The College Dropout is the debut album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released February 10, 2004, on Roc-A-Fella Records. It was recorded over a period of four years, beginning in 1999.^[1] Prior to the album's release, West had worked on rapper Jay-Z's The Blueprint (2001), which showcased his melodic and soulful style of hip hop production.^[2] Produced entirely by West, The College Dropout features musical contributions from Jay-Z, John Legend, Ervin "EP" Pope, Miri Ben-Ari, and Syleena Johnson. Diverging from the then-dominant gangster persona in hip hop, West's lyrics on the album concern themes of family, religion, self-consciousness, materialism, and personal struggles.

The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 441,000 copies in its first week. It was a massive commercial success, producing five singles that achieved chart success. Upon its release, The College Dropout received general acclaim from music critics and earned West several accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 47th Grammy Awards. It is West's best-selling album in the United States, with domestic sales of over 3.1 million copies and worldwide sales of over four million copies. Rolling Stone named it the tenth-best album of the 2000s decade. In 2006, the album was named by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time.^[3]

Background[link]

Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of three, West's parents divorced and he moved with his mother to Chicago, Illinois.^[4][5] West demonstrated an affinity for the arts at an early age; his mother recalled that she first took notice of his passion for drawing and music when he was in the third grade.^[6] Growing up in the city, West became deeply involved in its hip hop scene. He started rapping in the third grade and began making beats in the seventh grade, eventually selling them to other artists.^[7] He crossed paths with producer/DJ No I.D., with whom he quickly formed a close friendship. No. I.D. soon became Kanye's mentor, and it was from him that West learned how to sample and program beats after he received his first sampler at the age of fifteen.^[8]

After graduating from West Aurora High School, West received a scholarship to attend Chicago's American Academy of Art and began taking painting classes, but shortly after transferred to Chicago State University to major in English. He continued making strides in his rapping and beat-making, and some of his earliest beats were sold to local underground rappers such as Gravity as well as major-label artists like Ma$e. However, it soon became apparent to West that his busy class schedule was a detriment with his work, and at the age of 20 he made the decision to drop out of college to pursue his dream of becoming a musician.^[9] This action greatly displeased his mother, who was a professor at the university from which he withdrew. She later commented, "It was drummed into my head that college is the ticket to a good life... but some career goals don't require college. For Kanye to make an album called College Dropout it was more about having the guts to embrace who you are, rather than following the path society has carved out for you."^[10]

West began his early production career in the mid-1990s, making beats primarily for burgeoning local artists, eventually developing a style that involved speeding up vocal samples from classic soul records. He came to achieve recognition and is often credited with revitalizing Jay-Z's career with his contributions on the rap mogul's classic and influential 2001 album The Blueprint. In addition to producing the hit lead single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and the introspective "Never Change", West was also responsible for supplying the beat to the diss track "Takeover", in which lyrical shots were fired at Nas and Prodigy. The Blueprint has been named by Rolling Stone as the 464th greatest album of all time.^[11] Serving as in-house producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, West produced records for other Roc artists, including Beanie Sigel, Freeway, and Cam'ron. He also crafted hit songs for Ludacris, Alicia Keys, and Janet Jackson.

Despite his proven talent and success as a producer, West's true aspiration was to be a rapper. Though he had developed his emceeing skills long before he began producing, it was a challenge for West to be accepted as a rapper, and he struggled to attain a record deal.^[12] Multiple record companies pushed him aside because he did not portray the gangsta image prominent in mainstream hip hop.^[13] After a series of meetings with Capitol Records, West was ultimately denied an artist deal. According to Capitol Record's A&R, Joe "3H" Weinberger, he was approached by West and almost inked a deal with him, but another person in the company got in the ear of Capitol's president, saying, "He's just a producer/rapper. Those record won't do well. He'll never sell." and the deal was nullified.^[7] In a desperate attempt to keep their gifted producer from defecting to another label, then-label head Damon Dash reluctantly signed West to Roc-A-Fella Records. Jay-Z later admitted that Roc-A-Fella was initially reluctant to support West as a rapper, claiming that he, like many, saw him as a producer first and foremost, and that his background contrasted with that of his labelmates.^[13][14] West's breakthrough came a year later on October 23, 2002, when, while driving home from a California recording studio after working late, he fell asleep at the wheel and was involved in a near-fatal car crash. The crash left him with a shattered jaw, which had to be wired shut in reconstructive surgery. The accident inspired West; two weeks after being admitted to hospital, he recorded a song at the Record Plant Studios with his jaw still wired shut. The composition, "Through The Wire", went on to become West's breakthrough debut single and helped lay the foundation for his debut album.^[15]

Recording[link]

West (pictured in 2007) refined the album's production and incorporated elements such as gospel choirs and string arrangements.

The College Dropout was recorded at The Record Plant in Los Angeles, California, but the beats featured on the record were formed elsewhere over the course of several years. According to John Monopoly, West's friend, manager and business partner, the album "...[didn't have] a particular start date. He's been gathering beats for years. He was always producing with the intention of being a rapper. There's beats on the album he's been literally saving for himself for years." At one point, West hovered between making a portion of the beats in the studio and the majority within his own apartment in Newark, New Jersey.^[16] Because it was a two-bedroom apartment, West was able to set up a home studio in one of the rooms and his bedroom in the other.^[12]

Carrying a Louis Vuitton backpack filled with old disks and demos to the studio and back, West crafted beats in less than fifteen minutes at a time. He recorded the remainder of the album in Los Angeles while recovering from the car accident. Once he had completed the album, it was leaked months before its release date. However, West decided to use the opportunity to make the album even better, and The College Dropout was significantly remixed, remastered, and revised before being released. As a result, certain tracks originally destined for the album were subsequently retracted, among them "Keep the Receipt" with Ol' Dirty Bastard and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" with Consequence.^[17] West meticulously refined the production, adding string arrangements, gospel choirs, improved drum programming and new verses.^[12]

Music[link]

Lyrical themes[link]

The College Dropout diverged from the then-dominant gangster persona in hip hop in favor of more diverse, topical proponents.^[18] Throughout the album, West touches on a number of different life-related issues, including organized religion, family, sexuality, excessive materialism, self-consciousness, minimum-wage labor, institutional prejudice, and personal struggles.^{[19][20][21][22]} Music journalist Kelefa Sanneh wrote, "Throughout the album Mr. West taunts everyone who didn't believe in him: teachers, record executives, police officers, even his former boss at the Gap".^[23] In an interview conducted just before the album's release, West commented, "My persona is that I'm the regular person. Just think about whatever you've been through in the past week, and I have a song about that on my album."^[21]

Content[link]

