I toured the campus and no, the buildings are not in disrepair. They have been putting some major building projects in, including the new physical sciences buildings, which are (to be blunt) sweet!
Some of the dorm buildings are old enough not to have air conditioning. I don’t believe this is likely to be a problem for most students, as most students are not on campus through the summer months.
We did not speak to professors while there, but my impression is: smaller school, “everyone knows everyone”, undergrads have opportunity to get involved in real research, you would probably know several professors personally and take multiple classes with them, good culture of academic progress (you’re likely to graduate on time in 4 years), CW is literally directly across the street from campus.
Looks great for students who take academics seriously but not to the exclusion of other interests, who are a bit quirkier than mainstream and are proud of it, and who are looking for more of an “extended family” vibe than a “major university/college town” vibe. Not really a party school or snob school. Top notch alternative to UVA’s style.
@FCCDAD D1’s experience has generally been what you outlined. There’s a strong sense of community, which is terrific.
W&M isn’t a small liberal arts school, and I don’t think everyone knows everybody. But in a lot of respects, that’s a good thing. Students develop their interests over time, and meet new people as a result.
D1 did start doing research her freshman year, and had a summer research grant as well. She has loved her experience so far!
I saw that as well. They have been consistent with the 26th, so I believe that we will get them on that date, however, that is just my own speculation. I’m very excited!
That suggests that so far, they’re on pace for a similar release date. But as they note in the blog, things can and do go wrong along the way. Networks go down, printers fail, all the fun stuff!
One example from this year – W&M admissions posted that they had sent the Monroe letters out on March 9th. They seemed quite certain of this.
But something went wrong along the way. On March 17th – presumably after having received lots of calls and emails from anxious parents and students – they wrote, “…we discovered that the decision letters we mailed on March 9 experienced an unexpected delay in arriving in mailboxes.” Fortunately, they decided to send emails to all of the Monroe recipients this year, rather than just to the international applicants, because it’s March 19th, and D2’s packet still hasn’t arrived! If they had set a specific date for the notifications, I might have been tempted to search the poor mailman’s bag by now!
So get some sleep, take a walk, and the end of the month will be here before you know it. Best of luck to both of you!!
@maustimproved, we live in Williamsburg & my S applied RD although I’m not expecting him to get accepted since while his classes, gpa and ecs are excellent, his SAT scores are not in their ballpark. Anyway, he’s spent every summer there since middle school working in their children’s gifted ed summer camps as well as attending camp there himself. I don’t think there are many buildings he/we have not been inside. Some of the buildings are definitely older but none are in disrepair. The campus is beautiful & very well maintained and there are numerous newer buildings on campus that are state of the art and impressive. Please cross that concern off your list. W&M is a wonderful college with amazing brilliant people. It’s challenging though and not a party school. The professors, some of whom we know personally, are wonderful but like any college, there are some that are better then others. Congratulations on your acceptance! If you’re willing to work hard & you got in so obviously, you are , you will love the school!
@LiveinMass I’m pretty sure that W&M Admissions sometimes monitors this page so I can’t speak for them but I suspect what they would say is that SAT scores are one of the deciding factors but they take a holist approach to the application and look at everything. If you look at some of the charts like on Cappex, you’ll see that there are some students with lower SAT scores getting in but the vast majority of the acceptance letters do go to students with higher scores. My S decided to take a chance despite his lower scores (which are probably only low for the very competitive colleges). Like you, he has a strong application aside from the SAT scores and if he doesn’t get into W&M, there are five other great schools that said “yes” so it’s always worth taking a chance. Good luck! We’ll all know very soon.
@LiveinMass I had high SATs (2280) but I honestly couldn’t say. They should take a holistic approach to the app like most other selective schools- if you’re wondering if you should retake the SAT or something, don’t bother, if you have an 1800 but they really like you, they’ll take you anyway
I’m the Mom of a W&M grad a few years ago, and occasionally I check in on this forum, especially at this time with acceptances coming. I got a kick out of the question and answers about potential disrepair of campus buildings (the responses are consistent with my observations) and especially thought about the Wren Building…the oldest continually used academic building in the US…old, but in great repair!
Admissions decisions were just emailed. Waitlisted…oh well I really loved William and Mary but I just got into UVA on Friday so I am not too too upset. OOS so I knew it would be difficult to get in.
Waitlisted too. I was OOS, but my stats lined up with the school and my supplement essay was really good and creative. Kind of demoralizing considering W&M was a match for me and I’m waiting to hear back from my reaches.
, you will love the school!