Oh, the People You Will Meet

As the month of April rolls on, many spring time changes will occur. Flowers will begin to bloom. Tour groups full of prospective students and eager parents will stroll across the campus. The Crim Dell ducks will be photographed and fed… often. And thousands of students will be deciding whether or not to say yes to William & Mary by the May 1^st deadline.

Applying to colleges takes a lot of time and effort. It can be grueling and none too pleasant. Even more difficult than the applying is deciding once the acceptances come rolling in. For that very reason, the month of April can be an arduous one. In the hopes of alleviating some of the stress of deciding where you are going to live and study for the next four years, the Peer Advising Executive Board will be writing blog posts on why William & Mary is the right place for you.

To start the month off, I will explain my go to answer for why I chose William & Mary over two years ago: atmosphere. The reason may sound cliché and like something you might hear an overly enthusiastic tour guide say on college campuses across the country, but despite being corny, the atmosphere at William & Mary is indeed unique. Unlike our (one-sided) rival, UVA and many other schools in Virginia such as Virginia Tech and JMU, we are a small university with a tight-knit community and a liberal arts education.

I remember when I came to visit W&M during spring break of my sophomore year in high school. My mom and I did not sign up for one of the scheduled tours because they had filled up probably months before hand. So we did a self-guided tour, where we were given a map and a packet of directions and information on the campus. William & Mary was the first college I had visited and I wasn’t sure what to expect. My mom and I started following the packet of instructions, trying to find our way around a campus, which is frankly, weirdly shaped. Being directionally-challenged as I am, we got lost. Several times. But every single time we started looking confused or stopped to get our bearings, students were willing to point us in the right direction. If we stopped someone to ask a question, the students were friendly and eager to help.

The moral of the story is that William & Mary students are one-of-a-kind. They go out of their way to help the awkward high school sophomore and her mother find the building they are looking for (and is actually right in front of them). But more than that, the student body is passionate about the things that interest them, whether it is academic research, social justice oriented, or an extracurricular activity. Each student has his or her own unique interests. Walking around campus, you will hear some intriguing discussions and it’s not surprising to hear conversations about the latest sports game, a fun Friday night, the minute details of the latest presidential debate, and the most recent world event all in the same dinner. William & Mary students love discussing topics about what we love, even if you don’t understand why your friend may love it. The friends you make here have diverse majors and passions and that’s what’s so amazing about W&M.

Everyone here is friendly and willing to help out. Though this school is challenging, students here will go out of their way to aid one another because they can. The Tribe is a family, and once you become a member, you are in it for life. One Tribe. One Family.

Jaimee Park
Peer Advising VP of Communications