<p>I am a Junior (male) at a small public school in Southwestern Virginia. My GPA right now is horrible, it's 3.14 unweighted. This is because my first two years of high school I was stupid and didn't try at all... I am expecting to compensate for this by making straight As this year and next year, giving me a potential 3.57 GPA, which is still a really long shot by W&M standards.</p>
<p>All through high school I have taken the absolute hardest classes I could and when I graduate I will have three years on the school's academic team. My PSAT scores are above average, and are comparable to the median William and Mary scores right now... so they should improve by next year.</p>
<p>I plan to major in political science... and I really, really want to get into this school, otherwise I wouldn't take the time to post this on here. I know my chances aren't great, but are there any at all? Are there any other factors I should consider?</p>
<p>Hey…Im kind of in the same situation as you I did bad my first year of HS and have done really well sophmore and junior year. I would suggest putting a lot of effort into your essay to show the school why you are truely unique. I went to the W&M alumni admissions weekend and the heads of admission said that the most important thing they look at is your essay. I believe they said…“Straight A’s and high SAT’s are a dime a dozen, what we really want to see is that you have a passion, you’re mature, and you’re ready for college.” So i’d suggest filling your essay with any personal quirks or idiosyncracies you have. I hope that helps.</p>
<p>Wow that’s awesome… I’m also applying to W&M, but feel so discouraged by the numbers out of state. Do they encourage a video as well as an essay?</p>
<p>I think there’s a lot of confusion here which I can sort out.</p>
<p>1) At Alumni Admission Weekend we didn’t say the essay was the most important factor. All factors in our review are essentially equally with a little more emphasis given to the transcript. What we said is that the essay is a great way for you to use your voice to tell us your story. The essay is important because it’s the one part of the application where you’re talking to us as directly as possible. And as the poster said, it is where you can distinguish yourself from the other great students in our pool.</p>
<p>2) There is one required essay which is the Common Application essay. On the W&M Supplement to the Common App, we have an optional additional submission which can be an essay but doesn’t have to be.</p>
<p>3) As for sending a video, if that’s how you choose to respond to the optional submission prompt you are welcome to but you should send only one response; so an essay or video but not both.</p>
<p>4) As for anyone’s chances, any applicant should know that W&M is highly selective and admits only about one-third of those who apply. The good news however is that we have no mimimum criteria so every application is reviewed twice from cover to cover. Any applicant however should have the appropriate expectations and understand that we have to turn away a lot of qualified students. So is there harm in applying even if you don’t match our academic profile? No. Your application will still be reviewed, it costs you nothing other than a $60. application fee, and our profile is simply a range of data…it does not state mimimum criteria. If you do apply however, just realize that we unfortunately send out more bad news than good and if you don’t receive good news it is not saying anything bad about you but rather indicating the strength of our applicant pool.</p>