Overheard in Transfer Committee – Spring Transfer Edition
We Admit It! When one committee ends, another one begins. As we wrap up Early Decision Committee we move forward with Transfer Committee for those applying for spring enrollment. The process is fairly similar to the one employed for freshman applicants. We meet as a staff to review together many of our transfer applicants and make decisions about which ones to admit. The deliberations are shorter as the number of applicants is fewer, but like in other committees, we discuss all facets of the application in order to arrive at the best decision. So without further ado, here’s what was overheard in transfer committee today.
Overheard in Transfer Committee: I really like the degree to which she’s gotten involved.
Admittedly, with transfer application review, extracurricular engagement is not as salient a component as it is with freshman review. Far more of our focus goes to the applicant’s collegiate academic record. Furthermore, unlike high school where extracurricular involvement is more readily available, that’s not always the case for transfer students. We certainly recognize that extracurricular involvement will vary greatly depending on the transfer applicant. For example, some transfer applicants may be supporting themselves and/or a family and may need to work instead of being involved on campus. Other students may be attending a community college where clubs and organizations are less prevalent. Still other students may be commuting to campus which limits their ability to be involved in organizations that meet at night or on weekends. So our review of extracurricular engagement, like any component of our process, is contextual.
That being said, we wouldn’t ask applicants to provide that information if it wasn’t helpful. When a student is highly engaged in life outside the classroom it helps make their application pop or standout. At W&M, students are deeply committed to clubs and organizations; it’s part of what makes our campus so dynamic. Seeing that engagement in transfer students (especially given they’re looking to transfer and not necessarily stay at their current institution) really speaks to us. It leads us to believe that they are able to become an integral and involved member of any community. That’s an attractive quality in someone we’re considering.
In this particular applicant’s case, her level of involvement on her current campus was a tip factor to us in deciding to admit her. We could envision her continuing that involvement and contributing to W&M through it.
And with that we will continue on with Transfer Committee. Just as with ED, we cannot predict a launch date for decisions at this point, but applicants can keep an eye out for our Decisions, Decisions blog. That will signal that decisions are on their way.
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.
If this is the overheard in committee for transfers, does that mean that early decision committee is finished?
@Curious, for the most part yes but there’s still some ongoing ED review and a multitude of final steps in progress to complete the entire ED process.
I’ve heard a lot of ED release date speculation, do you know when decisions will be sent out? Could it be as soon as tomorrow?
@Also Curios, there’s no way to really predict when decisions will be launched. See our previous post for more info (it links to a blog we published last spring explaining why we can’t predict a decision release date and provides some additional info in the comments).
I know you all cannot be sure when the exact ED Decision release date is, but knowing that the committee has shifted gears towards spring transfer applications only adds to my excitement of my impending decision, and increases the number of times I check this blog exponentially. I’m sure you all are getting many more page hits as December 15th approaches from other equally anxious seniors. Thank you so much for your thorough yet speedy application revision process, I anxiously look forward to the Decisions, Decisions post in the near future 😉
@Hopeful, as we said to another poster, no need to check email/blog/social media constantly. For example, if you haven’t seen anything from us by say the mid-evening, you can feel confident we won’t release that night.
Fingers crossed. Toes too.
What do you do to stay sane while reading the apps? When I wrote up my ED app, I couldn’t help but think how monotonous and dry it would be to read one after another. Do you have an office stress ball? Admissions yoga? Official WM admissions masseuse?
@Eric, well in Committee we have LOTS of sugary snacks to help! But seriously, this is why we do what we do. We enjoy reading applications and getting to know today’s best and brightest. Although if you know of an admission masseuse who’s looking for work…we would not turn him/her away!
thank you so much for getting these done and to us as quickly as possible! Do you send out transfer decisions and ED decisions at the same time? How many ED applications did you receive this year? Thank you so much!
@JB, if we’re able to release the decisions all together we will but that may not be the case (and will certain not be the case for regular decision and fall transfer applicants). Our ED application numbers don’t vary much from year to year. They’re usually around 1100-1200 and that is the case again this year.
I think that (ED) number could have been significantly higher if the issues of the other VA school were out before the ED deadline. That is a good news for W&M ED applicants, because the regular decision numbers for W&M could be totally different this year…
Thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication to these students! My daughter is applying as a freshman spring transfer student. I know the slots are very limited in number, depending on housing. Can you tell us how many slots may be available in the spring for freshman transfers? Many thanks.
