<p>I'm out of state. (PA)
White male.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.81 UW
Rank: 38/300 (Top 13%) (My rank goes up every year. I was in the 100s freshman year)
SAT: 1940 (630 CR, 710 M, 600 W) I'm retaking the SAT in October because I know I can get a better score (I didn't finish my essay and I answered every single question).</p>
<p>AP Classes: APUSH (2), AP Euro (4), AP Lang/Comp (4).
Senior Year: AP Goverment, AP Literature, AP Physics C, AP Calc AB</p>
<p>Extra-curriculars:
Cross country: All 4 years on varsity, Co-captain
Swimming: All 4 years on varsity
Tennis: 3 years on varsity
Track: 1 year on varsity</p>
<p>Dance Marathon: Public Relations Committee. We raise money for the Four Diamonds Fund, which helps pay medical bills for children with pediatric cancer. Our school is the highest earning mini-thon in Pennsylvania. All 4 years.</p>
<p>Marching Band: 2 years (Mellophone).
Parade Band: 2 years (Mellophone).</p>
<p>School Newspaper: Staff writer. 1 year.</p>
<p>Paid jobs:
Marketing Representative for a local credit union. 1 year.</p>
<p><em>Considering applying ED</em></p>
<p>Glad you’re interested in W&M. Remember we have no minimum criteria or cut-offs so everyone has a chance of being admitted. That being said we’re very selective OOS (last year we admitted 27% of the OOS applicants).</p>
<p>Your course schedule looks very challenging which is a good start and you seem very committed to your activities which is also great. The middle 50% of OOS students generally score about a 1380-1430 so you’re pretty close to that range and if your score improves in Oct. we’ll combine your best Critical Reading and best Math for your best composite.</p>
<p>ED is a great opportunity for those who are ready to commit. You’re competing with 1000 applicants instead of over 12,000 so it’s easier to stand out in the smaller pool. Additionally our ED pool is fairly light on OOS applicants compared to our RD pool which has far more OOS applicants than IS applicants. </p>
<p>Given that you mentioned an upward grade trend you might want to send first quarter grades if you apply ED. 79% of the entering class graduated in the top 10% so since you’re not quite at that benchmark, sending your first quarter grades (especially given your great senior schedule) can be helpful.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice!</p>
<p>I’m working on bringing up my CR score. I’m retaking the SAT on October 9th. The scores are supposed to be available online on October 28th, so would you get the scores in time for ED applicants if I were to designate W&M as a school to send my scores to?</p>
<p>The first quarter grades end around mid-November, so would it be okay to hand those in after I apply ED, or should I just give you the status of my grades when I apply?</p>
<p>EDIT: Does W&M care if I have Study Hall on my schedule? I am trying to fill it with another course, but for right now I’m stuck in Study Hall. How much does that factor in? I’ve never had a study hall until now and it’s my senior year. I’m not trying to take my last year lightly, but the class scheduling has been a bit crazy this year.</p>
<p>Hey YuppittTales,</p>
<p>Ironically, I have almost the same schedule/ GPA/ test scores are you!
Your EC’s are great, I can really tell that when you commit to an activity, you stay committed. I am also retaking the October 9th SAT’s; W&M told me that the scores are usually received in time for ED, but not always. I actually have the same question regarding first quarter grades, as I am almost, but not quite, within the top 10%.</p>
<p>I have a study hall as well this year due to scheduling difficulties as well. Its a bit ironic how similar our schedules are. I am also applying ED, out of state, white, and female. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you with your application!</p>
<p>Hey YuppittsTales,</p>
<p>Being a male applicant and athlete will help you. Both are in relative short supply in W&M’s admissions pool, which W&M definitely recognizes and takes into account. I’d say you’re in pretty good shape.</p>
<p>We generally receive Oct. SAT scores before we make ED decisions but we cannot guarantee that we will.</p>
<p>If you wish to send your first quarter grades when they become available in November that’s fine. However, to ensure they’re reviewed we recommend emailing them to your regional dean.</p>
<p>As for study hall, if you have a rigorous schedule with 6 or so academic courses (depending on the type of schedule your school uses) having a study hall is not a big deal.</p>
<p>To respond to novaparent’s post, there are actually a lot of students in our pool who are involved in athletics. Whether or not they’re recruited is something different entirely but many of our applicants participate in athletics (and oftentimes varsity athletics) in high school which likely accounts for why 80% of our students are involved in sports (be they varsity, club, or IM) at William & Mary</p>
<p>Okay, I was just listing the AP courses I was taking this year.
