Decisions, Decisions — Waitlist Edition
It’s okay to Admit It. You’re disappointed. You’re frustrated. You’re confused. We totally get it. You are in fact an amazingly accomplished young man or woman who is absolutely deserving of admission to some of the nation’s best colleges and universities. We’re sorry that at this point in time, we cannot make you such an offer. Please know that each student we waitlist is highly competitive for admission. That’s why you are on the waitlist. A waitlist offer recognizes your outstanding talents and accomplishments and in no way diminishes them.
One of the great ironies for our admission process is that William & Mary’s small size is precisely what attracts a lot of great students to apply. It’s a vicious cycle really; more and more students apply from what is a very limited number of available spaces in our incoming class. As more and more students apply, we have to be more and more selective. We are not able to grow the class because then we would lose the individualized experience and close-knit community that are the hallmarks of W&M. Therefore we are compelled to make some very difficult and admittedly hair-splitting decisions between thousands of qualified candidates. Students on the waitlist are some of the most amazing high school seniors in the country. Some are valedictorians and salutatorians of their class. Others have upwards of 1500 on their SATs. Others are all-state athletes and musicians while others are student-body presidents. A waitlist offer simply means that if our class was larger, and we were able to admit additional students, you would have been among that cohort.
Know that while we do not want to peddle false hope, we don’t want you to lose it entirely. Review the waitlist FAQs linked in your decision email. There you will find a lot of great insight into our waitlist process. We recommend that you take some time to digest this decision, to review the other decisions you receive and to then make a plan. The first order of business is to make an enrollment deposit at another school so that you can ensure you have a home next fall. Then, get excited about that school. Buy its t-shirt, go to its admitted student program, invest yourself in that campus. However, if W&M still remains at the top of your list, complete the online waitlist response form also linked in your decision email within the next few weeks. Then we both wait.
Once May 1 comes and goes we will have more information. There have been years where we’ve been able to make significant additional offers of admission. There have been years we’ve made no additional offers of admission. There’s really no way to predict what this year will bring. What we do know is that we won’t know much more until mid-to-late May. We also know that you will likely have some pretty incredible offers from other institutions. Good for you; you’ve earned them.
Whatever happens, know that we believe in you, we were impressed by you and we wish you the best with the conclusion of your college search 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.
Waitlisted and devastated. Hoping against hope that I hear good news from you guys in the next few months… W&M is the only school I really wanted to go to. Ah well, I suppose I can always transfer.
@Emily, we’re sorry the news can’t be more positive. As we said, we recommend you consider the admission offers you have and get excited about whichever school you choose. No doubt it’s great and there are no guarantees with the waitlist unfortunately.
If William and Mary still remains at the top of our list, should/can we attend admitted students days, in the hopes of getting in later?
@Tory, unfortunately admitted student programs are solely for admitted students. We have limited space and must give them priority. However, if you haven’t visited before and want to visit to see if it’s worth remaining on the waitlist, you can visit for a prospective student tour.
I got wait listed tonight and this may seem weird but I am so proud of myself. I take great pride in being able to say I even got wait listed at a school like William and Mary. I chose to stay on the wait list and I read about it in the FAQ. But, when will I find out again about the wait list? Mid-June?
can we send additional information to enhance our application? Or will that not matter?
@Chris, it’s hard to say. If we’re able to make additional offers those happen on an ongoing basis. We do know that we will update all students who elect to remain on the waitlist by June 15.
@waitlistfordays, no need to send any specific additional information. If after you’ve considered all your offers and W&M remains a top choice, then just email your regional dean a statement of continued interest.
On the FAQs page is says that admittance will be determined by academic records but it also says that applicants will be re-evaluated. Does that mean we will be evaluated based on just grades or a combination of grades, ACT/SAT scores, and extracurriculars?
@Morgan Reinhardt, what we mean is that we will assess who is most competitive of those students who remain on the waitlist. We mean most competitive across the board (all the factors we took into account when making our original decisions). If we can make additional offers we’re still trying to build a class so both the academic and personal qualities play just as vital a role as they did in the initial review.
