We’re Gonna Need a Montage

Wouldn’t it be great if montages were a real thing? Take Rocky II, for example. To prepare for his fight against Apollo Creed, Rocky Balboa has a long and grueling training schedule in front of him. Rather than having to actually go through the weeks and months that this training entails, in classic movie fashion, he is able to fit everything in the span of 6 minutes of film time with epic music playing in the background. One-handed push-ups. Dramatically lifting weights. Carrying a log while hopping around. Aggressively jump roping. Even hitting metal with a sledge-hammer and catching chickens.

As a result of this training (SPOILER ALERT), Rocky goes on to defeat Apollo in an epic 15 round fight, adding to the legend of one of the most popular movie franchises ever put on the big screen.

Much like Rocky’s classic training montage, the past few months have seemed like a blur around our office (though, unlike Rocky, we’re glad that we actually got to live out the past several months, rather than having to resort to a montage – the fall is one of the most exciting times of year in our profession). What exactly have we been up to since our last post on August 18? Hitting metal with sledge hammers and catching chickens, of course!

But seriously, we’ve been hard at work recruiting the future members of William & Mary’s Class of 2022. August, September and October were spent on the road, visiting states across the country (California, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, to name a few) in order to attend college fairs and speak with students at their respective high schools. We also welcomed many families to campus as part of our fall visit programs – we’d love to host you in the spring anytime!

November and early December were spent here in Williamsburg reviewing our many talented Early Decision and Spring Transfer applicants. As always, each and every application was read at least twice by two different members of our admission committee. Many applications were then seen in our committee room, where our entire staff convened to discuss each individual applicant and their potential contributions to the Tribe. This is always such a humbling process, as we have the privilege of learning more about so many charismatic and passionate young adults. Any Admissions Counselor will tell you that this is one of the most rewarding parts of our job: building the freshman class one student at a time.

Now that we’re in early December, we are able to provide our Early Decision and Spring Transfer applicants with a more definitive update. Our committee meetings have officially concluded, meaning that we are in the process of finalizing all of our admission decisions. What does this mean? It means that we will be releasing decisions to all of our Early Decision and Spring Transfer applicants in the near future. You can expect to hear from us by the end of this week. We will post another post to this blog once decisions have officially been launched.

I’ve ended previous posts in a similar fashion, but want to echo these same sentiments again: thank you to all of our applicants for trusting us with your stories. You continuously inspire us, and whether your college destination ends up being William & Mary or elsewhere, we are excited to see what your future holds in store.

You’ll be hearing from us again soon. Hang in there!

Brad Harlan
Senior Assistant Dean of Admission