Is William and Mary right for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z College of William and Mary
1

<p>High School Male Junior from Omaha, Nebraska.
3.9 GPA
Many honors and AP classes at a very competitive Jesuit high school.
My school retains class rank, only releasing Valedictorian and Saludatorian.
2100 on SAT, 29 on ACT. First time I have taken both, I will improve the next times.
President of the Letterman's Club, Varsity swimming for 4 years on the 7th best team in the country, I will be co-captain next season. Member of the Campus Ministry Advisory Board Service Committee. One year of Junior Varsity Cross Country. I recently started a music program, getting seventh grade kids to play music for the elderly in nursing homes. I volunteer at the local soup kitchen. I did tutoring at the neighboring elementary school for a while. I am a member of The National Honors Society. This summer I will be working as an intern at a law firm.
My Freshman year was rough due to my severe depression: I had a C, many Bs, and few As, earning a 3.5 GPA. Every year since then, I have increased my effort and workload, earning all A's and a 4.0 with a far more rigorous schedule.
I visited William and Mary about four weeks ago while on a college visit tour: I also went to see UVa and Georgetown. However, I fell in love with W&M before even visiting. The history is so powerful and compelling, the student was comprised of such warm and intelligent individuals, and the campus was so phenomenally beautiful that I am proud to say that I loved the school.
However, I still have a few concerns:
1. I intend to go into politics after entering the business world, does William and Mary provide internships on Capitol Hill like Georgetown? I would be ecstatic to gain some real-world political experience.
2. Would I fit in socially? I am not by any means a "partier", but I don't sit in my room and study on the weekends either; can you find niches in the W&M social scene where the kids may party a small amount, but responsibly? All over the Internet, many individuals attempt to portray the W&M social scene as nonexistent and dreadful, I know that this can't be true.
3. Do I have high chances of admission? I can say wholeheartedly that I have been working since the dark period of my life Freshman year. I understand that being from Nebraska could be somewhat of a benefit. I am trying my hardest to be very involved, but if there is anything further that I could do, I would love some pointers on how to better myself and be the kind of student that W&M desires.
4. How important are the interviews? I plan to interview, and I should have no problem with it, but do they really make a difference?
5. This is not a concern, rather, just an interest of mine: what are the dorms like, and which do the students consider the "best"? The tour took us briefly through one hall, the name of which I do not remember. Also, what are the fraternities like? Mischievous, preppy? Are the frat houses nice? I would have an interest in pledging.
Finally, I remember walking by the wooded area across from the Crim Dell Bridge and seeing what looked like cabins, are those student housing? If so, how does one get selected?</p>

<p>I thank you profusely for reading this and I apologize for typos, I'm on my iPhone. I really loved the school and any information you could provide would be very useful to me.</p>

2

<ol>
<li>W&M has good DC connections, lots of grads end up there. W&M has a semester in DC program, and a summer in DC program. I don’t think internships on capitol hill are especially difficult to get, at least from a congress person or senator. They seem to involve sitting in a chair and doing nothing for a lot of the day. The W&M in DC programs will work with you to get an internship that is most likely better than CapHill.</li>
<li>yes</li>
<li>high chance? I dunno, out of state is very difficult. You will be competitive though, IMO. W&M likes students that are passionate (about anything that interests them).</li>
<li>I don’t think they are that important, since everyone doesn’t do one. However, it does give the admissions office a chance to meet you in person. Make sure you sign up early, b/c all the spots will fill up.</li>
<li>the dorms are varied. You can check out floor plans and stuff online. Probably students consider Yates and Dupont to be the “best” as they have bigger rooms and AC. Barrett and Monroe are also fairly nice, but they don’t have AC.</li>
</ol>

<p>The frats are varied, but generally they seem pretty inclusive. You don’t have to be a member to go to parties. Their housing right now is not nice, but W&M is building brand new frat houses, so they will be nice when you get to campus.</p>

<p>The cabins are called lodges, and they are student housing, based on who is lucky enough to get the appropriate time slot among the seniors (not by application or anything like the lawn at uva)</p>

