat with the professors, and hang out with them on campus.

My favorite class thus far has either been Stats for Psych with Dr. Kolar or Social Psych with Dr. Erchull. Every professor I've run across has been amazing, really striving for quality time. Many of my professors have taken pictures to help remember the students' names - our identity is of value to them. I still have professors from my first semester freshman year asking about my life even though I haven't taken a class with them since then!

Academic difficulty varies significantly by major and by Professors within each major. Most people going for an easy route choose Business Administration and stick to easier teachers, but there are definitely opportunities to challenge yourself within that major and every major for that matter. As a history major you definitely hear of teachers to steer clear of or that are easy. I always found that the most intellectually stimulating (... and yes demanding) courses were the ones taught by the "difficult" professors. Generally they have severe grading criteria but are usually exceptional lecturers or offer ample help in the subject they are teaching outside of the classroom. As far as difficult majors go any of the sciences are difficult. Political science has been a challenging major but with the recent turn over in faculty whether that remains the case is yet to be seen. The hardest majors are definitely the sciences, art history, history, economics, and historic preservation.

It's furstrating registering for classes because you end up taking classes that you don't need and are just a waste of time

Some teachers and great, some aren't just like any any other school.

I loved the historic preservation department and the professors, classes and outside field trips we took in the program. I specialized in museums and loved the classes assigned to that study. All classes were discussion or practice based and none were strictly lecture-note-taking-test. I thought this was the best way to learn what I have learned, and also allowed me to be practical and well-educated when I hit the museum/preservation field as an alum. I still email and talk to my professors-using them as my mentors throughout this entry-level time in my career! I also participated in the elementary education program for three and a half years-and loved it. Again, this department focussed on discussion based class involvement and hands-on learning through practicum requirements. Although I cursed the practicum hours for how much time they took from my weekly schedule - up to 15 hours a week in schools - in the end they helped me learn that I did not want to be a teacher, and would rather work in a museum education position! As for the general education classses-they were not too bad, but I know they have changed the makeup of the requirements since I was a freshman/sophomore. I think the new freshman seminar classes sounded interesting and many of my senior friends and I wished we could have taken them! The school also limited the amount of credits students were required to take before jumping into their major courses which I think is great and allows for the students to take more classes to help cater to their interests and build their overall education.

Great professors! Especially in the english department! Math department sucks. There is no "minors" at Mary Wash, you can only double major.

At a lot of colleges and universities, the classes you take are mostly taught by the TA with the occasional visit from the professor. At Mary Washington, this is not the case. TA's do not even exist at UMW. Every class is taught by the professor, and even more surprisingly, the professors care. They will take the time to learn your name; they will do what they can to help you understand and get the most out of their class. The professors want you to succeed, not just to make them look good, but because they want you to be a success and be all you can be.