College

I'm in college. It's now definitely part of my identity. It's weird. It's so weird. I'm currently home, my last day off before I resume classes, and I'm procrastinating (as always) on a term paper I have due in just a few hours. But the weird part is... I keep accidentally saying I'm going "home" when I talk about heading back to school. School is my new home. That tiny dorm room, backed to the brim with stuff, is my home. And my friends, my roommate... we make up our own little at-school-family. 

(my bedding's from robertarollerrabbit) // RIP TO MY TAN & my clean room

School is hard. It's hard having to be an adult. Doing my own laundry: surprisingly really not that hard. But there're so many little things that I have to think about when I'm living away from my parents that I didn't have to think about while I was always living at home. But I love it. I honestly do. I've had so many great days. I've met so many great people: and it's just November. I cannot wait until I am in a sorority (in just a few weeks, really!) and getting closer with some people who I don't even know right now. I'm so excited to feel more settled next semester... and hopefully my annoying bout of mono will be gone by then too. Because yeah, I'm a basic college student and contracted mono within the first few months of school.

But yeah, anyways. I love it. And over Christmas, I'll talk about it a bit more.

XX.

Into College!

My life has changed immensely since my last blog post, which was written forever ago. That can be attributed to managing the swim team, one of the best decisions I have ever made, but that's not to what I am referring. At 8:00pm last night, I found out that I was accepted into my DREAM SCHOOL early decision. In the twenty some hours since I have heard, there has been so much love and congratulations thrown my way and I am sooo overwhelmed and grateful by it.

The world of applying to college has been so insane and has gone by so quickly (the waiting period, however, did not). I officially made my decision to apply early decision to college this summer, but in my heart I knew I wanted to go to this school for well over a year.

Looking back on my blog posts about visiting colleges is really strange, because I know I would have loved my college experience at any one of these schools. I just found the perfect school for me, and I am so excited to be a student there for the next four years of my life.

I am so happy that I applied early decision and that I do not have to fill out anymore applications (2 was more than enough). I hear back from SMU, where I applied early action, within the next few days. (Even though I wouldn't be able to attend, because now I am bound to attend my ED school!) I am loving seeing all of the facebook posts about my friends getting into the colleges of their dreams, as well.

Some advice that was shared with me over the past week continuously is that everything happens for a reason. You will end up at the school for you, and if you don't get into you "dream school"  life will deliver you with another, better option.

SOOO HAPPY RIGHT NOW

College Like What?

This has been a crazy week for me college-wise. A few days ago, the Common App went live. What does that mean? Oh no big deal... just that I can already apply to college. How crazy is that?! And a week ago I got an email from a college in Maryland to recruit me for their lacrosse team. I am beyond confused. I thought I had my plans all figured out, but this was definitely a curve ball for me. I gave up the dream of playing college athletics two years ago. I had kind of burnt out of my travel team, and figured that no college team would ever be a good fit for me. However, I met the coach that recruited me at a sleep away lacrosse camp at a different college, and she was actually so nice (and knew what she was talking about). SO BASICALLY I have no idea what to do with my life... and I still really need to answer that email. Any advice?

XOXOXO, 

UNC Chapel Hill and Duke

A few days ago I made the trek to Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina to visit UNC and Duke. First things first, a little background. A few years ago I went to an information session before a volleyball camp at Duke, and I didn't love it. However, I thought I would give it a second chance! I honestly expected to like it the second time around, but it just didn't click. I skipped out on the tour (leaving discreetly after the information session). Something about the school just did not sit right with me... it is really hard to explain the feeling.

Even though Duke was not the best experience for me, I fell in love with UNC. And honestly, I had no idea what to expect. Driving into Chapel Hill for the first time, I was ecstatic. I was 100% flipping out. It was everything I had ever dreamed about, college-town wise. The first thing that I saw were the gorgers sorority houses!

My amazing hotel was also next to the frat houses, which were really nice as well!

My mom and I always talk about all of our thoughts on a college immediately after the tour, and here is some of what we said!