The album begins with a high school teacher asking Kanye West to deliver a graduation speech, "something for the kids", which introduces the second track, "We Don't Care" on the album with West celebrating drug life: "All my people that's drug dealing just to get by, stack your money till it gets sky-high / We wasn't supposed to make it past 25, joke's on you, we still alive" and then criticizing its influence amongst children, "We scream: rocks, blow, weed, Pac / See: now we smart". He uses his casual voice to describe a world of dope and dyslexia, and when he raps, "Hold up, hold fast, we make mo' cash / Now tell my momma I belong in that slow class".^[23] His lyrics contain various popular culture references to the brand of jackets called Starters, rappers Really Doe and Tupac Shakur and song "21 Questions" by 50 Cent and Nate Dogg.^[24] The next track, "Graduation Day" features Miri Ben-Ari on violin and is heavily auto-tuned to a point where the lyrics are nearly inaudible. On "All Falls Down", the album's second single, he criticizes consumerism as an expression of self-hatred rooted in history "We shine because they hate us / Floss cause they degrade us / We tryin to buy back our 40 acres", and then implicates himself in the same process, all while examining self-consciousness in the context of his community: "Rollies and Pashas done drive me crazy / I can't even pronounce nothing, yo pass the Versace / Then I spent 400 bucks on this just to be like 'Nigga you ain't up on this'."^[25][26]

The gospel hymn "I’ll Fly Away" leads into "Spaceship", a low-key funk track in which West wishes he could get away from the working world via a spaceship; in a collaboration with GLC and Consequence, he compares the legacy of slavery to modern-day corporate enslavement. "I’ll Fly Away" is sung in a doo-wop style and uses a Marvin Gaye sample. The main theme is the history of black music while also being a working man’s anthem. "Spaceship" also touches upon West's previous job as a Gap employee. On "Jesus Walks" West proclaims his devotion to Jesus, and discusses the lack of religious themes touched upon in contemporary hip-hop. “I wanna talk to God but I’m afraid cause we ain't spoke in so long,” he confesses, but then he goes ahead and requests to push the song onto radio and push the divine into the heart of public dialogue. He also addresses the fact that gangsta rap is popular than conscious rap by saying that one could get airplay by releasing a song with themes of money, girls and guns but would not succeed if they released a song which praises Jesus.^[25] His near-death car crash last October supplied the motivation for "Never Let Me Down" and includes the following lines "I can't complain what the accident did to my left eye / Coz look what an accident did to Left-Eye". Jay-Z rhymes about attaining status and power, West one-ups him with a show-stopping attack on racism and meditation on death, and J. Ivy offers words of spiritual upliftment. "Never Let Me Down" uses a Jay-Z verse first heard in the remix of his song "Hovi Baby".^{[25][27][27][28][28][29]}

"Get Em High" is a collaboration by West with two socially conscious rappers, Talib Kweli and Common. The over-the-top "The New Workout Plan" is both a hilarious parody of an aerobics routine and a platform for West to wrap his words around weird shifts in tempo and style.^[25] "Slow Jamz" is a side-splitting ode to legends soul music that originally appeared on Twista's Kamikaze and features Jamie Foxx.^[26] He considers the lure of materialism with Ludacris on "Breathe In Breathe Out" as he boldly declares "Always said if I rapped I’d say something significant / But here I am talking about money, hoes, and rims again".^[30] On the song "School Spirit", West relates the experience of dropping out of school and contains references to well-known fraternities, sororities, singer Norah Jones, record label Roc-A-Fella Records. Also, all profanities on this song are distorted as Aretha Franklin would not give West permission to sample Spirit in the Dark if the song included any profanities.^[31]

"Two Words" is a deafening mix of social critique and bragging with Mos Def, Freeway, and the Harlem Boys Choir. Freeway plays the hit man and Mos the enlightened activist, while West hangs in the middle, sending out love to the gold-fronted and the Native Tongued alike.^[25][30] "Through the Wire" borrows a chorus from Chaka Khan and a plotline from real life: in October 2002 West came close to dying in a car accident. With his jaw still wired shut he recorded the mush-mouthed lyrics. "My dogs couldn't tell if I / Would look like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky" he slurs, slipping into character as a wounded hero beating the odds. For about a year the song circulated on West's mixtapes and other unofficial releases. The song forges his dual status as underdog and champion.^[23][26] "Family Business" is a sweet, soulful tribute to an incarcerated family member. The album ends with a 12-minute autobiographical monologue that follows the song "Last Call".^[25]

Singles[link]

The album's second single, "Slow Jamz", features vocalist Jamie Foxx (left).

The album's first single and West's debut single, "Through the Wire", was inspired by his 2002 car accident and provides a comedic account of his difficult recovery.^[32] The chorus and instrumentals sample a "pitched up" version of Chaka Khan's 1985 single "Through the Fire".^[15] The single debuted at number ninety-four on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number fifteen on February 3, 2004 for five weeks. It remained on the chart for twenty-one weeks.^[33] It performed better on the urban contemporary charts, reaching number eight on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and number four on the Hot Rap Tracks.^[34] In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number nine on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked for two weeks, and exited the chart after nine weeks. The track charted lower in other European countries, reaching the top thirty in Ireland, Sweden, and the Netherlands; the top fifty in Belgium and Switzerland; and number sixty-one in Germany. Its maximum peak time in those countries lasted one week. The single entered the New Zealand Singles Chart at number twenty-four and peaked at number sixteen.^[33]

The second single, "Slow Jamz", is a tribute to classic smooth soul artists and slow jam songs. It previously appeared on rapper Twista's 2003 album Kamikaze, and contains vocals from Twista, West, and Jamie Foxx.^[35] The single peaked at number one in the United States, becoming Twista's, West's, and Foxx's first number one hit. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and Q listed it as the nineteenth greatest hip-hop song of all time.^[36] "All Falls Down" was released as the third single, and it entered the UK Singles Chart at number ten and peaked at number seven on the U.S. Hot 100. The song features singer Syleena Johnson and contains an interpolation of Lauryn Hill's "Mystery of Iniquity". Kanye originally attempted to acquire legal clearance to sample the recording, but permission was withheld.^[12] West called upon Johnson to re-sing a vocal portion of "Mystery of Iniquity", which ended up in the final mix.^[37] The song later appeared with the original sample on the mixtape Freshmen Adjustment.^[38][39]

The fourth single, "Jesus Walks", was originally written and recorded as a solo track for Chicago-based rapper Rhymefest. However, because he did not have a record deal at the time, he and West re-wrote the song for The College Dropout.^[40] "Jesus Walks" is built around a sample of "Walk With Me" as performed by the ARC Choir.^[35] Garry Mulholland of The Observer described it as a "towering inferno of martial beats, fathoms-deep chain gang backing chants, a defiant children's choir, gospel wails, and sizzling orchestral breaks."^[41] A spiritual trek, the first verse of the song is told through the eyes of a drug dealer seeking God, and it reportedly took over six months for West to draw inspiration for the second verse.^[42] The single earned widespread commercial success, peaking at number eleven in the United States and becoming West's fourth top twenty hit, while peaking at number sixteen in the UK.^[43][44] It was nominated for Grammy Award for Song of the Year, one of ten total Grammy nominations that West received for 2004.^[45] The fifth and final single, "The New Workout Plan", peaked at number fifty-nine on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. The song contains violin by Miri Ben-Ari.^[35] The song's official remix was produced by Lil Jon and features guest appearances from Twista, Luke, and Fonzworth Bentley. The remix was later included on The College Dropout Video Anthology.^[46]