Hey all you fellow waitlisted students, how’s it going? If any of you followed my compulsive checking and rechecking of these blogs, then I hope a few words from someone in the same position as you might be helpful. I know this sucks, my heart sank about a foot when I saw the title of a certain email in my inbox. And ya, I was pretty angry at first, who wouldn’t be? William and Mary was my top choice and it seemed like my hopes were dashed on the metaphorical college rocks. But after a few minutes of moping about and pandering to the “woe is me” pessimistic side, I kinda brightened up. Which seems crazy I know. Because guess what? All of us in limbo, we have hope. Sure it might not be the best case scenario, and sure we would have all like to be celebrating right now, but there still is hope, and by golly I can make do with that little bit of hope. Now don’t take hope for granted either, our numbers aren’t exactly… optimistic. Go visit all the other, somewhat comparable, schools you have been admitted to, and heck, place down that acceptance to one of those schools. Because you and I know, come May, or June or whenever, when that hope comes to fruition, we’ll be waiting. But no matter what, keep a chin up and never, never, never give up. Sorry for the wall of text, and I sincerely wish the best of luck to each and everyone one of you, regardless of where we all end up.
@Mark, what a great post; our sentiments exactly. We couldn’t have said it better. We wish you all the best and we know you’ll end up somewhere fabulous!
I’m proud to say that I’ve been waitlisted at W&M! Although it may not have been the news I was hoping for, I’m looking forward to good news later in the waitlist process. What is the best way to contact admissions about continued interest? E-mail or phone call? I would also consider visiting the campus again to express my interest. Thank you to the admissions staff for the awesome blogging throughout this whole process, it’s been extremely helpful!
@Mark, I’m guilty of the compulsive checking and rechecking. Thanks for the inspirational words, we won’t give up!
@Molly, we recommend that once you’ve had the chance to review all of your offers, if at that point W&M remains a top choice, email your regional dean a statement of continued interest. Unfortunately, we do not meet with waitlisted students as part of that process. If you need to visit to decide whether or not W&M is a good fit then you can certainly take a tour but to communicate your interest, putting it in writing is the best that way we have a concrete record.
Well, I got my decision today and feel fortunate to know that I was at least waitlisted. I know what a great college William and Mary is. That is why I want to go to school here and also why I have worked so hard throughout my high school years to get into a college like William and Mary. I pride myself in receiving an advance diploma from my high school when so many of my friends have taken the easy road and settled for graduating with just a standard diploma. Some of them have asked me over the last 4 years why I was working so hard when they weren’t. They told me that it didn’t matter, but it does. I was born to excel and I will. My teachers remember me not only for my name, but for my will and determination to succeed. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best!
@Stonewall Hickman, what a great attitude and we appreciate your drive and perserverence. What’s equally important is that regardless of the outcome at W&M, you’ve developed habits and skills that will serve you well throughout your college years and beyond. We’re so proud and humbled to have students like you apply to W&M.
I was waitlisted as well, but after mulling it over, I have decided to decline the position and commit to W&M’s sister school UVA! Hopefully declining my spot on the list will help give someone else, whose first choice is W&M, the opportunity to attend their dream school! Best of luck to all of you, and I look forward to seeing you at football games 🙂
@Rae, congratulations on your offer from UVA. A great school for sure and we hope you have an amazing experience there.
Though I am very disappointed, I am still hopeful that I will be able to attend W&M in the fall, as it is my dream school! I am also so thankful to have had the careful consideration that the admissions team gave me! What is considered most when admitting students from the wait list? I come from a huge family of Tribe alum and they are all very anxious, hoping that my legacy will put me ahead even in the slightest. Is this a possibility?
@Hopeful, we look at all the factors we did during the general admission process. Certainly if you are a legacy (your parents attended W&M) that will come into play as will your academic and personal accomplishments.
When I read the news that I was waitlisted I felt a little disappointed, but then I realized only a small amount of applicants were probably waitlisted. So this was an achievement of its own. Even though I know I would fit perfectly in the W&M community, there could be a school that is better fit for me that I would otherwise overlook. In the end, all I know is whatever school I end up going to, whether it is W&M or another school, it will be the right choice for me. (But I’m still keeping my hopes up for W&M!)
@Jennifer, great way to look at things. We appreciate your positivity!
