A New Year, A New Fantastic Freshman Class: Working to Build the Class of 2020

We Admit It! All of us here in the Admission Office had wonderful, relaxing and rejuvenating winter breaks. After spending the holiday season re-connecting with family and friends, enjoying delicious food and watching Star Wars as many times as possible in theaters, we all returned to Williamsburg with one goal in mind: to continue building the talented and distinguished Class of 2020.

This time of year is especially busy for us (much like the last few months were for you as you finished and submitted your college applications). Each day our entire staff works tremendously hard to download applications, open, sort and index mail, respond to and file emails, as well as actually create application files for our deans to read. This process is repeated each and every day as we carefully process the materials that you, our impressive applicants, send to our office. Remember that each application is then read at least twice by members of our admission committee.

While this process can admittedly be a bit overwhelming at times, it’s a good overwhelming, if that makes sense. Let us explain. Every admission cycle that we participate in is our opportunity to create the next chapter in William & Mary’s distinguished history. Each part of our process – the emails we respond to, the mailings we open and sort and the applications we read and discuss – do not exist in isolation. They are crucial components in our overarching mission to create a diverse, vibrant and dynamic freshman class—a class that will challenge, support and inspire one another and the world at large. Keeping in mind that this process is bigger than those of us working in Admission, these overwhelming times of the year then not only become manageable, but exciting, and they drive us to continue marching towards August 2016 when we’ll welcome the Class of 2020 to campus.

As a result of our team’s hard work, we have now successfully downloaded every freshman Common Application into our system. This means that if you applied for freshman admission, you and your parents should have received an email from us stating that we have received your application (titled “Your Application to William & Mary” or “Your Student’s Application to William & Mary”). If you applied to W&M and have not received such an email:

  • First: Check your spam/junk folders to see if the mail accidentally landed there.
  • Second: Check with your parents to see if they received an email (if you included their email address in your Common App).
  • Third: PLEASE DON’T PANIC. If you have not received such an email, contact us as soon as possible so we can investigate what happened and work with you towards a resolution. Don’t stress. These things happen, and we’re happy to work with you to get your situation figured out.

Also, please note that this DOES NOT mean that all applications are complete. We are still working to match many applications with their transcripts, test scores and application fees. You and your parents will receive a second email when we’ve completed your file (titled “Your William & Mary Application is Now Complete” or “Your Student’s Application to William & Mary is Now Complete”). If we are unable to complete your file, and/or parts of your application are missing, we will email you (the student) to alert you as to what is missing and how you can best submit the missing materials.

There is still much work to be done, but we are well on our way to bringing the Class of 2020 to fruition. We promise that your application is in good hands. Going forward, be on the lookout for additional blog posts as we keep you updated leading up to, and following, decisions release in early April.

Brad Harlan
Assistant Dean of Admission

Categories: Admission, Faculty & Staff Blogs Tags: , ,
7 Comments
  1. Hopeful2020
    • Admit It!
    • notfromva
      • Admit It!
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  2. Kait
    • Admit It!

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