<p>@Junior Mint, our process is regional meaning each dean works with particular geographic regions in order to provide school and regional context to each application. The regional read is the second read in our process. The initial review/first read is totally at random. Obviously the application has to be complete in order to be reviewed and oftentimes those submitted earlier on are completed earlier but that’s not always the case.</p>
<p>Thank you for the clarification! :)</p>
<p>Just got my postcard yesterday! Initially, I didn’t want to get my hopes up but after looking at this forum it seems it really is a sign of good news to come in April. Just wondering, what constitutes a “dramatic drop” in grades? I had a bit of a rough first semester of senior year and my GPA ended up about .4 lower than my cumulative GPA. Is this a significant enough drop for W & M to decide not to accept me after all in April?</p>
<p>A significant shift means your grades first semester as totally counter to your record we’ve seen here to date. So we’re talking multiple really bad grades (tons of Cs or multiple Ds and Fs). Again, remember a postcard is not a formal offer of admission. That comes in a letter. But those who we send a postcard to we trust to keep up the performance they’ve demonstrated heretofore.</p>
Anyone get a postcard yet? It’s getting to be that time…
No postcards here in the midwest…
Admit It’s blogpost on the postcards is UP! http://wmblogs.wm.edu/admiss/decoding-the-cypher/
Time to start haunting the mailbox…
Oh boy! Something else to look for in the mailbox…Exciting but stressful!
Anyone get a postcard today?
@CoMoMom Nothing here in Northern Virginia…
I got one today, I’m in Rural West Tennessee. I’m so excited, W&M was one of my top choices!!
Congratulations @ggarner57 It’s a terrific school! Our older daughter is there and loves it.
Congratulations @ggarner57! No card for CoMoMom’s D–yet anyway.
@CoMoMom It’s still early days. They send the postcards for a few weeks, so there’s still plenty of time. Of course, that’s what I’m telling myself, too!
I received one yesterday! In-state 
@CoMoMom Congratulations to your daughter – glad to see on the other thread that she received a postcard today! Nothing here yet, but still optimistic!
Thank you @Arlmom2. My D was so excited when I got home she was literally prancing with joy!
That’s how it should be, @CoMoMom . Any sense of where it is on her list?
@Arlmom2 such a good question! She was at a sleepover this weekend and they were playing truth or dare. A friend asked her if she got into everywhere she applied, all things being equal, where would she go–she burst into tears! I do know that W & M is definitely towards the top of her list, however.
@CoMoMom It’s such a stressful time for these young people. They should of course be grateful if they have the luxury of having to choose among schools that have accepted them, but they don’t always see it that way!
W&M is a great school for the right students. My sense from the outside is that the students are serious (exam time in the library is apparently not pretty), but that most of them are also good at relaxing. As I’ve said before on these fora, though, Williamsburg is a pretty sleepy little town. It’s not a good place for students who need or want to have an urban lifestyle, with many and varied ethnic restaurants, lots of big name cultural events, etc… That said, there’s a lot of programming on campus because they’re not near a big city, and it seems as though there’s a stronger sense of community than at a lot of more urban campuses we’ve seen over the years.
D1 would make the same choice if she were deciding again, though she did look somewhat wistfully at Tulane when we were touring there with D2 last summer!