@DBD, that’s always a moving target so we’re hesitant to throw out a number that may change but we absolutely do have some spots for both men and women who are applying as freshmen transfers.
Thank you so very much for your professionalism in all your blog postings and responses. Parents really appreciate information! Speaking of information….do you know if the “Decisions, Decisions” blog will be out at least by Friday? Thank you!
@RZ, we’re happy to help. There’s really no way to predict when decisions will launch and we don’t want to forecast a release date only to have it not work out. We truly will not know that we’re ready to launch decisions until we actually launch them because there are literally dozens of final steps and checks that need to happen and if any one step doesn’t go as planned it’s derails a timeline. Please know that we’re working round the clock to conclude both the ED and spring transfer processes so that we can get decisions to students just as soon as they’re ready.
If I submitted my SAT scores, but did not need to because of the amount of college work I have done, how rigorously are they looked at? At the time, I thought that I had to submit them and went ahead and did it, but I did TERRIBLE on them in high school. I am really worried that they are now going to be looked at harshly compared to my college transcripts and work. Thank you in advance for your assistance this has just been very worrisome to me.
@Worried!, we will see your scores if you submitted them but the more college coursework you have to show us the less we focus on high school stuff. Again, we still see it and review it but it becomes a less prominent part of your review as you gain more and more collegiate experience.
My daughter applied ED from a NJ high school where you received a higher than usual number of ED applicants. Do you have a quota from individual schools or specific areas outside of Virginia whereby you limit the number of applicants you will admit ED from one high school or one area?
@Concerned Parent, other than needing to have 65% of our students be VA residents and 35% out-of-state residents, we have no “quotas” per school or per state. If we want to admit every student from one high school, we will. If we think no one applying from a particular school is competitive, we will not admit any of those students. We do try to bring in a class that’s representative of both Virginia and the entire US (and the world) but we do not impose any restrictions beyond the 65%/35% in-state/out-of-state.
How many students do you accept per academic year?
@Information, are you asking about transfers only? Assuming you are we admit a total of approximately 300 students for fall and spring combined (around 45% of those who apply).
Thank you so much for the posts as you continue to move through the admissions process with ED applications; they are very comforting! I know that you have no clue when you are going to release decisions, but I was just wondering: Because of the business hours of the admissions office, is it possible for the decision to be released over the weekend?
Thank you so much for takin the time to interact with your applicants!
@Megan, yes a weekend release is a possibility. We try to avoid it but it has happened. Likewise, releasing after 5:00pm is also a possibility but as we’ve said in previous responses we won’t release late in the evening.
Hello!
I’m waiting with bells on for the ‘Decisions, Decisions,’ post as I prep for finals!
Does the committee review past applications? As a repeat applicant I’m certainly hoping to trade my past “William & Mary Admission Decision”-‘s for a shiny new, “Good Things,” hopefully third time’s the charm. Additionally, how large is the transfer applicant pool as compared to last year?
I know your all working as hard as possible and that you can’t make any predictions on when decisions will be released. That being said, it’d sure be swell to know before exams start on monday!
@Nicholas, we actually blogged about repeat applicants in an older Overheard in Transfer Committee post (http://wmblogs.wm.edu/admiss/overheard-in-committee-transfer-edition/). The fact that you applied previously is part of our consideration. As to your question about pool size, it’s very similar to previous years (a bit over 200 applicants).
Just a random question–what would be a score on the optional SAT Subject Tests that could make an applicant stand out?
@Applicant, generally a score over a 700 is one we would consider a stand out.
I’m so thankful for the Admissions department and the excellent job that is done keeping anxious students and parents posted on this process each year. Will this be the last “Overheard in Transfer Committee-Spring Transfer Edition” of this year? Again, thank you all for this information and your encouragement.
@Thanks!, yes this will be the only Overheard in Transfer Committee blog for spring transfers.
What time is the decisions decisons blog usually posted?
@Anxious, there’s no usual time. It’s posted once decisions have been launched.
So at the same time as the launch, or before they are launched?
@Anxious, at the same time, not before. We don’t post the blog until we know in fact we’ve released decisions.