Decisions, Decisions — Fall 2015 Transfer Edition
Admit It! You have been anxiously awaiting this moment since you clicked submit. And now, we Admit It! The time has come. Transfer decisions are on their way to your inbox. Please review all of the information below regarding the logistics of the decision release and additional information regarding each of the decisions we made (admit, waitlist or deny). Should you have any questions we encourage you to post a comment in the blog or to follow up with our office in the morning. Thank you to all of our applicants for the time and effort you put into your application, and the trust you put in us by submitting it to William & Mary. We have very much enjoyed reviewing your applications.
Decision Release: What You Need to Know
- All students who applied as fall transfer applicants who have 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.
- There are a lot of variables in releasing decisions most of which are beyond our control. When exactly your server will receive and download the email we sent cannot be predicted. Please be patient as we are sending hundreds of individual emails to our applicants.
- 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.
For Those Who Do Not Receive a Decision Email
- DO NOT PANIC. Not receiving an email does not imply anything about your decision.
- The most likely cause of not receiving a decision email is that your application is currently incomplete. If you have not previously received an email from us letting you know your application is complete then your application remains incomplete. Therefore it has not been reviewed and no decision has been made.
- Those whose applications are incomplete were emailed in early April to let them know their application was incomplete and which items are outstanding.
- The most likely cause of not receiving a decision email is that your application is currently incomplete. If you have not previously received an email from us letting you know your application is complete then your application remains incomplete. Therefore it has not been reviewed and no decision has been made.
- If your application was complete, please first check your spam and junk folders as some email clients may send our emails there.
- If your application was complete, and you’ve checked your spam/junk folders and still do not see a decision email, 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 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.
And now for the decisions themselves…
Admit (aka Good News)
Congratulations! Welcome to the Tribe! We are thrilled to have you join the classes of 2017 and 2018. Your stories, your perspectives and your experiences will greatly enrich our community. You have worked hard to get to this point and we are humbled by what you have accomplished. A more formal package is on its way to you in the mail, but in the meantime, pat yourself on the back, give someone a high five, do a happy dance… in other words celebrate. You’ve earned it. As you wait for the mail to arrive, the website linked in your decision email will take you to our admitted transfer student site. That site contains a lot of great information for newly admitted students (in addition to PDF copies of what was sent by mail).
May 15 is our deposit deadline for transfer students so you have about three weeks to make your decision. Our admitted transfer student site is a great resource. We in the Admission Office are also happy to be of help should you need further information on which to make your decision. We certainly hope you will decide to join us on campus in August. Again, congratulations, and welcome to the Tribe.
Waitlist
We absolutely understand that you were hoping to see good news in your inbox. While a waitlist decision is certainly not the same as an admission offer, it is in our minds, a positive decision. Unfortunately, just like with our freshman pool, we have many more qualified students apply to transfer to W&M than we have spaces to make available. As a result, we have to put really great candidates on the waitlist. Like you, we will now wait and see what happens with those to whom we have offered admission. If come late May or early June, we still have remaining spaces available for transfer students, we will reconvene our Committee and make decisions regarding those on the waitlist. All transfer students remaining on the waitlist will get an email update from us by June 15.
So what can you do besides wait? Unfortunately, waiting is a large part of it; there is simply no way for us to predict whether or not we will be able to admit additional students. But once our deposit deadline passes, and we are able to assess where our transfer class stands, we will know more. In the meantime, you are encouraged to first, accept a spot on the waitlist through the link provided in your decision email and second, submit an updated final transcript to us once the semester ends. Additionally, if you wish to send Dean Whitney Link (our Director of Transfer Admission) a short statement of continued interest you are welcome to do so.
Wherever your transfer journey concludes, be that at W&M or elsewhere, we very much appreciate you applying to W&M and wish you well as you continue your college education.
Deny
We recognize there’s little that we can say that will help to make this decision feel any better. We know it’s not what you were hoping for, and we are truly sorry the outcome cannot be different. While applying for transfer admission is not as selective as our freshman admission process is, it is still very selective. We are faced with hundreds of great applications for a fairly limited number of spots. As a result, we do have to turn down accomplished students such as yourself. This decision is not a judgment on your abilities or your character, it is simply a reflection of a competitive pool.
If W&M is your ultimate goal, there is the opportunity to reapply once you’ve pursued additional coursework and have additional grades to show the Admission Committee. However, it’s also absolutely fair to recognize that this is now your second if not third or fourth go around with the college application process (and let’s face it, applying to colleges is not likely anyone’s favorite pastime). You may determine what’s best for you right now is to accept an admission offer from another institution and to complete your degree. That is understandable and fair.
Whatever decision you make for your next educational step, we know you will have a great experience, and we wish you all the best with that and all future endeavors.
Again, a huge shout out and thank you to all of our transfer applicants for going through this process with us. We are so very impressed by each of you and wish each of you a successful outcome to this process.
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.
Are there any statistics for how many people are offered weight list status? I’ve accepted my spot already, but was wondering what the chances are going forward. I do realize you can’t really guess at how many because it changes every year, but any information would be helpful. Thanks!
@Nick, you’re right. There’s no way to guess how many students will elect to remain on the waitlist. A rough estimate might be say 100-ish students give or take. Maybe a bit more.