In the FAQs, W&M mentioned that they will reevaluate the waitlist in May. Will the in-state vs. out-of-state percentages be a factor here as well, or is it judged merely on merit?
Will there be another process to dwindle down the waitlist? For example, the students who elect to stay on the waitlist, but eventually choose to enroll at another school and commit to that school? Or should they contact admissions and ask to be withdrawn from the list?
@Taylor, we hope that students who put themselves on the waitlist but who are no longer interested will let us know but there’s no formal process to follow up with them.
@Haley, in-state vs out-of-state is a factor because we still have to bring in a class that’s 65% Virginian, 35% non-Virginian. Once we determine which cohort we need to look out, we’ll determine who’s the most competitive in that group.
Is there an equal amount of both in and out of state students on the wait list? Or is it 65%Virginian and 35% not?
If, as a military kid, my residency changes before June, should I notify W&M to increase my chances?
@Haley, it really depends on who elects to stay on the waitlist. No way to really predict that. If your residency changes do let us know but our best guess is that’s unlikely to happen in the next month or so.
I got waitlisted too and i must say i am very sad. I went to bed yesterday crying and if you know me you know i never cry but this really got to me because I know i will probably not get in. I wanted to ask if changing the major i put down on the application will increase my chances of getting in
@Nancy, so sorry to have disappointed you so much. We know this is difficult to process. We actually do not admit by major so what you indicated as a potential major did not impact the decision we made.
what hurts the most is having friends who got in and have no intentions of going but oh well I still have my hopes up. do you advice sending in extra letters of recommendations?
@nancy, we’ve heard similar sentiment in other comments. We’ve noted that while some students are disinterested at the time they submit an application they can actually be won over. We even have some tour guides who have said they had no intention of enrolling but were then won over on admitted students day for example. That’s what we hope for when we admit any student but we know it provides little solice to those not admitted.
Hi! I was just wondering if waitlisted students are required to send in final grades.
@Little T, we certainly welcome that additional information if it’s available in time (we recognize that many students may not complete classes before mid-June). And of course if any waitlisted students are admitted they would then be required to submit final grades.
On the FAQ page, it indicates that additional information can be submitted if I decide to accept the a position on the waiting list. But previous responses seem to suggest that no further information is required. I have received some honors and leadership positions that I had not received when I applied in the fall. Should I send that information in an email to my regional dean? I know it isn’t final grade information, but it may be quality information to note.
I am so glad WM wait listed me because it made my choice of attending UVA easier. Immediately after my WM email (which came at a great time because I was paying my tuition deposit that night for UVA), I could say without hesitation that my choice was UVA. It was not rushed without knowing all of my college options.
@Katie P, certainly a brief application update is welcomed as is a continued statement of interest which we’ve mentioned previously. What we discourage is additional essays, letters of recommendation, etc. as those are already part of your file.
@UVA bound, congratulations on your admission to UVA. It’s a great school and we’re sure you’ll have an excellent experience there.
i will like to send a personal letter to my regions dean of admission so can you please tell me the address i can send to? I wasn’t sure whether to send it to this (The College of William and Mary
Office of Undergraduate Admission
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795) or not.
thank you very much 🙂
@Nancy, that is the proper mailing address for our office.
Hi! I would just like to say I feel very fortunate to have been wait listed, seeing as the spots are very limited and the competition is fierce. I was wondering if you guys look at when we submit the wait list response form? Is there any benefit to completing it quickly, or can I think things over for a few days?
@Mark, thanks for the positive words and good luck to you and all my fellow waitlisters!
@Caitlin, the date you responded to the waitlist does not matter. Take a few days, a week or even a few weeks. We do hope for a response by mid-April just so we can get everything organized but students are certainly able to digest the information and reflect on it before responding.
If we want to send in more information as was indicated above, do you prefer email or a hard copy of a letter?
@Waitlisted, whatever works best for you.
For some reason or other I can’t seem to find the email of my regional dean of admission (Deborah Basket). And prior to reading this I actually already sent a letter to the contact address on my email. Is this okay?
@Cecilia, if you go to our Meet the Committee site (www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/meetthecommittee) and click on Dean Basket’s name you’ll see her name hyperlinked and that links to her email. Not sure what you’re referring to when you say “contact address” in your email.
