<p>I do think it is important to emphasize that wherever you go (or anyone else for that matter), much of the experience is what you make of it. If you fly by your four years with a negative attitude or without getting yourself out there and exploring all the opportunities you have, then you are going to have a hard time wherever you go, whether that be Penn State, Harvard, or William and Mary. </p>
<p>Freshman retention rate is a great measure of students’ satisfaction rate, but if people are really limited by physical barriers to transferring, like the OP of the other thread seemed to be suggesting, then I think it is important to look at happiness and student satisfaction as an independent variable. While I am not the biggest fan of rankings and I do have some qualms with their data collection methods (what happens when you take a stats course), the Princeton Review does collect “happiness” ratings of students every few years or so. Back in 2010, W&M was ranked 12th happiest students. If that doesn’t say something about how much students enjoy it here, then I don’t know what does.</p>
<p><a href=“Princeton Review ranks William & Mary among the best | William & Mary”>http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2010/princeton-review-ranks-william--mary-among-the-best-123.php</a></p>