Decisions, Decisions — 2014 Waitlist Edition
Admit It! This is not the decision you hoped for. We totally get that. We know that you had hoped for an answer, something final…and a waitlist isn’t that. Please understand that the small size of W&M is what attracts so many great students to apply. That leaves us with so many outstanding students worthy of admission and some tough decisions to make. Those students who we waitlist are very, very qualified. You are students who we’d love to have here on our campus if we just had a little more room in the entering class. You didn’t do anything wrong, or to put it another way, there’s nothing you could have done differently or better. You are competitive for admission, and if we are able to admit students from the waitlist, we will consider your application again.
So what do you do now? Well, first consider the options that you do have, and make sure you submit an enrollment deposit to one of them so you ensure yourself a space in the entering class next fall. Then consider whether or not you wish to attend W&M if given the chance. You don’t have to make that decision right away. Give yourself a few days or even a few weeks. If you do still seriously wish to be considered, then submit your waitlist response via the link in your decision email.
Waitlisted students do not need to submit any additional materials to us. However, if you wish to submit final grades when they become available, please do. Furthermore, you can submit a statement of continued interest to us (either via your regional dean or via our office in general).
After that, it’s truly a waiting game, for both you and for us. We will closely monitor our enrollment in the freshman class between now and early to mid-May. This blog will provide updates in May if there are updates to share (sometimes, as we wait, the update is that there is no update). There is no way to predict whether or not we will go to the waitlist. Linked in your decision email is a waitlist FAQ. Review it when you can; it answers most questions about this process. If we are able to admit additional students we have to then review those students on the waitlist, convene the Committee and decide who among those students is the most competitive for admission. This process takes some time. We do promise to send an update via email to all students remaining on the waitlist by mid-June.
Until then, we wish you all the best as your college search concludes.
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.
Well, now that I’ve finished sobbing hysterically on my child’s behalf, I can read this update with a clearer head. In spite of the outcome (and now a prolonged wait for something that probably won’t happen), I STILL value this blog. I might not be donating any money to the Annual Fund for a month or two, but I’ll get over it. 🙂 Thank you for all your hard work.
@Tandy S, we’re sorry for you and your daughter and recognize this decision is tougher in light of your connection to W&M. Know that there are years when we do take students off the waitlist. We don’t know yet if this will be such a year and if it is to what extent we’ll be able to admit more students but we wish your child all the best with our process and the rest of the college search.
Since she’s on the wait list and wasn’t rejected, you won’t be surprised that she is an awesome person and student and she has been accepted to wonderful schools. Now it’s just about getting excited about one of those the way she was about W&M. It’ll come. Thanks, Admit It folks!
How many people did you put on the waitlist this year?
@Waitlisted, generally about 1200-1500 students elect to remain on the waitlist for consideration.
hoping for the best!
We’ll wait list has got to be the worst. It’s like 4th place in the Olympics. Also hard to explain to your child when she knows less accomplished kids at her own school that got in. Just a parent talking but you guys really missed out on a good one and a legacy at that.
First of all, I would like to thank you for this blog. It’s very informative. I know it was not easy for the admission office to carefully deal with the applications. I thank you, W&M to find the time to stay with the blog, to give all the information. Keep up the good work!
Although, I am proud of my daughter and her accomplishments but she got waitlisted. 🙁 I am pretty sure that many waitlisted applicants to enter another college. So, the numbers of the waitlisted applicants will be decreased before mid-May. Before mid-June’s announcement, there will be review, how does it work if W&M to use the number-listed or use the drawings to get in?
@Nova Dad, we know the waitlist can feel like a non-decision or even like Purgatory or 4th place at the Olympics as you said. And we know the disappointment is magnified when families already have a W&M connection. We do know we’re missing out.
And we know that many waitlisted and denied student will have peers who are admitted, some of whom might have lower GPAs or standardized test scores. To us those students aren’t less accomplished and oftentimes the differences in GPA or SAT are negligible. Regardless though, we know our decisions don’t always make sense to those involved and all we can say is that this is a very human process; one that is part art and part science. We do our best to make thoughtful decisions. We recognize that the outcomes likely don’t feel fair but we can assure you the process used to arrive at them was.
@ProudMama, 1200-1500 students remain on the waitlist post May 1 (we do make more waitlist offers than that). We’re not sure what you mean by the number-listed or the drawings?
Thank you for the quick reply.
I mean the number-listed or drawings — if the admission office decide to take review on these waitlisted applicants’ files after mid-May, how does they (admission office) pull the “number one or number two” waitlisted applicants by Mid-June? How does that work?
