Decisions, Decisions – 2015 Regular Decision Waitlist Edition
Admit It! You were hoping to see better news in your inbox. We Admit It! We wish we could send more good news. William & Mary’s smaller size is what attracts thousands of students to apply. That compels us to make some tough decisions among lots of very qualified applicants. As a result, we’re not able to admit all of the students who are competitive for admission. While it may not feel like it, a waitlist decision is a positive one. To us it means we wish we had more spaces in the incoming class; if we did we would have offered one of them to you.
It’s tough being on a waitlist. Just when you hoped you’d have a resolution to this process you’re told the resolution is still undetermined. That can feel confusing, frustrating, defeating. But we hope it also leaves the door open for you to continue to think about W&M. We of course encourage you to fully explore the universities that have offered you admission and submit an enrollment deposit to one by the May 1 deadline. But, if you remain sincerely interested, in W&M, you can accept your spot on our waitlist by completing the online form linked in your decision email.
So then what? Well, again, we encourage you to focus your immediate attention on exploring those schools that have offered you admission. No doubt you have many great options. If, after doing that, W&M remains in serious consideration, you can email your regional dean with any updates and a note of continued interest in mid-to-late April. Should we determine that we are able to admit additional students, we will consider that information as well as your original application materials in making decisions about whom to admit from the waitlist. If you are no longer interested in W&M, just complete the online form withdrawing your name from our waitlist.
There’s no way for us to predict whether or not we will go to the waitlist, and if so for whom and to what degree. Generally, we are able to determine whether or not we will be admitting students from the waitlist in early-to-mid May. If we are able to admit additional students, we will determine where our class fell short (in-state or out-of-state for example), and then consider those students who elected to remain on the waitlist. Should we get to that point, we will provide updates via this blog. All students remaining on the waitlist will get an update from us via email by June 15. Our Waitlist FAQ page is also a great source of information in the interim.
While we do wish the news could have been more positive, we did think incredibly highly of your application. We are often saddened by the students who we are not able to admit (aka those who are waitlisted) because they are so incredible. We know that all you’ve accomplished will provide you with great options for next year. If W&M remains in serious consideration, we encourage you to accept your spot on the waitlist, keep in touch and stay tuned. Whether the conclusion of your college search ends up being Williamsburg or elsewhere, we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
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.
Generally, what is the percentage of wait listed students that are offered spots? I understand it is different every year, and is difficult to predict, but just based on previous years’ numbers? Thanks
@Waitlisted, there is truly no rule of thumb with the waitlist. Some years we do not go at all. Other years we take students off the waitlist but in very small quantities. Still other years we may take 100 or more students off the waitlist. There’s really no way to predict and no historical pattern unfortunately.
I was hoping to see a more positive email subject line, but I can’t say I’m totally torn. It’s not a deny! At first I couldn’t even read the email because literally thirty minutes before I had just gotten all four of my wisdom teeth removed and am still “fuzzy” on copious amounts of pain meds. Now we just play the waiting game… Congrats to everyone who made it in though!
@Miriam, we hope you have a speedy recovery and we appreciate your positive outlook.
While I was hoping for ‘Good Things’ I’m glad that I still have a shot of attending William and Mary. Is there any way for me to demonstrate my interest in William and Mary? Is there any sort of essay I can write to show I want to attend W&M? Congrats as well to all admitted this far!
@Ruab, no need to write another essay. As we mentioned, you can just follow up with your regional dean in April with a statement of continued interest and any updates.
Thank you very much, hoping for good news
By updates, do you mean third quarter grades, in addition to continued interest?
@Waitlisted, yes, by updates we mean third quarter grades and/or any significant new information that wasn’t available when you submitted your original application materials. And yes, a statement of continued interest is also great.
Thank you so much! Staying hopeful
While I’m grateful that I wasn’t denied outright, I’m rather disappointed that I wasn’t admitted. Is there any way for me to find out why I was wait-listed rather than admitted? Perhaps this is a bit tardy, but I would like to hear feedback as to how I could be a more competitive applicant for William & Mary. Of course, if that just isn’t possible, then I understand. I do realize that the number of wait-listed students getting offers of admission from William & Mary has been minuscule in recent years…
@Brittany, generally, as this blog reinforces, it wasn’t that your application was lacking or in any way deficient. It’s simply that we have so many super qualified applicants applying for a very limited number of spaces in our class. The fact that great students such as yourself are waitlisted, is a testament to that. You are of course welcome to follow up with your regional dean with any updates you wish.
As for those admitted from the waitlist, there are years when we’ve admitted very few if any students but other years when we’ve definitely admitted a good number of students. It’s just an unpredictable process unfortunately.
If the chances of being accepted off the waitlist are “minuscule” to “a good number” it would be interesting to know how many people are actually on the waitlist? Are they ranked in order? Or is the entire list reevaluated before additional offers are made? Thank you.
@Ryan, have you checked out the Waitlist FAQ page linked in your decision email? It provides a lot of good information on these questions. We will have to wait and see how many people remain on the waitlist (not everyone offered a spot on the waitlist accepts it). The waitlist is not ranked. If we are able to admit additional students we reevaluate those on the waitlist at that time.
