pancake7

Hey I was wondering what any current St Mary's students have to say about their expirience at St Mary's, or what impressions anyone else has gotten from the school.
It is one of the top colleges on my list and I was hoping to get more information about it.

I was specifically wondering what you think of St. Mary's location. One of my main concerns about the school is that it is basically in the middle of nowhere! If you are a current student- how do you deal with this, what do you do? If you're not- what do you think of St. Mary's location.
Thanks so much!!!!

radial

While I am not a current student anymore, I did graduate from St. Mary's a couple of years ago. Those of us that go to St. Mary's always find this question perplexing as there is never a dull moment on campus.

The college realizes that it is in a rural location and will be the first to admit it. Because of this, they are very active with campus programming. And almost all of that programming is organized by students, which ensures that the campus events are things students are interested in.

For example, Thursday nights are a coffeehouse open mic in the campus center, Friday nights there is typically a comedian on campus, Friday-Saturday-and Sunday they show movies in the campus center.

You also have over 100 student run clubs that run a bunch of their own events and there are lectures and panels put on by the academic departments.

St. Mary's will be a place where on a Tuesday night you'll have to choose between doing X, Y, and Z as well as your schoolwork.

The other great thing about life at St. Mary's is that students take enjoyment out of doing rather simple things. St. Mary's students don't need to always be going to an "event". Instead they often enjoy time with their friends, whether it is a round of frisbee golf, kayaking in the river, dinner conversation in the townhouses, intramural sports, learning how to windsuf, etc ....

And when you look at statistics, St. Mary's has the highest freshman retention rate of any public school in the state of Maryland, so we must've have all stayed there for a reason.

radial

So your question encouraged me to go look around the St. Mary's website to illustrate what is happening at St. Mary's. Let's look at this week.

Monday 2/9 New exhibit in the art gallery
Monday 2/9 Farmers Market in campus center
Monday 2/9 Film screening and discussion with director
Monday 2/9 Lecture by PBS journalist T.R. Reid on Healthcare
Tuesday 2/10 Lecture by Biology faculty on evolution in connection with Darwin Days
Tuesday 2/10 Follow-up lecture by PBS journalist T.R. Reid on Healthcare
Tuesday 2/10 Lecture by professor of Islamic studies on the "other side of Disney movies"
Wednesday 2/11 Student Trustee Candidate Forum
Wednesday 2/11 More Darwin Days events
Wednesday 2/11 US Census Bureau recruiting on campus
Wednesday 2/11 Lecture given by scientist from Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
Thursday 2/12 Polar Bear Splash in the St. Mary's River
Thursday 2/12 Lecture on China's role in the current economic crisis
Thursday 2/12 Lecture by President of Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Thursday 2/12 Presentation on the evolution of candy
Thursday 2/12 Coffeehouse Open Mic
Thursday 2/12 Performance of the Vagina Monologues
Thursday 2/12 Conference swimming championships hosted at St. Mary's
Friday 2/13 Comedian/Magician
Friday 2/13 Mark Twain Annual Lecture on Culture and Humor by Firoozeh Dumas authors of "Funny in Farsi"
Friday 2/13 Conference swimming championships hosted at St. Mary's

And this is just what I found looking at the main college website St. Mary's College of Maryland and the admissions blog events section St. Mary's College of Maryland - Admissions - Student Blogs -

It doesn't even cover the club events and intramurals as they are typically publicized through e-mail

pancake7

Thank you so much radial! This is great to know!