- It's large (about 18,500)
- There is a lot of school spirit, especially in athletics.
- An extremely pretty campus and a nice neighborhood
- VERY hard to get into out of state (and as a not-recruited athlete!)
- They offer early action
- A diverse campus
- On campus living guaranteed for all four years
- Support for study abroad
- Huge campus
- Liberal arts
- Well known
- Friendly

UNC was definitely a huge surprise for me. I never really thought that much about it before the tour, and now I most likely will be applying! Senior year craziness is just around the corner and I cannot believe it!

Safe travels! XOXOXO,

Georgetown University

I visited Georgetown University this weekend!

I honestly had no idea what to expect with Georgetown. It has 6,400 undergrads and 8,200 graduate students, so it is a medium sized school with a large graduate student presence. It is a jesuit school, with D1 Athletics, and 12% of the student body is International. It's a lot different from a lot of the schools that I have visited. The area is stunning around it, and the campus is okay, but I think that Georgetown would be a better place to live than to go to college, for me. The area of Georgetown has so many shops, the cutest buildings, and is obviously located in Washington, DC so it's close to everything political! The school is really selective and very challenging. (They have a 16% acceptance rate) There are so many amazing things about the school, but unlike some of the other schools I have looked at, it really didn't "wow" me!

Wish List Observations:

1. Study Abroad: I think they said that 60% of their student body studies abroad. That's an amazing number. I really want to study abroad in England I cannot even describe my obsession with the country. Jack Wills, one of my favorite clothing brands, has a location in Georgetown and one of the people working at the store was British and I just about flipped out because he was just that perfect. We talked about the differences between Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, where there are Jack Wills locations on each island!

2. Small Classes: Their class size is a lot bigger than some of the schools I am looking at, with "small" classes considered to have 25+ people. Still, the classes are not ginormous, so that's not a huge problem.

3. Traditions: There was a seal which is forbidden to be stepped on, which I think is pretty funny. I feel like a lot of colleges have something similar to this, and I am not a very superstitious person so I think it's funny. Attending athletics is a huge thing at Georgetown, so I guess you can consider that a tradition as well!

4. Honor Code: No one on my tour or info session mentioned an honor code, so I am assuming it does not exist! If they do have one, I really think that they should be highlighting it.

5. Liberal Arts Education: They have some core classes that are supposed to follow the "liberal arts tradition," but overall Georgetown is a research university, not a liberal arts one. More emphasis is placed on what you want to study than immersing the student in multiple subjects.

6. College Town (with trees!): I love Georgetown, but I would not really say that it's my idea of a college town, because in my mind college towns are places where everyone really appreciates the students and everything is about that college. Washington DC has tons of colleges, so it's not like my idea of a "college town." Again, I'll emphasize how obsessed I am with the area of Georgetown, though! I would be interested in living in Georgetown after college!

7. Greek Life: There are no official greek organizations affiliated with Georgetown, which was one of the biggest problems that I saw from my perspective. I would love to be involved in Greek life wherever I go to college, and I think that having Greek life would have provided more of a community feel to the school.

I have not decided if I will apply, but I am glad that I visited because I am learning more about myself the more college visits that I attend!

I wore this dress on my college tour! I bought it in Georgetown, and I wore it on easter as well!

See y'all later!

Kelsey

College Testing

I might have mentioned a little while ago that I took the SAT in January. I took it at a public school nearby, and it was interesting seeing so many people that I knew from my area! I recently got back my scores, but I have decided not to tell people my scores. I might let a few details slip to some of my friends, but honestly its very personal and my future rides on it. I don't want to feel bad because one of my friends did better than me, and I wouldn't want someone else to feel like that either.

Luckily, I did well enough on my SAT that I will be able to apply to some of the schools on my list with relative confidence. However, I definitely will take the SAT again and try to improve my scores!

I also took the ACT in February, which was interesting. I thought aspects of it were a lot harder for me than the SAT. I am not sure when I will hear back from them with my scores!

 

I studied for both the SAT and the ACT with the official prep books. I studied a good amount for the ACT, but I studied much more for the SAT. I wonder if that will be reflected at all in my scores, even though they have relatively similar material and I only took them 2-3 weeks apart.

