Adriana Mannarino Exchange student - Brazil

What do I most like about W&L? Well, mostly the fact that although students enjoy activities outside of the classroom, they also take their academic work very seriously. I'm from Brazil, and I was used to studying on my own while seeing the lack of interest in studying with most of the students at my University. I heard of the environmental exchange program at W&L when I was still on High School, so I knew I wanted to come here since my freshman year. I studied hard to keep my GPA high so I could come to W&L in my junior year. The only thing I have to say is that I have no regrets. Washington & Lee exceeded all my expectations. The teachers are highly qualified and they expect you to do more than you think you can do. They bring out the best of you in class. They are also surprisingly comprehensive and always open to dialogue. They give you a syllabus in the beginning of the school year saying everything you have to read before each class. They are well organized and the students all keep up with the reading, papers, assignments and exams. It is just amazing to see how that works. The honor system facilitates the teacher/student relationship in many aspects. It also makes life easier around campus. You can leave your laptop computer in a common area for the whole day and no one will take it. If the honor system could drive life I bet we would live in a better world!

Now, to talk about social life: I was not part of the Greek system because I have never heard of it before. So it was kind of a shock to find out that almost everyone here was a member of a fraternity/sorority. However, the fact that I was not a member did not stop me from having a social life with students that were. I made a lot of good friends here, some life time friends too. Although Lexington is such a small city there is always something to do. There are always frat parties in the middle of the week and over the weekends. For those who like outdoors activities the winter is perfect for doing snow tubing at Wintergreen. And over the spring term you can canoe down the Maury River. There is also Panther Falls or Goshen over the summer for hiking and swimming. You can do hiking and climbing the whole year. I am almost done at Washington & Lee and I am sure I will miss it.