@georgeandbob

That's the Washington and Lee (hereafter to be referred to as W&L) admission office's twitter account.  Follow it.  It's pretty hilarious.

Setting aside awesome tweeting, I want to go to W&L.  That is a statement I make with one distinct reservation, but I'll get to that in a second.  First off, the campus is steeped in history.  From the little things like the fact that George Washington's original donation of $20,000 in stock of the James River Company still pays for $1.87 of every student's tuition and the plaques around campus commemorating Traveler (Lee's horse) set up and maintained by the Virginia Daughters of the Confederacy to big things like the Speaking Tradition and the Honor Code, W&L maintains it's history in a really cool, modern way.  The academics are also top notch, but that almost goes without saying.  I got the opportunity to skim the classes offered in the Religion Department (a department I am particularly interested in) and I pretty much wanted to take all of them.  They also have a strong technical theater program.  My stage tech teacher is actually a W&L alumnus, and he's awesome at tech and as a person, which is what actually steered me toward the university in the first place.  W&L is a university, but their only graduate program is their law school which only has 400 people in it; so the focus really is on the undergrads.  Everyone I've heard from has spoken to the fact that the professors and the students are really close, which is really nice.  The professors are also pretty legit themselves.  I was skimming some of the literature I picked up on the Physics department (another one of my interests) and I learned that the author of my school's AP Physics C textbook is a professor there.  That's pretty damn cool.  I also really love the campus ambiance.  The Honor Code and the Speaking Tradition are huge parts of that.  The Honor Code has its roots in Lee's declaration that the only rule of the school was that the students should "conduct themselves like gentlemen".  Nowadays, that is interpreted to mean "I will not lie, cheat, or steal" or violate the trust of the campus in any way.  Conviction of an Honor Code violation is grounds for immediate expulsion.  Clearly this is taken very seriously.  But it's not like there are expulsions every year.  The student body takes the Code very seriously and really doesn't violate it.  Which, in the grand scheme of things, means that they are decent human beings, but that's no small feat in today's world.  There's also the Speaking Tradition, which also dates back to Lee's tenure as president of the university.  It boils down to the fact that you say hi to people you see.  No matter what. Again, this probably should be considered basic human decency, but it really is exceptional that the students do this.

I could go on and on about the things I love about the campus and all the little stories about the history of the university, but I want to address one glaring "question mark" area: Greek Life.  I am not what one would consider a stereotypical sister; some people call me a hipster, but I reject labels.  Participation in Greek Life at W&L hovers around 85%.  On a campus of approximately 2,000 people total.  It's kind of a big deal.  I am assured that you're not screwed out of the social scene if you are not involved and I am assured that the sororities and fraternities are not stuck up about who's who, but still.... 85%.  That's a lot.

All in all, I loved Washington and Lee.  It's the first school about which I have actively said "I want to go here".  I embrace the trident that is the university's symbol; it's just that there is one significant pointy bit.