Overheard in Transfer Committee — It’s Your Turn Transfer Applicants
Admit It! transfers, you’re ready for it to be your turn for all of the committee excitement. Well that time has come. We began committee deliberations for fall transfer applicants this afternoon! Who’s excited? We know we are. We’ve spent the past few months reviewing your applications and learning your stories. Now it’s time to decide who joins the classes of 2015 and 2016. So without further ado…
Overheard in Transfer Committee: It’s nice to see she’s making her way through the GERs.
What the heck does that mean you ask? Well it means that the student who we were reviewing was taking a good assortment of classes across the curriculum. William & Mary is a liberal arts university. We don’t hide from that. In fact, we’re quite proud of it. Yes we understand that college is a time that you get to specialize and take the classes you’re super interested in. But we also know there’s value in studying diverse subjects, in being pushed outside of your comfort zone, in approaching learning from a variety of pedagogies. So here at W&M we have a system of General Education Requirements or GERs which ensure that all students at least get their feet wet in a broad variety of subjects before they graduate.
The particular applicant we were reviewing was hoping to transfer to W&M as an incoming junior. We of course assume that the farther along you are in college, the more you’ll want to spend your time at W&M focusing on your major(s) or minor. So we were glad to see that she had taken classes that would transfer to W&M as fulfilling most of our GERs. That way, once at W&M, she really could pick and choose her classes instead of worrying about a variety of graduate requirements. In other words, she could spend the bulk of her time at W&M in the departments in which she was most interested. And it was specific W&M academic departments that in fact attracted her to W&M in the first place. That’s what we would all call a win-win right?
Certainly transfer students do not have to fulfill every single GER prior to transferring. However, W&M freshmen and sophomores certainly take several if not most of their GER classes during their first few years on campus. Therefore, we like to see prospective transfer students behave similarly. What we don’t always like to see is transfer students who are clearly taking only the classes they really like and who are in fact avoiding the classes that are outside their comfort zone (for example the English major who’s avoiding science courses or the math major who’s avoiding history courses). Being challenged is a good thing. Being liberally educated is a good thing. This applicant was doing a good thing.
So transfer applicants, continue with us on this journey. Committee will last for several more days, and we’ll have another “Overheard in Committee” blog for you before it’s all said and done.
Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Associate Dean of Admission
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.
Huzzah! Great to see committee has convened for transfer hopefuls. A couple of related questions for you: first of all, in terms of GER course matching, do you take into consideration the strictures the program a transfer hopeful is currently enrolled in? For instance, an associate’s degree in social sciences may not allow for a student to take enough credits in other areas.
Also, when I was going through the GER listing, I noticed that Geography (specifically GEO 210) wasn’t included as an option for GER 3 or 4 (though it’s considered a social science by VCCS). Does this mean that the credits will not transfer, or that they’ll simply be extra, unattributed credits?
Thanks again for maintaining a great blog!
@Shaun, you asked a great question that has a long and complicated answer. Let me start by addressing that question for those not in the VCCS system. Say you’re currently in a pre-med program. We recognize that some schools have strict curricula that might limit your ability to take classes outside of pre-med. We try to take that into account although we know there’s usually at least some elective time and we hope you use that to take some GER-type courses.
For those in the VCCS system, the great thing about VCCS associates degree is that they are all built to fulfill GERs. So even those in the social science track will take math and science and those in the science track will take English and history. If you complete a transfer-oriented AA at a VCCS school, you’re automatically guaranteed junior standing (at least 54 credits) and credit for all but 3 of our GER classes. So say you take Math for Liberal Arts. That actually doesn’t transfer (without the AA) because we have no equivalent course at W&M. But because you have the AA we give you credit for our math GER even though the math class you took doesn’t actually fulfill the GER. Does that make sense?
@AdmitIt! Ah, okay, that does indeed make sense, and is a little relieving. Thanks for the swift reply!
@Shaun, whew. Glad we explained that in a way that’s understandable. It is a little complex.
Yeah, its finally here! I’m excited to hear back and good luck! 😀
@Neil, it is here. We’re plugging away.
I am so excited for news of my reopen application! I have been looking forward to becoming a member of the Tribe for quite some time and hope that I may finally be there! I do have a question for you too. After the committee is convened how long will it usually take to hear back from William and Mary with the decision?
@Amelia, like with freshmen applications, this isn’t something we can put a precise timeline on. We don’t know now how long it will take us to get through Committee and then how long once Committee is over it will take us to complete the final steps necessary to prepar to launch decisions. But we’ll keep everyone posted.
@Admit It! , can I know that do everybody’s results come out at the same time? Someone I know got the offer email this morning, so I am wondering did i get rejected since I didn’t receive it? Thanks…..
I was completely off guard when I checked my email and got my acceptance email and I wanted to jump up and down and shout for joy but then I remembered I was on crutches and in the quiet section of the library haha. But just wanted to say thank you to the W&M admissins team and for the blog, and best of luck to those still waiting for a response! 🙂
*admissions oops, typo haha
Anne, I felt the same way! Except not on crutches and fortunately I was at home so my ecstatic screams only startled my little sister (she thought I had fallen down the stairs or something). Thank you W&M admissions this blog has helped both this year and last year when I was at a loss over being waitlisted as a first year applicant. I am so excited! This is going to be a great year!
Amelia, that’s funny! I did however, race to my room as soon as I could to let out my victory dance haha. And I was waitlisted last year too, so getting in after trying a 2nd time makes it even sweeter.
Anne, it sure does! Hard work finally paying off!
@2013TransferWM, we released some decisions today to a cohort of our admitted transfer group (very similar to the cypher postcards we send to freshman applicants however these are official decisions). That doesn’t mean those who didn’t hear today have any particular decision. We still have most of our pool to notify including admits, waitlists and denies.
@Amelia and @Anne, congrats! Welcome to the Tribe!
In! Was shocked to receive the e-mail today. I cannot wait for August!
@Jon, way to go! Congrats!
@Admit It! , Thanks for the reply, sounds like a good news for me
@2013TransferWM, like we said, there’s still plenty of good news to be released. There’s of course also some not-so-good news to come also. Not getting a decision today in no way portends one decision or the other. We’ll get the rest of the decisions released as soon as we can.
I didn’t want to chime in too soon, but: whew…and woo! Ecstatic to be accepted into such a fantastic institution. I was a tad worried that, being a little older, I would have a bit less of a chance, but am obviously delighted to see that wasn’t the case. It’s going to be a long Summer…
Congrats to my fellow accepted transferees, and good luck to those still waiting!
@Shaun, we love non-traditional transfer students. They lend a unique flavor or our student body. Congrats and welcome to the Tribe!
@Admit It!， Yes, I got that point. Appreciate it .
@2013TransferWM, great. We just know this is a complex process. Want to make sure we’re explaining ourselves well.
I just wanted to thank W&M admissions! Your blog has been so helpful throughout this process and has helped relieve some of my transfer stress. It’s great how you really try to keep connected with students throughout the process, it really made me feel like W&M is transfer friendly/cares about all those going through the application process. When I received the email yesterday I was in shock! I’m thrilled to be part of the tribe 🙂
@Transfer2013, it’s our please and congrats. We heart transfers and it’s exciting to see all of your excitment as we make decision on our fall applicants.
A quick question for you: do you know when the secure student site will allow the admission deposit for Fall 2013? It’s currently set to only show Spring. Thanks in advance!
@Shaun, we just tried it and Fall 2013 is an option from the drop-down menu. Spring 2013 is what shows up as the default but if you click the drop-down arrow you should be able to select Fall 2013.