EDII Decisions are Live!

We Admit It! We’ve done it again! Over the last few weeks, our admission office has been busy reading all about you and continuing to build the Class of 2026. As a result, our Early Decision II notifications are currently being sent out and are live on your application portals!

Below you will find all pertinent information about how decisions are released and what each decision means.

Decision Release

• Email notifications were sent this evening (January 25) to the email address provided in your application.
• Only students receive a notification; parents do not.
• Though all portal notification emails have officially been launched, it will take some time for them to leave our server and reach your inbox — so, don’t panic if the email doesn’t arrive immediately!
• To view your decision, you can log into your William & Mary portal using the log-in information you created after submitting your application.
• All applicants can view a decision in their portal regardless of decision (assuming you submitted a completed Early Decision II application).
• Students, please check your spam/junk folders in case the portal notification email landed there instead of your inbox (this does sometimes happen).
• Those who are admitted will also receive a formal decision letter in the mail in the coming days. Those who are not admitted (either defer or deny) can review their decision in the portal.
• If you submitted a completed Early Decision II application and did not receive a decision through your portal this evening, there are a number of reasons why this could have happened. Please contact us on Thursday. We will investigate what happened and report back to you.

As decisions are reviewed by Early Decision II applicants, we will be signing off until Thursday, when we will be more than happy to assist you. Please review this blog in its entirety for answers to any immediate questions. We will respond to any other questions or comments on Thursday.

And now here are the decisions themselves…

Admit

Admit It! You are jumping up and down, screaming at the top of your lungs and busting out a celebratory dance. Congratulations! You are officially a member of William & Mary’s Class of 2026! We are thrilled to welcome you into our community. Your admission letter (signed personally by Dean Tim Wolfe) is on its way and will be arriving in the coming days. In the meantime, keep doing that jig. Update your profile photos, make that celebratory Instagram post, and check out some of our specialized William & Mary stickers and GIFs – and don’t forget to use #wm2026! Join the Class of 2026 Facebook Group, wear your favorite W&M gear to school, and most importantly, be proud of yourself. You have earned this, and it is an honor to now call you one of our own. The Welcome website will provide you with further details about submitting your enrollment deposit (due on February 14) and other useful information.

Start counting down the days until move-in day next August. We can’t wait to welcome you to campus. Best wishes for a terrific rest of your senior year. Those who come here, belong here, and we’re so excited to see what you’ll bring to our campus.

*Note: If you also applied to the St Andrews William & Mary Joint Degree Programme, those decisions will not be made until the spring. We will send you another decision specific for that program when we send out Regular Decision notifications by early April.

Defer

We are sorry that we are not able to admit you to W&M at this time. You are a bright and accomplished individual, and we wish that we could admit every great student who applies to W&M, especially those committed to enrolling with us. Unfortunately, given the small size of our entering freshman class, and the competitiveness of our applicant pool, this is not the reality of our process.

As a deferred student, your application will automatically be reviewed again, in its entirety, and you will be notified of our decision during our Regular Decision review process in the spring. Over the coming weeks, please update us on any midterm/semester grades, recent accomplishments, or even a statement of your continued interest in W&M. If you elect to send us such a statement, this does not have to be anything overly elaborate. This should simply be an explanation of why you feel like William & Mary is the best fit for you. Whatever updates we receive will be filed into your application for our staff to review.

As part of this process, however, we also encourage you to look closely at other schools to which you have applied. As our applicant pool grows during Regular Decision, so too does the competition for spots in the freshman class. Explore what other schools have to offer and get excited about their fantastic opportunities. Doing so will set you up for the best possible college outcome, regardless of what your final W&M admission decision may be.

Deny

Nothing that we write here will make this decision any easier to swallow. You are likely feeling upset, sad, frustrated, confused, and perhaps a bit angry. All of these emotions are natural. You applied to William & Mary as your first choice college destination, and this decision is less than ideal. Please know that while this is a final decision for your freshman application to W&M, this is NOT a judgment on either your record of accomplishment or college potential. Many of our applicants, like you, do so many things right, and as a result we have the difficult task of making many nuanced decisions among so many terrific students. We have full confidence that another school (and likely several) will offer you admission, and that you will do great things at whichever school is lucky enough to have you as a member of their freshman class. And if W&M remains your top choice even after starting your college career elsewhere, feel free to check out our Transfer Pathways.

Thank you to all of our applicants for your patience as we have been carefully navigating our application review process. Whatever the outcome of your individual application, please know how much we appreciate you applying to William & Mary. We thank you for sharing your stories with us, and we are confident that each and every one of you is destined for great things.

Best Wishes,

Elise Breen
Admission Counselor