For those who do not know, the SAT and the ACT are both tests that seniors and juniors in high school take. Most colleges will require a student to send in either their ACT or SAT scores. You can also send in both of them if you wish. The ACT material is only different from the SAT material in that it has a science section. Also, the ACT will not deduct points if you miss a question. They add up how many you get correct for your score. For the SAT, no points are deducted if you leave a question blank, but if you get a problem wrong they will remove points.

College is really stressing me out right now! I am in a really hectic part of my junior year. I have three or four major projects going on right now, as well as a lot of work for the yearbook.

I cannot wait for summer!

XOXOXO,
Kels

University of Virginia

I got back from my visit to the University of Virginia yesterday, and I really loved it! It's a lot bigger than most of the other schools that I am interested in, but I really love it and can see myself there. I am definitely applying! 

 

 

All about UVA: its a medium sized school, with just shy of 16,000 undergrads. Its located in the mountains of Virginia. It's a public school, and they admit 50% Virginians and 50% from out of state. The most recent reviews call it the #2 public university in the nation. They have all Division 1 sports.

 

 

A TON of people from my school go to UVA, and I thought that this would be really annoying, but I realized that even though I might see people that I went to HS with on a daily basis, it's a big enough school where I do not have to be around them too much if I don't want to.

Even though I visited UVA in the middle of winter, it's still a gorgeous school! I had the BEST tour guide (his name is Aaron!) that I have had on any of my college visits. It really helped me learn more about the school than I did at a school like William and Mary where I had the worst tour guide!

How does UVA stack up on my wish list?

1. Study Abroad: Yes! They have over 50 of their own programs. They didn't talk about this too much but I think that it is pretty normal to go overseas while at UVA. I have been thinking about where I would want to study abroad, and I think that England would probably be at the top of that list. My mom loves how UVA has this program called Semester at Sea, which she first heard about on the radio. It's when you take classes on this old cruise ship and stop at ports all over the world!

2. Small Classes: 80% of their classes are under 40 people (I'm not quite sure if I have this stat right, but you get the point!). Most of their intro classes are the huge ones with hundreds of people. What they do for those classes is that they do split them up in discussion groups, which is nice!

3. Traditions: Created by President Thomas Jefferson, many of the terms that he used in the formation of UVA are still used today. Some of those include calling the campus the grounds, and not calling using the terms "freshmen", "sophomores", etc. Instead, they're called 1st years, 2nd years, etc. They also have a tradition of "girls wear pearls, guys wear ties" to the football games. I love that! I'm definitely the kind of girl who'd like to dress up for a football game, and I love guys dressed up as well! They also have secret societies that bring a cool atmosphere to the campus (IMPs, Zs, and 7s). They have varying levels of secrecy, but all of them do a lot to help out the school and the students.

4. Honor Code: Student run. Pretty same rules as my school: you cannot lie, cheat, or steal. If you do any of these things at UVA, you will be expelled if caught. My tour guide mentioned take home exams, which I think are pretty cool. I think it is cool how much trust teachers put in their students with things like take home exams!

5. Liberal Arts Education: If you are in the College of Arts and Sciences, you are required to take some classes, like a language. I don't mind this at all, I really want to try a language like Italian or maybe even Spanish in college.

6. College Town (with trees!): I love Charlottesville. They have the best shopping and really cute stores. One of my favorite parts of Charlottesville is the Corner. Its a ton of cute shops and great places to eat, right near all of the UVA buildings. I have gone to Charlottesville a few times of year as a pit stop for vacations and other college tours. I love people watching there too! So many people at UVA have the best clothes! Another small detail that I think is pretty cute is how the streets on grounds have UVA's logo painted on them. Love Cville.

7. Greek Life: Yes! About 33% of students go Greek in some capacity. They rush in the spring, which is nice so you aren't so busy at the beginning of the year and trying to sort everything out! The Panhellenic Society actually stayed at the same hotel I did in Cville, when I went they were just starting rush, I believe! Their sorority and fraternity houses are look very nice. I think it's something I would definitely want to be involved in!

