Anonymous
10/28/2025 19:32
Subject: Why is William & Mary's acceptance rate relatively high for what their stats are?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
what did they want?
I appreciate the OP's question, because W&M is on my kid's list too, and I too have wondered the same thing. It's not known as an easy admit from our UVA public, but they do take strong kids every year. Not the tippy top of the class, but very strong kids. They all seem to like it very much.
They wanted a large school environment. Both chose (and love) Virginia Tech.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 17:57
Subject: Why is William & Mary's acceptance rate relatively high for what their stats are?
I’m sure their in-state yield is lower than a lot of comparable public schools. VA residents probably would choose UVA over it and some may choose VT depending on major.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 17:55
Subject: Why is William & Mary's acceptance rate relatively high for what their stats are?
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.
As someone who attended one of these schools and transferred to W&M I can confirm that it is very similar, except with fewer snobby rich kids.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 17:51
Subject: Why is William & Mary's acceptance rate relatively high for what their stats are?
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.
No, it's not.
Maybe not, but the athletic conference W&M is moving into (football for now) includes Colgate, Villanonova, Georgetown, Lehigh, etc. with no other public schools.
Anonymous
10/21/2025 09:35
Subject: Why is William & Mary's acceptance rate relatively high for what their stats are?
Anonymous wrote: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.
what did they want?
I appreciate the OP's question, because W&M is on my kid's list too, and I too have wondered the same thing. It's not known as an easy admit from our UVA public, but they do take strong kids every year. Not the tippy top of the class, but very strong kids. They all seem to like it very much.