William & Mary admission rates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not in VA, just trying to understand how competitive it is to get in. I'm seeing in-state/out-of-state admission rates for W&M as 39%/28%, which doesn't seem terrible. But the reputation in this forum is that it's a super tough admission. Is that because there's so much competition among the NOVA kids?

Interested in paying $70k for an OOS public?
https://www.wm.edu/admission/tuition/

OP here. I'm aware of the cost. We're not eligible for need-based aid anywhere, so as far as I'm concerned, $70k at W&M beats $90k elsewhere. Also, it's a longshot, but I'm hoping my kid might be a contender for one of the 1693 scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Only a handful of 1693 scholarships, advantage in going ED1 or ED2, sign-up for an interview with admissions. Boys have about an 8% advantage in admissions.

Competitive admission, will most likely need over 1450 on SAT and 4.3+ on GPA.

[Anonymous]

I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only a handful of 1693 scholarships, advantage in going ED1 or ED2, sign-up for an interview with admissions. Boys have about an 8% advantage in admissions.

Competitive admission, will most likely need over 1450 on SAT and 4.3+ on GPA.

This is interesting. Their website says the interview is with a current student and that it has no bearing on whether or not a kid is admitted. (My kid is signed up for the "shadow" day and not the interview, but maybe they should sign up for both?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

It's more self selective. People who do not have the academic qualifications to get into W&M tend not to apply unlike other a lot of other schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably. Do you have a son or daughter? If son, more likely to be accepted as the gender balance is out of whack.

That’s nearly all schools. Not just W&M. Look at the gender numbers at other schools, too. More women are pursuing higher education than men.

I think engineering is still dominated by boys.

Men. Boys don't attent college. Men do.

Actually, I was seventeen when I first enrolled in college, so not all men and women 🤷‍♀️

Yes and women go too....tired of constantly hearing women referred to as girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

SCHEV will tell you the answer to your question:

For the 2023-2024 admissions year:

FCPS (Fairfax) had a 41.6% acceptance rate. Compare that to the other FCPS1 (Fauquier), which was only a 25% acceptance rate and there goes the theory that Fairfax students have it worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

It's more self selective. People who do not have the academic qualifications to get into W&M tend not to apply unlike other a lot of other schools

This. You can tell the cuts offs for WM (and UVA) in Naviance, and it is pretty clear what it takes to be admitted. (VT is a bit different because it doesn’t break out engineering and CS, which are very high stat, from other schools that are not. UVA has a much smaller engineering school). And WM has an optional extra essay that admissions clearly said in my kid’s info session is not optional. And they push demonstrated interest and consider it strongly, which means interviewing, visiting before being admitted, etc. You can a pretty clear idea of whether you will get in from NOVA just by looking at Naviance and checking demonstrated interest boxes. My kid had white/Asian female friends sitting in the 4.1-4.2 range who didn’t even bother to apply to WM because they knew they weren’t getting in and/or they didn’t want it enough to jump through the extra essay, interview, campus visit hoops.

The clear cut off, plus the fact it is the smallest T-whatever public university in the US and attracts a certain type of kid makes its applicant pool pretty self selecting.

Oddly, the same not really there on stats/ not applying to WM kids will often apply to UVA. Not sure why. I’m sure not having the extra essay helps. As does the fact UVA is more of a traditional flagship and WM attracts kids who want more undergrad focus, small classes, etc. and less big sports / highly visible Greek life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably. Do you have a son or daughter? If son, more likely to be accepted as the gender balance is out of whack.

That’s nearly all schools. Not just W&M. Look at the gender numbers at other schools, too. More women are pursuing higher education than men.

I think engineering is still dominated by boys.

Men. Boys don't attent college. Men do.

Men chronologically, but mostly boys emotionally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

SCHEV will tell you the answer to your question:

For the 2023-2024 admissions year:

FCPS (Fairfax) had a 41.6% acceptance rate. Compare that to the other FCPS1 (Fauquier), which was only a 25% acceptance rate and there goes the theory that Fairfax students have it worse.

