Overheard in Committee: The Halfway Point Edition
We Admit It! We are plugging away, slowly but surely. Two weeks down, two weeks to go. We’ve finally opened the Wheat Thins and the five-pound bag of M&Ms and the M&M infused chocolate cookies (given our love for the ampersand they’re the perfect committee candy). We’ve finished off the frosted animal crackers, three-quarters of a tub of actual animal crackers, several single-servings of Pringles, several packages of peanuts and 1/3 of our can of mixed nuts (to call it a can underscores its size). So we are sugar-infused and ready to tackle the second half of Committee.
Overheard in Committee today: That program is b-b-b-b-angin! (Yes we really say it that way.) And by the way, b-b-b-angin or even just “bangin” without all the extra “Bs” is a good thing.
We were reviewing the application of a student who was taking six AP classes this year (including AP Statistics, AP Chinese, AP Latin, AP Chemistry, AP US History and AP Physics-C) on top of taking five AP classes last year (which had included AP Calculus BC). One of us even said, “Dang” as she stared mouth agape at the screen displaying the student’s file. Mind you we neither expect such intense programs nor do we necessarily recommend them (unless that’s your thing and if that’s the case, go for it). But you can’t help but be impressed by it right? To top that off, the student had mostly As including his mid-year grades. Other parts of his application were fine. He was involved in his high school and held one leadership position as the captain of his basketball team; he had fine although by no means outstanding SAT scores, and his recommendations and essays were solid but again, not exceptional. But man alive that curriculum!
And in the end, given all other components of the application were solid and generally equal to that of other students, it was the student’s tremendous performance in a mind-boggling set of courses that ended up being the positive tip factor for him, and he was admitted! That certainly won’t be the tip factor in every case, and again, we have no expectation that a student will take 10 or more AP courses during their high school tenure, but transcripts can definitely catch our attention.
Qdoba Lunch courtesy of W&M Professor Macdonald.
Once more into the breach…err Committee…dear friends.
Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Associate Dean of Admission
PS: Shout out to W&M Professor Heather Macdonald who provided us with actual sustenance as opposed to our cart of sugary snacks. Our love for any and all food during Committee is real.
The grateful Committee thanks her.
Comments are closed on posts older than one year, but we still want to hear from you. If you have a comment or question for us, please email admission@wm.edu.
After committee ends, what’s next? Is the next step decision letters or is there more deliberating? Thanks for the helpful posts!
@Hannah, when committee ends we have several additional steps. We have some clean up in terms of late completing files to review, we will have to review all of our decisions regional, we have to prepare letters/emails, etc. So after committee end, we usually have at least a week or so until decisions can be released.
Thanks!
this feels a little unfair to schools that are extremely hard but students are unable to have that many aps 🙁 I know you guys look at colleges in context of the school, but it still is rough since AP sciences at my school take up two class periods, and for all other aps, you lose one other class meeting, so its hard to take more than 2 or 3 and still have enough classes to complete your schedule. I guess we’ll see what happens! Good luck with the rest of committee!
Have all of the 1693 finalists been chosen? I haven’t received any mail yet, so I’m assuming I didn’t get into the next step.
@the first :(, do not worry. Again, we consider every student within the context of their high school. We recognize that students on block schedules or those who attend high schools that either limit the number of APs a student can take or don’t offer tons of them cannot have programs like this student did. We admit plenty of students with fewer APs than the student referenced in this blog (we’d dare say most of the students we admit take fewer APs than he did). We were just illustrating how a program could act as a tip factor.
@the second :(, at this point we do not anticipate nominating any additional 1693 semifinalists (finalists are chosen from those originally nominated as semifinalists). Semifinalists have been emailed; finalists from that group haven’t been chosen yet. We nominated only 60 out of an applicant pool of over 14,000 so don’t be down on yourself.
Have emails for Early Decision students concerning scholarship awards already gone out as well?
@TribeCrazy, any ED student nominated for the Murray/1693 Scholarship would have been emailed a few weeks ago. Any ED student who received a Monroe or W&M Scholarship will be notified by mail only next week.
If I hadn’t received a semifinalist email, should I assume I’ve been denied? :/
When you say his SATs were not outstanding what range would you say that has to be?
@Cassidy, absolutely not. As we said, semifinalists emails were sent to only 60 of our applicants. When all is said and done we will admit over 4000 students. The semifinalist email in question relates only to our highest scholarship only (the 1693/Murray Scholarship).