The planned sixth single was "Spaceship", featuring rappers GLC and Consequence. This was confirmed in 2009 when GLC reported that a music video had been made for the song, but never released; the label decided to move on from the album to begin promoting West's second album, Late Registration.^[47] On June 3, 2009, West uploaded the video on his official blog.^[48] At one time, "Two Words" (featuring Mos Def and Freeway) was also intended to be released as a single, and a video for the song was filmed. West uploaded the video on his official blog in May 2009.^[49]

Reception[link]

Commercial performance[link]

The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 441,000 copies in its first week.^[50] By April 2004, it had sold in excess of 1 million copies in the United States.^[51] On June 30, 2004, the album was certified double platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America, following sales of 2 million copies.^[51] As of July 2009^[update], The College Dropout is West's best-selling album in the United States, with domestic sales of over 3.1 million copies;^[52] it has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.^[53]

Critical response[link]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[26]
Robert Christgau	A[54]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[55]
Los Angeles Times	[56]
The New York Times	favorable[23]
Pitchfork Media	8.2/10[57]
Rolling Stone	[2]
Spin	7/10[30]
URB	[58]
The Village Voice	favorable[59]

The College Dropout received general acclaim from music critics.^[60] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 87, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".^[60] Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times dubbed it "2004's first great hip-hop album".^[23] The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin praised its "substance, social commentary, righteous anger, ornery humanism, dark humor, and even Christianity", calling it "one of those wonderful crossover albums that appeal to a huge audience without sacrificing a shred of integrity".^[61] Jon Pareles of Blender gave it four out of five stars and commented that West "has his own personality: not a gangsta or a player but a diligent pragmatist".^[62] Chris Ryan of Spin called West a "full-service hip-hop artiste", stating "As a producer, he shuttles back and forth between stuttering Southern bounce and graceful, elegiac, classic-soul tear-jerking; as a rapper, he’s got a sly sense of humor, an appealingly conversational tone, and a big heart".^[30] Ethan Brown of New York commended West's "emotional brand of hip-hop" and stated "he makes autobiography universal in a way that hasn’t really been heard in hip-hop since the mid-nineties".^[63] Los Angeles Times writer Soren Baker praised his "witty wordplay, ability to weave political statements into clever punchlines and his likable personality in the face of peril".^[56]

Josh Love of Stylus Magazine wrote that West "subverts cliches from both sides of the hip-hop divide" and praised him for "trying to reflect the entire spectrum of hip-hop and black experience, looking for solace and salvation in the traditional safehouses of church and family, with the domestic utopia of ‘Family Business’ communicating the same kind of yearning as the heavenly pleas of ‘Jesus Walks’".^[19] Renee Graham of The Boston Globe stated "West has certainly raised the bar on what mainstream hip-hop can and should be".^[64] Hua Hsu of The Village Voice complimented West's life-related themes and his use of sped-up samples, stating "Kanye's beats carry a humble, human air. You can still hear tiny traces of actual people inside".^[59] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave the album an A rating and stated, "Not only does [West] create a unique role model, that role model is dangerous--his arguments against education are as market-targeted as other rappers' arguments for thug life".^[54] Entertainment Weekly's Michael Endelman called its production "uplifting" and commented on West's subject matter and avoidance of the then-dominant "gangsta" persona of hip hop, stating:

West delivers the goods with a disarming mix of confessional honesty and sarcastic humor, earnest idealism and big-pimping materialism. In a scene still dominated by authenticity battles and gangsta posturing, he's a middle-class, politically conscious, post-thug, bourgeois rapper -- and that's nothing to be ashamed of.^[55]

—Michael Endelman

Rolling Stone's Jon Caramanica commented that "West isn't quite MC enough to hold down the entire disc", but praised his soul-based sampling and vulnerable lyrics.^[2] Despite noting "too many guest artists, too many interludes, and just too many songs period", Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and complimented West's observations, stating "As chest-beatingly self-congratulatory as it may be, The College Dropout is at once laugh-out-loud funny ('The New Workout Plan'), genuinely touching ('Family Business'), and brutally honest ('All Falls Down')".^[20] Dave Heaton of PopMatters called it "musically enganging", writing that "every single one of these songs comes off like a genuine extension of Kanye's personality and experiences".^[25] Vibe's Dan Frosch gave it a four-out-of-five disc rating and found West's rapping to be on-par with his production.^[65] Joe Warminsky of The Washington Post praised West's sampling and incorporation of live instrumentation, adding that "West shows a balance between patience and imagination".^[66] URB commented that it "manages to be both visceral and emotive, sprinkling the dancefloors with tears and sweat."^[58] Pitchfork Media's Rob Mitchum called it a "flawed, overlong, hypocritical, egotistical, and altogether terrific album".^[57] Allmusic editor Andy Kellman gave the album five out of five stars and commented that it shows West as a "remarkably versatile lyricist and a valuable MC".^[26]

Accolades[link]

The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song for "Jesus Walks" in 2005. It was voted as the best album of the year by Rolling Stone and in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll.^[67][68] Spin ranked it number one on its list of 40 Best Albums of the Year.^[69] Comedian Chris Rock has attested to listening to The College Dropout while writing his material.^[70] In 2005, Pitchfork Media named it #50 in their best albums of 2000–2004.^[71] In 2006, the album was named by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time.^[3] In its retrospective 2007 issue, XXL awarded it a perfect "XXL" rating, which had previously been given to only sixteen other albums.^[72] In its July 4, 2008 issue, Entertainment Weekly listed College Dropout as the fourth best album of the past 25 years.^[73] The magazine later listed the album as the best album of the decade.^[74] The magazine also ranked it number one on its list of 10 Best Albums of the Decade.^[75] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "The 2004 debut from West—a revolutionarily relatable rapper who also happened to be a beatmaking genius—was accepted into the hip-hop canon instantly, no diploma needed."^[76] Newsweek placed it among its Best Albums of the Decade list at number 3.^[77] Rhapsody named it the seventh best album of the decade and the fourth best hip hop album of the decade.^[78][79] Rolling Stone ranked it number 10 on its list of the 100 Best Album of the Decade and stated, "Kanye expanded the musical and emotional language of hip-hop ... he challenged all the rules, dancing across boundaries others were too afraid to even acknowledge".^[80]

Track listing[link]

CD[link]

(*) designates co-producer
(**) designates additional producer

LP[link]

Personnel[link]

Information taken from The College Dropout liner notes.^[35] Sample notes that aren't included in the CD booklet were taken from WhoSampled.com.^[81]

Chart history[link]

Singles[link]

See also[link]

Kanye West portal

• Kanye West discography
• Kanye West production discography

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Brown, Jake (2006). Kanye West in the Studio: Beats Down! Money Up! (2000-2006). Colossus Books. ISBN 0-9767735-6-2. 
• Hess, Mickey (2007). Icons of Hip Hop: an Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-33904-X. 
• West, Donda; Hunter, Karen (2007). Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1-416-54470-4. 

