Mid-May Freshman Waitlist Update
We Admit It! It’s been a very sentimental few days here in Williamsburg. Graduation was this past weekend, meaning we had to say goodbye to our talented and wonderful graduating seniors. While we’re always sad to see these members of our community go, we’re just as excited to see all of the terrific things that they will accomplish moving forward.
Now that the 2016-2017 school year has officially come to a close, those of us in the Admission Office are hard at work completing our entering Class of 2021. This final phase of the college admission cycle is, as many of you know, the waitlist review process. We understand that waitlisted students reading this post are anxious to know whether or not they have a chance of being admitted to W&M. In the hopes of alleviating some of this tension, we want to provide you with a few updates regarding this year’s process.
To begin this post, we want to emphasize how waitlist review is a day-to-day and week-to-week process. Over the course of this summer, students’ plans will change, and other colleges and universities will activate their own waitlists. As these things take place, the composition of our freshman class will also change. Our office is prepared to take such changes in stride, however this means that, like you, we need to flexible and patient over the coming weeks. While we are able to provide you with some updates below, we do not yet have all of the answers that you likely are seeking.
So what do we know? We know that we will indeed have the opportunity to welcome a select group of students from our waitlist to the Class of 2021. We have already begun making a small number of acceptance offers over the past week.
What can you do to be considered for admission? These same action items were included in our original Waitlist Decisions post, but they are included again below:
- If you are interested in remaining on our waitlist, you should have already submitted the initial waitlist response form linked in your decision email, as well as the follow-up waitlist response form sent via email on May 5. These forms help us navigate the waitlist review process as efficiently, carefully and thoughtfully as possible.
- If we did not receive these waitlist response forms, we take this as a sign that you have decided to attend another school. Should this be the case, we of course wish you nothing but the best.
- All interested waitlisted students are welcome to send our office a few paragraph statement/email/letter of continued interest that explains why you envision yourself as a member of the W&M community. Such statements can be sent to our general Admission Office email address (admission@wm.edu) and/or directly to your regional dean.
- Interested waitlisted students are also welcome to send our office any recent awards and accomplishments that were not included with their original applications.
Over the coming weeks, our committee will continue to determine if, when, and to what extent we’ll be able to use our waitlist. While doing so, we will review all recently submitted information (statements of continued interest, recent updates, etc.) in conjunction with a student’s original application materials.
Should you be selected for admission, our office (typically your regional dean) will reach out to you directly. This will likely first be a phone call, and if we are not able to reach you, we will both leave a voicemail and follow-up with you via email.
If offered admission, you then have the opportunity to let us know if you would like to move forward, or if you have already finalized your decision to attend elsewhere. If the latter is true, we will simply arrange for your application to be withdrawn. If the former is true, we will send you an official acceptance offer via email, after which our Financial Aid Office will also reach out to you (if you submitted your FAFSA and CSS Profile). Once you have your admission offer and financial aid information in hand, you will be given roughly two weeks to decide whether or not you would like to accept this admission offer, and officially join W&M’s freshman class.
Should you reach this point in the process, and decide to accept an admission offer from our waitlist, you will have the exact same access to housing, roommate selection, and other action items as students admitted in March.
All students who have remained on our waitlist will receive an update from our office via email by mid-June.
To re-iterate, this waitlist process is not an exact science. The size of our incoming class will likely fluctuate in size these next few weeks. There’s a chance that we will receive “YES” responses from the small group of waitlisted students we have initially extended admission offers to, and then be all set for next fall. There’s also a chance that we will see a wave of withdrawals over the next few weeks, in which case we will be able to extend additional admission offers. At this point, we simply don’t know how things will play out. We will be as transparent as possible over this next stretch, and appreciate your ongoing patience.
No matter what happens moving forward, rest assured that next fall you will be on a terrific college campus, and have a world of opportunity at your fingertips.
Hang in there, and have a great rest of your senior year.
Brad Harlan
Assistant 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.
Hello! Thanks so much for your update! Has the first wave of contacting waitlist students been done?
@Anonymous, yes, we have made an initial wave of admission offers. This being said, we are re-assessing the status of our freshman class on a daily basis, and will continue to extend admission offers if/when it is determined that we are able to do so.
Has the first wave of offers extended admission to enough students to encompass all currently available spots within the incoming class?
@Anonymous, yes, when extending admission offers it is because we have determined that we have a certain number of available spots within our freshman class. Keep in mind that, as mentioned above, the size of our entering class can change on a daily basis, and we will continue making admission offers if/when such changes take place.
If I were to try to transfer to W&M after my first semester of college after being waitlisted this year, what do you suggest I do to improve my application? Would my first semester college grades be enough to add to my app? Perhaps I should retake the SAT as well?
