advice from current and former WM students

Here_to_Help
Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:56:05 +0000

William and Mary is very pedestrian friendly. It is possible to walk completely across main campus in 15-20 minutes. That said, if you are living in Botetot, DuPont, Yates, Brown, or some other freshman dorm that is quite far away from the middle of campus, a bike may be a great idea. The longest walk between classes would be from Morton to Tucker, and can be done in exactly 10 minutes (the amount of time between classes). That said, a bike would be nice to reduce the hassle, but if you let your professor know at the beginning of the year that you are coming from all the way across campus they will be understanding.

If you enjoy riding your bike for fun, riding around CW in the evening can also be a good time. Not many mountain bike trails nearby, although the College Woods has some nice trails.

Basically its your decision based on where you live, your classes, the amount of time you want to spend with bike upkeep, the amount of evening activities you’ll be involved in, and other things like that. I was living in a more centrally located dorm Freshman year (Barrett) so decided not to bring my bike at first. I was planning on going home for fall break so if I wanted it I could bring it then. Bikes plus rain also don’t equal a good time. So if you do bring it, make sure you have a rainproof seat cover (a plastic bag works great) and a rain coat - its kind of hard to ride a bike and hold an umbrella at the same time.

IIRC, the campus police have a bike sale at the beginning of every year where they cheaply sell the bikes abandoned on campus over the summer (its possible to store them over the summer for free if you want).