I was wondering what you meant by “a letter of sustained interest,” is there a blog post about that? Also when would be the best time to send one to our regional dean and as for updates what does that range from? I imagine it’s grade reports or awards received, but what about activities that show our passion for our chosen major? Like for example, I want to pursue the premed path to become a surgeon and have been able to shadow other surgeons during operations like benign tumor removals and an appendectomy so could I include those experiences?
@Miriam, a letter of continued interest (or email of continued interest) is just that. It lets your regional dean (and vis-a-vis your regional dean it lets the Committee know) of your interest in W&M. For example students might let us know how passionate they are about attending and what made them so passionate. Updates are generally updated grades and any significant new information since you submitted your application. There’s no need for students to feel like this needs to be another essay but they are welcome to include whatever information they feel is valuable for the Committee to know.
No hurry either. Mid-April is just fine. Take time to consider all your options.
Does W&M rank those on the waitlist?
@Patrick, see our response to @Ryan from last night. We do not rank the waitlist.
I was accepted into the dual degree program through St Andrews, but was put on the wait list for regular admission to William and Mary. I was just hoping I could get some clarification as to why this happened?
@Confused, we certainly understand your confusion. St Andrews and W&M are two schools with two different admission processes. It is certainly possible to be admitted to the joint degree programme through one of our schools but not be admitted as a Regular Decision applicant to the other. We simply have two different applicant pools and two similar but still unique processes. And these are in essence two different applications on which two decisions were rendered. As a waitlisted student you could still be admitted to W&M if we’re able to admit additional students. If not, you could certainly still opt to do the joint degree programme and be part of both W&M and St Andrews.
How do I know who my regional dean is?
Moreover, how many students do you anticipate admitting from the wait list this year? Will visiting the campus aid me or be useful? What should I state in my letter of continued interest? Can I do anything at all to make me a better candidate
@Kellianne, you can look on our Meet the Committee page (www.wm.edu/admission/committee) to find your regional dean.
As we’ve said in previous responses and in the blog, there’s no way to predict whether or not we will go to the waitlist this year, and if so, to what extent. If you wish to visit campus so you know whether or not you remain interested in W&M you are welcome to do so. However, it’s not something that we consider when deciding whether or not to admit students from the waitlist. In your letter we would just encourage you to let us know that you remain interested and why and provide us with any significant updates. We can consider that information and your original materials if we’re able to admit additional students.
Could I send another letter of recommendation/have another letter sent with my letter of continued interest?
@Kellianne Denison, assuming you sent letters of recommendation with your application there’s no need to send another. We don’t want this to feel like a time when you’re working on another college application. Just the letter from you will be great.
But would it help?
So I think I might just be a paranoid person in general for asking this but if we do email our regional a letter of continued interest in mid-April does it get added to our file? I feel as though they’ll forget the updates and reasons for wanting to attend by then since the waitlist would be activated after May if need be. Also, can a letter of continued interest help a wait listed applicant stand out if the committee selects from the pool?
@Cathy, yes it gets added to your file immediately. We promise we won’t forget. And yes, a letter of continued interest and/or updates can help a waitlisted student stand out.
How many people were waitlisted this year? And do you have a prediction as to how many people will accept a place on the waitlist?
@Love W&M, we predict about 1500 students will elect to remain on the waitlist.
@Kellianne Denison, unless this new letter had some significant new information not contained in the other letters of recommendation you originally sent it would not likely impact our review of your application should we review waitlisted students.
Going with the negative, it’s entirely possible for a freshman to apply as a transfer for sophomore year? I couldn’t find the amount of credit hours required for transfer applicants, but I’m assuming it’s around 24? Also, does the committee keep the applicant’s file from last year, if so, would we have to rewrite our essays?
@Miriam, you can absolutely apply as a transfer for sophomore year. There’s no minimum amount of credits needed but we generally recommend students take a full course load so they best prepare themselves for being a full-time student at W&M. We do keep an applicant’s file for one year but the Transfer Common Application requires a different essay so we will have your originals but you will still be required to write a new one (basically explaining why you wish to transfer to W&M so nothing too taxing hopefully).
Great! Thank you so much for answering my (and everyone else’s) questions. It’s nice to see how “human” W&M actually is compared to other places.
@Miriam, it’s the least we can do. This is a challenging process and anything we can do to make it easier we are happy to.
Hi, I was just wondering if it’s okay for a wait listed student to send their letter of continued interest/ updates in early April or actually a few days from now? W&M is still my first choice and I really want to show that. However I’m worried that by sending material so early I would be, in a sense, annoying the admissions committee because right now they are only focused on their admitted student yield.
@Cathy, you can certainly send it whenever you wish. It won’t be considered annoying at all.
How many people are you thinking about taking from this year’s waitlist? i received an email that questioned if i wanted to remain on the waitlist, is it a waste of time to get my hopes up of getting in?
@Lover of W&m, as we said in this blog, there’s no way to really know how many people we will admit from the waitlist when all is said and done. You may want to see the blog that was published just yesterday on the email you received. It may be helpful in explaining why we sent that email.