External links[link]

• The College Dropout at Discogs
• The College Dropout at Metacritic

"College dropout" redirects here. For the album by Kanye West, see The College Dropout.

Dropping out means leaving a group for practical reasons, necessities, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves.

Most commonly, dropping out refers to a student quitting school before he or she graduates or avoiding entering a University. It cannot always be ascertained that a student has dropped out, as he or she may stop attending without terminating enrollment. It is estimated 1.2 million students annually dropout of high school in the United States, where high school graduation rates rank 19th in the world.^[1] Reasons are varied and may include: to find work, avoid bullying, family emergency, poor grades, depression and other mental illness, unexpected pregnancy, bad environment, lack of freedom, and boredom from lack of lessons relevant to the world of work. The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts^[2] by Civic Enterprises explores reasons students leave school without graduating. The consequences of dropping out of school can have long-term economic and social repercussions. Students who drop out of school in the United States are more likely to be unemployed, homeless, receiving welfare and incarcerated.^[3] A four-year study in San Francisco found that 94 percent of young murder victims were high school dropouts.^[4]

In the 1960s, "dropping out" was used to mean withdrawing from established society, especially because of disillusionment with conventional values. It is a term commonly associated with the 1960s counterculture and with hippies and communes. See Turn on, tune in, drop out.

In clinical trials, participants may withdraw from the study, for example, due to adverse effects. This is also referred to as dropping out.

Dropout recovery[link]

A dropout recovery initiative is any community, government, non-profit or business program in which students who have previously left school are sought out for the purpose of re-enrollment. In the United States, such initiatives are often focused on former high school students who are still young enough to have their educations publicly subsidized, generally those 22 years of age and younger. ^[5]

Dropout recovery programs can be initiated in traditional "brick-and-mortar" institutions of learning, in community centers or online.

Notable dropouts[link]

High school[link]

• The Notorious B.I.G.^[6]
• Arthur Shawcross^[7]
• Albert Einstein, Luitpold Gymnasium^[8]
• Michael Enright (broadcaster)^[9]
• Bobby Fischer, Erasmus Hall High School^[10]
• Marvin Hewitt^[11]
• Beland Honderich^[12]
• Duke Kahanamoku, Kamehameha Schools^[13]
• Hitomi Kanehara^[14]
• Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin^[15]
• Juan Carlos Onetti^[16]
• Nas^[17]
• Eminem^[18]
• Wright brothers^[19]
• Walt Disney^[20]
• Richard Branson^[8]
• Dave Thomas (American businessman)^[21]
• David H. Murdock^[22]
• Carroll A. Campbell, Jr. ^[23]
• Gurbaksh Chahal^[24]
• Tupac Shakur^[25]
• Kurt Cobain^[26]
• Danny Rolling^[27]
• Teddy Pendergrass^[28]
• James Earl Ray^[29]
• Eazy-E^[30]
• Marvin Gaye^[31]
• Jay-Z^[32]
• Chester Turner^[33]
• Frank Lloyd Wright^[34]
• Billie Joe Armstrong^[35]

University[link]

• Woody Allen, New York University^[36]
• Andrew Black, University of Exeter^[37]
• Michael Dell, University of Texas at Austin^[38]
• Arash Ferdowsi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[39]
• Bill Gates, Harvard University^[40]
• David Geffen,^[41] Santa Monica City College, Brooklyn College, University of Texas at Austin
• John Glenn, Muskingum University^[41]
• Steve Jobs, Reed College^[20][42]
• Jack Kerouac, Columbia University,^[43]
• Kanye West, Chicago State University^[44]
• Alicia Keys, Columbia University^[45]
• James Dean, UCLA^[46]
• John Steinbeck, Stanford University^[47]
• Sylvester Stallone, University of Miami^[48]
• Ted Turner, Brown University^[41]
• William Faulkner, University of Mississippi^[49]
• Anthony Bourdain, Vassar College ^[50]
• Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard University^[41]

Doctorates[link]

• Robin Farquharson^[51][52]

See also[link]

• School leaving age
• High school dropouts in the United States
• List of dropouts
• List of dropouts in the United States

References[link]

External links[link]

• Dropout Intervention and Language Minority Youth – From the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics.
• The Dropout Cure: Students Seeing Their Own Future
• Economic Effects of Dropping out of School
• Big Cities Battle Dismal Graduation Rates
• National Drop Out Prevention Center
• Stanford University News - "You've got to find what you love," Jobs says

The College of William & Mary in Virginia (also known as The College, William & Mary, or W&M) is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Privately founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States after Harvard University.

William & Mary educated U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler as well as other key figures important to the development of the nation, including U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and 16 signers of the Declaration of Independence. W&M founded the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society in 1776 and was the first school of higher education in the United States to install an honor code of conduct for students. The establishment of graduate programs in law and medicine in 1779 make it one of the first universities in the United States.

In addition to its undergraduate program, the College is home to several graduate and professional schools, including law, business, public policy, education, marine science and colonial history. In 2012, W&M enrolled 6,071 undergraduate and 2,129 graduate and professional students.^[8]

History[link]

Colonial era: 1693–1776[link]

Reverend Dr. James Blair, founder of William & Mary

A school of higher education for both Native American young men and the sons of the colonists was one of the earliest goals of the leaders of the Virginia Colony. The College was founded on February 8, 1693, under a royal charter (legally, letters patent) to "make, found and establish a certain Place of Universal Study, a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences...to be supported and maintained, in all time coming."^[11] Named in honor of the reigning monarchs King William III and Queen Mary II, the College is one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. The Charter named James Blair as the College's first president (a lifetime appointment which he held until his death in 1743). William & Mary was founded as an Anglican institution; were required to be members of the Church of England, and professors were required to declare adherence to the Thirty-Nine Articles.^[12]

The school's charter called for a center of higher education consisting of three schools. The Philosophy School instructed students in the advanced study of moral philosophy (logic, rhetoric, ethics) as well as natural philosophy (physics, metaphysics, and mathematics); upon completion of this coursework, the Divinity School prepared these young men for ordination in the Church of England. This curriculum made William & Mary the first American college with a full faculty.^{[citation needed]}

In 1693, the College was given a seat in the House of Burgesses and it was determined that the College would be supported by tobacco taxes and export duties on furs and animal skins. The College acquired a 330 acres (1.3 km²) parcel for the new school,^[13] 8 miles (13 km) from Jamestown. In 1694, the new school opened in temporary buildings.

Williamsburg was granted a royal charter as a city in 1722 and served as the capital of Colonial Virginia from 1699 to 1780. During this time, the College served as a law center and lawmakers frequently used its buildings. It educated future U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler.

