Does William and Mary give you too much work?

shawnspencer
Tue, 03 Jan 2017 04:23:14 +0000

Hey current student here! First off congratulations on William & Mary. It’s a fantastic school and I have really enjoyed my time here. While I am not a physics major, when I was applying to colleges I was reading the same reviews as you probably are now and was wondering if I was cut out for the school. Fast forward three years later and I can say that some of those fears were exaggerated and that the workload is completely doable here. Yes I do have plenty of time for other things.

William & Mary is incredibly undergraduate focused and often professors will go out of their way to help you. They are extremely accessible and I have met several times with professors outside of class. If you take a look under William & Mary’s ratemyprofessor page for physics, almost all of them have a generally positive rating, which is incredible if you consider how the subject can be challenging.

Personally I know quite a couple of physics majors and they seem to have some of the most active social lives out of anyone I know. They are members of bands, leaders of clubs, active members of social justice movements, captains of intramural teams, and heck some go out even more than I do. So don’t sweat it. Yes it will probably be challenging at times, but if you made it in you can definitely do it.

While I am not a physics major, I have been doing some things with the physics department. I recommend checking out the Society of Physics Students and the Astronomy Club which does things like make liquid nitrogen ice cream and go stargazing ontop of the giant planetarium. Also William & Mary has an amazing International Genetically Engineered Machine (IGEM) team that took home #1 in the world last year, pretty amazing stuff!

Best of luck. If you wanna stay in touch or want me to help connect you to those other physics students or organizations, I would be more than happy to do so. Welcome to the Tribe!