William & Mary - how competitive?
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Anonymous
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The other day, someone told me that my son had no chance of getting into W&M because he doesn't have straight As. Obviously that's not the only factor in getting accepted there, but she thought that this one factor would knock my son out of the running entirely. I think this school would not be easy for my son to get into, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. She also thought it was more competitive to get into W&M than UVA - which I don't think is true, but I'm from PA, so I don't really know the schools around here very well.
He's a junior taking IB & honors course. Freshman year all A's, sophomore year was a mixture of As/Bs. This year all As so far. Weighted GPA = 4.09 (Freshman/Sophomore years) Knowing nothing else, would you say this school is out of the running for my son? |
Anonymous
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The W&M CDS says 78% of freshman are from the top 10% of their HS class. It is not clear from the CDS whether that figure is only those who reported class rank or for everyone.
Either way, there is clearly plenty room (at least 22% of the class) for kids not in the top 10% of the class. Of course if you are not in the top 10% of class then you want your SAT/ACT to be at or above the middle 50% scores -- which is a 28-33 ACT at W&M. |
Anonymous
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UVA has slightly higher percentage of kids from top 10% of class than W&M: 89% for UVA to 78% for W&M.
UVA has slightly stronger middle 50% ACT/SATs: 29/33 with 32 average for UVA and a 28/33 with 31 average for W&M. |
Anonymous
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Profile of Incoming 2018 Class.
Admission Statistics Applications: 14,552 Acceptance Rate: 33% Class Size: 1,514 Academic Profile of Entering Freshmen 81% ranked in the top 10% 94% ranked in the top 20% Mid-50% Ranges for the SAT Critical Reading and Math: 1270-1470 Critical Reading: 640-730 Math: 630-740 Writing: 620-720 Mid-50% Range for the ACT 29-33 Composite Early and Regular Decision Early Decision: 39% of the incoming class Regular Decision: 61% of the incoming class |
Anonymous
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OP here. We are in Fairfax county and they don't report class rank, so I have no idea how to figure out where my son is in that regard.
Thanks to everyone for the info. so far, this is (obviously) our first kid to go through this process and we have no idea what we are doing! I just don't want our kid to have their heart set on this school if it's unlikely to work out. |
Anonymous
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No college, especially not HYPSM, care if you have straight As. Everyone is allowed to meet that one or two teachers/subjects that they just don't get along with.
That said, "sophomore year was a mixture of As/Bs" is certainly, no matter how optimistic you are being, enough to count you out of HYPSM unless your DC has some trauma to explain their sophomore year, or a hook. All that goes double for W&M, meaning you are likely allowed to have 4 teachers/subjects you didn't get along with and can get Bs in those subjects for more than a year and/or a C before you escaped. Going double doesn't mean that your overall GPA should fall below 3.8 uw (or so) but 3.8 is fine if you have enough rigor. The thing to keep in mind is that once you are close to the average GPA and SAT score, it is much more important to be interesting than to move up by 0.05 GPA units. |
Anonymous
| Why does your son do besides study? |
Anonymous
volunteer (average about an hour a week) with disabled kids marching band (and drum line in spring) community theatre (summer) honor society |
Anonymous
| OP, your son is on track - in-state boys have the highest admission rate to W&M. As long as he does decently on his SAT or ACT he'll be fine. If W&M is his first choice then he should apply ED next fall, where they take an even higher percentage of applicants. |
Anonymous
This is helpful, thanks. When you say 3.8, I assume you mean unweighted? DS has Crohn's Disease and had a partial bowel resection surgery last year which probably adds some context to the grades. How or at what point in the application process does one have the opportunity to discuss these things? (FYI, I had to look up HYPSM 
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Anonymous
| And he should also sign up for an on-campus interview over the summer. |
Anonymous
| Depends on his SATS OP. Make sure he takes a prep course. |
Anonymous
W&M has a specific area on their application to explain something like this (my DD used it to explain her lower grades the year I had cancer - she's a happy W&M junior now). Continued good health to your DS! |
Anonymous
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The fact that this person just talked about grades tells you that they don't even know the basics of how this all works. Straights As in basic courses are't going to be impressive.
These were just posted in another thread. W&M Admission Rates (applied/accepted/rate) Arlington - 235 126 53.6% (45 enrolled) Fairfax - 1,729 821 47.5% (277 enrolled) Loudoun - 527 243 46.1% (77 enrolled) Spots - 90 38 42.2% (20 enrolled) PWC - 256 102 39.8% (37 enrolled) Stafford - 97 34 35.1% (16 enrolled) All In-state 5,865 2,648 45.1% All out of state 8,518 2,606 30.6% http://research.schev.edu/enrollment/b8_admissions_locality.asp Using the same chart, UVA is more selective. |
Anonymous
| I thought like your neighbor. My family members that went there had straight A's, valedictorian, etc. |