This doesn't even begin to tell the whole story, though. The question is: what are the stats of the FCPS kids who get vs Fauquier kids? I don't know the answer or I'd post it. But if the avg applicants from FCPS are MUCH higher, than it can still be harder to get in from FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

It's more self selective. People who do not have the academic qualifications to get into W&M tend not to apply unlike other a lot of other schools

DP. I think it's more self-selecting due to people either liking or disliking the school. It's one of the most polarizing schools I can think of in that way. Some people love it - others hate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

SCHEV will tell you the answer to your question:

For the 2023-2024 admissions year:

FCPS (Fairfax) had a 41.6% acceptance rate. Compare that to the other FCPS1 (Fauquier), which was only a 25% acceptance rate and there goes the theory that Fairfax students have it worse.

This doesn't even begin to tell the whole story, though. The question is: what are the stats of the FCPS kids who get vs Fauquier kids? I don't know the answer or I'd post it. But if the avg applicants from FCPS are MUCH higher, than it can still be harder to get in from FCPS.

If, big if...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M has both ED1 and ED2 (I think the only VA public with both) and they take the vast majority of their students through one of those. It's a much easier admit if you go that route.

It is about 40% through ED1/ED2, not vast majority.

Ok, 664 students out of a class of 1,650 last year accepted through ED 1 or 2. That's still a huge percentage for a public school. Also acceptance rate for ED is 50%.

https://news.wm.edu/2023/01/31/wm-receives-record-total-of-early-decision-applications/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

It's more self selective. People who do not have the academic qualifications to get into W&M tend not to apply unlike other a lot of other schools

This. You can tell the cuts offs for WM (and UVA) in Naviance, and it is pretty clear what it takes to be admitted. (VT is a bit different because it doesn’t break out engineering and CS, which are very high stat, from other schools that are not. UVA has a much smaller engineering school). And WM has an optional extra essay that admissions clearly said in my kid’s info session is not optional. And they push demonstrated interest and consider it strongly, which means interviewing, visiting before being admitted, etc. You can a pretty clear idea of whether you will get in from NOVA just by looking at Naviance and checking demonstrated interest boxes. My kid had white/Asian female friends sitting in the 4.1-4.2 range who didn’t even bother to apply to WM because they knew they weren’t getting in and/or they didn’t want it enough to jump through the extra essay, interview, campus visit hoops.

The clear cut off, plus the fact it is the smallest T-whatever public university in the US and attracts a certain type of kid makes its applicant pool pretty self selecting.

Oddly, the same not really there on stats/ not applying to WM kids will often apply to UVA. Not sure why. I’m sure not having the extra essay helps. As does the fact UVA is more of a traditional flagship and WM attracts kids who want more undergrad focus, small classes, etc. and less big sports / highly visible Greek life.

Have things drastically changed in the past two years?? My kid is a junior at W&M. They were admitted with a 4.1, 1390 SAT, white female from Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about the same question today. At our very competitive FCPS, getting into William and Mary is very, very difficult. There is nowhere near a 40% acceptance rate. I am not sure why the acceptance rate appears so high, because coming from FCPS, I imagine it’s in the 20% range or lower. And only the top kids are applying.

It's more self selective. People who do not have the academic qualifications to get into W&M tend not to apply unlike other a lot of other schools

This. You can tell the cuts offs for WM (and UVA) in Naviance, and it is pretty clear what it takes to be admitted. (VT is a bit different because it doesn’t break out engineering and CS, which are very high stat, from other schools that are not. UVA has a much smaller engineering school). And WM has an optional extra essay that admissions clearly said in my kid’s info session is not optional. And they push demonstrated interest and consider it strongly, which means interviewing, visiting before being admitted, etc. You can a pretty clear idea of whether you will get in from NOVA just by looking at Naviance and checking demonstrated interest boxes. My kid had white/Asian female friends sitting in the 4.1-4.2 range who didn’t even bother to apply to WM because they knew they weren’t getting in and/or they didn’t want it enough to jump through the extra essay, interview, campus visit hoops.

The clear cut off, plus the fact it is the smallest T-whatever public university in the US and attracts a certain type of kid makes its applicant pool pretty self selecting.

Oddly, the same not really there on stats/ not applying to WM kids will often apply to UVA. Not sure why. I’m sure not having the extra essay helps. As does the fact UVA is more of a traditional flagship and WM attracts kids who want more undergrad focus, small classes, etc. and less big sports / highly visible Greek life.

Have things drastically changed in the past two years?? My kid is a junior at W&M. They were admitted with a 4.1, 1390 SAT, white female from Fairfax County.

DP. No, things have not drastically changed. Certain parents love to exaggerate the "difficulty" of admission. If you're a solid student, you have a very good chance of admission - it's not that hard.