Lehigh vs William&Mary

hoyadawg21
Tue, 07 Jan 2020 04:51:47 +0000

//My username is hoyadawg because I had family members at Georgetown//

To begin, I never had a very traditional college path. I started at the University of Richmond and hated how exclusive the Greek life culture felt when I dropped out of rush during a bad break up. Immediately, I was differently and most of friends hated Richmond and felt depressed. Over time, more and more of my friends dropped out of college completely or transferred. I decided to study abroad to get away from Richmond and I knew that Richmond was not the university I was meant to graduate from and be a proud alum. I needed a change and knew I was going to struggle staying at Richmond to begin with. I got accepted as a finance major to Lehigh and William&Mary and I am very fortunate and blessed. I put down deposits at both because I had trouble deciding and still am having trouble deciding.

I did not like the exclusiveness of Richmond and its social life. It was difficult to join Greek life as a transfer student and sophomore instead of a freshman. At Richmond, I felt people were not connected to a community and were not involved in anything besides Greek life, even club sports or community service. I also consider myself a party person (I managed to keep good grades at Richmond while going out quite several nights a week).

I love the pride, campus, alumni connections and the work hard, play hard life at Lehigh. However, I am worried it is too similar than different to Richmond, which is where I was trying to leave and has little transfer support. I am also low income, but managed to get need-based scholarships to both universities to the point they are the same price. I have learned from Richmond how to be okay around people of all economic classes. I am in-state for William and Mary, so it would be great to have a lot of Virginia people to potentially be friends with. My only concerns with William & Mary are the lack of direct connections to finance as William & Mary is much more liberal arts based, the intense workload and the more limited options for going-out compared to Lehigh. I recognize college is definitely a lot more than just parties, but all-in-all, I know I will succeed at either university academically, but the social aspect and culture between the two is too different to not take into consideration.

I wanted to join Greek life if I could because it would be an easier way to make friends at a new place. Lehigh would be a stretch because I am starting in the spring (cannot rush until after one semester at Lehigh) and were not very open to upperclassmen from word of mouth, while William & Mary has a much more inclusive Greek life atmosphere due to the high volume of transfer students.

My heart was leaning toward Lehigh because I have always loved it and wanted to go there for some reason or another, but my head knows it’s similar to Richmond for many, many reasons. I think William & Mary would probably be the better and more inclusive choice as the school is a lot more transfer friendly and accepting, so I am looking for advice or any personal experiences at either school, given my situation.