<p>Hi there, I'm about to begin my senior year of high school. </p>
<p>William & Mary is my top choice so I will be applying ED. My critical reading score is 760, writing is 620, and math is 570 (that's 1950 total). My overall unweighted GPA so far is 3.9. Junior year I took AP English and US History, Chemistry, Algebra II, French I, and elective courses. Next year I plan to take AP English, AP History, AP Biology, Physics, Pre-Calculus and AP Psychology if my school offers it.I go to a very tiny school - there are 10 kids in my graduating class! If we all continue on our current academic trend I will be the valedictorian. I'm a white girl from Virginia - I'm not sure if that information is important but I'll include it anyway. I'm hoping to double major in Government and History. I'm President of the Book Club, Writing Club, and our politics club. I volunteer around 10 hours a week and I have two part time jobs. Do I have a reasonably good chance of getting into W&M? I know that of course no one can say for certain, but an estimate would be greatly appreciated! </p>
<p>Forgot to mention that I’ve played hockey for 9 years. </p>
<p>Hello! 
I’m a prospective student as well, also planning to apply ED. I would definitely say that your SAT scores are putting you at a disadvantage. While your critical reading score is stellar, your math score is about 50 points under W&M’s middle-50 range. I would suggest retaking the SAT and perhaps the ACT? Your coarse load is decent. Is there any reason that you’ve only done a year (or two) of French rather than committing to a foreign language for 4 years? Additionally, you aren’t going to take Calculus, which may make you less competitive in the eyes of admissions. Your extracurricular activities are strong, which is expected at a small school (10 students in your class?? wow). Best of luck my friend! </p>
<p>Thank you for the advice, ribbon! I hope I get to see you there next year I signed up to take the SAT again, and I’m hoping I’ll do better this time. I’ve been studying my butt off so I hope it pays off! I’ve never been a strong math student and I switched schools after 10th grade so I was forced to change languages. Do you by any chance know if there’ll be a section of the application for me to explain these issues, and if I can’t improve my math score, will it still be enough to get me accepted? Thank you so much for the reply!</p>
<p>Simple repetition can help improve your scores with the SAT, so be sure to take lots of timed practice tests. Obviously you should focus on “Math” - the SAT is super-scored, your present CR is already good, and the writing component is all-but-ignored. I’m sure there’s lot of advice on strategies to improve your SAT math score out there, so will leave that to you. </p>
<p>Even without SAT improvement, I think you have a really good shot - a bit light on the Languages, though - if French II is available, you might consider that. I think your guidance counselor should be able to assist with how to communicate your (lack of) course offerings, but perhaps you should ask the W&M admissions office.</p>
<p>9 years of hockey can’t hurt - colleges like to see “passion” in your extras. </p>
<p>Essays are really important, summer is a good time to start drafting them. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>No problem And William&Mary admissions has mentioned before that there is an “Additional Info” section on CommonApp under which you should mention circumstances that have led to less than desirable grades (or in your case, a lack of higher level foreign language courses). Squiddy is right in that the guidance counselor can explain the school’s circumstances. However, if there is an option on the application to briefly mention your circumstances, I would go ahead and do that.
Squiddy is also right about the essays! I’ve drafted both my CommonApp essay and the optional submission. Another thing; definitely do the optional submission. Admissions want to learn as much about you as they can so a basically promptless essay can only help you (as long as it’s well written of course).</p>
<p>Thank you both so much for the replies! I really appreciate it and I’ll definitely be taking your advice </p>
<p>I promise this will be my final question: for the optional submission I was thinking of submitting the prologue of one of my novels. Is this sort of thing accepted, or does it have to be an essay? </p>
<p>That definitely works! From what I’ve gathered from touring W&M and reading their admissions blog, the optional component can really be anything (although written submissions are preferred).</p>
<p>I signed up to take the ACT and hopefully it will turn out to be better than the SAT! Thank you so much for your replies to my questions, I really appreciate all of the help. </p>
<p>For the W&M submission, they have their own essay question they want you to answer. It’s along the lines of “what makes you colorful” it’s the same essay prompt as last year. So I don’t think it’s a good idea to submit anything extra that they don’t ask for - like a prologue to a novel.</p>
<p>Are you sure? I Googled the full prompt and it goes: “Beyond your impressive academic credentials and extracurricular accomplishments, what else makes you unique and colorful? Provide us with some limited measure of your personality. We know that nobody fits neatly into 500 words or less, but you can provide us with some suggestion of The Type of Person You Are. Anything goes! Inspire us, impress us or just make us laugh. Think of this optional opportunity as Show and Tell by proxy and with an attitude.” I was under the impression that when they said “anything goes” they meant I could write anything that shows how unique and colorful I am? </p>
<p>Vamom, during my information session at W&M an admissions officer told me that she doesn’t expect people to answer the prompt strictly and that it is meant to give the applicant as much creative license as possible.
If creative writing is a significant part of aspiringwmgirl’s life and she is good at what she does, then the best way for her to show that through her application is by sharing one of her own pieces rather than just describing the writing process. :’) </p>
<p>Certainly, if she can show it’s what makes her interesting, colorful, etc. then go for it. I’d just be hesitant to submit a prologue for a novel without some explanation on how it is a reflection of her personality, makes her unique, etc. so yes, anything goes, just be sure it’s tied back to you and some part of your essence.</p>
<p>What does William and Mary consider to be a good AP score? I got a 3 on AP english but a 5 on history. I’m afraid to submit my 3 because I got a 36 & 35 on the ACT reading & english tests respectively. Does it look worse if I leave it off, though? </p>
<p>According to William & Mary Admissions posting on this website</p>
<p>"For purposes of admission, W&M considers the courses you took and the grades you received. AP scores only come into play if we’re reviewing a student for a scholarship and even then, plenty of students receive scholarships who do not report or send us any AP exam scores.</p>
<p>AP exam scores are used primarily after a student enrolls for credit purposes."</p>
<p>and </p>
<p>" A course grade reflects 9 months of work while an AP score reflects a four-hour exam. We realize that sometimes people just have off days or aren’t the greatest testers. We look at the course you took and the grade you received while evaluating your candidacy for admission. We see AP scores of reported or self reported but they are not making or breaking any decision we make or altering how we feel about the quality of your transcript."</p>
<p>from this forum
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-william-mary/962358-ap-scores-and-admission.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-william-mary/962358-ap-scores-and-admission.html</a></p>
<p>A 3 in AP English won’t earn you credit at W&M (according to <a href=“http://www.wm.edu/offices/registrar/documents/catalog/apibfor2013-2014.pdf”>http://www.wm.edu/offices/registrar/documents/catalog/apibfor2013-2014.pdf</a>)</p>
<p>but it won’t hurt your chances for admission. If I were you I would submit both scores. </p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about your SAT score my score was lower than that and I was accepted ED (you can probably look up my full stats somewhere on CC I’m sure I’ve posted them somewhere). Your SAT score says little about you as a person. I ended up graduating with a 4.53 gpa, with 6 APs and in the top 10% yet my SAT score was “terrible for [my] choice in schools,” soooo…don’t stress over it-a test on a saturday morning does not define you! Your transcript and activities mean more.</p>
<p>My biggest advice to you is write the supplement and, if you can, interview. For my supplement I really joked the school about some different things and tried to make them laugh while progressively getting serious. I wrote about two of my passions, comedy and sports. So make it unique to you.; essentially, you do you! </p>
<p>Also, don’t fret about your AP scores, I sent in the 5 exam scores I took and had three 3’s (2 of them being from junior year). Not that I’m the marker you should judge by, I just want to give you a little perspective. </p>