 

Other Facts and Info:

-As a first-year, you must have a meal plan, you must live on campus, and you cannot bring a car.

-Apply to Early Action by November 1 and Regular Decision by January 1.

- 50% of 2nd years live off campus. Most people I know at UVA move to an apartment as a 2nd year with their friends. I don't know if I like this that much, but apparently some apartments are closer than living on grounds through UVA's system!

- I went to eat at two great restaurants in Charlottesville that I definitely recommend. We ate at this Italian restaurant called Vivace for dinner. It was amazing! My mom had Mahi Mahi that she really liked, and I had spaghetti with marinara sauce. The bread there was amazing, too! I highly recommend. It was also really cool because we ate with the Florida State basketball team, who was in town for their game against UVA! For lunch I went to Revolutionary Soup at the Corner. I had tomato basil bisque with croutons. They give you an apple with any soup, and it was my favorite kind: pink lady! It was very similar to Panera with how you order. I really liked it and can see myself going there a lot!

 

Walking on our tour!

 It was a great trip and I am so happy to have finally visited. I have no idea where I will visit next, and I am really happy to finally have a good list of schools that I like. This week I will be meeting with my college counselor to see where I can get in!

 

So far, I have visited UVA, the College of William and Mary, Davidson College, Wake Forest University, Fordham University (I never wrote a post about this, if you have any questions about my tour, email me or comment below!), and Washington and Lee University.

 

If you go to UVA, and have anything else to add or correct, please let me know. I have basically written down what I learned at the information session and my tour guide told me. Thanks!

XOXOXO,
Kelsey



On my way home! Sad to leave

2014 Resolutions & Organization

Hey everyone!

It's my first post of 2014 (on the first day of 2014)! Last night was pretty low-key in my house. I had some of my favorite Williams-Sonoma Pumpkin Bisque, which is only available in the fall (but luckily my mom found one and gave it to me for Christmas). I watched the ball drop, and whoop there is was... 2014.

I actually really liked 2013. It's been a really good year, but I am so excited for this year! In 2014, I will go to France with my school, the Dominican Republic on a service mission, hopefully to Europe with my family, and I know this summer I will be visiting tons of schools in preparation for my SENIOR YEAR (how am I already this old?!). I'll be applying to colleges this year. It's something that I cannot really wrap my head around!

I know that most people make resolutions for the new year, and almost always they are about diet, losing weight, and exercise. Although, like everyone else, I have those kind of goals for 2014, I think my main resolutions aren't going to be about those things. Here are my 2014 resolutions:

1. To try to be more outgoing, and more eager to take advantage of my final years at home with my family, and in high school!

2. Not mess with my hair. It's kind of a gross habit, and not something that I want to do.

3. Spend less time trying to impress people on social media. Who really cares if I lose a few followers or something like that? I shouldn't, and that's what I am going to work on!

4. Keep my room more organized, and not procrastinate as much!


Although my room is often what my mom calls "a disaster zone", my planner is very organized, and I thought that people may want to improve on their own calendar's organization for the new year!

Even though my school gives every middle and high school student planners, I prefer the Lilly ones much more. I have a Jumbo Lilly Pulitzer Planner. Because I have relatively large hand writing, and this is the perfect size planner for me. A lot of people at my school have the Large planner as well, it just depends on preference.

 

I use my Crayola magic markers religiously, and the main place that I use them (as you can see in the pictures above and below) is in my planner. I use them to bring attention to special days, and to box in any reminders. The pack that I got has gorgeous colors, they really brighten up my planner!
 

I mark the week with a K magnetic bookmark that I got as a gift. It makes it a lot easier, so that I can just flip to the week, instead of searching for it. Another thing I do is that I write all of my subjects (even days when I do not have that class) and highlight them in the same color. I highlight to separate them from the assignment. I put a box to the left of every subject, and put a check in it when I have finished that subject. I have done it this way for over 4 years now, and it really works for me!
 

Another little piece of advice I have about organizing is to use a backpack with different compartments, which helps me to be more organized than if I we're go use a tote bag. 

