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I would've agreed with both Shoebox and Cav (that W&M was tougher to get into than UVa - particularly for a girl) - but here's a real example that disproves that. My son got into UVa, but one of his friends, a girl from OOS here in CA (same high school), got into W&M as a Monroe Scholar (with lots of merit $), but only got waitlisted at UVa. </p>
<p>Her SAT's were higher than his (by 90 pts overall), but her GPA and class rank were slightly - and I mean slightly - lower (same classes, but she had a handful of B's and he had none). Their EC's and recs were strong and very similar. She is also Native American (1/16th, which, as I understand it, is enough to check the box). And she was accepted at Duke, Cornell, and UC Berkeley.
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<p>Monroe has NO merit money, but there is a $3000 research grant if you choose to use it. Monroe is basically decided by the top 5% of the applicant pool by GPA/SAT, but they may extend it a little for URMs, I have no personal problem with this nor do I really care, but I did notice some things that made me think that. Just throwing it out there. </p>
<p>There is some element of geographic diversity here. As I recall, you were in California. I think UVa probably gets more applicant than W&M from California, because it is a little more known for sports and rankings, and CA is so far away that would make a big difference. Most schools compare admissions pools geographically so this could have had an effect on this girl's results. GPA is a an incredibly strong factor at UVa, whereas at W&M, it is very important of course but they may be swayed by SAT scores that up their mid 50th percentile and therefore can help their rank (which UVa doesn't necessarily need). Also, W&M seems more inclined to take people that fit with their reputation for being more quirky. They are pretty vocal about this - at the admissions day, they talked about random facts from their applicant pool rather than stats (someone had a patent for something or the other, someone climbed mt Kilimanjaro). </p>
<p>For applicants from the east, esp closer states like MD, PA, and DE, it's probably about equally hard to get in. Maybe it's a little easier for boys at W&M from these areas and harder for girls. For people from states that aren't as overrepresented in out of state admissions pools (which CA doesn't exactly qualify for either, but maybe moreso for UVA), there is an edge at either compared to the applicants from above mentioned states. All in all it seems to be about the same and some people get into one but not the other. It depends on what they're looking for. A higher ranking (it's not THAT much higher) doesn't mean it's harder to get into for every applicant. There are a lot of factors that can give an applicant an edge or push them out at either.</p>