Dear Prospective St. Mary's Families,
It is our pleasure to welcome you to the "Parents" portion of the St. Mary's website. We take this as an opportunity to draw you in to this remarkable site, which provides fruitful and useful information about SMCM. We assure you that this page, as well as all the pages of the St. Mary's prospective students site, is an asset as you and your student undergo your college search and application process-the site certainly helped us and both of our SMCM daughters!
Speaking of which, in attempt to ease your stress and worry, we would like to share a little bit about our own experience with the college search process, and how St. Mary's captivated not one, but both of our daughters.
Kate, who graduated from St. Mary's in 2004, was very open and broad-minded about what she was looking for in a school. It was the year 1999 when we began looking at colleges for Kate and at first we solely concentrated on prestigious institutions, both large and small, within the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions. St. Mary's was not yet on our radar because we had never heard of it. But we are so glad we found it. A teacher at her high school (Urbana High School in Ijamsville, MD) recommended we take a look at SMCM, so we did, and it was love. It wasn't the river, it wasn't the beautiful location-in fact, we attended an Open House on a rainy, chilly April day. It was instead the way in which people (students and administrators), approached us with such vigorous, genuine interest. It was the intimate yet spacious aura of the 2,000 populated campus. It was the obvious academic rigor that pervades the environment. However you want to describe our enamor, Kate didn't hesitate to send the application in. Ten years later she is starting her new job as the English Department Chair at a new high school, working towards obtaining her second masters degree in Library Science, and she still brings up special moments and unforgettable SMCM experiences at family dinners.
And then, there was Mary. She always loved St. Mary's when we visited Kate, yet she was determined to avoid her sister's path. Again, we looked into many colleges up along the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic-but from the corner of her eye we knew she still had St. Mary's in her sight. Eventually my husband and I nonchalantly mentioned the idea of attending a SMCM open house, and she issued the "why not" attitude. Again, another rainy April day, another daughter completely enchanted by St. Mary's. She sent in her application Early Decision and was the most joyful we have ever seen her the day she got her acceptance letter in the mail. Scheduled to graduate in May 2011, Mary has been provided with ample guidance and instruction from her brilliant professors as she works towards her English major, music minor, and she is looking forward to traveling abroad to England for a SMCM class during this Summer, 2010.
We know-this letter rings familiar to all letters you have ever read about a college institution, but we can assure you that St. Mary's earns its title as a Public Honors College. It offers a tremendous academic program, countless extra-curricular activities, and bountiful opportunities for studying abroad, gaining internships, attending graduate school, and having loads of fun on a rural campus. We are all being hit hard by this harsh economic period, but St. Mary's is undoubtedly the smartest investment we have made for our daughters.
Please feel free to contact us by email-we would love the chance to chat with you about St. Mary's and all its benefits, and we would be more than glad to answer any questions about SMCM or the college search process in general. Good luck to you and your student(s)! May you find the happiness that we found in St. Mary's.
Our Warmest Regards,
Chris and Sue Walters
smacktom@verizon.net
P.S. If you found this information useful and would like to read about other parent and student experiences with St. Mary's, click the link below and check out additional letters written by SMCM parents like us!