 (That's my backpack, from North Face... and my SAT book and new blanket that I got for Christmas from my mom!)

Another great thing to use are sticky notes! I use them to mark pages in books for English, where my notes start for a new test in History class, and countless other places! I just got new ones for Christmas! 

I hope this helps, and I hope your 2014 is going well so far!
 

XOXOXO,

Kels

Washington & Lee

I said this was coming, and here it is! My visit to W&L recap.

Washington and Lee is a small liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia. Lexington is also home to Virginia Military Institute, or VMI. Many people on my mom's side have attended W&L, and many family members and family friends have attended VMI, as well. Last weekend my family and I spend three days in Lexington. We explored the town with my mom's close friend, who lives in Lexington, and ate at the Bistro, the Southern Inn, Nico's, and Primo. We went to the VMI football game (they won!) and hung out with our family friends who have a son who goes to VMI. Some of my cousins and family friends really want to go to VMI who are around my age, so it would be fun if we were all in Lexington together! I also spent the night at W&L with my friend who is a current freshman. I will be forever grateful for her hosting me, taking me to a party, and introducing me to tons of people. I really learned more about W&L than I would have otherwise.

I have actually spent quite a bit of time at W&L over the past few years, because they have this great lacrosse camp. Its a sleep-away camp where you get to sleep in the dorms, eat in the cafeteria, play on their fields, and get instruction from their coaches, their players, and coaches from other nearby colleges. So, I knew the campus pretty well before I had even had a tour! I highly recommend the lacrosse camp if you play, and you are thinking about the school!

How does W&L stack up on my wish list?

1. Study Abroad: The best time to study abroad is during the "Spring Term". Spring term is this really interesting term where students on campus only take one class. Normally freshmen and seniors stay on campus for spring term, and sophomores and juniors either do internships or study abroad. This really sounds like an amazing thing, that obviously most colleges do not have.

2. Small Classes: Yes. Crazy small classes. A lot of them are smaller than the already small classes at my HS! Crazy low student to teacher ratio, as well. I love small classes personally it helps me create closer relationships with the other students in my class, and I become much more comfortable around my teacher as well.

3. Traditions: Apart from being a tradition to attend W&L for many of my family members, W&L is a school with a rich history and a historic campus. I love schools with older architecture (like W&L, Davidson, W&M). That is something that I would love to have at my HS, but unfortunately do not have. Washington and Lee used to be all male, so no female members of my family have ever attended!

4. Honor Code: Yes! This is honestly so important to me, its kind of hard to describe how much I love the respect that students have for each other under a honor system. Leaving things around campus is NOT the norm everywhere, and a big reason of why I love my favor

5. Liberal Arts Education: Yes! And they have a journalism school! It was the first journalism school in the country. I think that history is really special. They basically have every major I am possibly interested in: Journalism, Business, Poli Sci, and English!

6. College Town (with trees!): One of my mom's best friends lives in Lexington, and she really wants me to go here! Its a great little town! They have the best ice cream (check out "Sweet Things"), and tons of restaurants and stores for such a small town.

7. Greek Life: YES! W&L has over 80% participation in Greek life. Thats so amazing and their houses are beautiful as well. When I went to visit my friend, who is a freshman, I went to a frat party at the Kappa Sigma house (I think? ... Maybe a different "Kappa" house) and it was so much fun. Unfortunately, there is not a Delta Delta Delta  (my legacy) chapter at W&L, but there are lots of other great options. The sorority houses are really nice, normally sophomores live in them, and they're all in the same little section of campus!

Looking pretty rough, but it was a great night!

All in all, I love W&L, and it is definitely somewhere I am interested in attending. It is the perfect school for me!

Have you read my other college posts? I have also visited William and Mary, Davidson, and Wake Forest.

I really still need to visit a lot of schools, and because I am only a junior, by no means is anything set in stone. There are a lot of colleges that I like, but here are some of the ones I love:

My College List: Washington and Lee University, Davidson College, College of William and Mary, Wake Forest University, Vanderbilt University, Sewanee: University of the South, University of Virginia, Southern Methodist University, and Johns Hopkins University

XOXOXO,
Kels

Junior Year Craziness!

