What are my chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington & Lee University
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<p>Caucasian male, junior at a rigorous public residential STEM high school in SC.</p>

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<p>Based upon W&L prior admission statistics I believe the following are your chances:</p>

<p>If you apply early decision and since you are Caucasian male you are better than 50% chance of acceptance, however if you visit the school and interview your chances increase to 60% and if you do not require financial aid you near 80%.</p>

<p>If you apply regular decision your chances drop to 30%.</p>

<p>Fortunately you are not a URM, in that case your admission chances drop to between 7-12%. African Americans have traditionally been accepted at a 7% rate, Hispanics at 9% and Asian Americans at 12%.</p>

<p>Since you were a member of the AASS, W&L’s small URM population and lack of diversity might be a turn off for you. Remember W&L is nearly 87% Caucasians because of its lack of ethnic diversity.</p>

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<p>@thomstant‌ I think you have good chance; your SAT and GPA are higher than mine were and we had similar extracurriculars. Make sure to do an interview and anything else you can to demonstrate interest. The admissions office gives a lot of weight to that. Good Luck!</p>

<p>@voiceofreason66‌ you’re trolling is obnoxious and I refer you to my response on the OOS Johnson thread about the minorities at W&L. Statistics can be very deceptive, and you seem great at manipulating them. Since W&L puts so much weight on demonstrated interest (something that can’t be quantified) the numbers you talk about are scewed (for a whole bunch of reason too, but that can be discussed later).</p>

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<p>@coppijr The statistics that I provided @thomstant are not deceptive and I did not manipulate them. They are historical FACTS! You provide no FACTS to support your claims. From your statements you are claiming that because “W&L puts so much weight on demonstrated interest” that this means that URM applicants are not showing demonstrated interest compared to their Caucasian counterparts. Where is the EVIDENCE for this? You have none. The Asian girl and Asian boy from my example on the OOS Johnson Scholarship thread both showed demonstrated interest and they had much higher stats than you or the OP but they were not given admission. The only thing that is “screwed” is your logic.</p>

<p>I stand behind my chance estimate for @thomstant. If he applies early decision he would most likely get in, if he applies regular decision his chances fall substantially. If he were an URM then his chances fall even further. </p>

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<p>@voiceofreason66 you’re right, you didn’t manipulate them, that was poor word choice on my part. I also don’t dispute your advice, just your reasoning. Everyone’s chances fall when applying RD at W&L, it isn’t limited to race.</p>

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<p>@coppijr It is clear that you challenge my reasoning because you have a strong bond to W&L and not because my rationale is flawed, but if you truly believe in the Honor Code then the admission numbers should compel you to inquire further why the admission numbers are so disturbing. Because on its face, the admission numbers paint a not so pleasant view of W&L’s Admission Office. </p>

<p>I believe that W&L students are wonderful people who are not involved in what appears to be racial bias in admissions but the same cannot be said of the W&L Admissions Office.</p>

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<p>@voiceofreason66 feel free to stop by campus. The students and employees of the school love to show off their southern hospitality. I bet the admissions office will be happy to address your concerns, clearly your qualms can’t be answered on this forum because no one here is an all-knowing admissions deity. </p>

<p>You sure are right that I have a strong bond to the school, I’m not saying your rationale is flawed. You’re argument is (and always will be) insufficient because of your lack of information (through no fault of your own, it’s just how college admissions works).</p>

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<p>@coppijr I would expect that you would get the information since I have tried but the school refuses to provide any additional information and has now locked the school’s FACT BOOK webpage with password protection. The Fact Book was previously available to the public. This was W&L’s way of trying to stop any public discussion of the topic you raised in this thread. </p>

<p>I expected that you would have the courage to ask your admission’s officers about the skewed enrollment numbers, but I guess that is too much to ask of even an Honor Bound W&L student. I expected you to be a Neville Longbottom and not a Draco Malfoy.</p>

<p>Professor Dumbledore once said, “It takes courage to stand up to one’s enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to one’s friends.” From your response, you are not a person Dumbledore or I would respect. </p>

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<p>@voiceofreason66 With the honor system comes trust. I trust that our admissions isn’t being racist. Wilth the tone you’ve used on this forum, I can only imagine how you worded your inquiry to admissions. I imagine it was hostile, or at the very least unfreindly in nature. W&L is more than willing to be helpful to those who are respectful (it goes hand-in-hand with the Southern Hospitality). It does not and in my opinion should not have to respond to people who are unbecoming. </p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

<p>Draco</p>

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<p>@coppijr I respect that you have trust in your school but it should not be blind trust. Too many bad things in this world have occurred because people like you trust blindly. Sorry that you are a Draco Malfoy and not Neville Longbottom. </p>

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<p>@coppijr @Happy98 and @thomstant Here is an interview with Bill Hartog the Admission Dean at W&L. Apparently others were curious about what factor Race had in the admission process and asked this question to the Dean. The Dean never bothered to reply. Here is the link.</p>

<p><a href=“http://alumni.blogs.wlu.edu/an-interview-with-bill-hartog-dean-of-admissions-and-financial-aid/”>http://alumni.blogs.wlu.edu/an-interview-with-bill-hartog-dean-of-admissions-and-financial-aid/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@coppjir @voiceofreason66‌ thanks for the advice guys. I view the “skewed” admissions statistics as a combination of a racial reality, historical Caucasian majority at WnL, and the Tufts effect, which would explain, at least partially, the denial of more qualified students than me. You could continue to wage this war about racial bias, but you can’t objectively prove that WnL admissions is “racist” or not. What is clear, though, is that WnL is a pretty Caucasian school, which has more Caucasians than non-Caucasians apply, and thus would have a higher-than-average Caucasian populace. Without considering every single factor, you can’t ascribe racism as the root of WnL’s racial breakdown. That’s irresponsible. </p>

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<p>@thomstant I agree with much of what you state which is why I have never stated that W&L admissions is racist. However, the information that is presented it does make one pause and scratch one’s head because the ’ admissions data is so baffling. It would be helpful if W&L provides more information to address the “skewed” data on the admission rates of different ethnicity, especially considering the racial history of W&L from slave ownership to recent activity by some of its African American law students alleging racial bias at the school.</p>

<p>As to my chance estimates in your case, I stand behind them. You are not a lock, because as is the case for all holistic schools, no one is a lock for entry, but having said that you have any extremely good chance of acceptance if you apply Early Decision. Regular Decision, your chances plummet.</p>