University of Mary Washington Top Questions

The stereotype of the school is that there are very few men here, that everyone goes home on the weekends, that there is little diversity, and that there is very little social life. In my time here, I have found the stereotypes to be very untrue. As far as not having many men, or other diversity in general, I have seen an increase in both over my last three and a half years here. Every year, the diversity improves, and I believe UMW is committed to encouraging diversity and fostering an appreciation for it on campus. As far as the lack of 'social life' and everyone going home on the weekends, I have also not found this to be the case. There are so many campus activities and clubs to get involved in that you basically have to avoid campus to not get involved in something. Downtown Fredericksburg can be a great place to walk around during the day, and a fun place to go have dinner or hang out at night. UMW is not a party school, but it can certainly be a fun place if you have a good group of friends and a willingness to get involved on campus and in the community.

My least favorite stereotype about UMW is that "there isn't enough to do" or that "people leave on the weekends." I can honestly say that neither is true. UMW hosts a "Club Fair" every semester in order to get students involved with various clubs and activities. I joined a ton of organizations my freshman year, my favorite of which was my campus improv comedy team. The friends I made my freshman year are still my friends now, and that's because we didn't leave on the weekends! As an out-of-state student from New Jersey, I was really nervous about meeting new people. Everyone was fantastic. I'm now a graduate student at UNC Greensboro and I even managed to join a comedy team down here.

Before I came to UMW, I was warned of the massive female population. Because UMW used to be an all-women's college, we still have part of that legacy with most of our students being female. I believe our student population is about 70{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} women and 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} men. This may seem like a large portion of women, but it doesn't really both me. In most of my classes, there will only be about three or four boys. Also since we are a liberal arts college, our student body is more liberal and open-minded to people's differing lifestyles. I think that because we are accepting of many different people that sometimes society views a lot of our students as "hippies." I love how open we are to every one though. We have clubs that represent about every group of people depending on race, sexuality, culture, and many other aspects.