Dorm Life - At F&M, you will live with the students in your freshman seminar class in one of the five college houses. Students are interviewed for a half hour to pick a compatible freshman roommate. As a sophomore, you have the opportunity to move to suite style living. As a junior or senior, you can move to a college-affiliated apartment. Even if you don’t live in one of the five college houses as an upper-classman, you can use space in the college house you lived in as a freshman, for all four years.
Common Hour - On Thursdays from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM, everything closes for common hour, where a talk or performance is provided with free pizza, drinks and fruit. The first common hour of the school year usually is a talk given by the college president. The college president also has open office hours when students can stop by and talk with him.
Surrounding neighborhood - F&M is in Lancaster, which has about 60,000 residents. Students can walk downtown or go by shuttle bus and take advantage of restaurants, movies, the farmer’s market and the art scene (including First Friday). The school is less than a mile from an Amtrak station.
Financial Aid - F&M is a CSS/PROFILE school that meets 100% of need; it does not provide merit aid to freshmen. If you are applying early decision, you can get an early read on your aid package.
Applying - F&M uses the Common Application, does a holistic review of your application, and recommends that you have an interview. The school is test optional; two pieces of graded writing can be used in lieu of the SAT or ACT. The school has a 36% acceptance rate with 52% of students applying Early Decision. Early Decision I has a November 15 application deadline and Early Decision II has a January 15 application deadline.
Academics - Students declare their major after the sophomore year. The most popular major is Business, Organizations and Society; Government is the second most popular major. F&M offers nine foreign languages and requires students take three semesters of a foreign language (or place out of the language).
Study Abroad – F&M has its own study abroad programs in France and in England. F&M students also participate in 200 other study abroad programs. Study abroad programs vary in length from a 6-week summer program, to a semester or a year. Students can use their financial aid package when studying abroad.
Greek Life - 35- 40% of students are in one of the seven fraternities or four sororities. Students can rush starting in the second semester of college.
Sports – The school competes in NCAA Division I wrestling and in NCAA Division III for other sports. Club and intramural sports are popular.
Who would be happy at F&M? - The admissions representative felt that the type of student who would be most happy at F&M is one who wants to be involved in academics, extracurricular activities and the community.
What is your experience with F&M?