Revolution and transition[link]

James Monroe, 5th President of US, W&M alumnus

During the period of the American Revolution, freedom of religion was established in Virginia and the separation of church and state achieved, notably with the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Future U.S. President James Madison was a key figure in the transition to religious freedom in Virginia, and Right Reverend James Madison, his cousin and Thomas Jefferson, who was on the Board of Visitors, helped The College of William & Mary to make the transition as well. The college became the first American university with the establishment of the graduate schools in law and medicine. As its President, Reverend Madison worked with the new leaders of Virginia, most notably Jefferson, on a reorganization and changes for the College which included the abolition of the Divinity School and the Indian School and the establishment of the first elective system of study and honor system.^[14]

The College of William and Mary is home to the nation's first collegiate secret society, the F.H.C. Society, founded November 11, 1750. On December 5, 1776, students John Heath and William Short (Class of 1779) founded Phi Beta Kappa as a secret literary and philosophical society. Other secret societies known to currently exist at the College include: The 7 Society, 13 Club, Alpha Club, Bishop James Madison Society, Flat Hat Club, The Society, The Spades, W Society, and Wren Society.^[15][16]

In 1842, alumni of the College formed the Society of the Alumni^[17] which is now the sixth oldest alumni organization in the United States. In 1859, a great fire caused destruction to the College. The Alumni House is one of the few original antebellum structures remaining on campus; notable others include the Wren Building, the President's House, and the Brafferton.

Civil War, Reconstruction, and the early 20th century[link]

Wren Building, 1859-1862

At the outset of the American Civil War (1861–1865), enlistments in the Confederate Army depleted the student body and on May 10, 1861, the faculty voted to close the College for the duration of the conflict. The College Building was used as a Confederate barracks and later as a hospital, first by Confederate, and later Union forces. The Battle of Williamsburg was fought nearby during the Peninsula Campaign on May 5, 1862, and the city fell to the Union the next day. The Brafferton building of the College was used for a time as quarters for the commanding officer of the Union garrison occupying the town. On September 9, 1862, drunken soldiers of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry set fire to the College Building,^[18] purportedly in an attempt to prevent Confederate snipers from using it for cover. Much damage was done to the community during the Union occupation, which lasted until September 1865.

Following restoration of the Union, Virginia was destitute from the War. The College's 16th president, Benjamin Stoddert Ewell, finally reopened the school in 1869 using his personal funds but the College closed in 1882 due to lack of funds. In 1888, William & Mary resumed operations under a substitute charter when the Commonwealth of Virginia passed an act^[19] appropriating $10,000 to support the College as a state teacher-training institution. Lyon Gardiner Tyler (son of US President and alumnus John Tyler) became the 17th president of the College following President Ewell's retirement. Tyler, along with 18th president J.A.C. Chandler, expanded the College into a modern institution. In March 1906, the General Assembly passed an act taking over the grounds of the colonial institution, and it has remained publicly supported ever since. In 1918, William & Mary preceded the University of Virginia to be one of the first universities in Virginia to admit women and become coeducational. [2] During this time, enrollment increased from 104 students in 1889 to 1269 students by 1932.

The College, c. 1902

Largely thanks to the vision of a William and Mary instructor, Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, the Sir Christopher Wren Building, the President's House and the Brafferton (the President's office) were restored to their 18th century appearance between 1928 and 1932 with substantial financial support from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Together, they led the establishment and beginnings of Colonial Williamsburg.

1930–present[link]

This section requires expansion.

In 1930, William & Mary expanded its territorial range by establishing a branch in Norfolk, Virginia. This extension would eventually become the independent state-supported institution known as Old Dominion University.

Significant campus construction continued under the College's nineteenth president, John Stewart Bryan. President Franklin D. Roosevelt received an honorary degree from the College on October 20, 1934.[3] In 1935, the Sunken Garden was constructed, just west of the Wren Building. The sunken design is taken from a similar landscape feature at Chelsea Hospital in London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

The College has a history of supporting freedom of the press dating back at least to the 1940s. In 1945, for example, the College administration sanctioned the student Marilyn Kaemmerle for an article she had written in The Flat Hat supporting the end of racist policies of segregation, anti-miscegenation and white supremacy.^[20] According to Time Magazine, in response, over one-thousand William & Mary students held "a spirited mass meeting protesting infringement of the sacred principles of freedom of the press bequeathed by Alumnus Thomas Jefferson." She was pardoned by the college Board of Visitors decades later.^[21]

In 1960, the Colleges of William & Mary, a short-lived five campus university system, was founded. It included the College of William & Mary, the Richmond Professional Institute, the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, Christopher Newport College, and Richard Bland College.^[22] It was dissolved in 1962.

In 1974, Jay Winston Johns willed Ash Lawn-Highland, the 535-acre (2.17 km²) historic Albemarle County, Virginia estate of alumnus and U.S. President James Monroe, to the College. The College restored this historic presidential home near Charlottesville and opened it to the public.^[23]

Earl Gregg Swem Library at The College of William & Mary in Virginia.

Campus[link]

Modern day Sir Christopher Wren Building with the statue of Lord Botetourt

The College is located on a 1,200-acre (490 ha) campus in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Sir Christopher Wren Building is both the oldest college building in the United States and a National Historic Landmark.^[24] The building, colloquially referred to as the "Wren Building", was so named upon its renovation in 1931 to honor the English architect Sir Christopher Wren. The basis for the 1930s name is a 1724 history in which Hugh Jones stated that the 1699 design was "first modelled by Sir Christopher Wren" and then was adapted "by the Gentlemen there" in Virginia; little is known about how it looked, since it burned within a few years of its completion. Today's Wren Building is based on the design of its 1716 replacement. The College's Alumni Association recently published an article suggesting that Wren's connection to the 1931 building is a viable subject of investigation.^[25] A follow-up letter clarified the apocryphal nature of the Wren connection.^{[citation needed]}

Two other buildings around the Wren Building complete a triangle known as "Ancient Campus": the Brafferton (built in 1723 and originally housing the Indian School, now the President and Provost's offices) and the President's House (built in 1732). In addition to the "Ancient Campus," which dates to the 18th century, the College also consists of "Old Campus" and "New Campus."

"Old Campus" consists of academic buildings and dormitories built in close proximity to the Wren Building and match the Georgian and Anglo-Dutch architecture of the colonial buildings of "Ancient Campus" and Colonial Williamsburg. Located directly to the west of the Wren Building, the majority of "Old Campus" was constructed during the 1920s and 1930s and is dominated by the Sunken Gardens and the College's football stadium, Zable Stadium. Also located within "Old Campus" are Sorority Court, the majority of upperclassmen dormitories, and the offices and classrooms of the History, Philosophy, Religion, Music, Modern Language, and English Departments.

Adjoining "Old Campus" to the north and west is "New Campus." It was constructed primarily between 1950 and 1980, and it consists of academic buildings and dormitories that, while of the same brick construction as "Old Campus," fit into the vernacular of modern architecture. Beginning with the College's tercentenary in 1993, the College has embarked on a building and renovation program that favors the traditional architectural style of "Old Campus," while incorporating energy-efficient technologies. Several buildings constructed since the 1990s have been LEED certified. Additionally, as the buildings of "New Campus" are renovated after decades of use, several have been remodeled to incorporate more traditional architectural elements in an effort to unify the appearance of the entire College campus. "New Campus" is dominated by William and Mary Hall, Earl Gregg Swem Library, and Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall. It also includes the offices and classrooms of the Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Biology, and Chemistry Departments, the majority of freshman dormitories, the fraternity complex, and the majority of the College's athletic fields. The newest addition to "New Campus" is Alan B. Miller Hall, the headquarters of the College's Mason School of Business.