Thanks for the blog; it helps. I’m disappointed for my daughter, but she’s holding up well. We’re out-of-state. What percentage of the offers went to out-of-state candidates? What percentage of kids on the waitlist are out-of-state? Does non-resident status factor in your decisions when filling in vacancies? I assume it does. Just trying to understand the odds before I give up hope. Thanks
@ProudMama, no one on the waitlist is ranked. As we said in the blog we simply review all students remaining on the waitlist, reconvene Committee and determine who is the most competitive for admission if we get to that point.
@Claire Palmer, we admit about 25-28% of the OOS students who apply to get 35% of our class to be from OOS. We don’t have a break down of in-state vs out-of-state on the waitlist. And yes, residency does factor in waitlist decisions. If our class comes in at only 33% out-of-state we will look heavily at out-of-staters on the waitlist. Likewise if we fall short in-state, we’ll look primarily at in-staters on the waitlist.
So my student was waitlisted too. And it really is the worst of both worlds. This is the second waitlist offer we received this week. I understand the need for a waitlist but the really frustrating part is that the waitlist is really so huge (and the same at the other school we are waitlisted it) that is really feels like you are just stringing these students along. I don’t understand why you are offering waitlist to probably over 2500 students. You say you will most likley have 1200-1500 people on the waitlist after May 1. I can’t imagine that you have more than 100 or 150 spots open. This really seems unfair to these kids to have their hopes still raised. I know it’s a process to you and ‘you understand’ but this is HUGE to our students. In my opinion, the schools need to be a little more fair. Schools need to have have a realistic number of students on the waitlist. Schools need to be able to give the students an idea of where they are on the waitlist. I know schools can’t give an exact number but there has to be a way to give the students some idea of where they stand.
Thankfully, my student has decided to move on with life and not wait for schools that didn’t make an admission. Because, the bottom line is that even though ‘there were so many qualified applicants’ and so on… the students on the waitlist didn’t make the top cut. So all I can say is…it’s your loss. You missed out on an exceptional student and out of state tuition. Sorry for you. We are moving on to where we are wanted.
@MOM, we understand the frustration that accompanies those on the waitlist. All we can say is that as more and more qualified students apply to more and more schools, schools have larger and larger waitlists because we don’t want to hand down a deny decision to a student who doesn’t deserve it simply to keep the waitlist number down.
Sadly, all of this is part of a larger cycle of students simply applying to more and more colleges oftentimes because colleges encourage them to apply. There’s a lot of discussion about these topics among higher education professionals but no perfect solution has arisen thus far.
And given we review over 14,000 applications twice in the span of about 3-4 months, we simply cannot rank the waitlist. Otherwise, we’d never get decisions out. There are schools that do rank waitlists as their process allows them the time to do so. Ours unfortunately does not.
Again, we appreciate your feedback and hope this response provides some insight from our side. We’re glad your student has great offers to pursue and we wish them all the best.
By the way, no hard feelings to the Admissions Staff. You guys have a tough job and do it well. I told my daughter if you have a lot of good candidates it can be someone daunting – like shopping for puppies – they’re all cute but you can only take one home.
I am an in-state student who was waitlisted but I would just like to say thank you to the people who update this blog. You guys have kept myself and other students/parents updated better than any other college admissions blog this entire school year. You guys have never replied rudely to comments and questions and always answer in a polite and nice manner! Even though I probably will not be able to attend W&M, I just wanted to say that you guys (Admit It! and W&M) have been awesome throughout this entire process! Thank you so much and good luck to the future tribe of 2018!!!
@Nova Dad, we love that analogy. With your permission, we might use it in future blogs.
@madei18, we’re so glad the blog was helpful throughout this process. We wish you all the best in this final stage of your college search.
For those OOS on the wait list, my older son did get admitted in July off the waitlist a few years ago. So it does happen! By that time though, financial aid was not available and he was pretty vested in his decision to attend another school that had given him a substantial scholarship which made it significantly more affordable. My youngest is a recruited athlete and will be a member of the class of 2018.
@Worththewait, congrats to your son and at long last welcome to the Tribe!
I got waitlisted, and I just submitted the form to remain on the waitlist, but I didn’t receive a confirmation email, just the screen that said “Thank you! Your form has been submitted.” Should I expect an email, or am I good to go? Also, what exactly is the letter of continued interest? Sorry for all the questions! Thanks for your help 🙂
@jb, correct. There is no waitlist confirmation email. You are good to go.
A letter of continued interest is just a short note to the Committee letting them know that you are sincerely interested in W&M (oftentimes people indicate that W&M is their top choice) and often includes a brief update on any accomplishments since you submitted your application.
