p. College admissions are becoming notoriously more competitive, but the College may not be keeping up. As other colleges have seen record-low acceptance rates, the College’s acceptance rate has increased from 31 percent two years ago, to 32 percent last year, and 33 percent this year.
p. Dean of Admissions Henry Broaddus and Associate Provost for Enrollment Earl Granger attributed this year’s higher acceptance rate to press about early decision programs earlier this year, when such programs were discontinued at Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of Virginia.
p. “The early admissions rates [of applications] are down because of how much of a beating early decision took in the press this year,” Granger said.
p. This year’s early applicants decreased by 6.7 percent from last year. According to Granger, the lower early admission applications affected who applied regular decision.
p. “The selectivity is a little different, but as a qualitative matter, we identify the most talented within our pool, so the most important thing is that the class is its own best resource, and in terms of how diverse it is, it has really been a great success,” Granger said.
p. Many colleges saw record lows in admission rates, such as U.Va.’s 33 percent rate, down from 36 percent last year.
The College received a record 10,845 applications and accepted 3,577. The College still expects its typical enrollment of around 1,350, but that the College is offering spots to more students indicates the possibility that the College may be trying to compensate for a lower yield rate.
p. Of the 10,845 applicants, 20 percent of applicants (2,179) were students of color. This is an increase compared to the 2,076 (19 percent) of last year. 938 students, or 8.6 percent of the accepted class, were students of color. Last year, the rate was 8.8 percent. Of the 938 of color, 270 are black, 375 are Asian, 258 are Hispanic and 35 are Native American.
p. First-generation students, whose parents or guardians did not attend college, increased from 331 to 375.
p. “There is a significant increase in this area of 13 percent. We are very excited about this, because it is another indicator in our success in outreach towards students who wouldn’t normally think of attending William and Mary,” Broaddus said.
p. Granger also emphasized the first generation increase as a way to impact campus economic diversity.
p. “Clearly we’re excited about the first generation increase; most people think of race as diversity, but we think about it in the broadest context,” he said. “We’re excited in terms of direction; we are able to impact the way our campus looks and the way our students are challenged.”
p. The SAT middle 50th percentile was 1310-1470, identical to last year. Of students who attended high schools that use class ranks, 87 percent were ranked in the top 10 percent of their class. This is an increase from last year, according to the Admissions Office’s press release.
p. Statistics for waitlisted students are not yet available.
p. “We don’t have those statistics yet. We are still building the waitlist; students can be admitted, denied or offered a place on the waitlist,” Broaddus said. “We usually have an active waitlist of just over 800.”
p. Despite the rise of the admission rate, Broaddus and Granger are happy with the turnout of this year’s process, and they want to continue to focus on expansion of diversity.
p. “It’s a college community where we have a lot to be proud of, statistically,” Granger said.
p. “We want to cultivate and develop the Gateway pool, which is for students whose family makes below $40,000 a year. Only 28 percent of students at William and Mary are here on financial aid,” Granger said.