William and Mary has always been the top choice school for my daughter, but she is concerned about her chances of getting in.
My Daughter will only have 3 years of a language at the time of graduation. She took 2 years of French and then decided her Sophmore year to begin studying Latin because she thought it would help her in the medical field. She is at a very competitive highschool where she has maintained a 4.2 GPA, which comparatively speaking seems low because the high flyers at her school. She will have the required 4 years of science, is in BC AP Calc as a junior, and has taken all honors classes. She will have about 6 AP classes, I believe. But again, compared to other kids at McLean HS, this is low she fears. Her composite ACT is a 32. She will have 4 years of being on the crew team, has played piano for 13 years, is a mamber of NHS and NSHS and the Latin club, and is a member of CTY Johns Hopkins where she got to participate in a 3 week long civic leadership institute at UCA Berkeley where she worked with the homeless population in the San Fransisco area. And not that this matters in this competitive area, but she can play a rather mean kazoo!
Her Father and her Grandfather both graduated from William and Mary. William and Mary has always been the top choice school for my daughter. But she has been repeatedely told that W and M is not an option becasue she will not have 4 years of one language (2 years of French and 3 years of Latin) and more than likely her 4.2 GPA does not place her in the top 10 percent at McLean HS.
What is she looking at here as far as chances go? Should she just start looking elsewhere? I want to support her in all of this and still encourage her to apply. Any suggestions?
Being a legacy and having that family connection will definitely give her a shot (the kazoo thing is interesting), William & Mary does recommend four years of a language and being in the top 10 percent, but she does have the other components like mathematics and the sciences. She’s well ahead of the math curve. Her ACT is quite good. I would recommend applying but also applying to some backup options as well. I would recommend explaining the language change in the additional information section, otherwise it might seem weird – but it aligns with her goals of working in the medical field.
If W&M is her definite first choice, she should apply ED. That plus legacy and in-state will help a lot.
FCPS does not give class rank, so you can ignore that concern. W&M knows all about how various Virginia school districts do things.
W&M does holistic admissions and actually looks at transcripts rather that applying an algorithm. Anyone who claims “that W and M is not an option becasue she will not have 4 years of one language” is ignorant. (That said, I bet she could take an additional year of Latin online this summer if she wanted.)
Your daughter sounds like a strong candidate, but almost nobody could consider W&M to be a safety school. Have you looked at the scattergrams for how McLean students historically do in W&M admissions?
Yes we have looked at scattergrams and she is right in the middle range. W and M not a safety school coming from McLean it looks like. We will certainly look at back up schools probably out of state.
Virginia has more of a range of good state-supported schools than just about anywhere. You hear the most about UVa, W&M, Tech, Madison, Mason, and VCU. But I urge you to take a good look at Mary Washington, Radford, Longwood, and Christopher Newport.
I see that she really has 5 years of language (3+2). Only 4 is recommended. Your language concern is a non issue. Not sure who has repeatedly told her that she needs 4 years in one language. If it is someone at W&M then simply address the issue directly and find a way to communicate that she decided she wanted to learn some Latin for a possible career in the medical field. One of my kids loved taking Latin, and she took it thinking it would help her to understand the roots of many words we use today. Crew won’t help much unless she is a recruited athlete. ECs are fine. If W&M is where she really wants to go then apply ED and have an EDII school in mind as a back up. Legacy will really only help if she applies ED. This is a point that many people miss. Good luck!
Let me put it this way, if I may, – my daughter had 3 years of French as foreign language in high school, and she got in (class 2024) as ED1. So, the statement “W&M is not an option because she will not have 4 years of one language” is simply not true.