Just a little note to say thank you so much for the time and effort you have put into these decisions! Although I have been put on the waitlist I plan to work my hardest through finals and prove my determination for acceptance.
@Anxiously optimistic, we appreciate the continued interest and the great attitude. We will certainly give all applications on the waitlist a close look if we’re able to admit additional students.
Additionally, how should we go about getting a letter to Dean Whitney Link?
@Anxiously optimistic, you can simply email it to her. No big rush. Really any time prior to May 15 is fine.
Does it sometimes take time for W&M to send out all the decision emails? Eagerly awaiting a decision. A few weeks back the admissions office confirmed that my file was complete. Many thanks.
@Waiting For Email, all of our decisions were sent around 6:00pm so they should be in your inbox by now. Are you sure we confirmed your application was complete or just that we had received it? Are you checking the email address provided in your Common Application? Have you checked your spam and junk folder? If you’ve done all that and your application was complete and you don’t find an email, follow up with us in the morning so we can investigate and resend your decision if we sent one tonight.
The communication I received from the Admissions Office was that my application file was complete and under review (I had emailed the Office to inquiry and they responded on April). Have checked all spam, junk and trash folders of the Common App email and nothing is there. Sounds like it is wait until morning.
@Waiting For Email, yes, please follow up with us in the morning. We will then have a chance to determine what happened and go from there.
Will do — thanks!
Me again! (sorry to be annoying) But, I was wondering if there was anything at all that those of us in “limbo” could do (besides the LOCI and having competitive final grades) to increase our chances of getting admitted?!
@Anxiously Optimistic, there’s really nothing else but to wait and see unfortunately. The process now just needs to play itself out. Once it does and we’ve heard from those we offered admission to, we will know whether we can admit students from the waitlist.
Hi,
Would you be willing to provide some waitlist statistics? How many applicants were waitlisted last year? What percentage of those student were offered admission? How many of us are waitlisted this year?
Sorry to assault you with questions! Any information you coul provide will hopefully ease some of my anxiety. June can’t come fast enough!
@Nicholas, it’s not super helpful with a waitlist to compare one year to the next. It’s possible to make a good number of admission offers to those on the waitlist one year and make none the following year. There’s truly no predicting waitlist behavior. Last year we were able to admit students from the transfer waitlist. As we said earlier there will likely be about 100-ish students who remain on the waitlist. Maybe a few more. Whether or not we’ll be able to offer admission to any of those students remains to be seen.
What can be sent to help a waitlist case? I just got final grades and made the Deans list, so Im going to send that update. Can I also submit another letter (one of my professors offered after I told him I was transferring) or is this considered redundant?
@Nick, all that really needs to be done is what we mentioned in the blog. Send updates like final grades (which you did), and if you choose, send Dean Link a statement/letter of continued interest. Assuming you sent recommendations with your original application materials there’s no need to request additional letters. Then it is really just a waiting game.
So, what should a letter of interest look like?
@Nick, it’s just a short note (it can be an email) just letting us know you still remain very interested in W&M. You can include any additional updates if there are any.
Hi,
How are students who applied to the co-enrollment program between William and Mary and Thomas Nelson Community College notified of their admission status? I did not receive any admission decision yet. Is the process different from Transfer Students? If the process is different, then how and when do I get notified of my admission status?
Thank you
@Asan, have you completed the co-enrollment program and applied to start full-time at W&M or are you applying to start the co-enrollment program?
Hi,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I am applying to start the co-enrollment program.
Thank you
@Asan, you actually apply through TNCC and get your decision from TNCC, not W&M.
Does it mean that getting accepted into the program is not a guarantee I will transfer to W &M? Also, if i graduate from TNCC through the program, does it mean i would have to apply to W&M again as a transfer student before I continue at W&M?
Thank you.
@Asan, if you are admitted into the program and complete all of the terms of it you will be guaranteed admission to W&M. And co-enrolled students have a very short, unique application they complete in their last semester at TNCC to officially apply to W&M.
Thank you so much for the information and more importantly, thank you for your time.
I am just now deciding that W&M is the place for em to transfer. Do I have any chance at all or should I try for January admission as a transfer. I have 38 hours in my freshman year completed.
@Dean, are you asking if you can still apply for fall enrollment? If so, the answer is unfortunately no. The next available enrollment date for transfers is January 2016. The application deadline for January enrollment is November 1. The new Transfer Common Application for 2015-2016 should be available on August 1.
If our final grades didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped should we extinguish all hope of getting in off the waitlist? I’m beginning to get back some of my final grades and I’m devastated because I know they aren’t good enough for William and Mary. I think i spread myself too thin this semester.
@Nervous, final grades are helpful should we be able to go to the waitlist. You are welcome to provide an explanation and send that along with an updated transcript and we will take that information into consideration.
Hi Ms.Livingston,
This blog is awesome! I was wondering if any conformation will be sent to students in regards to receiving the final transcripts? Also, if a date had to be selected, when would the waitlisted students begin hearing back on the final decision? Thank you for your time.
-Maedot O.
@Maedot, no, we do not confirm receipt of final transcripts. You can certainly follow up with us to confirm we’ve received it if you wish. The deadline for admitted transfers to submit a deposit is today so we’re not yet able to make any decisions about the transfer waitlist. When we do we’ll be sure to post an update.