3

<p>Beware of the financial aid process in case you get accepted here (since you’re out of state).</p>

4

<p>Greetings The United States. Thank you for your thoughtful message. We are pleased to hear of your interest in the College. We embrace a holistic admission review process and interviews are not required. They are a great opportunity to chat with a current W&M student however and are both informational and evaluative. You may find the following blog entry helpful as you continue to research our process. Please let us know if you think of other questions. [W&M</a> Blogs Chance Me](<a href=“http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/12/14/chance-me/]W&M”>http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/12/14/chance-me/))</p>

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<p>Thank all of you for the posts; you have provided greater insight on the admissions process, as well as the campus life. I have already sat down and had conversations with some outstanding William & Mary students and the one thing that I can say is that they possess profound passion for the institution; each student I talked to genuinely loved the school to a powerfully large degree. I am very excited to be on campus once again and have another opportunity to talk to some intelligent individuals.</p>

6

<p>You sound like you’d fit in great with a frat at W&M, and you’ll get yourself a great network by choosing one of the more academically-inclined ones, Model U.N., JuCo, or any of the other numerous policy wonk things. Not my thing, but comes with a fantastic network, so go for it if it’s for you.</p>

<p>If you’re choosing between William and Mary and Georgetown (and I only went to one, so take that with a grain of salt!), I’d say go to W&M for undergrad. You can always go to Georgetown later. W&M really does have a solid program with great theory-based classes, but depending on your major (sounds like a big government bent) they make it really easy to apply it and be relevant, get published, too. The school practically gives money away to people who are serious about research and internships.</p>

<p>Once I entered the working world in Washington, I did find it kind of annoying that our classwork assignments did not seem as pertinent as evidently ones which so many of my colleagues had done in their college experiences at places like Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, GWU, Ivys, etc, but I later came to appreciate the depth of the theory and solid liberal arts education which I firmly believe put me ahead of even many of those students.</p>

<p>Plus, unless you want to go to W&M later on for law, public policy, history, or American studies (still some great choices but obviously much less than Georgetown) you can’t come back for grad school – W&M’s a much smaller school, and their focus is an outstanding undergraduate program. I would go back there for undergrad in a heartbeat if I had the choice to make again, and maybe do a Georgetown graduate degree.</p>

<p>Oh, and you really do have a surprisingly great network in DC when you go to W&M, and save a ton of money.</p>

7

<p>Just to build on our previous posts, a few thoughts.</p>

<p>There are numerous opportunities in DC for W&M students. The W&M in DC Program is one such opportunity but Career Services, the Reves Center or individual departments can provide additional opportunities as can our DC Office. Furthermore, many DC insiders visit campus for lectures, to speak, to work with classes, etc.</p>

<p>W&M students are balanced. They work hard and play hard and playing hard doesn’t always mean partying. Playing hard can imply involvement with extracurricular activities, sports, Greek Life, you name it. And partying can be a part of that and you sound like a good fit.</p>

<p>As for your chances, you didn’t provide a lot of details on which to guide you but you did mention a good number of AP courses which is great. In that area, we’d advise taking your most challenging schedule your senior year and to try to include calculus, physics, and the fourth level of a single foreign language in your curriculum at some point. </p>

<p>When evaluating the SAT, we look primarily at the Critical Reading and Math and our middle 50% for OOS students is 1380-1430. Our middle 50% range on the ACT for OOS is 31-32. We do evaluate your best score so taking an exam more than once is always a good plan.</p>

<p>You seem to be very involved and leading in your passions which the Committee appreciates so keep up with that drive.</p>

<p>Interviews are optional yes; to say they’re unimportant is maybe an understatement because they are evaluative and become part of your file (like everything else they are one part of many which we evaluate). However, we have limited space so those who are not able to interview are not disadvantaged or automatically looked at as lesser than those who did but if you are coming to campus this summer and can interview, go for it!</p>

<p>Finally, as for financial aid, yes it’s more challenging for OOS students because as a public college we are not able to provide some state grants to OOS students so we generally cannot meet 100% of an OOS student’s need but we encourage any interested student to complete the FAFSA to see what we can offer.</p>