Decisions, Decisions — Regular Decision Edition
We Admit It! At times we felt like this day might never come. You probably felt similarly. But the day has in fact come; it’s even a few days ahead of schedule. We are releasing decisions as we speak, and all decisions should be in your inbox within the next few hours (we will post a comment when all emails have left our server). Keep in mind that we are in the process of emailing nearly 14,000 students. This will take some time on both the part of our email server and yours. Please be patient. All decisions come in the form of an email and are sent to the email address you provided in your Common Application. Decisions are emailed to the applicant only; parents do not receive a copy. The sender is College of William & Mary at undergraduateadmission@wm.edu. Decisions are sent to all Regular Decision applicants and all deferred Early Decision students. This will likely appear as a “Do Not Reply” email. We use a do not reply email address not to offend or because we don’t want to hear from our applicants, but because we need to keep this channel open to release decisions.
Decisions are emailed to all students regardless of the decision we made. Those who are admitted will receive an email entitled “Good Things.” Yes this means what you think it means. Don’t second guess it. Instead celebrate it; you’ve earned it! Other students will receive an email with the subject “William & Mary Admission Decision.” Because we do not mail anything to those who are waitlisted or denied, the entirety of your letter is replicated in your email. Those who receive the “Good Things” good news will receive that exciting thick envelope in the coming days with more information. In the meantime, there is a link provided at the bottom of your email to our admitted student website. Click, browse and enjoy.
If you applied to both W&M and the joint degree programme with St Andrews, you will receive both decisions in the same email unless you are admitted to W&M and get the “Good Things” email. If that’s the case, you will receive a second email regarding your admission decision for the joint degree programme. You will also find a copy of that decision in the letter included in your admit pack which is on its way to you by mail.
If you do not receive a decision tonight there could be a variety of reasons. Before assuming you did not receive an email, please first check your spam and junk filters as our emails can sometimes automatically land there. If you do not see an email in any folder, please call us (757-221-4223) between 8:00am and 5:00pm any day this week. We will investigate what happened and provide additional information as to how you can receive your decision. In most cases, if a decision was not received we will email you again the evening you call using a different email method and we will put a hard copy of your decision in the mail to you.
Following this blog are three additional blogs. One is specifically for those who are admitted, one for those who are waitlisted and one for those who are denied. Each provides additional information for students in that particular decision cohort. Please feel free to review and post any remaining questions as comments. You are welcome to express joy, elation, confusion, sorrow, heartache, anger or outrage. We just ask that you keep your comments appropriate and on point. We will respond to everyone as soon as we are able.
We’re delighted to bring this process to a close. We are sure you are also. Regardless of the decision we reached on your individual application, we thank you for taking this journey with us over the course of the last several months.
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.
I’m truly excited for all the new W&M freshman — congrats to all of you! Out of curiosity, is there any updated ETA on the transfer applicant decisions, now that the freshman decisions are complete?
@Shaun, there is not. We’ve just begun that process so don’t have our brains wrapped around it yet.
I just want to thank everyone on the admission staff who read my application and thank you for giving me this great opportunity to be able to join the tribe!!! i have wanted to go to this school as long as I could remember. I just spent the last 40 minutes crying of joy!!! thank you sooo much!!! hopefully I can join the tribe next year!!!
@The happiness person in the world!!!!, love the four exclamation points! So glad we could bring you such joy. Welcome to the Tribe!
Okay, all emails have left our server! Not even a campus wifi outage could stop us (thank goodness for iPhone hotspot capabilities!). Hopefully they have all landed in your in-box. We’re going to sign off for the night but we’ll be back on tomorrow should anyone need us.
I am so excited for everyone! I got my early decision acceptance a few months ago and already met a lot of wonderful people in the class of 2017! And I can’t wait to meet everyone else! 🙂 Now that we are all official Tribe members, do you have any advice for us, freshmen, that will help us start off with a good first year in W&M? 🙂
@Olivia, for now, just sit back, relax and enjoy the moment and the end of your senior year. Once the class is more settled after May 1 you’ll start to get lots of great information about your transition to campus. Of course, any admitted student is invited to Day for Admitted Students on April 13 to learn more about all we have to offer!
Just out of curiosity, were there more or less applicants (including the EDs) this year than last year? And did the admit rate change?
Thank you!
@Curious, our applications increased about 3% from last year but our incoming class size and admit rate stayed constant.
