Chance Me

Admit It! You want to know whether or not you have a prayer of getting into a institution before you go spend the time, energy, and money completing an actual application.  And with so many colleges having so many different review processes and criteria, it’s hard to know whether or not you have even the slightest chance of being admitted to any one of them.  Hence the abundant “chance me” threads on College Confidential (for those of you who don’t know College Confidential is a site on which prospective students, parents, alumni, administrators, faculty, and current students can post questions, concerns, kudos and criticisms about colleges and universities and they can do so anonymously).  The “chance me” threads are where students post their stats, course record, extracurricular resume, etc and ask people to tell them whether or not they are likely to get in to the individual institution.  After having replied to what I feel like are a million of those threads I thought I’d provide everyone (whether you’re on College Confidential or not) their “chances” of being admitted to W&M.

Do you want to the good news or the bad news first.  I like ending with the good news so lets start with the bad news.  The bad news is, there’s no real way to give you your chances of being admitted to W&M.  If I had your high school transcript, SAT/ACT scores, and extracurricular resume in front of me, I could say you have a [fill in a numeric digit] percent chance of being admitted.  Our process simply doesn’t lend itself to those kinds of quantifiers.  Our process is genuinely holistic; we review every single application at least twice, from cover to cover because we know that you’re more than just a GPA or an SAT or an extracurricular activity.  We need the entire application to get a sense of who you are and what you can contribute to our campus.  And even if I had your entire application in front of me, I still couldn’t give you a statistical answer to the “chance me” question because I also need everyone else’s application in front of me to be able compare yours to the rest of our pool.

Okay, so the good news.  The fact that our process is truly holistic, and the fact that every application is read twice from cover to cover means no one is automatically in (I guess that could be viewed as bad news) and no one is automatically out.  A GPA or SAT or an essay does not automatically put your application into one decision category or the other.  Thus, everyone has a chance of being admitted.

So, the best answer I can give to those of you who want raw numbers is this: last year we admitted 32% of those students who applied.  No one should consider W&M (or any other selective school for that matter) a safety school but no one should assume they stand absolutely no chance.  We’ve not admitted students with 1600s and we’ve admitted students with 900s.  We’ve not admitted valedictorians and we have admitted students who rank outside the top 10% (don’t fear those of you with 1600s and valedictorian status, we do admit plenty of you).  Why you ask?  Because no decision hinges on one factor and in the case of those with lower SATs or GPAs, there are likely a host of other wonderful factors that mean that student can contribute meaningfully to W&M, sometimes in a way those with higher GPAs or SATs cannot.

So, the moral of the story is this: if you’re remotely interested in W&M, apply!  What does it cost you besides a little bit of time (hopefully you’re completing the Common App for other schools so W&M isn’t an entirely new application) and a $60. application fee.  You’ll never know unless you try, I mean apply.  Just go in with the right expectations.  Know that if you do get in, great.  And if you don’t, that’s okay too because there are 3,999 other colleges out there and you will get into one or two or five of them.  The point is, at least you tried and at least you then know your chances.

Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed ’09
Senior Assistant Dean of Admission

Categories: Admission, Faculty & Staff Blogs
33 Comments
  1. Sandra
  2. Admit It!
  3. Nithin
  4. Admit It!
  5. Steve
  6. Admit It!
  7. Alex
  8. Admit It!
  9. Hols
  10. June
  11. Admit It!
  12. Hopeful
  13. Admit It!
  14. Jorge
  15. Admit It!
  16. Ellen
  17. Admit It!
  18. Jorge
  19. Admit It!
  20. Janice
  21. Admit It!
  22. Alora
  23. Admit It!
  24. A Homeschool Mom
  25. Admit It!
  26. NJMom
  27. Admit It!
  28. Nikitha
  29. Admit It!
  30. =)
  31. Admit It!
  32. Julia
  33. Admit It!

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.