William and Mary

I am very interested in W&M and I sent in my application yesterday. I applied to and was accepted to Purdue for engineering. My weighted GPA is 4.5/4 and I am around the top 40 out of 270 students in my class-top 15%ish. My high school is the best in the best, which helps. I have taken 5 AP and passed them all: Human Geography-4 World-3 US History-4 European History-5 and Language-3. I am currently in 5 APs: Calculus, Physics, Environmental Science, Literature and US Government. National Honor Society for a second year, Academic Team all 4 years and Student Council this year. (I am a Senior ) I have two good teacher recommendations. Cappex said I would be a good fit for the school based on my information but I don’t know how accurate Cappex actually is.

I don’t think cappex is particularly accurate because it is purely numbers based with incomplete data and only gets a glimpse of your overall application. William & Mary adopts a holistic approach and therefore considers multiple factors when reviewing your application. Other things that may be helpful for context: Are you instate or out of state? what is your unweighted GPA? And what are your standardized test scores?

Out of state. 3.7 unweighted and a 27 composite for tech ACT.

I answers in the comments

My ACT is a little low but their 50% range is 29-33 so not terribly far off I would think.

@shawnspencer ^^^

Generally, if you are OOS, your scores need to be on the high end. It’s unlikely that a 27 will make it.as an OOS applicant. W&M only takes about 30% OOS, yet 2/3 of applicants are from OOS making it very competitive for an OOS applicant to get accepted.

William & Mary is more difficult to get in from out of state. As an out of state student, I can empathize with the struggle. When I applied my year, only one out of five students were accepted to the college, whereas afterwards I learned acceptances are more common for those who live in virginia. This means you will need to stand out in your application if your test scores are on the lower side. Sites like cappex do not account for this in-state out-of-state difference. Your strengths are with your rigorous schedule and relatively high grades while maintaining that schedule. Since you have already submitted your application, if there are any significant updates since your submission you can update the admissions committee. For instance if you did especially well in your academic team competition or you led a record-breaking food-drive for your community with student council, you can email them to let them know. Best of luck OP!

@shawnspencer my midyear report it very good. 4 a and 2 b. My GPA, weighted is 4.5 and I applied for STEM major, which I would think would help because WM is a liberal arts college

Curious, why are you applying at WM if you are accepted for engineering at Purdue? Unless you are going into the 3/2 program and plan to transfer to Columbia. WM is not an engineering university. If you are looking at a liberal arts major than WM is as good as the next. Out of state you will need to bring up your ACT.

@eusriso the Columbia program is why. I would have 2 degrees and 1 from an Ivy League school

Don’t have any experience with the 3/2 program - my daughter was wait listed and choose to go somewhere else, but on the surface the 3/2 program is a great program and will get you into Columbia. If you really want to do the 3/2 program Columbia has a list of schools that offer the program, William and Mary is not your only choice.

@eusriso I looked at the other schools and I liked Wam the best. It is better than all of the schools I looked at and it is a smaller school

I was accepted out of state into WM. It definitely is much harder OOS. Not to be a downer, but I wouldnt bank on getting into WM only because the application pool is so competitive. The typical ACT score for OOS accepted within my peer group of accepted students was a 33. If you have interviewed there, then it will increase your chances. However, I wish you the best of luck! WM is known for their holistic admissions process, so I would say you still have a chance, but to make sure you have back up you are happy with!