@RollTribe, his SATs were on the lower end of our middle 50% range.
Are many admitted below the 50%? The 25% that have below a 1240.
Hi! I was wondering if you guys look at classes offered on a yearly basis. My school did not offer very many AP classes to underclass men my freshman and sophomore years, but they added a lot of AP classes my last two years. I took honors classes and one AP class my first two years, because those were the most challenging classes offered at the time. Will my transcript be looked at in the context of classes that are now offered, or the classes that were offered to me at the time?
@RollTribe, 25% of our class score below the middle 50% range for SATs. 25% of our class score higher. We don’t break down the acceptance rate by SAT score or anything but again, 25% of our class has below a 1250.
@Just wondering, there’s really no way to know what courses were offered what years unless your school makes that clear to us in a profile or recommendation. However, we do not expect students to take AP courses in 9th and 10th. Some certainly do but it’s certainly the minority of our applicants.
I was wondering, would you prefer to see Bs in AP classes or As in honors classes?
I took two APs last year (junior year) and two again this year (senior year), although I wanted to take a third but there were scheduling conflicts.
The APs I did take were subjects that I enjoy and excel in, whereas, I took lower levels in my maths and sciences, as I am not as advanced in those areas and do not plan on majoring in these subjects.
I gather there is no set number of APs that W&M wishes to see, nor are there specific classes you might like prospective students to have taken; however, could what I did take (or more importantly, didn’t take) hurt my chances? Thanks!
Is personality derived from essays ever a tip factor?
@Michele, it certainly can be. We’ve written some previous posts on this (see this one for example: http://blogs.wm.edu/2011/03/02/overheard-in-committee-part-1/) that may be helpful.
@Kaitlyn, we do not require any classes for admission but there are some we definitely recommend and like to see (calculus for example and the fourth year of a foreign language). Not taking any one class does not mean a student is automatically denied of course but strength of curriculum is definitely a factor in our process. We do encourage students to challenge themselves in their areas of strength and in some of those areas that aren’t in their wheel house because you will do that in college. Strength of curriculum is one part of our process. Students with weaker programs can be less competitive than others but may shine in other areas.
@Curious, that’s an age-old question. The truth is we’d rather see an A in an AP class. I know that feels unfair but it is also true as many of our applicants are in fact getting As in AP or IB courses. We recommend students take the most challenging courses in which they can be successful. If you are waivering on a course and you think you can get a B in it, we’d recommend taking it. We don’t expect students to take APs across the board but a healthy number is a good idea.
When/ how are the Monroe scholars notified?
Thanks!
Thank you! I worry that not taking enough APs and challenging myself more could keep me from getting in!
@Wm hopeful, we mailed letters to Monroe Scholars today so they should receive them in the coming days.
@Kaitlyn, it’s always advisable to challenge yourself to the greatest extent which still allows you to be successful. It’s great prep for a college curriculum.
When will the William and Mary Scholars Award acceptance letters go out? Around how many students per year get this award? Thank you so much for this website…..
@Countdown, we mailed decisions to both Monroe and W&M Scholars
today. We could name a few more during Committee but most were mailed
today.
I tried to take as many challenging courses as I could without sacrificing my GPA. And I’m hoping it was enough!
I took the ones I knew I could maintain good grades in rather than ones I might struggle in and receive unsatisfactory grades.
Anyway, good luck to everyone who applied and to y’all for the next few weeks while you make your decisions! 🙂
@Kaitlyn, that’s really all you can do. And that’s all we can ask you to do.
Do most of your Monroe scholars receive Likely Postcards?
Also, do you review your homeschool applicants in committee as a separate pool, or do you mix them in with their regions and review them the same as other applicants?
@Wondering, yes, most Monroe Scholars received likely postcards but certainly there are some who did not.
We do review all homeschool applicants as their own region in committeee. Reviewing them together allows us to give them all the same context instead of comparing them to those students who attend traditional high schools. That’s not really a fair comparison so we instead review all homeschool students as their own region since they are more similar to each other in opportunities than those who attend traditional high schools.
So, it sounds like homeschoolers would not have been reviewed in time to receive a postcard?
Could they have been reviewed in time to be considered for the Monroe Scholars letters that you just sent out? If not, are they still considered for that honor once they are reviewed?
Thank you for your time responding to all these posts. This blog has been very informative!
@Wondering, homeschoolers are reviewed at the same time as all other students so they were reviewed in time for a likely postcard and to be considered for the Monroe award. We thought you were asking about how they were reviewed in Committee.
