University of Mary Washington Top Questions

Just right size but growing fast. Fredericksburg is amazing if you're looking for a small-town, quiet place to live with lots to offer a history buff. Not a huge amount of school pride due to a lack of a football team, but your college experience is what you make of it.

too small, too close for NOVA kids, like high school

I spent most of my time in duPont, being a theatre major and all. The biggest controversy was certainly when Dr. Frawley got his DUIs. I found UMW to be the perfect size for me, because I really wanted a smaller school. Most people asked if I went to an all-girls school, but they usually though I went to Mary Baldwin. The town was great, especially the historic downtown.

UMW is pretty small, so you see a lot of the same people pretty often, but you also see new people too. The dining service is dreadful and it's generally hard to effect change on campus as a student. The Student Government seems to be disinterested in the students, other than hosting the same events as always and acting important. The administration can be lofty and the Board of Visitors is entirely disconnected and not at all transparent about decisions. The price is good, but it sometimes seems that you get what you pay for. Still, the professors can be great, especially the further you get in your major. There are loads of clubs for all sorts of interests, both academic and otherwise. School pride is not part of the package, which can be most evident by the lack of a football team. People are more interested in their individual activities than a larger community.

UMW is a great place for some people, but others won't find their place here. UMW is a small school without a Greek life, and it never advertized itself as a party school. If you are looking for an extravagent party life, you should look elsewhere. The college town is pretty quaint. A lot of the students go home for the weekend, so that can leave the campus feeling dead sometimes. One of the worst issues is that a lot of students want to transfer out, perhaps because they feel that the school lacks a social life or because they feel locked out by the university's administration. The school is 2/3 female, 1/3 male. At least you can be guaranteed on-campus housing for all four years, which is a major plus. There are little more than 4000 students on the undergraduate campus, so indeed it is small, but not so small that you will feel confined. In general, most of the classes are small. The exception would be the introductory classes in the sciences and the social sciences, where classes could contain 50-100 students. But other than those lectures, I have never had a class larger than 40 students. Another perk of the size is that there aren't any TAs, and the professors (for the most part) really seem to care about teaching. So you can definitely get a good education here. Most of the classes are challenging, so you will be spending a lot of time studying if you want to get good grades and make the most of the learning experience. But the coursework isn't so challenging that you won't have time for fun, either. One common complaint about this school is that it is very hard to get the courses that you want, but I suspect it wouldn't be any better at other universities.

I think Mary Washington is a great school, not only because of the small class sizes and the professors who actually see you as an individual and not just a number. While you may think the admissions office is just saying that, it is true. It might not be apparent right off the bat as a freshman, but I have developed great relationships with many of the my professors. The one downside to the school i would say is the sense of pride in the school. As an athlete, we support each other by going to other team's games, but I feel from people not involved through friendship directly with athletes or being on a team, there is no sense of school pride shown through athletics. This is something that disappoints me because it is something that could be made fun year round for the entire student body.

The best thing about mary washington is the closeness of the students. Everyone knows everyone else and all their drama. It's pretty easy to walk down College Avenue and see people you know and be able to gossip about them ;-) Reactions to me saying i go to umw are "wow....I heard that school is super boring." And it's mostly true. I don't have that much fun. Most of my time on campus is spent in the academic halls. I don't live on campus so I don't hang out there or eat there, and the library is entirely too depressing to spend more then the bare minimum there. Frequent student complaints include: administrationk, PARKING, the unfair-ness of the campus police, lack of activities on campus.

The school is small, but not too small. It has enough people that you will know a good portion of the people you walk by, but you will always get to meet new people. I think the best part about UMW are the people, the faculty, staff, and students. You have some bad professors here and there, but for the most part, they come here because it is a teaching oriented college and they love to teach. A lot of the students reflect these desire for knowledge, which results in a pretty large activist community. Unfortunately, there isn't much to do on campus, but you can find lots of stuff to do downtown. I am amazed by the stuff I keep finding in Fredericksburg. The administration of UMW is like a lot of bureaucratic institutions that like to point blame elsewhere for practically everything. However, you have some compassionate people who are interested in what students have to say, but they are a rare find. I would say the biggest complaints that I hear are bad food, no minors, and the unfair drug policy.

I like the size of Mary Washington because it's not too big or small. It's not too big that I never see people I know and it's not too small that I only see people I know and cannot get away from them. There are a lot less guys here and it is seen in the classes.

Perfect student body size if you want smaller classes and yet not a tiny school. I would like to see more parking - they changed the parking lots which is upsetting because students can't park in certain areas anymore. Most people that I mention that I go to UMW tell me they haven't really heard of the school before. I wish the school had a better reputation than it does, and I wish it were more well known. I think that the academics are great, the school is selective, and I'm getting a great reputation; it would be nice if more people recognized that. Biggest recent controversy on campus: Our former president got arrested for DUI, while driving a car after blowing an entire wheel off the car! We're getting a new president this year!