<p>I’ve read the article (which is fascinating and a bit intimidating). I agree it’s important, when applying to a school as selective as W & M, to show that you’ve undertaken a tough course of study in high school. But just to offer our experience - my daughter will start at W & M next month, and was admitted without ever having taken physics, and without an AP language. She did have 5 APs (Calc AB, US History, English Lit and Comp, Chem, and Bio), two humanities courses in a college cooperative program, and the rest all Honors courses - but it can’t be said that she took the very most rigorous program at our high school, which would have included physics and an AP language. She’s an unhooked OOS female (from NY) with very strong SATs who applied ED.</p>
<p>I do think that W & M strongly considers ECs, recs and essays if the GPA, SATs, and curriculum indicate a student who can fit in there academically.</p>