Yah! great day! received the postcard in MA.
Congrats, @bsalum! A great day indeed!!
I’m getting nervous that my son did not get a postcard. My older son received one two years ago. Younger son has SAT score that is 200 points higher and GPA/class ranking that blows his brother out of the water. This whole process is very confusing.
On W&M’s admissions blog, they feely admit that most people won’t receive one because they have only reviewed a small % of applicants. I figure if applications are due Jan 1, and results come out April 1, they aren’t even half way through. Try not to worry. I can’t deny I was delighted but I really wouldn’t read too much into it.
Postcards apparently only go out to 1) applicants who are very clear and easy admit decisions, not even close to being borderline, who 2) had their applications reviewed relatively early in the process. Since they say they randomly pull applications out of the file cabinet for review, the most likely reason a particular applicant doesn’t get a postcard is that the application has yet to be read.
I think the issue is that it’s not worth the bother sending out postcards late in the process, since you’ll get the answer soon enough anyway. For example, I would be surprised if they sound out any in March, they could just send the regular decision with everyone else’s.
@FCCDAD I believe that W & M Admit It! Blog says they will only send out postcards during February.
“We will send postcards out each week for the next several weeks (likely through mid-February). Then as our reading season hits its high note (Committee) we will stop sending postcards as we enter the final stages and prepare to send the official notifications.”
They don’t specifically say they’ll only send them in Feb., but they do suggest that is likely.
I just received a postcard. I live in NJ by the way. I am very excited!
I received one as well and I live in Virginia!
D2 received a postcard today!!! A snow day and a W&M postcard the same day – there is much rejoicing in Northern Virginia!!!
D received a postcard today. 
Does anyone know whether postcards are sent to internationals or not…?
@korboy From the AdmitIt! blog comments: Unfortunately we cannot mail to international addresses because they won’t arrive in a timely fashion.
Is there a possibility of being waitlisted or rejected after receiving the cypher postcard without having had a drop in grades or any disciplinary action? I’ve already told myself and my parents that I will most likely attend W&M but am a little worried since I haven’t been “officially” accepted yet…
There’s no realistic possibility of not getting the admission offer without them having a good reason to reconsider. For example, it is always possible that you could say/do something notorious in public that, even if not subject to disciplinary action, they learn of and it makes them think that you’re not such a good fit after all.
But if your grades are generally consistent with the previous 3 years and you stay out of trouble, it would be extremely odd to get the cypher postcard but not an admission offer. They simply won’t change their understanding of you in the next few weeks without some basis to do so.
They are, in fact, rather busy at this time of year, and will not even look at your application again without good reason.
Thank you @FCCDAD
That is quite reassuring!
Does anyone know whether postcards are sent to internationals or not…?
@korboy You already asked this question and it was already answered earlier in this thread. Postcards are not sent to international students because they don’t arrive quickly enough. The blog quote link is back a page.
@Arlmom2 My apologies. When I tried to post the first time, the page froze so I closed and immediately rewrote my comment. Why the two versions ended up posted so far apart in time is beyond me, but it was by no means intentional.
@korboy No problem; sorry I was a bit crispy. I should have simply asked whether you’d seen the earlier reply. Best of luck with the process!