The Early Decision Bird
Admit It! November 1 came way too quickly. Like it or not, today is here and if you’re applying to William & Mary early decision, you have to click submit by midnight (truth be told we’re pretty understanding people – if you click submit at 12:01 am or even 12:01 pm tomorrow we’ll still gladly accept your application – and for anyone shoveling their way out from under snow and ice in the Northeast we’ll certainly grant you an extension until power is restored), and you have to postmark additional materials by 5:00 pm this afternoon (or whenever your local post office locks its doors – see above parenthetical information in case you get to the post office at 5:01 pm). So what comes next, because let’s face it, the stress doesn’t go away just because you clicked submit.
At this very moment, our staff is busy printing, opening, stapling, sorting, filing, processing, matching, data-entering, alphabetizing and basically working organizational magic to compile all of your application materials. We will keep you posted via a series of emails.
Email #1: We will email you and your parents (using the email address provided on your Common Application) initially when we receive your Common Application. As long as we have record of your intent to apply (indicated only be receipt of the Common Application) we will do everything in our power to complete and review your file.
Email #2: We will email you and your parents a second time letting you know that either a) your application file is complete (i.e. we have all required materials) or b) your application is missing some or multiple components. If something is missing, do not panic. We are human; you are human. Humans make mistakes. No fault. No penalty. We will instruct you as to how to submit the outstanding materials and upon receipt of those materials we will review your file.
Email #3: We will email a decision in the first week of December (the exact date will not be known until it is upon us). This email will be sent to the applicant only.
To get you these first two emails can take a few weeks. Remember, you had months to work on your application. Give us a several days to process all of your hard work. We will spend the rest of November compiling, reading, assessing and discussing your applications as they make their way through our review and committee processes.
As November comes and goes we will be sure to post early-decision-related updates on our Facebook and Twitter feeds and in forthcoming blogs. You’ve done your hard work; now it’s on us to do ours.
Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Senior 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.
How about transfers? When will we receive the e-mails, especially if we did a re-open app by mail? How long will it take to confirm everything and when are you anticipating decisions?
Transfer applicants will receive the same emails although their parents do not receive identical copies as is the case for freshman applicants.
We are checking to see if our system sends the emails to re-open applicants but the timeline is the same…it takes us a few weeks to process everything we’re receiving right now.
Spring transfer applicants generally receive decisions in mid-December
Any comments on the early decision pool? Is the number of applicants up or down compared to last year?
We are still processing all of the early decision applications but we are up this year for early decision. We will be able to release more complete data when decisions are released.
Are the numbers up for spring transfer?
Sue, as with early decision applicants we’re still processing and reviewing and thus not able to give exact numbers but we do appear to also be up in total application for spring transfer admission.
Do you consider “the first week in December” this week or next?
We consider it the first several days of the month of December. We know ED aplicants are anxious to receive decisions and we will will release them as soon as we are able.