Chance Me? William and Mary

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, I am an asian female going in to my senior year of high school. I live in NOVA, where everything is very competitive. I would really like to know what my chances are of getting in to the College of William and Mary. My SAT scores are: Critical Reading- 610, Math- 670, and Writing-690. I haven't taken the ACT yet or my SAT II's. I am a full IB diploma candidate so that means the classes I am taking are the most rigorous in my school. The county I live in does not do class rank. My GPA right now is a 4.5 weighted. I got the All A Honor roll my freshman and sophomore year. My junior year was not amazing. I had mostly A's and a couple B's.</p>

<p>I have been on the Varsity Golf Team for four years and I have been the captain of the team for the past two years (11th and 12th grade). I am #1 on the team and have gotten the MVP award twice in a row (10th and 11th grade). I have also been on the Varsity Tennis Team for four years and I will be the captain in my senior year. I have gotten a district award and have been honored the Coach's award in 11th grade. During the winter season, I manage the Varsity Girls Basketball Team. I have done it for two years so I will get a varsity letter for it which will then get me the "Three Varsity Letter" Award/plaque.</p>

<p>The extra-curricular I put most of my time in is Student Government. I was a representative in my freshman and sophomore year. However, in my junior year I was elected class president. Furthermore, I have been elected Student Government Executive President (of the school) for my senior year. Our SGA takes up a lot of time and involves me in a lot of leadership conferences, requires me to be in a leadership class, and volunteer for several hours of community service. I also am part of the Student Advisory council. I represent my school and go to discuss issues in the country with school board members and other reps. I am currently the leader and advisor of the representatives from our school. Next year, I will also be a part of the PTSA (Parent Teacher and Student Association). I have also been on the prom committee for 3 years. As a member of the SGA, I organize all dances, school events, and fundraisers. (i.e. homecoming set-up, back-to-school night, pep rallies, field day, homecoming parade, block party)</p>

<p>My other extra-curriculars are that I am a member of the National Honor Society, Math Honor Society, and Key Club. I am the co-founder of the Key club at my school and I was the secretary of the club on its initial year. Furthermore, I was yearbook editor in 10th grade and I was yearbook editor-in-chief in 11th grade. The only reason I couldn't continue being editor-in-chief my senior year was because I had to be in the leadership class and there was no more space in my schedule.</p>

<p>I am very involved with my church. I have been an alter server for the past 6 years and I have recently become a senior alter server. I participate in the annual Fall Festival and volunteer to work the different booths and dinners. I have also been a teacher for the sunday school students at my church. I have volunteered to teach 3rd graders for the past 3 years. </p>

<p>I believe I am missing some things here and there but that's my basic profile. What do you think my chances are?</p>

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<p>low reach</p>

3

<p>WM does not consider the writing portion of SAT.</p>

<p>“What is your middle 50% for the SAT and ACT?
For the SAT, our middle 50% is 1270-1460 on critical reading and math; 25% of our latest freshman class scored above 1450 and 25% scored below 1260.”</p>

<p>“How do you evaluate the writing section of the SAT?
William & Mary places more emphasis on the critical reading and math section of the SAT. While we will see the writing score in the evaluation of an application, we place more emphasis on the personal essay than the writing SAT score.” </p>

<p>So, your 1280 CR+M, which is what WM looks at, is only slightly above their 25% level. Not a disaster, but not really helpful to you.</p>

<p>“I am a full IB diploma candidate so that means the classes I am taking are the most rigorous in my school.”
This helps you.
“I got the All A Honor roll my freshman and sophomore year. My junior year was not amazing. I had mostly A’s and a couple B’s.”
This could hurt; it could be seen as a downward trend in grades. I am not an admissions officer; personally, I wouldn’t find it troublesome if you have some B’s, more A’s, no C or below.</p>

<p>Being female doesn’t help. WM gets almost twice as many applications from girls (young women? What’s the acceptable term for a mixed group of age 17 minors and age 18 barely legal adults?) as they do from guys.</p>

<p>Being IS is a great advantage, of course. You’re competing with fewer applicants for more of the seats. You still have to come across better than most of the IS applicants, and further, you have to be better than most of the female applicants.</p>

<p>I like the athletics, particularly the tennis. The other ECs are fairly standard, except maybe teaching Sunday School, which strikes me as more heartfelt than most ECs. Again, I am not an admissions officer.</p>

<p>You are basically in the running, but not near the front of the pack. Try to come up with an essay that makes them sit up and say, “This one is different. She’s going places. We want her here.” Something they won’t see from thousands of other HS seniors.</p>

<p>I’m generally opposed to binding ED programs, but in your case it might be worth submitting ED, only if you know you can afford to attend regardless of their FA (or lack thereof), and only if you know you would choose them over any other school, regardless of the other schools’ FA offers. ED does provide a slight advantage to borderline candidates. But, if you are getting straight A’s this fall, then you might want to wait until your grades are in and apply RD instead, to show that the junior year grades were just a random fluctuation. You should know by mid-October, I expect.</p>

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<p>I’m not an admissions person either, but after being on campus withW&M’s reps, a couple of things are clear. Coming from NoVA definitely will make it harder for you; being female means you will have way more competition than if a male. But, still, I think you have a good shot regardless of the jr year slump, because you are quite well rounded. W&M does NOT recalc GPA, so you will be evaluated “as is” and you will be compared to your HS competitors and then Ffx applicants. Senior year rigor is really important, and can make or break your fate. The essay has to be about YOU; don’t tell a story about an event person or place unless you reveal what makes you tick throughout the entire essay. Interviews are not necessary. SAT IIs are not, either, but they encourage you to submit them if they are exceptional. Two letters of rec at most. Any more than that, and they get irritated. Got the impression that the counselor rec is more critical than a teacher rec.</p>

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<p>I am from NOVA and disagree when people say coming from NOVA will make it harder for you. At my school, the people accepted have an average score 200 pts less than the normal average for the school. There are routinely people accepted with SAT scores in the 1700s and 1800s and we VERY rarely ever have someone with 1900+ rejected. The same goes for UVA. I know that everything I’m saying goes against what @leyland has said, and since he (she? I’m just going to go with he because that’s my go to gender when writing unknown singular pronouns) has spoken to a W&M rep, you may be more inclined to believe him over me. However, I’m just telling you the data from my school so you can take that whatever way you want. Just for perspective though, I do not go to that great of a school in the NOVA area, so maybe that is why they have lowered their standards for admission from my school. </p>

<p>To answer your question, I think you have a good chance at William and Mary. I believe the ED acceptance rate is 50%, so if you are really committed to applying, you should do ED. Don’t worry about your junior year slump since you’re an IB diploma candidate. It’s very very very very difficult to get all A’s in IB classes and W&M knows that. They won’t see it as laziness or a downward trend, but rather you challenging yourself. Your ECs seem impressive to me. You show leadership and dedication in all your activities. </p>

<p>I’ve made a lot of assumptions in this post so I just wanted to point out that this advice is just my two cents. </p>

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<p>Sumobats, your two cents is perfectly valid, and it just points out one thing – if Nutmeg wants to really know what her chances are, she should go to her counselor and ask for the W&M stats for her school. They can tell you the profile of every person at her school and in the county who applied and what their status was. They have the numbers for about 4 years, I think. Of course it’s anonymous and they won’t give you any screen shots or anything, but they can summarize the info for you. It is much more informative than what you can get from blackboard. And, again, I will just restate that I think Nutmeg should be optimistic about her chances.</p>