Silly me, I was pretty sure I had found that page. Sorry for the confusion, I meant I used the contact address for the school found on the admission decision email sent to me (P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795) Thank you so much for answering all my questions and I honestly feel so privileged to be on your waitlist.
Wishing the best to my fellow waitlistee comrades!
@Cecilia, yes that’s our mailing address as long as you put Office of Undergraduate Admission. Best of luck to you.
Who is the Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont regional dean of admission? The “meet the committee” page does not list them, but I would love to email them.
@New Englander, you can email Senior Associate Dean Tim Wolfe
I am beyond impressed with the William and Mary admissions team and their responses on these blogs. My son was wait-listed but I couldn’t be more proud of my alma mater. You all certainly have a very tricky job.
@Bella, thanks so much for the kudos and we wish your son all the best. No doubt he has some fabulous options to pick from!
I was waitlisted, but I wanted to say thanks for updating this blog and answering the comments in such detail. Your encouragement and advice will always be very much appreciated!
@E, of course. Anything we can do to help.
I have searched the website for information about whether you can remain on the waitlist and also seek deferral for a year to take a gap year. I don’t see any guidance. Thank you for your assistance.
@Leslie Conover, deferring is unfortunately not an option for those admitted off of the waitlist.
I have been placed on the waitlist and am hungering for more information about it (and thus my chances). Is there any way you can reveal some statistics about the Early Decision admitted students, Regular Decision admitted students, and students placed on the waitlist? What are the sizes, percents of students from in-state, and gender breakdowns in each group? Thank you for your assistance!
@Becca, we don’t break down our individual cohorts to the degree you’re asking about. Of course we can provide information on the breakdown for our overall entering freshman class (that data would currently refer to the current freshmen on campus) if you wish. What’s important to know is that if we are able to go to the waitlist, we do determine where our class came in short (meaning did we not reach 35% out-of-state for example) and we will go to the waitlist for that particular cohort. In-state, out-of-state is the main factor we look at when reviewing the waitlist although of course all aspects of our class come into play also.
I just wanted to let all those waitlisted know that there are others in the same boat, and that we are still all awesome. William & Mary is a fantastic school and to be waitlisted is something to be proud of whether you aced your SATs or didn’t do so well. Everyone I know at W&M, including my brother, absolutely loves it. And let me be the first to admit I am secretly happy when a friend chooses to decline W&M’s offer of admission, because that means better chances for all of us! I’m sure we will all do extremely well wherever we end up.
I also wanted to thank the Admissions team for devoting their time to reading our applications and keeping us informed through this blog. You all have done a fantastic job.
I was wondering though, if there would be any situation where you would notify people on the waitlist of admission before May 1?
@Rachel Weaver, way to stay positive and send out encouraging vibes to the online universe. To answer your question, we cannot think of any situation in which we would be able to notify anyone on the waitlist prior to May 1. We need even several days after May 1 to get a sense of where the class landed and we need that info to know whether or not we can make any movement with the waitlist.
Is there any way you could release the number of students who you offered a waitlist position to, and the number that chose to keep their name on the list? Thanks!
@Brooke, not sure we’ve tallied those figures as of yet for this year. And honestly, from year to year, the number of students who elect to remain on the waitlist varies widely. Anywhere in the neighborhood of 1000 to 1500 students give or take.
@Brooke, apologies. We do have figures on the number waitlisted this year. We waitlisted just over 20% of our pool this year.
If one has already committed to another school, but is then admitted off the wait list, what happens? Do you lose your housing deposit or are you able to transfer in the next semester? I guess I’m just curious as to how that process takes place…
@Liz, if you’re admitted off the W&M waitlist, you will be admitted for the fall semester only. We don’t accept first-semester freshmen in the spring semester. If you decide to come, you can do so assuming you weren’t admitted Early Decision elsewhere. You’d simply forfeit the enrollment deposit you gave to the other school.