Do you perfer AP and IB versua Dual-Enrollment? My shcool offers very few AP classes so all I have taken for the past two years have been Dual-Enrollment.
@Ashley, where they are offered AP and IB courses are definitely great options. If those aren’t offered or offered very minimally, dual enrollment is another great option. We also definitely see students take a mix of AP and dual enrollment in many areas.
What format are the decisions in, and when will they come?
@Impatient Gwen, decisions are released via email. We will not know when they are going to be released until right before we send the emails. There are so many moving parts that it’s hard to pinpoint the date/time in advance. They will be released by April 1 at the latest which is a common release date for most schools that have a similarly selective process.
Are Early Decision students as likely as regular decision students to be offered a Monroe Scholarship even though they do not need the added incentive to choose William and Mary?
@Mom, yes, those admitted ED are just as likely to be named Monroe Scholars assuming they are competitive for the award.
True to your word….. the ED-accepted student from above HAS been designated a Monroe Scholar (and he could not be happier or more excited)! So proud (and happy and excited!)
@Mom, congratulations!
LOVE your blog! As the mom of a junior who just visited W&M and is almost certain it will be his ED this blog is interesting, invaluable, reassuring and funny (which of course is the most critical). Thank you for taking the time. It truly is a help.
@SeattleMom, thanks for the props. Always appreciated and so good to hear people find the blog funny and informative!
I know this is all dependent on the postal service, but do you think most if not all Monroe Scholars within Virginia would have received notification in the mail today?
@Stephen, there’s really no way for us to answer that but we’d doubt very much if all landed today. They left our office Friday which means they may have left the W&M post office Friday afternoon so we’d doubt it if they reached say the Western parts of the state yet.
I wanted to tell you how important it has been for us – and for me as a mom – to hold on to the words you wrote a couple of years ago in college confidential about students who were deferred Early Decision “were not incorrect to apply.” That softened the blow considerably when I ran across them. I know that when you release RD decisions, you usually have Deny, Accept and Waitlist versions. There are so many Early Decision deferred students who know the odds are against them, but wanted so badly to be admitted who will be ultimately denied. These are kids who did not stack the deck by including W&M in a big list of colleges, but as you are surely aware, kids who wanted to go to W&M more than anything. I know only the tiniest fraction of ED deferred kids will get in. It would be wonderful if you had a place, either in the Deny blog, or wholly apart, where you address this. Thanks again; you do a great service by providing this blog.
@Jen, we can definitely try to do that. Generally we try to put that same sentiment in the deny blog (albeit with slightly different phrasing). We try to also underscore that deny and rejection are not the same thing although we know it often feels that way.
Our daughter received Monroe Scholar notification yesterday via post. She did not receive any prior e-mail notification regarding the “1693” scholarships. Thus, can we conclude that she is not one of 60 semifinalists?
@Interested Parent, congratulations on your daughter’s admission and selection as a Monroe Scholar! Unfortunately, if she didn’t receive an email from our 1693/Murray Scholars director in mid-Februrary then she was not selected as a semifinalist.
When will need based aid scholarships, grants, etc be mailed out?
@anonymouse, remember that need-based financial aid and scholarships are separate entities. Need-based financial aid is awarded by our Financial Aid Office and is based solely on information provided in the FAFSA and CSS profile. Students usually receive that information via email about 7-10 days after being admitted. Scholarships are generally merit based and are awarded by our office. As has been discussed in previous comments on this post, those notifications have gone out.
7-10 days after being admitted. So does that mean that someone who is a Monroe scholar and got their notification on that this past Monday should hear on financial aid next week? Or is it 7-10 days after the April 1 that everyone else hears whether they got in?
@anonymouse, those who received their decisions already should hear next week via email assuming that you submitted all of your financial aid paperwork on time.
Hi! Is there a specific new email that we should be checking if we got admitted early decision? Some people told me they set up a new William and Mary email but I’ve just been using my old email, the same one I’ve been receiving emails on all along.
@Lindsay, we will continue to email you at the email you used in your application through April. As of May 1, other offices will communicate with you via your W&M email so go ahead and get that set up and begin checking it regularly.
My ED student has been receiving emails to his W&M address and has been using that address for communicating with the school – it is a “cleaner” address as it is only W&M!!
@Mom, that’s just fine. There are definitely community
emails sent to all W&M email addresses and it’s fine for ED admits
to begin using that email. But Admission and Financial Aid will
continue to use the application email address until May 1.