The recent wave of construction at William and Mary has resulted in a new building for the School of Education, located not far from William and Mary Hall. Additionally, new facilities have freed up space in existing structures. The offices and classrooms of the Government, Economics, and Classical Language Departments, which currently share a building on "New Campus," could potentially be separated and some relocated to vacant buildings awaiting renovation within the "Old Campus."

The vast majority of William and Mary's 1,200 acres (4.9 km²) consists of woodlands and Lake Matoaka, an artificial lake.^[26] The College has shown a dedication to the stewardship and preservation of these natural elements, which are accessible via the trails running throughout the campus.

The College also has property and buildings not contiguous to campus, including the William and Mary School of Law and the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center, both located on a piece of property approximately four blocks southeast of the Wren Building. Additionally, approximately a mile northwest of "New Campus" is the Dillard Complex (located across from the modern campus of Virginia's Eastern State Hospital), which is home to several offices, two former dormitories, and Plumeri Park, the College's baseball stadium.

Organization and administration[link]

Current president W. Taylor Reveley III

The Board of Visitors is a corporation established by the General Assembly of Virginia to govern and supervise the operation of the College of William & Mary and of Richard Bland College.^[27] The corporation is composed of 17 members appointed by the Governor of Virginia, based upon on the recommendations made by the Society of the Alumni, to a maximum of two-successive four-year terms. The Board elects a Rector, Vice Rector, and Secretary and the Board meets four times annually.^[27] The Board is responsible for appointing a president, related administrative officers, and an honorary chancellor, approving degrees, admission policies, departments, and schools, and executing the fiduciary duties of supervising the College's property and finances.^[28]

The Chancellor of the College of William and Mary is largely a ceremonial role. Until 1776, the position was held by an English subject, usually the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London, who served as the College’s advocate to the crown, while a colonial President oversaw the day-to-day activities of the Williamsburg campus. Following the Revolutionary War, General George Washington was appointed as the first American chancellor; later United States President John Tyler held the post. The College has recently had a number of distinguished chancellors: former Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger (1986–1993), former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1993–2000), and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (2000–2005).^[29] Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was installed as the College's 23rd Chancellor on April 7, 2006.^[30] When her term expires in February 2012, Robert M. Gates '65 will succeed her.^[4]

The Board of Visitors delegates to a president the operating responsibility and accountability for the administrative, fiscal, and academic performance of the College as well as representing the College on public occasions such as conferral of degrees.^[27] In September 2008, W. Taylor Reveley III became the 27th President of the College, succeeding Gene Nichol.^[31] The president is assisted by a provost, the senior academic officer of the university, and several vice presidents.

Faculty members are organized into separate faculties of the Faculty of Arts and Science as well as those for the respective schools of Business, Education, Law, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science.^[27] Each faculty is presided over by a dean, who reports to the provost, and governs itself through separate by-laws approved by the Board of Visitors. The faculty are also represented by a faculty assembly that serves to advise the president and provost.^[27]

The Royal Hospital School, an independent boarding school in the United Kingdom, is a sister institution.^[32]

Academics[link]

The College of William & Mary is a medium-sized, highly residential, public research university.^[33] The focal point of the university is its four-year, full-time undergraduate program which comprises most of the institution's enrollment. The College has a strong undergraduate arts & sciences focus, with a select number of graduate programs in diverse fields ranging from American colonial history to marine science. The College offers an undergraduate joint degree program in engineering with Columbia University as well as a liberal arts joint degree program with the venerable University of St. Andrews in Scotland. [4]

The graduate programs are dominant in STEM fields^{[citation needed]} and the university has a high level of research activity.^[33] For the 2007–08 school year, 1,454 undergraduate, 440 masters, 60 doctoral, and 209 professional degrees were conferred.^[8] William & Mary is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.^[34]

William & Mary offers exchange programs with 15 foreign schools, drawing more than 12% of its undergraduates into these programs, and receives U.S. State Department grants to further expand its foreign exchange programs.^[35]

Learning environment[link]

William & Mary is committed to ensuring the quality of its undergraduate teaching experience.^[36] To advance this mission, W&M provides a "small college environment" and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio of 12-to-1 (the second lowest among U.S. public universities), thereby fostering student-professor interaction. A notable 99% of all undergraduate classes, excluding labs, are taught by professors (not teaching assistants) and 86% of all classes contain 40 or fewer students.^[37] The 2011 U.S. News college rankings placed W&M 5th in the nation for "Best Undergraduate Teaching" thereby supporting the efficacy of the College's mission. [5]

Student body and admissions[link]

William & Mary enrolled 5,850 undergraduate, 1,414 graduate, and 628 professional students in 2008.^[8] Women make up 54.7% of the undergraduate, 53.5% of the graduate, and 49% of the professional student bodies, respectively.

Admission to W&M is considered "most selective" according to U.S. News and World Report.^[36] There were 11,636 applications for admission to the class of 2012: 3,966 were admitted (33.7%) and 1,387 enrolled for an admissions yield of 35%.^[8] Over three-quarters of enrolling students (79%) graduated in the top tenth of their high school class, 77.6% had a high school GPA above 3.75, and the interquartile range on SAT scores was 630–730 for reading, 620–710 for math, and 610–720 for writing.^[8] The top five overlap schools for William & Mary applicants are Cornell University, Duke University, Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University.^[39] 95% of freshmen enrolled the subsequent year, the four year graduation rate was 84%, and the six year rate was 91%.^[40]

Undergraduate tuition for 2007–2008 was $6,090 for Virginia residents and $24,960 for out-of-state students.^[41] One-third (32%) of the student body received loans, W&M granted over $8 million in need-based scholarships in 2007–2008 to 1,280 students (22.6% of the student body), and average student indebtedness was $15,602.^[41]

Law and medical school acceptance rates[link]

Sixty percent of W&M students go on to graduate school within five years of graduation.^[42] From 1999 to 2003 (the latest available figures), W&M's law and medical school acceptance rates hovered between 72% and 84%, respectively. These figures are notably above the national acceptance rate averages of 50% and 64% for medical and law school, respectively.^[43]

Rankings[link]

The College of William & Mary's undergraduate program is ranked as the 6th best public university program in America, according to the 2011 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

In overall rankings of American institutions (public and private), W&M ranked ^#8 by The Washington Monthly in 2009^[49] and moved up two places to ^#31 in the "National University" category of the 2011 U.S. News rankings.^[50][51]

Undergraduate teaching[link]

William & Mary's undergraduate teaching ranks among the Top 5 in the nation according to the 2011 U.S. News college rankings. The College ranked ^#5 in "Best Undergraduate Teaching. "This supports the College's stated commitment to the high quality of its undergraduate learning environment.