Wow, in some ways getting on the waitlist feels worse than getting denied — I can’t shake this feeling of having tried hard, but not hard *enough* 🙁
Anyway, I was wondering: How many students are on the waitlist for the St. Andrew’s Joint Degree Program? I have a feeling my chances are slim, but I did submit the form to remain on the waitlist for it.
@StAndrewsWait, you absolutely tried hard enough. The decision is just a result of so many students doing the same.
It’s a fairly limited number of students on the St Andrews programme waitlist but of course it depends on which major you picked. The IR waitlist is the longest of the four majors.
How does the St Andrews waitlist work? Are you admitted to both at the same time? Can you be admitted to W&M and not be admitted to St Andrews? Are you only considered for St. A after there is a place for you at W&M? This may be in the FAQ, but that was only sent to students. Thanks!
@MOM, it really depends on what space we have available but generally students are offered admission to W&M only or to the Joint Degree Programme only from the waitlist. There is a possibility a student could be admitted to both from the waitlist but that’s fairly rare.
Thanks for your reply. So my student’s decision was waitlisted for both. So, if there is an opening on the Joint degree program, then my student would be offerred admission to both at that point?
@MOM, no. If the opening is in the Joint Degree Programme your student would likely be offered admission to that program but not W&M proper. Or, if there’s an opening for W&M proper but not in the Joint Degree Programme your student would be offered admission to W&M only. There’s a possibility that both would be available but that’s pretty rare.
@Admit IT! – feel free to use my puppies analogy if you don’t think it will offend anyone.
Hi guys. Quick question. If a student is admitted off of the waitlist, will they have the opportunity to take part in orientations and the like during the summer? W&M is my top choice, but I’m a little worried about the prospect of not really knowing what I’m getting into if I were to be admitted and accept. Thanks!
@Cam, our Orientation takes place the 5 days before classes begin in August so those admitted from the waitlist are included. Those admitted from the waitlist don’t miss out any anything. They sometimes need to play a little catch up in terms of filling out forms but otherwise their experience is the same as those admitted now.
I applied this year and was wait listed. W&M is my top choice so is there any chance of applying for the Spring 2015 semester? How competitive is that admission pool? Also, I’m an Out-of-State student. Is there any way I can live in Virginia for a while in order to be qualified as an In-State student?
@Jori, we do not accept freshman for the spring semester. You could only enroll elsewhere and apply as a transfer for spring 2015 but those spots are extremely limited due to our on-campus housing requirement. To become a VA resident your parents need to pay income tax to VA for one year so that’s not really an option. Do express your desire to attend to your regional dean in a letter/email of continued interest.
When do you guys usually make decisions by for waitlist? I know the reason i got waitlisted was my GPA but at the end of this year I should be in the top 10% of my class, I was wondering,would it be too late to send my final rank and GPA to you guys to be considered before you make decisions.
@ANON, that’s all explained in this blog and in the waitlist FAQs linked in your decision email. There’s no hard and fast date as to when we make decisions. We monitor everything post-May 1 and move forward accordingly. And yes, you are welcome to send us your final transcript although it may not be ready before we make waitlist decisions.
If admitted off the waitlist, how much time is a student given to decide if they want to attend W&M?
@Griffin, it depends but generally we ask you to decide as quickly as possible so we can move forward with the process. We ask for a deposit within two weeks of the date on the admission letter but if you can decide faster that’s appreciated.
My daughter was also waitlisted and was also very disappointed but we understand how difficult it is to choose between so many great kids. My questions are, do the waitlisted students still get an offer of financial aid or are they ineligible for financial aid when they are waitlisted? Will all waitlisted students find out at the same time or will there be rolling acceptances made as other students decline their admission? Lastly, I’m a single mom so it’s a hardship for me to pay a deposit to her second choice but we don’t want to miss out on a chance to attend W&M, the question is, if it were your child, would you wait? I am thankful for this blog to help provide us with some clarity 🙂
@TisaLeigh, waitlist students may get financial aid but they may not. Unfortunately, much of our aid money is spent in April to those admitted initially. However, any student admitted from the waitlist is welcome to see a financial aid package.
Generally waitlist offers are a bit rolling. We’ll make an initial wave of offers, see how those students respond and then make more offers if needed. But that varies from year to year based on how many spaces we have available.
You need to make a deposit elsewhere. We will not make any decisions before the national May 1 deposit deadline and if she doesn’t deposit elsewhere you may leave herself without any options for next fall. You can certainly see if the other school makes any deposit waivers (although that is admittedly rare). Putting a deposit down elsewhere does not make her ineligible to be admitted off of a waitlist.
