Decisions, Decisions — Fall 2014 Transfer Edition

We Admit It!  Transfers, your time has come.  Decision emails are being sent at this very moment.  The long wait is finally over.  Below is all of the information you need to know regarding how we release decisions.  Following that is information on each of the three decisions we make.  We ask that you read your decision email and this blog carefully to address any questions you might have.  Once this blog is posted we will be signing off as we complete the decision release process so we will not respond immediately to any comments.  We will respond either late this evening or tomorrow.

How Decisions Are Released

  • All students who applied as fall transfer applicants who had a completed application will receive their decision via email, regardless of decision.
  • Emails are sent to the email address you provided in your Common Application.
  • We are in the process of queuing up and sending hundreds of individual emails.  This can take some time.  We cannot predict exactly when your email will land in your inbox.  Please be patient as this process plays out.
  • The sender of the email will be “College of William & Mary.”
  • The subject will be “Good News” Or “William & Mary Admission Decision.”
  • Those admitted will also receive an admission package in the mail.  Those who are waitlisted and denied will only receive an email.

What to Do if You Do Not Receive a Decision

  • DO NOT PANIC.  Not receiving an email does not imply anything about your decision.
  • Please first check your spam and junk folders as some email clients may send our emails there.
  • Contact our office during business hours via phone (757-221-4223) or email (admission@wm.edu).  We will investigate further.  We will follow up with you if there’s a reason we did not release a decision (maybe your application remains incomplete) or we will try to resend the email using a different email tool.  All emails we resend get sent after 5:00pm each weekday evening.  We will also send a hard copy of your decision via mail in case for whatever reason you cannot receive our email.

Admits
Congratulations, and welcome to the Tribe!  We know your stories, accomplishments and talents will add enormously to the classes of 2016 and 2017.  You come from all walks of life, and you have accomplished a great deal in your college career thus far.  We know you will impact the rich fabric of the existing W&M community, and we hope you decide to continue that journey at W&M.  The link provided in your decision email will take you to a welcome website designed specifically for transfers.  The site provides information on our Day for Admitted Transfers program (good times in Williamsburg next weekend), transfer blogs and a timeline of what comes next.

So give yourself a pat on the back, or a round of applause, or both.  Register for our Day for Admitted Transfer Students and consider joining us on campus in the fall.  Again, congratulations from all of us in the Admission Office.  When it comes to transfers, we believe it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.  We hope you decide to finish at W&M.

Waitlist
While a waitlist offer is a positive decision, we understand how it doesn’t often feel that way.  We know that you had hoped for good news and this news is neither good nor bad; it’s often likened to admission purgatory.  The waiting isn’t truly over and we understand that you might feel frustrated.  That being said, a waitlist offer is recognition of the strong record you compiled in your application.  While we are not as selective for transfer admission as we are for freshmen, we are still selective and can admit only a relatively small cohort of those who apply.  Like you, most transfer applicants compile a strong application that’s competitive for admission which compels us to make some very difficult decisions among many qualified students.

Should you decide to remain on the waitlist, complete the response form linked in your decision email.  Then, there’s unfortunately nothing to do but wait.  For us, the transfer waitlist process plays out in late May and early June.  Should space remain available, we will reconvene the Committee and decide who is the most competitive for admission.  Waitlisted students are encouraged to send us an updated transcript once final grades are available.  You can also send us a statement of continued interest should you wish to do so.

Whether you choose to remain on the waitlist or not, whether you’re eventually admitted to W&M or not, whether your journey ends at W&M or elsewhere, we thank you again for applying and wish you all the best as this process concludes.

Deny
We want to start by saying that we never take pleasure in denying any student admission to W&M.  We know that it brings frustration and sometimes heartache to hopeful applicants.  It’s an unfortunate byproduct of our selective admission process that we regret.  This decision is not a judgment on your abilities or accomplishments.  It’s merely a reflection of a very competitive applicant pool where most students meet or exceed the criteria upon which we evaluate applications.

If W&M remains your ultimate goal, it is possible to reapply once you have additional coursework and grades to show us, and to receive that “Good News” you had been hoping for.  But, we also recognize having been through this college application process at least twice now (if not more times than that) you may simply want to move on.  Let’s face it; most people don’t enjoy going through this process once nevertheless several times.  We do hope, and firmly believe, that you have other great options from which to choose and that those universities have rightfully recognized your potential.  Our loss is their gain.  We know that these other colleges and universities have so much to offer you and you to them.  We wish you the best of luck.

To all of our transfer applicants we thank you again for your interest in W&M, for sharing your stories with us and for accompanying us on this application journey.  We Admit It!, we’re glad to have this application cycle come to a close, and we look forward to welcoming our new freshmen and transfer students to campus this fall.

Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Associate Dean of Admission

Categories: Admission, Faculty & Staff Blogs Tags: , , , , ,
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