Why is William & Mary's acceptance rate relatively high for what their stats are?

[Anonymous]

W&M doesn’t aggressively market itself out of state and its brand has far less awareness than larger flagships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary is like a SLAC. A lot of kids don't want that anymore. They want a city school or a big D1 school with football.

What William and Mary does have going for it is the cost of attendance for Virgina residents.

I don't really get the slac comparison. It's got 7k undergrads, D1 athletics, and a number of different undergraduate schools. The people who compare it to a slac are the boosters who think only slacs can have good academics

It's not a typical state school or flagship environment. SLAC might not be the 100% comparison, but W&M is a lot more like small or medium-sized privates than it is like a state university. Not better or worse, but different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary is like a SLAC. A lot of kids don't want that anymore. They want a city school or a big D1 school with football.

What William and Mary does have going for it is the cost of attendance for Virgina residents.

I don't really get the slac comparison. It's got 7k undergrads, D1 athletics, and a number of different undergraduate schools. The people who compare it to a slac are the boosters who think only slacs can have good academics

It's not a typical state school or flagship environment. SLAC might not be the 100% comparison, but W&M is a lot more like small or medium-sized privates than it is like a state university. Not better or worse, but different.

Yes it is for sure more similar to medium sized privates, but I would compare it more to schools like Wake, Tufts, Lehigh and Boston College rather than a SLAC. SLACs by definition are a small student population and little or no graduate program presence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary is like a SLAC. A lot of kids don't want that anymore. They want a city school or a big D1 school with football.

What William and Mary does have going for it is the cost of attendance for Virgina residents.

I don't really get the slac comparison. It's got 7k undergrads, D1 athletics, and a number of different undergraduate schools. The people who compare it to a slac are the boosters who think only slacs can have good academics

It's not a typical state school or flagship environment. SLAC might not be the 100% comparison, but W&M is a lot more like small or medium-sized privates than it is like a state university. Not better or worse, but different.

Yes it is for sure more similar to medium sized privates, but I would compare it more to schools like Wake, Tufts, Lehigh and Boston College rather than a SLAC. SLACs by definition are a small student population and little or no graduate program presence.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is VA tech a mix of all 4?

It has 38k students, more than UVA and W&M combined. So yeah, I would assume it has all types of personalities, as does W&M and UVA.

Undergrad population:
WM is 38% of UVA
WM is 22% of VT
UVA is 58% of VT

VT is just massive.

31K undergrads is no different than many large schools, and smaller than some others (Ohio State, UT Austin, Texas A&M, Penn State, Minnesota, Arizona, Purdue, UW are all larger). Once you're a student there, involved in your major and friend groups, it doesn't seem large at all.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary is like a SLAC. A lot of kids don't want that anymore. They want a city school or a big D1 school with football.

What William and Mary does have going for it is the cost of attendance for Virgina residents.

I don't really get the slac comparison. It's got 7k undergrads, D1 athletics, and a number of different undergraduate schools. The people who compare it to a slac are the boosters who think only slacs can have good academics

+1
There are certain posters - or maybe just one - who love to make this claim. It's not like a SLAC at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary is like a SLAC. A lot of kids don't want that anymore. They want a city school or a big D1 school with football.

What William and Mary does have going for it is the cost of attendance for Virgina residents.

I don't really get the slac comparison. It's got 7k undergrads, D1 athletics, and a number of different undergraduate schools. The people who compare it to a slac are the boosters who think only slacs can have good academics

It's not a typical state school or flagship environment. SLAC might not be the 100% comparison, but W&M is a lot more like small or medium-sized privates than it is like a state university. Not better or worse, but different.

No, it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's kind of known as a nerdy school and not everyone wants their college experience to be in the middle of a 1700s living history museum.

OP, are you in state? Kids in Virginia sort into certain schools based on personality and interests. W&M is perceived as a school for the nerdy, theater type kids. Not debating whether this is true or not, just how 17 year olds see it. Also, W&M didn’t have business for a long time and basically every boy wants to go into finance these days. They ALL want a school that offers business, so UVA and VT are the more obvious choices.

Well every boy wants finance, data science or engineering. All of which they didn’t have for ages.

[Anonymous]

It’s the most expensive VA public instate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's kind of known as a nerdy school and not everyone wants their college experience to be in the middle of a 1700s living history museum.

OP, are you in state? Kids in Virginia sort into certain schools based on personality and interests. W&M is perceived as a school for the nerdy, theater type kids. Not debating whether this is true or not, just how 17 year olds see it. Also, W&M didn’t have business for a long time and basically every boy wants to go into finance these days. They ALL want a school that offers business, so UVA and VT are the more obvious choices.

Well every boy wants finance, data science or engineering. All of which they didn’t have for ages.

