To 18:02, our card was hand signed, just a brief thing not a full hand-written card. The main card itself is printed out, and then a staff member signed. Nice touch.

Anonymous wrote:My student received a card today too, which is nice.

To help, I will share that he was/is very interested and worked hard on the essays, but he did not actually submit until a day or two before the deadline. So I doubt timing matters per other posts or that he was reviewed early in their process.

Likely just an algorithm to assess grades, rigor of courses, likelihood of attending given location of high school and home - maybe a set of eyes after that since the card is signed by a human - so the algo spits out certain people based on criteria, then the staff fast tracks those for review.

Grateful, but still do not count it as an official acceptance until the letter comes through though.

+1 Kid got a postcard today. The application was submitted at like 11:50 pm on due date. I don't think submission timing matters--particularly since they presumably read them HS-by-HS (so at worst, she would have been the last one to have been read within the timing of her particular HS).

Just curious, are all the cards hand signed. Just seems like a lot of work to hand sign a few hundred post cards. It is a nice gesture though.

My student received a card today too, which is nice.

To help, I will share that he was/is very interested and worked hard on the essays, but he did not actually submit until a day or two before the deadline. So I doubt timing matters per other posts or that he was reviewed early in their process.

Likely just an algorithm to assess grades, rigor of courses, likelihood of attending given location of high school and home - maybe a set of eyes after that since the card is signed by a human - so the algo spits out certain people based on criteria, then the staff fast tracks those for review.

Grateful, but still do not count it as an official acceptance until the letter comes through though.

Anonymous wrote:Woo Hoo! So excited to have a postcard and hear of so many happy students there! Good luck to all!

Congrats!!

Congratulations to those that received the card. For those that didn’t good things may still come. Neither of my two kids got post cards but both accepted to VA’s true flagship in the RD round.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid hasn’t yet received a card but got an email he is a Semifinalist for the 1693 Scholarship. Can we assume it’s a definite yes?

How could their admissions office and communications office be so disjuncted? It is a terrible look.

You don't understand how things work. Both are part of the admissions office. They are not going to send out any official acceptance letters until they send out all the letters. That is accepted practice across colleges.
But it's obvious that if you are a semifinalist for the most prestigious merit award then you will also be accepted when acceptance letters are sent. Letting someone know they are a semi-finalist is like an extra special likely letter, not a mistake.

When did you get the email?

Woo Hoo! So excited to have a postcard and hear of so many happy students there! Good luck to all!

Good luck to everyone! My DC is very happy at W&M!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems unfair to the ED kids, they should get this perk too.

you dont have your ED decision?

Of course, but a card a couple weeks ahead of time would have been really nice, not sure why they didn't do this for their most dedicated applicants.

three things:

First, this isn't for all RD kids. It's for the top RD kids. 90% of admits won't get a cypher card.
Second, plenty of ED kids had different kind of cypher card - a commitment from a coach or a dean or a faculty member. There were plenty of ED kids who had "a card" a couple weeks ahead of time and I'm sure that was nice. That wasn't your kid, but it doesn't make it unfair to your kid.
Third, the turnaround time is very tight for ED and they don't have time to do a card a couple weeks early. Schools are literally making ED decisions in the days before they are released.

Wait- my kid applied ED1 and has not received a decision yet. But you're telling me W&M are letting some RD applicants that they have been admitted? WTF? How is that even remotely fair?

??? ED1 came out around 12/8

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid hasn’t yet received a card but got an email he is a Semifinalist for the 1693 Scholarship. Can we assume it’s a definite yes?

How could their admissions office and communications office be so disjuncted? It is a terrible look.

You don't understand how things work. Both are part of the admissions office. They are not going to send out any official acceptance letters until they send out all the letters. That is accepted practice across colleges.
But it's obvious that if you are a semifinalist for the most prestigious merit award then you will also be accepted when acceptance letters are sent. Letting someone know they are a semi-finalist is like an extra special likely letter, not a mistake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid hasn’t yet received a card but got an email he is a Semifinalist for the 1693 Scholarship. Can we assume it’s a definite yes?

How could their admissions office and communications office be so disjuncted? It is a terrible look.

What??

Anonymous wrote:My kid hasn’t yet received a card but got an email he is a Semifinalist for the 1693 Scholarship. Can we assume it’s a definite yes?

How could their admissions office and communications office be so disjuncted? It is a terrible look.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems unfair to the ED kids, they should get this perk too.

you dont have your ED decision?

Of course, but a card a couple weeks ahead of time would have been really nice, not sure why they didn't do this for their most dedicated applicants.

three things:

First, this isn't for all RD kids. It's for the top RD kids. 90% of admits won't get a cypher card.
Second, plenty of ED kids had different kind of cypher card - a commitment from a coach or a dean or a faculty member. There were plenty of ED kids who had "a card" a couple weeks ahead of time and I'm sure that was nice. That wasn't your kid, but it doesn't make it unfair to your kid.
Third, the turnaround time is very tight for ED and they don't have time to do a card a couple weeks early. Schools are literally making ED decisions in the days before they are released.

Wait- my kid applied ED1 and has not received a decision yet. But you're telling me W&M are letting some RD applicants that they have been admitted? WTF? How is that even remotely fair?

DP. It’s not. It’s one of the stupidest admissions gimmicks out there.

I love it. It’s equivalent to the likely letter many schools send.

I'm curious why people think it's not "fair." Do you think the overall concept of likely letters is unfair? Why? Do you think it's unfair when schools let some students know they are in the running for a merit award (which implies of course they are accepted)?
It has absolutely zero to do with the outcome of your RD as it's not like someone can respond to the likely letter with a "yes" they have to wait until they get a formal offer to accept it, so it's not as if they are taking up a slot that might have been offered to you. I don't have a strong positive/negative reaction to the cypher card--though I do think these traditions made more sense when there was no social media though as it was meant to just generate excitement for the recipient, but now at least some will post about it which generates anxiety for those who didn't get one. I do appreciate that W&M has an info page about it to allay worries though--and lets you know that they are sent out on a rolling basis based on reviewing, not all at once, and that most of those accepted--even scholarship awardees--might not get one.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter did not get the postcard and was accepted as a Monroe Scholar during RD. She’s there now and having a wonderful experience.

Great to hear!