Thank you for the very detailed and sensitive blog. My daughter was wait listed so we do have to weigh options. So, I read in the blog that there may or may not be financial aid for wait list students. Does that also apply to any academic awards? We have heard that every school is different, but that in general, a wait list student will not get any academic award money. As she has such great offers at another school, that may tip the scales, even though W&M was higher on her list.
Thank you for clarifying.
P.S. I’m sure you’ve seen the Tina Fey movie “Admissions” – made us all both laugh and cry about this process.
@Cindy, we have given out all of our academic/merit awards already and will not make any more offers to those admitted or those admitted from the waitlist if we go to it. There are small awards students can earn once at W&M thought.
And yes, we actually saw that movie as a staff and blogged about it!
just wondering, but are you expecting to accept a certain number of people on the waitlist, or is it still uncertain?
@atlas, that is totally uncertain. There are years where we cannot take anyone off the waitlist. In other years we’ve made numerous offers. There’s really no way to predict ahead of time.
If I was wait listed and out of state, what are my chances of getting in if I’m interested in playing a varsity sport for W&M? Does that boost my chances of getting in?
@120jenkins, your chances are the same as any other out-of-state student on the waitlist. Certainly any interest the W&M team has in you will be expressed to us should we be able to admit students from the waitlist and that will be a plus factor as we review your application.
Can we write a letter of continued interest? If so do we email it to you or mail it to you?
@Oklahoman, yes. As we mentioned in the blog you can write a letter of continued interest and you can email it or mail it. Whatever works for you works for us.
i submitted the waitlist RSVP form but i didnt get an email confirmation, and when i went back to the page it allowed me to resubmit the form. Does this mean that it didnt go through?
@econ, as we posted in an earlier comment there’s no email confirmation for the waitlist form. As long as you got the submit message it went through just fine.
thanks, please ignore two submissions of the same name!
Hello! I truly hope to still go to William and Mary and I was wondering do you guys deny people before May 1st as well as accept? Thank you so much!
@Curious, we’re not quite sure what you mean. When we sent out decisions last month, we admitted, waitlisted and denied applicants. We will not make any more decisions on freshman applicants prior to May 1. After May 1, if we can admit students from the waitlist we will make admission offers to the most competitive students on the waitlist. We will not deny anyone on the waitlist. Those not offered admission will simply remain on the waitlist until we close it.
Do WM offer in state tuition to military kids?
@LG, that depends on where your family has orders and is currently establishing residency. It’s certainly possible but not a guarantee
If I’m on the wait list, is it too late to send in an arts supplement and video for the reevaluation?
@Jori, unfortunately it is too late to send an art supplement. Our semester ends this week so our faculty aren’t available to review them. If the video is supplemental you can certainly send that along to us.
What are some benefits of sending in a letter of continued interest? Roughly how many letters are received each year?
@Awaiting, the letter can 1) provide us with any critical updates since you submitted your application and 2) convey to us the strength of your interest in W&M. There’s certainly no harm in not doing so but we also find it helps waitlisted students feel proactive about this process.
We don’t keep track of how many records we receive so there’s no way to really answer that. We’d guess it’s a relatively small number compared to the number of students on the waitlist but again, we don’t keep tabs on an exact number.
I was wondering, how many students are on the waitlist for the St. Andrew’s Programme in English? (I understand if you can’t give us exact numbers, but I’d appreciate a ballpark!)
@QuickQuestion, generally the joint degree programme waitlist is relatively small. We’d approximate that maybe 25-40 students remain on the English waitlist give or take.
@QuickQuestion
Good afternoon! I am anxiously awaiting an update on the status of the waitlist. Has anyone been accepted from this years list yet?
@Hannah Werner, admitted students have through today to accept our offer of admission. And because they can do so by mail we need to wait until next week to begin assessing whether or not we will be able to admit students from the waitlist this year. We will provide an update via the blog when we have one.
Any recent updates? I’m really nervous 🙁
@student, see our latest blog from Friday. It provides an update on the freshman waitlist.
W&M is my very first choice of schools. I’m very nervous!!! Can you please tell me how many students are on the waiting list for Computer Science or Econ?
@Danielle, we don’t admit students by or into a particular major. Students are simply on the waitlist for admission into W&M.
Have decisions been made regarding waitlisted students? We haven’t heard anything either way.
@Julie Kelly, check out our latest blog (just click on posts at the top of this page) from last Friday. It details where we are in our waitlist process.