@Brooke, should you reach that juncture, and decide next year that you want to transfer to W&M from another institution, your college grades would be one of the most important factors that we look at. We would encourage you to focus your attention on your college performance, rather than worrying about re-taking the SAT. In general, we find that students who were waitlisted to W&M as high school seniors, and who then go on to perform well in college, are quite competitive in our transfer application process.
Dear admission officer,
I am an one-year-old girl from China. My name is Wang Ruoyang, this letter is being written by my father. My brother, Wang Dongyang is on the waitlist of WM. He is a good boy and we have a warm family.
I really wish he could be admitted by WM! Our family love WM which in unlike any other university in America!
I will study English as early as possible and apply for WM in 2034!
Thank you very very very very very very very very very very very much!
I would come back to see these words 17 years later if they were kept here.
Best wishes,
Wang Ruoyang, May 25,2017
Luoyang (which had been the Capital of ancient China for 1500 years and is as famous as Williamsburg),Henan Province,China
Why our family love WM?
Firstly, her history. When we stand on the land of Williamsburg,we will feel the air of 300 years ago which sense few colleges can give.
Secondly,her size. We like a liberal arts education,WM can give. We like the resouces of a big university, WM can give. It is best when liberal arts education meets a smaller university.
Thirdly,her quality. Not only several presidents of the USA,but also many great alumni graduate from here.To change the world needs to change ourselves at campus of a great college like WM.
Being on the waitlist is uneasy,but we will be patient for several weeks.
Good luck to Wang Dongyang ,good luck to other students!
What an absolutely lovely couple of posts! @Wang Ruoyang, we appreciate your brother’s ongoing patience, and are confident that no matter where he ends up next fall, he is going to have a terrific college career. We look forward to reviewing your application in 2034! @WYF, thank you for so sincerely expressing your passion for William & Mary. Like we told @Wang Ruoyang, we appreciate your patience, and your very thoughtful comment.
If you do get enough yes acceptances from wait listed students whom you’ve offered an admissions spot to, will you still wait until June 15th to let the other wait listed students know, or would you let the other wait listed students know earlier than June 15th?
@Anonymous, we will provide our waitlisted students with an update as soon as we are able, but definitely by mid-June. Hang in there!
Have you already extended decisions to as many waitlisted students as possible and are waiting to hear from them before possibly reviewing the waitlist again on June 15th? Or are you still actively taking students off of the waitlist?
Thank you!
@Anonymous, we are currently waiting to hear back from those waitlisted students to whom we have offered admission. While it is possible that we will be able to extend a few more admission offers in the coming weeks (should students, who have already been admitted, withdraw), it is also possible that, after hearing back from these students, we will close out the freshman class at its current size. We are finalizing this deliberation process, and will provide an update to all waitlisted students as soon as such determinations are made (by mid-June).
I have the same questions as the person above.
Are you actively informing the students about their acceptance or waiting until June 15th?
Thank you.
@Anonymous, see our response above!
At this point in the process can you provide any insight as to what the likelyhood is that you will be able to extend a few other acceptances to waitlisted students? Also, is there anything that waitlisted students who have not heard anything yet can do?
Thank you.
@Anonymous, we will be sending an email out this evening to those students who are currently on our waitlist letting them know that, as of right now, our freshman class has been finalized. Should additional positions within our class become available in the coming weeks, we will contact students directly. Should a student wish to remain eligible for an admission offer, they may complete the form that will be linked in tonight’s email. Waitlisted students are also still able to reach out to their regional deans in order to express their interest.
Have any other offers been made since last Friday?
@Anonymous, yes. Over the past week, a few additional admission offers have been made. As mentioned in the latest “William & Mary Waitlist” email sent to waitlisted students, there remains the chance that as move forward between now and August, additional spaces could become available in our freshman class. Should students remain strongly interested in W&M, they should therefore be sure to complete the form linked in this latest email. If we are able to make any more admission offers in the coming weeks, we will only consider those students who have submitted this form. Another blog post providing an additional waitlist update will be published in the very near future.
I have been checking my email regularly, the last one I received was on 6/9 and I opted to stay on the waitlist using the link off of that email. I have emailed my dean several times but I have not gotten any replies. I haven’t gotten the email that was supposedly sent out on the evening of 6/17 either.
@Anonymous, if you are a freshman applicant, the last email you should have received this month that provided a waitlist update was sent on 6/9. Further waitlist updates were provided in our latest blog post published on 6/23. If you are still interested in W&M, in addition to emailing your regional dean, you are welcome to email our general Admission Office account at admission@wm.edu. Any updates and/or information sent to this Admission Office account will be included with your application file.