I signed up for the waitlist, but wanted to make sure I am on it, is there supposed to be any sort of confirmation email? Is there anyway I would find out about my admission status before June 1st? Thanks(:
@Lauren, we don’t have a confirmation email for that but you are welcome to call us or email us to confirm. We cannot guarantee that anyone on the waitlist will hear from us prior to June 1. All we can promise is that everyone on the waitlist will get an email update from us by June 15.
What kind of things should we say to our regional dean in our statement of continued interest?
@Clarisse, you would just provide any substantive updates to your application file and you can express your interest in attending W&M should you have the opportunity to be admitted off the waitlist.
I’m from the Massachusetts area, so to whom do I send my letter of continued interest? Also, is it acceptable to send additional letters of recommendation?
@Lena, you can just send your statement of continued interest to admission@wm.edu and it will be forwarded to the committee. No need to send any new recommendations. We already have those as part of your application file.
After reading @Liz(‘s) reply post, I am a little confused about the sentence “if you’re admitted off the W&M waitlist, you will be admitted for the fall semester only. We don’t accept first-semester freshmen in the spring semester.” Does this mean if somebody is accepted off the waitlist they have only been accepted only for the Fall semester? Or does this mean something more like if somebody goes to another school they cannot apply as a transfer student to W&M during the spring semester of their freshman year?
Also, my other question. Are we as waitlisters (this is a word right lol) competing against transfer students who have been waitlisted (another, is this even a word?)?
Thank you guys so much for doing so much and answering everybody’s questions! As a fellow waitlister, I wish everybody on the waitlist Viel Glück!!!
@The German Kid, we meant that if admitted to W&M (regardless if it’s off the waitlist or not), new freshmen (meaning students with no college credit post high school graduation) can only enter in the fall. If you go to another college first you can apply to transfer for spring semester freshman year but you cannot begin college during the spring semester at W&M.
We maintain a separate waitlist for transfer students. We fill the freshman class (if necessary) from the freshman waitlist only.
Hope this helps to clear things up.
Yes! Thank you so much for your speedy response! It means a lot! 😀
@The German Kid, of course. And for the record, we think waitlisters should be a word. Our guess is the OED isn’t likely to agree.
I guess I’m a little anxious (who wouldn’t be?!) and I was wondering if there was some sort of confirmation that I completed the waitlist response form. I remember filling it out and my mom does, too, so I may just be getting nervous, but I just want to make sure. Thanks in advance!
@gwenyclip, when you completed the waitlist response online you would have gotten a confirmation screen but no email or follow up. If you wish to contact our office we can confirm via phone or email that we in fact received your response.
Has the number of students who are enrolling been determined yet?
@Ray, our blog from late last week provided a waitlist update (which was really no update at that time). We hope to post another blog today with another waitlist update so stay tuned.
Can you please provide some sort of vague numerical range or estimation of how many spots in the Class of 2017 are left and how many people so far have been offered admission off the waitlist? Just getting a rough idea would help a lot to gain some perspective! Thank you!
@Becca, have you checked out our latest blog? It provides a lot more detail on our waitlist process and explains how the numbers are always a moving target. That’s why your question is so hard to answer. As we’ve said, we are able to make a few additional spots available to students on the waitlist. We are working as efficiently as possible to make the necessary offers and to move forward once we get the responses from those individuals.
Yes I have, thank you! I understand that these numbers are hard to calculate, that’s why I am not looking for a specific answer. If it is possible, I would be grateful for any new numerical information, just a vague range about how many spots you are looking to fill and how many offers have been made so far, for example between 0-20 or 0-100, would help give me an idea.
@Becca, there’s really no way to do that because the numbers are always so much in flux. As we’ve said, it’s more than a small handful but it’s not hundreds but any stretch. And again, the numbers change every day so whatever figures we know today could easily change tomorrow. Sorry there really aren’t any specifics or an easy way to answer your question.
I just wanted to thank the Admit It! staff for taking the time to keep all of us updated. It’s hard to get waitlisted by your dream school, especially when it is the perfect for you. I make sure I have my phone with me 24/7, I’m always praying for a call! This blog makes my days a little brighter to know that others are in the same position and I’m not alone. Thank you for always keeping us informed and good luck to everybody on the waitlist!
@Kendall, we’re happy to help. All of our latest blogs continue to provide the latest information we have about our process.