Even though I have only had four weeks of classes, I am so stressed out already! Along with going to a very difficult college prep school, I play volleyball, am a yearbook editor, and an officer on two community service clubs. It's been really hard getting everything done. I'll just fill you all in on everything that is going on in my life right now!

Volleyball:

I don't really get play, but I try my hardest. This is my second year on the varsity team, and I really love the girls on it. It just sucks that I never get to play, but I am hoping that next year I finally will play more! Some of my best friends are on the team with me, so that has made the team so fun!

As you can see, we obviously have a lot of fun together before the games! We have jeans days every month that you can pay for, and the money will go to one of our charity clubs. Another one of my school's traditions is that everyone on a team will dress in a theme before a big home game. We dressed up as cowgirls, although by the time we took this pictures we were all in a state of undress.


School:

PreCalc BC is literally killing me, and my planner is literally SO FULL of homework assignments, games, meetings, social events, I can barely squeeze anything else in. French III this year is so hard as well. I really like my Physics teacher, that's my favorite class so far! I am literally in the library everyday working on homework due that day or the next, or studying for a test.


College:

I have recently attended a college info session for Johns Hopkins, and I loved it! I have only been there for a lacrosse tournament two years ago, when college was not even on my mind. Now, I wish I had taken more notice of the school and it's surroundings! Other info sessions that I want to attend are University of Georgia, University of South Carolina, Davidson, Sewanee, Vanderbilt, and William and Mary. Sadly, I don't think I will be able to go to all of them because of Volleyball and some classes that I cannot switch around in my schedule. I also recently sat in on college info sessions for UVA, McDaniel College, and Franklin and Marshall. I really liked UVA, but couldn't see myself at McDaniel or F&M! I cannot wait to finally have an official visit to Washington and Lee this fall.

My favorite colleges so far:
-Davidson
-William & Mary*
-Wake Forest
-Johns Hopkins
-UVA
-Washington and Lee*
-Vanderbilt

Other ones I like are:
-Georgetown*
-Boston College
-University of Georgia
-Sewanee

(* Denotes Legacy Status)
Let me know if there are any others that I should check out!


Clothes:

I have started getting sweaters, long skirts, and jeans that I will be wearing this fall and winter.

I am almost positive that I will be buying this dress for homecoming! I love the leather detailing, and I love even more that it is vegan leather! Just in general, I love blacks, reds, emerald greens, and royal blues for homecoming. I couldn't find any other ones that I loved, so I think this one will be the one that  I'll end up getting.


I am so excited for fall. I love pumpkins! I actually had my first pumpkin thing of the season today, pumpkin pie frozen yogurt from my local fro-yo joint. I put pie crust and pretzels on it and it was amazing!

This fall I know my tumblr will be filled with pumpkins, leaves, and sweaters. However, I also have another tumblr where I basically post pictures like that year round! Check out my fall/interior tumblr HERE for fall inspiration! It makes me feel so cozy just reblogging pictures onto it.

I never really thought I would say that I'm excited for fall, but I definitely am!

See y'all later!
XOXOXO,
Kels

Long Time No See!

I have been so busy with school over the past three weeks I can barely take it! Volleyball is taking away from my study time, so study time is taking away from my free time. Anyways, here is a recap of the past few weeks!

 ^ The annual first day of school picture! I cannot believe that I only have one more left!

 ^ I have completely redone my tumblr page, it's a totally new theme! ( I also changed the banner on this blog!)

> I have asked my since-we-were-6-months-old best guy friend to Homecoming (with baby pictures!)

> I have gotten my mom's old car, and I have been driving to school (by myself!)

And I've done a lot of online shopping, and a lot of Facebook stalking the freshman in college who went to my HS. I cannot wait to be at college! It's so close, but so far away at the same time. We are starting to learn about the whole process in seminars held at my school over the next two days, and I cannot wait to hear what they say!

