<p>I hadn’t seen this before, so I will share:</p>
<p>“William and Mary remains fortunate in that it can compete with elite private universities in attracting the brightest students based on empirical categories such as SAT scores both from the state and from the nation. However, scores on standardized tests have been shown to be an indicator of socioeconomic standingstudents who go to the best schools produce the best scores. As a public school, Broaddus said, the Colleges responsibilities run far deeper.”</p>
<p>Yes, I read this somewhere too. When I visited there, I got the impression that they really look for diversity in their student population. I also read somewhere that state residency and the rigor of one’s secondary record is very important for admissions but standardized test scores fall under that, as an important part of one’s application, along with class rank and essays.</p>
<p>numbers won’t get you into W&M, and numbers won’t keep you out. Obviously high numbers give you a better shot, and low numbers make it harder, but I really believe they look beyond that, unlike at other public schools.</p>
<p>I totally agree and I stated this on the UVA board and was attacked because some UVA expert keeps saying (for in-state) SATs and grades are the two TOP most important criteria for admissions. I say it is grades and rigor of courses.</p>
<p>W & M’s SAT average is a tad higher than UVA’s anyway.</p>
<p>family friend that worked in admissions says that when given scores and gpa, her school always took gpa first. she said it was because a high score and low gpa means lazy and a low score and high gpa means a worker. but my cc says the opposite. scores mean ability vs gpa could mean easier classes and easier school. a good school should know that both of those situations are possible and look at it all. obviously, a 900 sat and a 3.0 gpa would not even get a look. i think they have “points” that they look for. like dont
bother with anything under 3.9 and 1400 or whatever? reason i say this is a kid i know excelled at sports and math and is a girl! she got denied at schools and the only thing i could see was the low gpa. i don’t think they even looked after they saw the 3.5.</p>
<p>I think they still would’ve looked at her application, even if her GPA was a 3.5. Their common data set for 2005-2006 says that 18% of freshmen at W&M had a HS GPA between 3.5 and 3.74, which means that there ARE people who still get in with that kind of GPA. I think her SAT scores would’ve had to be really good in order for her to have gotten into W&M though.</p>
<p>Heck — my u.w. gpa is something like a 3.66 or 3.7. I can’t imagine them not looking at my application. A 3.66 sounds low but it is like getting 4 A’s and 2 B’s each year. </p>
<p>Maybe I’m going to get rejected by W & M! I bet if I posted “what are my chances”, most everyone on this board would say I’m getting rejected.</p>
<p>I think that many schools do have numerical cutoffs for GPA (and less so SAT) where they won’t really look at your application. I feel very strongly that W&M is not one fo them. Some of those 18% with the 3.5-3.74 will be athletes (W&M ranks very very highly in the new NCAA academic ratings, last year it was 1 of only 2 schools with D1 football who had a 100% graduation rate for the football team. The other school was Duke). Again, the numbers clearly show the lower your GPA, the harder it is to get in, BUT your GPA being slightly lower will not keep you out.</p>
<p>I think I had like a 3.55 after semester grades senior year.</p>
<p>worldshopper - as far as UVA goes, GPA is like, the #1 thing as long as you take a few AP/IB classes. They don’t really distinguish between a half load of AP/IB and a full load, in my experiences. With a “low” GPA, I believe an applicant’s chances are much higher at W&M than at UVA.</p>
<p>soccerguy: Actually, I would much rather go to W & M than UVA anyway. Too bad UVA does not distinguish between 1/2 load IB and full IB because I am full IB. The only “normal” classes I’ve taken since 6th grade are PE and one art class. Everything else has been honors, MYP or IB. Add to that, working 2 jobs, a one hour commute daily, president of 3 clubs and co-captain of a sports team. So, if I want to make up excuses as to why I only get 5 As and 2 Bs every year (i.e. low gpa)-- those are the reasons. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how this all comes out in the wash. I applied to Princeton ED (was deferred – shocking!), Cornell, UVA, W&M and University of Richmond. Princeton and Cornell and total long shots and I’m probably borderline at the other schools. The only thing going for me for W & M is that they like IB students and my school has the second highest acceptance rate for W & M in the entire country. I might be going to community college in the Fall, who knows!</p>
<p>soccerguy, i am assuming you know what you are talking about since you already go there. so a low gpa will not keep you out. good cause mine is 3.9 uw. is all of this based on is or oos? do you think good at everything (grades, scores, ec, and on) is better than great at one and not so great at the others?</p>
<p>Does any one know if they rate IB higher than AP or are they equal. I have a d in IB and I think the full diploma is a LOT more work than AP. As a result , her GPA is not as high as some of the other kids.</p>
<p>The general understanding, or at least from what I’ve heard is that IB is harder than AP. That being said, I think if there was any benefit added to the “IB kids” it would be to compare them against one another.</p>