Best value[link]

William & Mary ranked as the ^#3 "best value" among America's public universities in the 2007 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine.^[52] William & Mary's Swem Library was ranked in 2008 the Princeton Review as the ^#8 "Best College Library".^[53]

Business program[link]

The undergraduate business program is steadily climbing national rankings due in part to improved faculty quality and a new building. [6] It was ranked ^#8 among public undergraduate programs (^#25 overall) by the 2010 Business Week survey and ^#43 by the 2009 U.S. News survey. [7]^[54][55]

Graduate school rankings[link]

U.S. colonial history[link]

William & Mary's graduate program in U.S. colonial history has consistently ranked among the Top 5 programs in the nation by U.S. News -- it ranked ^#4 in the 2009 U.S. News (the most recent report for this category), behind only the programs at Harvard, Yale and Penn. [8]

Law[link]

William & Mary Law School currently ranks ^#35 in the latest 2013 edition of the U.S. News law school rankings (^#14 among public universities).

Business[link]

William & Mary's graduate business program (Mason School of Business) ranked ^#47 by Business Week in 2010,^{[56] #}41 by Forbes in 2011,^{[57] #}40 nationally by the Financial Times in 2008^[58] and ^#17 nationally by the Wall Street Journal.^[59] It is also ranked ^#70 in 2012 by US News and World Report.^[60]

Education[link]

William and Mary's School of Education ranked ^#39 in the 2011 U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Endowment[link]

As of 2008, W&M's fiscal year endowment totaled US $625 million.^[61] With a total enrollment of just under 8,000 (undergraduate and graduate), this equates to an $80,000 per student endowment - a common metric of an institution's financial strength. This places W&M well ahead of flagship public universities in several neighboring states including the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ($55,000) and the University of Maryland, College Park ($8,600).

Faculty[link]

Since the 17th century, many prominent academics have chosen to teach at William & Mary or in its graduate and professional schools. Distinguished faculty include the first professor of law in the United States, George Wythe (who taught Henry Clay, John Marshall, and Thomas Jefferson, among others); William Small (Thomas Jefferson's cherished mentor); William and Thomas Dawson, who were also presidents of William & Mary; and the founder and first president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, William Barton Rogers, earlier taught at William & Mary, at which he had himself been educated. Several members of the socially elite and politically influential Tucker family, including Nathaniel Beverly, St. George, and Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. (who penned the original honor code pledge for the University of Virginia that remains in use there today), taught at William & Mary.

The noted constitutional scholar William Van Alstyne, who came from teaching at Duke Law School. Professor Benjamin Bolger is the second-most credentialed person in modern history behind Michael Nicholson.^[62] Lawrence Wilkerson, current Harriman Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy, was chief of staff for Colin Powell. Susan Wise Bauer is an author and founder of Peace Hill Press who teaches writing and American literature at the College. James Axtell, who teaches history, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Fellow in 2004.

Student life[link]

Campus activities[link]

The College enjoys a temperate climate.^[63] In addition to renovations on the student recreation center (including a new gym, rock climbing wall, and larger exercise rooms),^[64] the largely wooded campus has its own lake and outdoor amphitheatre. The Virginia Beach oceanfront is 60 miles (97 km) away, and Washington D.C. is a 150-mile (240 km) drive to the north.

The College's Alma Mater Productions (AMP) hosts concerts, comedians, and speakers on campus and in the 8,600-person capacity Kaplan Arena.^[65] Students produce numerous publications on campus, including the official student newspaper The Flat Hat, the conservative-leaning newspaper The Virginia Informer, and the monthly magazine The DoG Street Journal. The school's television station, WMTV, produces informational content in the categories of cuisine, comedy, travel, and sports. Everyday Gourmet, the flagship production of the station, was recently featured in USA Today.^[66]

The College has a large number of student run dance organizations including Swing and Ballroom Dance.^[67] The Ballroom Dance club competes at various universities along the East Coast. In 2010, the College sent senior members to the US National Dancesport Competition.

The College also hosts a number of prominent student-run cultural organizations, such as the Chinese Student Organization, African Cultural Society, Japanese Cultural Association, Vietnamese Student Association, and Tribe Bhangra Team. These organizations hold events to promote the spread and awareness of different cultures from around the world.

Honor system[link]

Thomas Jefferson

William & Mary's honor system was first established by alumnus Thomas Jefferson in 1779 and is widely believed to be the nation's first.^[68] During the orientation week, every entering student recites the Honor Pledge in the Great Hall of the Wren Building pledging:

As a Member of the William & Mary community I pledge, on my Honor, not to lie, cheat, or steal in either my academic or personal life. I understand that such acts violate the Honor Code and undermine the community of trust of which we are all stewards.

The basis of W&M's Honor Pledge was written over 150 years ago by alumnus and law professor Henry St. George Tucker, Sr.^[69] While teaching law at the University of Virginia, Tucker proposed that students attach a pledge to all exams confirming that on their honor they did not receive any assistance.^[70][71] Tucker's honor pledge was the early basis of the Honor System at the University of Virginia.^[72] At W&M, the Honor System stands as one of the College's most important traditions; it remains student-administered through the Honor Council with the advice of the faculty and administration of the College. The College's Honor System is codified such that students found guilty of cheating, stealing or lying are subject to sanctions ranging anywhere from a verbal warning up to expulsion.^[73]

Traditions[link]

Crim Dell bridge in the heart of W&M's wooded campus

William & Mary has a number of traditions, including the Yule Log Ceremony, at which the president dresses as Santa Claus and reads a rendition of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", the Vice-President of Student Affairs reads "Twas the Night Before Finals," and The Gentlemen of the College sing the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas".^[74] Christmas is a grand celebration at the College; decorated Christmas trees abound on campus. This popular tradition in fact started when German immigrant Charles Minnegerode, a humanities professor at the College in 1842 who taught Latin and Greek, brought one of the first Christmas trees to America. Entering into the social life of post-colonial Virginia, Minnigerode introduced the German custom of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas at the home of law professor St. George Tucker, thereby becoming another of many influences that prompted Americans to adopt the practice at about that time. [9]

Incoming freshmen participate in Opening Convocation, at which they pass through the entrance of the Wren Building and are officially welcomed as the newest members of the College. Freshmen also have the opportunity, during orientation week, to serenade the President of the College at his home with the Alma Mater song. The Senior Walk is similar, in that graduating seniors walk through the Wren Building in their "departure" from the College. On the last day of classes, Seniors are invited to ring the bell in the cupola of the Wren Building.

One unofficial tradition is the Triathlon, a set of three tasks to be completed by each student prior to graduation. These include jumping the wall of the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg after hours (and if so inclined, running through the Boxwood Maze to the Palace itself), streaking through the Sunken Garden, and swimming in the Crim Dell pond.

Commencement exercises each year begin with the senior class walking through the Wren Building and across the campus, crossing the Crim Dell bridge, and arriving at William & Mary Hall for the commencement ceremony. The graduating class processes into the arena as the Choir of the College of William & Mary sings the William & Mary Hymn.