My IN-SCHOOL-Frenchie gets here October 14th! Her name is Hannah and I am so excited to host another person! As of right now, I am kind of excited for fall. I will be visiting Washington and Lee this November. I am so excited for Homecoming at my school, carving pumpkins, and eating lots of pumpkin pancakes (and other kinds of pumpkin flavored goodies).

XOXOXO,
Kels

William and Mary

Hello!

I am back from my visit to Williamsburg, Virginia to take a look at The College of William and Mary. I really liked the campus, even though today it was extremely hot and humid. 

To help compare W&M to Davidson and Wake Forest, and other schools I will be visiting in the future, I will use the checklist of the things I want in a college, that I created when I wrote the wrap up post about Davidson. 

How does William and Mary stack up? Here is my checklist. 

1. Study abroad: William and Mary does offer the option of studying abroad. Like some other colleges, it allows you to travel through different programs and universities if they do not offer a program that you would like. However, not a huge number of students participate, only around 40%. 

2. Small classes: William and Mary is considered a small public/state funded school, even though in comparison with all the universities in the country it is medium sized. The class sizes reflect this, somewhat. 84% of classes have under 40 people. Many of the larger classes are freshman intro lecture-style classes, like psychology. These can have 200+ people! That large class would be very interesting, because at my high school, I have never taken a class with more than twenty people. 

3. Traditions: William and Mary is the second oldest college in the nation (behind Harvard). Due to this, William and Mary sits on a historic campus with many historic traditions. They actually have the oldest operating school building in the nation, the Wren Building. It is stunning! For me personally, William and Mary itself is a tradition for my family. Practically everyone in my family (18++ living family members) have  attended the college, so I know that I would have tons of family support if I were to be accepted into W&M. Here are some photos of the Wren building!

4. Honor code: Yes! My tour guide did not really cover this very well (or cover anything well, for that matter). However, she did make it clear that the college does have an honor code, and you can definitely leave things around on campus without having them stolen or tampered with. She said that the only thing she wouldn't do is leave cash sitting out for a while, which is understandable. I follow that principle at my school (which has a strict honor code) as well. 

5. Liberal Arts education: Yes! You have to take courses in 6 different subjects, such as math, religion, ect. You do not declare your major until sophomore/junior year. 

6. College town (with trees!): The town right off the W&M campus is a semi college town , semi Colonial Williamsburg, but then you get into more of a commercial city out of that. You have outlets, Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, and tons of other run of the mill stores. The college/colonial town has a ton of cute shops including an old time candy store, peanut shop, Williams-Sonoma, Barnes & Noble university bookstore, a Lilly Pulitzer, a Talbots, a toy shop, and many more! And so many lush and beautiful trees, do not even get me started! Also for that inner-Carribean-lover in all of us, they have a palm tree on campus. 

7. Greek life: Yes! About 30% of William and Mary students go Greek. I am a legacy at William and Mary's tridelta, which has a beautiful house in sorority court. I love that W&M does have sorority houses all together and all school operated. They did not have this at Wake Forest nor at Davidson. Here are some pictures of the tridelt house and sorority court!

Here are some more pictures of the beautiful campus!

An interesting tidbit I learned about William and Mary in the information session is that 1/3 of the applicants are instate, but because they are a public university 2/3 of the student body must be from Virginia, so the chances of getting into the school are a lot greater if you are from Virginia. 

Another thing I really liked about William and Mary was the fact that they have a division one football team! Go griffins!

All in all, I really liked William and Mary. I would say that my favourite colleges that I have visited as of right now would be in this order:

1. Davidson 

2. William and Mary

3. Wake Forest

Hopefully I will be able to visit some other colleges on my varied list:

- Washington and Lee University 

- Sewanee: The University of the South

- University of Virginia

- Vanderbilt University

- College of Charleston

- Georgetown University

- Southern Methodist University

- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

- University of Georgia

- Boston College

- University of Richmond 

I know that some of these schools do not necessarily have everything on my list, but I have heard great things abut all of them, and I would love to experience something outside my comfort zone, at least in the context of a tour. If you all have any suggestions, please let me know!

Catch y'all later!

XOXOXO,

Kelsey