I have one study hall every other day all year. I’m taking 4 AP courses and along with those courses, I am taking Wind Ensemble, which is the school band, journalism, which writes the school newspaper, a drawing and design course, and a physical education course.</p>
<p>As for my athletics, I’m heavily involved year-round in school sports. My times aren’t spectacular or anything, but I make the varsity team for all sports every year. </p>
<p>Thanks for letting me know about the October SAT scores. I know if I apply ED, the application is due November 1st at the latest. I get the October 9th SAT scores back on the 28th. I was just hoping you would look at my new scores just in case they went up. </p>
<p>My school goes by marking periods (4 per year). The first marking period ends in mid-November.</p>
<p>Note that W&M Admissions didn’t disagree with me on the “male” issue. Good luck!</p>
<p>YuppitTales, just make sure you ask the College Board to send us your Oct. scores and note on your application that you’re taking the Oct. test. If we see that you plan to take the Oct. test we will double check before we make a final decision to see if we’ve received your October scores. We can’t guarantee that we’ll get them because that’s up to the College Board but we generally do receive them before making a final decision. Again, you can send us your first-quarter grades when they become available.</p>
<p>As for your schedule, it appears that your non-AP courses are non-academic electives. We certainly encourage students to pursue such courses but we also encourage students to try to take five academic courses per semester if possible. Something to think about.</p>
<p>Novaparent, I know we’ve discussed the male/female applicant issue before. Being a male in no way automatically boosts a student’s chances. W&M is always trying to make our incoming class as diverse and representative as possible and that includes thinking about the male/female ratio but it does not imply we make decisions based on that particular consideration.</p>
<p>W&M Admissions,</p>
<p>I’m not arguing with you. In fact, I’m agreeing with you. You’re saying that your process includes “thinking about the male/female ratio,” and that’s all I’ve suggested to YuppitTales. The fact is that not every school thinks that way; U-Va, for example, is on record as not taking gender or the male/female ratio into account AT ALL in admissions. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s unfair to suggest to a male applicant to William and Mary that statistically speaking they have a greater chance of being admitted.</p>
<p>nor is it fair to suggest that the male students are inferior just because fewer of them apply.</p>
<p>I don’t think W&M is in short supply of male HS athletes either, but that is just my impression from my time there.</p>
<p>OP you should definitely apply.</p>
<p>Novaparent, thanks for clarifying.</p>
<p>W&M does not believe any one type of applicant is inferior to another regardless of their frequency in our applicant pool. Males do apply to W&M in smaller numbers than females…something that is true of many liberal arts colleges. We consider each applicant on his/her own merit but take the overall make-up of our incoming class in to consideration in our decision making.</p>
<p>Many of our applicants are involved in athletics in high school but we do not value any particular extracurricular activity over another. We instead look for demonstrated commitment/passion and how students distinguish themselves within that arena.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s help!</p>
<p>I probably won’t be applying ED anymore due to the cost. I want to major in Public Policy, which is only given by a select number of schools, and this is one of them. </p>
<p>I am currently taking come challenging courses. All 4 APs I am sticking with and my new journalism class has led me to a leadership opportunity: I am staff editor and the sole writer of the political column, which goes with my intended major.</p>
<p>I will probably be visiting in November. </p>
<p>If I decide to apply RD, can I send in my application even before the ED deadline, as long as I mark it as RD? Also, what do you recommend I put on my application to make me stand out? I feel like the common app is very dry and I want more space than an essay to show my personality and individuality.</p>
<p>To Skydancer, I really wish you luck and I think there is hope for both of us! :)</p>
<p>The supplement specifically asks the student to be creative. take that opportunity to really let your personality shine. My S did exactly that. I LOVE his supplemental essay.
I, too, would like to know about submitting the app RD before the ED deadline.</p>
<p>Is there a benefit to getting it in early?</p>
<p>Sadly there’s no benefit to submitting your application before the deadline. Check out our recent Admit It! blog [<a href=“http://www.wm.edu/blogs/admiss][/url”>www.wm.edu/blogs/admiss][/url</a>] for more information on deadlines, admission, and receipt of decision.</p>
<p>As for how to distinguish yourself, utilize those parts of the application that ask for your voice (the extracurricular section and the essay). Also, as already suggested, utilize the optional parts of the application (arts submission, optional submission, etc) to show us a different side of yourself.</p>
<p>Remember, we do not take your intended major into account when reviewing your extracurriculars and course selection. Since you don’t apply to specific program but just W&M in general, your intended major is not part of the admission process and we do not expect different high school courses out of any applicant based on intended major.</p>
<p>Yes, I definitely plan on using the optional parts as a way to show myself.</p>
<p>For the “additional information” page, can I just make a resume of my activities, because the Common App does not give me a proper amount of space to detail my accomplishments and duties.</p>
<p>How would I go about indicating that I have this resume? I don’t want to leave the activities page blank and then have everything posted on the resume, but I also don’t want to annoy you by repeating myself. Should I just mention the activity and put “see resume” where it asks for my leadership positions/accomplishments?</p>
<p>You can upload a resume in the additional information section. Just be sure it’s succinct and readable. Many students feel the needs to send resumes upwards of 5 pages or more. Given that you’re still 17-18, usually a two-page resume is more than enough.</p>
<p>Generally, in the extracurricular section of the app, students will list their activity, any leadership positions held, the hours per week and weeks per year and then say “see resume”. You can also choose to do this for some activities that require further explanation but not for all.</p>