Chances at Washington & Lee?

friedokra
Sat, 26 May 2007 22:07:29 +0000

gchris:

Good for you and congratulations. I speak not from the hip from from fact. W and L is an excellent school. They are very small and they have a set number of people and profile they are looking for. If you are middle class and got in with no connections, then good for you. But I can tell you that they are not a needs blind admissions process and they look to see if you have money or not and that is factored into the process. They also have a profile for women which is a tad different than for men.

A school is not its admissions office. An admissions office is not a school. One can admire the school and have a different view of the admissions process.

I can tell you that people with lower stats…MUCH LOWER, who came from money and went to elite feeder private schools and didnt perform all that well in Summer Scholars got in this year…two on the wait list…while others with excellent stats, performed MARVELOUSLY at Summer Scholars, but who applied for financial aid, did not get in. You decide.

And dont go into the extracurriculars and poetry thing. Every kid who applies has some extracurricular and has shined in that area.

Like some people said, they can visit Davidson and hate it and visit W and L and love it, or vice versa. But the schools are almost identical.

Admissions is quirky at a lot of schools. Not to pour cold water on your acceptance. I wish you well and applaud your acceptance. But dont get too comfortable with that…the admissions process is definitely quirky. Ditto at Vanderbilt.

And its also important to know that there are hundreds of excellent schools and getting into one or being rejected or waitlisted at another is really of no import, other than one’s ego and pride, because you can obtain an excellent education at many schools.

I just wish that schools were more consistent. And I am not suggesting that they only take kids with a 4.5 gpa (weighted) or higher, or an SAT of 1500 or higher either…diversity in backgrounds is important. But it bugs me when they preach one thing and do another.

I know five kids who got into UVa out of state. All five of them come from wealthy families and “privileged” backgrounds. This despite all that blather on UVa’s website about being needs blind and looking at the whole person, blah blah blah…

It happens at a lot of schools.

Again, congrats to you and I wish you well at W and L. Its a great school with some great faculty.

But it all worked out in our family as well with my kid. While we got stung by W and L, where we are headed is superb and the faculty there, frankly, is a lot stronger (based on their credentials), with much deeper course offerings.
And the honor code is not unique to W and L. Its very strong at a LOT of schools.

Despite what the admissions office at W and L did, we have fond memories of the W and L and will always cherish our experience there.