Strongly considering W&M but have heard there is not much of a social life outside of greek like and there is not much to do on and off campus for a Freshman. Could you provide any input?
@Anisqoyo Yes! I lived in a freshman dorm room without AC. Full disclaimer: All the lounges and common areas have AC, and all upperclassmen dorms have AC.
Honestly I would say it wasn’t bad at all, and I would say that it didn’t significantly impacted my experience at W&M. I barely spent time in my room except to sleep, and there is the whole rest of campus to explore. If anything, I would say that it led to everyone in my dorm spending more time in the lounges and common areas – which led to lots of community bonding. I remember constantly meeting new people and the dorm was incredibly social. I remember fellow dorm mates building forts in the lounge, playing games, and having giant movie nights where everyone was invited.
I would say that it only gets really warm like the first month and part of the last month of college, most other times it was perfectly manageable. If it is something that you are concerned about, all you need to do is get a doctor’s note to get it installed in your dorm. My roommate and I actually got approval to get an AC in our dorm room, but by the time that we got that, it was already cool enough that we didn’t need it. If you are dead-set about living in a dorm with air conditioning, you have a better chance if you request living in a larger dorm on your housing survey: Jefferson, Yates, and Lemon are all air conditioned.
But for me, I wouldn’t trade my experience living in my smaller dorm for anything. It had such a sense of community and it was a bonding experience that I have remained close friends with several of them even after graduation. Yes, that means even living in a dorm room with an air conditioner.
Were there many forced triples in those rooms without AC? Also - bugs, not that there are bugs (after all, it is VA and the water table) but that the school doesn’t really deal with infestations of bugs well? Do the dorms get better as you move up or do most just move off campus after sophomore year because they don’t?
@TestRun The dorms definitely get better after sophomore year. Some of the best dorms like Lemon, Chandler, Landrum, One Tribe Place, Tribe Square, and Hardy are incredibly nice. Many of them have their own bathrooms attached to the dorm and have options for singles, doubles, suite style dorms, apartment style, and more. You can find pictures and videos online. They’ve been renovating lots of the dorms recently, so I wouldn’t be surprised that more of the dorms get the same treatment.
For housing after freshman year, William & Mary has a lottery system where seniors get first pick of dorms, then juniors, then sophomores. Students with disabilities and those in special programs also get first pick. For instance, there are several spaces on campus that are dedicated to language houses (students who want to speak a particular language), Mosaic House (dedicated to diversity), and even a house in Colonial Williamsburg that students can apply to live in.
Personally I haven’t heard of any forced triples for freshmen before. There are some dorm rooms on campus that are built for triples, so that their collective space is actually much larger than your typical dorm. These may not always even be filled and the ones I’ve seen are actually made of two rooms. The closest thing that I have heard of even close to that, is that sometimes if they over-enroll students they convert some of the larger rooms that typically used as lounges into dorm rooms. That generally means that the student has a larger room and even sometimes a TV in their room, and would function the same as a regular dorm room. There are a couple of rooms for upperclassmen, that upon request can be turned into triples for students who want to live with their friends, but triples are rare for students in general.
The majority of students live on campus: I believe the overall statistics is about 70 percent of students live on campus. Most students enjoy living on campus because it provides a sense of community. Also if you room with the same roommate for four years, you get invited to a lunch with the President. The typical reasons for moving off-campus include: it’s cheaper (especially if you cook for yourself), you don’t have to be on the meal plan, a place to host more social events, greater independence and the opportunity to live with friends. Housing is relatively inexpensive in Williamsburg in comparison to other cities. Also I believe starting this year or last year, a new requirement was created that sophomores have to live on campus, with expanded sophomore community programming coming along with it. They are greatly expanding dorm living options, and new housing is coming as we speak.
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What about transportation/access to parts of Williamsburg from W&M? I know there is bus transportation through W&M, which at 1200 acres is pretty spread out for a smaller school. But as freshman and sophomores can’t have cars, how do they get to all that Williamsburg offers besides adjacent activities/venues? Biking is a good option, but with the wet weather, it would be good to have backup options besides a Zipcar as well.
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For any transfers, does anyone know how they are evaluating P/F credits?
Unless you are taking classes at one of the graduate schools, you will have no difficulty walking. The campus size includes a lake and woodlands!
The students can also take regional buses for shopping. Perhaps this feature article from The Flat Hat will be helpful.