Fraternities and sororities[link]

William & Mary has a long history of fraternities and sororities dating back to Phi Beta Kappa, the first "Greek-letter" organization, which was founded there in 1776 . Today, Greek organizations play an important role in the College community, along with other social organizations (e.g. theatre and club sports organizations). Overall, about one-third of its undergraduates are active members of 18 national fraternities and 12 sororities.^[75] William & Mary is also home to several unique non-Greek social fraternities, notably the Nu Kappa Epsilon music sorority^[76] and the Queens' Guard.^[77]

Music[link]

William and Mary has eleven collegiate a cappella groups: The Christopher Wren Singers (1987, co-ed); The Gentlemen of the College (1990, all-male); The Stairwells (1990, all-male); Intonations (1991, all-female); The Accidentals (1992, all-female); Reveille (1992, all-female); DoubleTake (1993, co-ed); Common Ground (1995, all-female); One Accord (1998, all-male); The Cleftomaniacs (1999, co-ed); Passing Notes (2002, all-female).^[78] The Sinfonicron, founded in 1965, is William and Mary's light opera company.^[79] Music societies at the college include local chapters of the music honor societies Delta Omicron (co-ed) and Phi Mu Alpha (all-male) as well as Nu Kappa Epsilon (all-female). Nu Kappa Epsilon, founded in 1994 at William and Mary, is "dedicated to promoting the growth and development of musical activities at the College as well as in the Williamsburg community".^[80] Its members are professional performing musicians.^[81]

Comedy groups[link]

William and Mary has two campus comedy groups. I.T. (short for Improvisational Theatre) has been around since 1986,^[82] and has become a feeder into the professional improv scene in Chicago and Los Angeles, boasting performers with The Second City, I.O., ComedySportz, and Mission IMPROVable. In addition to performing shows across campus and Virginia, I.T. annually travels to Chicago as part of its Fall Tour, where new and returning members develop and practice their improvisational skills. Every year culminates with Improvathon, a 12-hour show at the Lake Matoaka Amphitheatre to benefit Avalon, a local battered women's shelter. The sketch comedy ensemble 7th Grade has been in existence since 1997.^[83]

Athletics[link]

Formerly known as the "Indians," William & Mary's athletic teams are now known as the "Tribe". The College fields NCAA Division I teams for men and women in basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field. In addition, there are women's field hockey, lacrosse and volleyball squads as well as men's baseball and football. In the 2004–05 season, the Tribe garnered five Colonial Athletic Association titles, and it leads the conference with over 80 titles. In that same year, several teams competed in the NCAA Championships, with the football team appearing in the Division I-AA national semifinals. The men's cross country team finished 8th and 5th at the Division I NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship in 2006 and 2009, respectively. The William & Mary men's basketball team is one of five original Division I schools that has never been to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.

There have been many recent notable athletes who competed for the Tribe. On the men's soccer team, goalkeeper Adin Brown was a back-to-back NCAA First Team All-American in 1998 and 1999. The track program has produced several All-Americans, including Brian Hyde, an Olympian and collegiate record holder in the 1500-meter run, and Ed Moran, a gold medalist in the 5000-meter run at the 2007 Pan American Games. The baseball program boasts a handful of current MLB players, including relief pitcher Bill Bray with the Cleveland Indians organization and Colorado Rockies utility infielder Brendan Harris. The football program has also produced numerous NFL players and coaches: All-Pro safety Darren Sharper, current Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, cornerback Derek Cox, kicker Steve Christie, long snapper Mike Leach, Walter Payton Award-winning quarterback Lang Campbell, wide receiver Dominique Thompson, Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Marv Levy and Lou Holtz, and Jacksonville Jaguars linebackers coach Mark Duffner.

In May 2006, the NCAA ruled that the athletic logo, which includes two green and gold feathers, could create an environment that is offensive to the American Indian community. The College's appeal regarding the use of the institution’s athletic logo to the NCAA Executive Committee was rejected. The "Tribe" nickname, by itself, was found to be neither hostile nor abusive, but rather communicates ennobling sentiments of commitment, shared idealism, community and common cause.^[84] The College stated it would phase out the use of the two feathers by the fall of 2007, although they can still be seen prominently painted on streets throughout the campus.^[85] Some students^{[citation needed]} have vowed to display the prior logo on their own at NCAA post-season games. A new design was unveiled in December 2007.

For a short time, the College's unofficial mascot was a green and gold frog (though it was commonly referred to on campus simply as an 'amorphous green blob') called "Colonel Ebirt" ("Tribe" backwards), which was discontinued in 2005.^[86] Prior to that, two students, one male, one female, dressed in buckskins. The female was referred to as Pocohontas, while the male was usually referred to as "tribe guy." The practice ended around 1991.^{[citation needed]} Subsequently, a selection process was conducted to select the College's new mascot. In December 2009, five finalists – including a Griffin, King and Queen, the Phoenix, a Pug and the Wren – were announced from more than 800 submissions.^[87] On April 6, 2010, President Taylor Reveley announced that the College has selected the Griffin as its new mascot.^[88]

Alumni[link]

William & Mary has produced a large number of distinguished alumni including U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, and James Monroe; key figures in American history Peyton Randolph, Fulwar Skipwith, Henry Clay and Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall; Massachusetts Institute of Technology founder William Barton Rogers, Amherst College president Carolyn Martin; U.S. Military General Winfield Scott; Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning, football Hall-of-Famer Lou Creekmur, and New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper; major league baseball players Will Rhymes, Chris Ray, Brendan Harris, Bill Bray, Vic Raschi and Curtis Pride; entertainers Glenn Close, Scott Glenn, Linda Lavin, Patton Oswalt and The Daily Show host Jon Stewart; creator and writer of Scrubs and Spin City, Bill Lawrence; fashion designer Perry Ellis; founder and chairman of Legg Mason Raymond A. "Chip" Mason; Willis Group Holdings CEO Joe Plumeri; sports management pioneer Mark McCormack; U.S. Representative and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann; Cabinet officials Robert Gates (22nd U.S. Secretary of Defense) and Christina Romer (former Chairwoman, Council of Economic Advisors); and General David McKiernan (Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan); and NASA astronaut David M. Brown.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates (Class of 1965)

Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin (Class of 1995)

Former Chair of U.S. Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer (Class of 1981)

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart (Class of 1984)

NASA astronaut David M. Brown (Class of 1978)

Commencement[link]

Hymn[link]

The "William & Mary Hymn" is sung at the commencement exercises by the choir of the College of William & Mary as the graduating class processes into William & Mary Hall.

Lyrics

Speakers[link]

Commencement speakers at the College of William and Mary have included a variety of notables, including alumni, presidents of the College, students, professors, politicians, journalists, entertainers, and royalty, among others.^[89]

This article or section contains a list of works that does not follow the Manual of Style for lists of works (often, though not always, due to being in reverse-chronological order) and may need cleanup.

References and footnotes[link]

	United States portal
	Virginia portal

	British Empire portal
	Anglicanism portal