DP. Not my boys. They wanted history and international affairs. But they definitely didn't want W&M.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's kind of known as a nerdy school and not everyone wants their college experience to be in the middle of a 1700s living history museum.

OP, are you in state? Kids in Virginia sort into certain schools based on personality and interests. W&M is perceived as a school for the nerdy, theater type kids. Not debating whether this is true or not, just how 17 year olds see it. Also, W&M didn’t have business for a long time and basically every boy wants to go into finance these days. They ALL want a school that offers business, so UVA and VT are the more obvious choices.

Well every boy wants finance, data science or engineering. All of which they didn’t have for ages.

W&M has had business for a long, long time and was number 5 in the WSJ ranking of salaries of alumni working in finance among public colleges. It has had computer science since the 1960s. It was ranked higher in alumni technology salaries by the WSJ than any public school that doesn't have an engineering program. You are correct that W&M does not have engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's kind of known as a nerdy school and not everyone wants their college experience to be in the middle of a 1700s living history museum.

OP, are you in state? Kids in Virginia sort into certain schools based on personality and interests. W&M is perceived as a school for the nerdy, theater type kids. Not debating whether this is true or not, just how 17 year olds see it. Also, W&M didn’t have business for a long time and basically every boy wants to go into finance these days. They ALL want a school that offers business, so UVA and VT are the more obvious choices.

Maybe that's truly what some people think but if you spend a few hours on campus or go to a football or basketball game you'll notice pretty quickly the frat/sporty/business type greatly outnumber the theater type guys. The theater program there is really small in general - only 30 majors and minors out of seven thousand students.

So I don't really understand why there's a reputation that doesn't reflect the students who actually go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's kind of known as a nerdy school and not everyone wants their college experience to be in the middle of a 1700s living history museum.

OP, are you in state? Kids in Virginia sort into certain schools based on personality and interests. W&M is perceived as a school for the nerdy, theater type kids. Not debating whether this is true or not, just how 17 year olds see it. Also, W&M didn’t have business for a long time and basically every boy wants to go into finance these days. They ALL want a school that offers business, so UVA and VT are the more obvious choices.

Well every boy wants finance, data science or engineering. All of which they didn’t have for ages.

Sexist much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid and I are putting together a spreadsheet of schools he's interested in. The reaches are places like UVA, Georgetown, USC (cal), Davidson.

W&M has high stats -- average GPA 4.4 (the highest on our list) and 1470 SAT (almost the highest). But its acceptance rate is reported at 32%, nearly double UVA, Georgetown, and Vassar.

Why is this? Does it get a ton of applicants with very weighted GPAs? Does it not have as many casual applications like a UVA or Georgetown?

Trying to figure out how much of a target vs. reach this is for my kid and those conflicting numbers confuse me.

Weighted gpa means nothing; throw that out. If anything, it tells you that kids from Virginia have inflated GPAs.

The SAT column is only meaningful if you add a column: percentage of class submitting scores. For instance, Georgetown requires them.

Finally, the acceptance rate column is only meaningful if you add a column showing if there are ED rounds, and if you in-state or not etc. ED lowers acceptance rates.

Georgetown, for instance, has no ED; it is by far the toughest admit of any schools you have mentioned, all of which have ED.

Hope this helps!

To add, USC is the next toughest admit (or equally tough, depending on the field).

Only 44% of USC students submit test scores. Its not equally as difficult as Georgetown

It is from the DMV! USC is in Cal, by the way: test optional is different there, because the UCs are test blind; can’t compare it to similar TO stats in the Northeast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's kind of known as a nerdy school and not everyone wants their college experience to be in the middle of a 1700s living history museum.

OP, are you in state? Kids in Virginia sort into certain schools based on personality and interests. W&M is perceived as a school for the nerdy, theater type kids. Not debating whether this is true or not, just how 17 year olds see it. Also, W&M didn’t have business for a long time and basically every boy wants to go into finance these days. They ALL want a school that offers business, so UVA and VT are the more obvious choices.

Maybe that's truly what some people think but if you spend a few hours on campus or go to a football or basketball game you'll notice pretty quickly the frat/sporty/business type greatly outnumber the theater type guys. The theater program there is really small in general - only 30 majors and minors out of seven thousand students.

So I don't really understand why there's a reputation that doesn't reflect the students who actually go there.

For some reason, there are some people on this board who are really invested in the idea that WM is full of nerds wearing propeller hats and playing D&D in between theater performances. They're less interested in seeing what it's really like, or they haven't bothered spending much time on campus, or they've only talked to their kid's three friends about what they've "heard" about the school. It's tiresome, but it is what it is.

I think that others have addressed the original question and that it's a combination of those factors, none of which should serve as red flags or anything.