Advantages and disadvantages of William and Mary College in the United States

William and Mary College (William &; Mary), abbreviated as W &；; M, also known as William and Mary, founded in 1693, is the second oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, second only to Harvard University founded in 1636. Known for its elite education, it has enjoyed a high reputation since the founding of the United States. The hardware and software environment of the school are first-class, and it is known as one of the famous public Ivy League schools. Let me give you a detailed introduction to the advantages and disadvantages of William and Mary College!

? Advantages and disadvantages of William and Mary College in the United States

There is no engineering college at William and Mary College. Students who want to study engineering can apply to transfer to the Engineering College of Columbia University or Rensselaer Institute of Technology after William and Mary have completed several theoretical and humanities subjects such as physics, mathematics and chemistry, and obtained an overall GPA of 3.3 (out of 4.0, with higher requirements for individual courses). Another college will screen according to the number of applicants in that year. After graduation, you can get engineering degrees from Columbia University and Rensselaer Institute of Technology.

School profile

William and Mary College is a small public university, but its undergraduate education is obviously different from that of ordinary public universities. Students are highly concerned by professors. In the eyes of Americans, public universities are large in scale, with many students, and teachers pay little attention to students. Many courses in comprehensive universities are taught by graduate students. Especially in the first two years of college general education courses, they are basically taught by teaching assistants. Moreover, the class itself is very large and there are many students. It is not uncommon for hundreds or even thousands of students to attend classes. Students often have no contact with professors. Because graduate students earn scholarships by teaching, being a teacher of college students makes the education of many famous universities not necessarily excellent. One of my former students told me that during his first two years as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, he never met a professor or even his tutor. University professors are oppressed by their own research pressure, and they really can't afford to teach college students. Therefore, in comprehensive universities, university education is of course a very important part, but university education is not as good as postgraduate education.

College characteristics

The uniqueness of William and Mary College is that although it is a comprehensive university, the ratio of teachers and students is higher than that of many famous private universities. Undergraduate education is William and Mary's trump card. Therefore, all undergraduate courses at William and Mary College are taught by well-known professors in person. William and Mary provide the essence of liberal arts education for American undergraduates. Different from most comprehensive universities, the courses of students in William and Mary College are very comprehensive, and this comprehensive education can enable each student to calmly cope with various challenges in a long life. Of course, it is difficult to graduate under such great pressure. However, the students of William and Mary College maintain an astonishing graduation rate, which is worth pondering by other universities (in the United States, the higher the graduation rate, the better the quality of undergraduate teaching).

University advantage

1. Top education resources

William and Mary College has a good cooperative research and development relationship with the world-famous Jefferson Physics Laboratory, which is 20 minutes' drive away. The main research directions of the laboratory are nuclear energy technology and particle physics. William and Mary College has many doctoral students working in this laboratory every year. After Fermilab's particle acceleration test project is about to be dismounted, Jefferson Laboratory will also be the only particle acceleration laboratory in the United States. Although the school is small, it has all kinds of facilities. In addition to nuclear energy technology, William and Mary College also has the world's leading education colleges and ocean colleges. Its law school is the first law school in American history, and Wyeth is the first law professor in American history. John marshall, the famous Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was one of the first students. That's why the statues of Marshall and Wise are in front of the law school.

The campus is beautiful and of great historical value.

Its school itself is an important cultural tourist attraction in the United States. The school is located in the historic city of Williamsburg, 0/50 miles south of Washington, 50 miles from Richmond, the state capital, and Norfolk, the largest military port in the United States, and only a few minutes' drive from Jamestown, the earliest British colony in North America. Williamsburg is located on a long and narrow peninsula, flanked by the James River and the York River. The temperature is about zero in winter and about 30 degrees in summer. From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia. From 65438 to 0926, philanthropist Rockefeller Jr. donated money to rebuild Williamsburg and restore its historical features, making it a tourist area for Americans to relive history. For students in Chinese mainland, this school is a worthwhile university. I can enjoy a high-quality undergraduate education comparable to Ivy League at low tuition. However, it should be pointed out that universities have never taken SAT and TOEFL scores as the admission criteria for students, and many candidates with high SAT and TOEFL scores have also been rejected. Generally speaking, the students are of high quality, and there are some professors from China in the school.

3. Institutions trained in the field of global sustainable development.

William and Mary College has always been regarded as an ancient institution on the East Coast to train talents for global sustainable development. The campus covers an area of 1200 acre, and the area covered by trees is the size of Klindale pond. Most of the buildings in the school are built according to the Georgian dynasty and the Anglo-Dutch style, among which the landmark building is undoubtedly the Christopher Wren Building, which is also the oldest existing university building in the United States. In addition, countless tourists visit William and Mary College every year, from which they can appreciate the elegance of Williamsburg, Virginia.

4. Universities with their own foundations

William and Mary College is one of the few public universities with its own foundation. During the American financial crisis, the financial expenditure of American state governments on education decreased. Most public universities in the United States have greatly increased tuition fees, and in this case, the foundation of William and Mary College has been awarded the title of the best foundation of the year for several years in a row. In addition, in 20 1 1 year, the William and Mary College Foundation raised $3 million to support the internship of undergraduates who graduated under the extremely serious financial crisis.

University disadvantage

William and Mary College has many advantages, but its disadvantages are also obvious. For example, the school pays attention to the cultivation of students' comprehensive ability and humanistic quality, and maintains an elite education atmosphere like a college of arts and sciences. There are no schools of architecture and engineering, medical schools and nursing schools popular with China students, and even the school of journalism and communication pursued by many students does not exist, which affects the ranking of William and Mary College in universities. Students who want to go to medical school can go to William and Mary College to study biochemistry. For students who want to study in engineering schools, William and Mary College has cooperative relations with the engineering schools of Columbia University and Rensselaer Institute of Technology in the United States, which can ensure that students of William and Mary College can smoothly transfer to the engineering schools of these schools for further study after two years of study, which is also a kind of affirmation and trust of other schools for William and Mary's undergraduate ability. Although limited by the professional scale of the college, William and Mary are still firmly in the top 30 in the United States.