Hey, W&M!
I have a daughter who is doing very well in a good private prep school, probably going to be an English lit or history major judging from her areas of interest.
She is a hardshell conservative (if anything less forgiving than I am). Do you think she'd be miserable at W&M? I was thinking it would be a good place for her to apply, along with Davidson and Princeton (my alma mater), but if things there are that whacko, that's a little scary.
What do you think? How is the humanities program? (I have already written off Duke, my mom's alma mater, because of the loony deconstructionists in the English dept.)
I love it here and would reccomend the school very much. Suprisingly, there are quite a few moderate and conservative professors. The College Republicans are active and growing. The general population, while mostly liberal (see study link at end), is often apathetic.
I am a social sciences major(government) and a computer science minor, so I know very little about the humanaties department.
On the down side, we are currently working with a large budget deficit (from the lack of state funding because of the VA budget crisis) and an unusually small endowment. As such, our professors are starting to be underpaid, and some are leaving to UNC and elsewhere. One just accepted a position at Princeton.
If you are truely looking for a Conservative school in Virginia, try Washingotn and Lee in Lexington. The competitiveness of admissions are similar to W&M, though the school is much smaller and VERY conservative. Of each college's graduates, Washington and Lee ranks number 2 behind Harvard, for most CEO's of Fortune 500 companies per capita.
That being said, William and Mary is a great school, with great, generally moderate professors, and a relatively small price tag. There is a great sense of community here. The Bake Sale and similar issues, while increasingly numerous, don't dominate the college.
Good luck to your daughter.
Political Leanings of William and Mary STudents:
http://www.wm.edu/CAS/Government/content/Spring%202003%20Student%20Survey.htm