My son has been placed on the waiting list. Could you tell me how this process works. Wil he know by May 1st? How can he increase his chances? Just concerned with the schools that have accepted him. Still surprised that he was not accepted. Hispanic, 4.2 gpa, 28 act, varsity player, and 400 community hours. Help….
@Countdown, so sorry to hear that. We know you were hoping for better news. The fact that such strong students like your son are on the waitlist is proof of how competitive our pool is.
We would recommend your son review the waitlist FAQ site linked in his decision email. It provides a lot of great info on our process. He will not hear from us by May 1. We ourselves will not know where we stand until several days after May 1. If W&M is his top choice after he’s evaluated his other options, he can certainly let his regional dean know that.
Is it definitely a negative sign if by now you didn’t receive a decision – we didn’t know you posted last night. We can’t imagine that it isn’t a sure sign of denial. Thanks!
@MDmom, all decisions (admit, waitlist and deny) were sent Wednesday night. If you didn’t receive a decision it didn’t portend anything. It just means that for whatever reason, our email didn’t reach. It could certainly be bad news but it could also be good news. As we mentioned, you need to contact our office so we can try to resend the decision.
Just an update, all decisions regarding the joint degree programme were sent last night via email.
Do you try to admit kids from all areas of the country? Do kids from the west coast or other under represented areas (assuming the further away the fewer the applicants) have an advantage over kids who come from nearby states? Or are all out of staters created equal, so to speak?
@West Coaster, we certainly strive to have students from across the country and across the globe in our incoming class. So there are students who can certainly lend geographic diversity to our campus which is a plus factor for them. To say they have an advantage is overstating things however.
Two days of phone calls and an e-mail and still no response. So disappointed that no one is making an extra effort to give my son his decision, either way. He received your e-mails for application receipt and the additional financial information request. Can you imagine how he feels at this point?
@MDMom, we have no doubt this feels unbelievably frustrating and we do apologize. On an anonymous posting it’s hard to be certain but we’re aware of a case that we believe is yours. After you called initially we did attempt to resend your son’s decision email and put a hard copy in the mail as is out policy as stated above. Then, if this is your case, we understand you left a voicemail today on our main line. That message was forwarded to your son’s regional dean. She attempted to call you back this afternoon but couldn’t reach you and left a voicemail. She intends to call again first thing Monday morning. We regret that in rare cases our decision email simply doesn’t get through to the student’s email which is why we also send a hard copy as a back up. Has your son checked his spam folder? Is he over quota in his inbox? What email domain is he using? There are some domains that we have a harder time getting through to. If you are in Maryland the hard copy should arrive soon if we can’t make anything else work.
Thank you for the response. He has checked the spam folder and is not over quota – no other issues that he can imagine. We did not receive a call or message that we are aware of, so we will wait for the mail copy and appreciate your efforts to try to resend it. I guess it is just one of those things. Thank you.
@MDMom, not sure what happened. We did confer with the Maryland regional dean and she did leave a voicemail this afternoon for whomever called. Maybe the case we’re thinking of isn’t yours but it sounds like it is. Does your son use AOL, Yahoo or a school email? Those can sometimes be tougher for our emails to get to. If that’s still not the case we cannot imagine what happened. In either case, if you don’t hear from the Maryland regional dean first thing Monday morning then your’s may not be the case we’re thinking about. If that’s the case, please feel free to contact us again. If you would prefer a direct point of contact, just let us know and we’ll provide one.
That’s awesome! Sadly I searched EVERYWHERE but cannot fins my e-mail and I am freaking out! What is happening!?
@Hebi, as we mentioned you need to contact our office by phone when we’re open if you didn’t receive your decision email.
Hey admit it I was just wondering when the FA packages will start to arrive?
@slowly dying, they come by email. We’re checking on an ETA for you.
oh ok thank you! should i have gotten it by now? should I call and ask?
@slowly dying, we’re checking on all that for you
Thank you sooo much again!!!!
@slowly dying, we’re still trying to check but you are of course welcome to call Financial Aid on your own to ensure that your application is on track.
Yes thank you so much! I got an email from the FA and I had to call the IT to get into my account to see what my next steps were!!! thank you sooo much!!! your guys are the best!!! 😀
@slowly dying, great! Yes, you have to activate your account as per the instructions on the welcome website before you can see your financial aid info
I was admitted as a first year applicant. I don’t plan to slack the rest of the year, but what sort of grades must be earned to maintain admission status?
@Scott, your offer of admission is contingent upon continued standards of academic performance and personal conduct. That’s not to say an admitted student needs to maintain straight As but your grades should not indicate a significant decline.