Decisions, Decisions – Fall 2016 Transfer Edition

Admit It! You have been anxiously waiting for this moment since you clicked submit on your application. We Admit It! The moment is finally here. Transfer decisions are officially on their way to your inbox. Please review this entire blog post for pertinent information regarding admission decisions. Should you have any questions or concerns we encourage you to post a comment below or follow up with our office. 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 learning more about you.

Decision Release: What You Need to Know

• All students who applied as fall transfer applicants, and 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. As a result, we cannot predict when your server will actually receive and download the email we sent. Please be patient as we are sending hundreds of individual emails to our applicants.
• The sender of the email will be “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 or denied will only receive an email.

If You Do Not Receive a Decision Email

• DO NOT PANIC. We repeat, 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 that 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 that their application was incomplete. This email detailed which items are outstanding.
  • 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 and/or 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 you cannot receive our email.

And now for the decisions themselves…

Admit (aka Good News)

Congratulations! Welcome to the Tribe! We are thrilled to welcome you to the William & Mary community. Your stories, your perspectives and your experiences will greatly enrich our campus.  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. This 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 want or need any further information in order 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 understand that you were hoping to see Good News in your inbox. 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 terrific candidates on the waitlist. Like you, we will now wait and see what happens with those to whom we have offered admission. If in 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 accept a spot on the waitlist (through the link provided in your decision email), as well as submit an updated final transcript to us once the semester ends. Additionally, if you wish to send our Director of Transfer Admission Whitney Link (whitney@wm.edu) 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 all the best as you continue your college education. We have no doubt that you are going to have a tremendous collegiate career.

Deny

There’s little we can say that will make this decision feel any better. We know it’s not what you were hoping for, and we are truly sorry that we couldn’t offer you better news. Transfer admission, just like freshman admission, is very selective. We are faced with hundreds of great applications for a fairly limited number of spots. As a result, we 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, possibly even your third or fourth, go around with the college application process (and let’s face it, applying to colleges is not 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 all of your future endeavors.

Again, a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of our transfer applicants. We are so very impressed by each of you, and wish you all a tremendous rest of your college career.

Brad Harlan
Assistant Dean of Admission