William and Mary - What do you think?

[Anonymous]

DS is strongly considering. What do you think? Good education/reputation?

[Anonymous]

I'm going to assume this is a serious question. W&M is known to be an excellent public university with a private college feel. Academically, it's very rigorous, with a slant toward the liberal arts. Beautiful campus next to Colonial Williamsburg, with some architecturally significant Colonial buildings. Very competitive admissions, particularly OOS.

[Anonymous]

Is this a joke? How could you have produced a child intelligent enough to be in the running for this highly competitive school, yet you're so, er, checked out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to assume this is a serious question. W&M is known to be an excellent public university with a private college feel. Academically, it's very rigorous, with a slant toward the liberal arts. Beautiful campus next to Colonial Williamsburg, with some architecturally significant Colonial buildings. Very competitive admissions, particularly OOS.

From some of the other threads in this forum, I was getting the impression that is was often more difficult for in-state to get in, especially from NOVA. This due to lots of qualified applicants from NOVA and reduction in state funding to universities leading to VA colleges being eager to get the OOS tuition $$$. Also the prestige that comes from having lots of OOS kids bolstering reputation as top-pick nationwide, rather than just regionally.
Anyone else with some insight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to assume this is a serious question. W&M is known to be an excellent public university with a private college feel. Academically, it's very rigorous, with a slant toward the liberal arts. Beautiful campus next to Colonial Williamsburg, with some architecturally significant Colonial buildings. Very competitive admissions, particularly OOS.

From some of the other threads in this forum, I was getting the impression that is was often more difficult for in-state to get in, especially from NOVA. This due to lots of qualified applicants from NOVA and reduction in state funding to universities leading to VA colleges being eager to get the OOS tuition $$$. Also the prestige that comes from having lots of OOS kids bolstering reputation as top-pick nationwide, rather than just regionally.
Anyone else with some insight?

Based on what we heard in an info session this fall at both W&M and UVA it is harder for OOS because the spots are limited to 1/3 of the class and there are proportionally more applicants for the OOS spots than in state. According to the info session the admissions rate for OOS is about 10%age points (eg, 28% vs 38% at W&M) lower at both schools.

But it sounds like the OPs DC has already been accepted?

[Anonymous]

It is a fine school with a nice public school price tag. Others are correct that it has a private school feel/look.

[Anonymous]

I think it's a great school and have a sibling who went there. Probably one of the true "little Ivies." However, I have always been surprised at how little this school is known once you get out of the mid-Atlantic. A vast number of people seem to have never heard of it. Sis says interviewers/colleagues (she lives in Midwest) frequently get it confused with Washington and Lee or think it's an all-girls school.

[Anonymous]

Why isn't this a legit question? Not everyone grew up in this area and knows about all of the local state schools.

Anyway, I've met two people who've gone there and they are both major TOOLS. Not that you should draw conclusions from that, but I'd definitely tour the campus and/or attend a recruiting event to get a better feel for the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is strongly considering. What do you think? Good education/reputation?

Just talked to a current Junior in NOVA that spent her spring break looking at Colleges. She loves W&M, but it would be a stretch. They told her it would be good if she had a 4.0 unweighted and took AP Calculus. (She has a 3.9 unweighted, which is why it would be a stretch.)

It has a great education and they seem to attract very high quality students.

[Anonymous]

"great reputation" not education. GAH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is strongly considering. What do you think? Good education/reputation?

Just talked to a current Junior in NOVA that spent her spring break looking at Colleges. She loves W&M, but it would be a stretch. They told her it would be good if she had a 4.0 unweighted and took AP Calculus. (She has a 3.9 unweighted, which is why it would be a stretch.)

It has a great education and they seem to attract very high quality students.

What is the world coming to? 3.9 unweighted and William & Mary is a stretch. Shit, that's discouraging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is strongly considering. What do you think? Good education/reputation?

Just talked to a current Junior in NOVA that spent her spring break looking at Colleges. She loves W&M, but it would be a stretch. They told her it would be good if she had a 4.0 unweighted and took AP Calculus. (She has a 3.9 unweighted, which is why it would be a stretch.)

It has a great education and they seem to attract very high quality students.

What is the world coming to? 3.9 unweighted and William & Mary is a stretch. Shit, that's discouraging.

+1

[Anonymous]

Colleges recognize the huge problem now with grade inflation in high school. Everybody has a 4.0, and 10 extra-curriculars (many of which seem for the sole purpose of looking good to adcoms). A least the SAT/ACT is somewhat objective.

Add all this to the Common App app explosion, where applying to 8 schools is now the average and I have heard of kids applying to 20.

Talk about stress!

[Anonymous]

Re: weighted average.
Our FCPS doesn't even submit unweighted GPAs. DD got in with a GPA of 4.02, but that is weighted because of IB. I don't know what her unweighted would be but I am guessing about 3.6. SATs were 2200. We're just thrilled she got in and it was her first choice school.

[Anonymous]

Many schools "reverse engineer" GPAs to normalize them, and recalculate them so they only include academic subjects (math, science, English, social studies, foreign languages). It's more work for the colleges, but allows them to compare oranges to oranges. They do seem to take into account English 11 vs AP Composition and Language, but weight courses equally across the applicant population.