William & Mary supplemental essays
Yes, but every one is optional. William & Mary prints six supplemental essays in 2026-27 and requires none of them. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
That is up to two supplements plus the Common App personal statement: at most three pieces of writing in all. Early Decision closes November 1, 2026, Early Decision II closes January 5, 2027 and Regular Decision closes January 5, 2027. The prompts carry this limit: 300 words. Every William & Mary prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 1, 2026 |
| Early Decision II | January 5, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 5, 2027 |
Checked against www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/how-to-apply/first-year-applicants/application-checklist/index.php. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
This college does not publish its questions.
This college does not print its essay questions on its own website: they only appear once you open the application. These are copied word for word from college-essay guides that agree with each other. Check the questions in your own application before you write.
Optional (answer up to 2 of the 6) · 300 words
Are there any particular communities that are important to you, and how do you see yourself being a part of our community?
W&M's instruction line, as quoted by College Transitions: "To help us learn more about you, we invite you to share additional information by answering up to two of these optional short-answer prompts."
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional (answer up to 2 of the 6) · 300 words
Share more about a personal academic interest or career goal.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional (answer up to 2 of the 6) · 300 words
How has your family, culture and/or background shaped your lived experience?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional (answer up to 2 of the 6) · 300 words
What led to your interest in William & Mary?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional (answer up to 2 of the 6) · 300 words
Tell us about a challenge or adversity you’ve experienced and how that has impacted you as an individual.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional (answer up to 2 of the 6) · 300 words
If we visited your town, what would you want to show us?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this prompt
Your William & Mary checklist
Two supplements, all optional. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- Supplements 1 to 6Optional300 words each
It saves these rows to your essay manager, where each one carries a status you set yourself and the prompt stays attached to it. Add your other schools and they land on the same page, in deadline order. Nothing written yet? The topic quiz is free as well.
Free: this page, the checklist, the essay manager and the topic quiz. Paid: a written review of a finished draft, $49 an essay.
Paste your essay for a free read
Have it in a document? or drop one here (Word, PDF, or Text).
Not sure what a review is? What an AI college essay review can and cannot do, and what a college essay grader leaves out. What the read checks against William & Mary’s own prompts is on the William & Mary essay review page.
Getting into William & Mary
William & Mary admits 34.1% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1400-1530 on the SAT and 32-34 on the ACT.
About 1 in 3 applicants are admitted, at a college of 7,055 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1400 | 1470 | 1530 |
| SAT reading and writing | 710 | 740 | 760 |
| SAT math | 690 | 730 | 770 |
| ACT composite | 32 | 33 | 34 |
What SAT score do you need for William & Mary?
A 1530 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1470 at their midpoint, and a 1400 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 32, 33 and 34. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for William & Mary?
- William & Mary sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1400-1530 on the SAT: a 1400 sits at the 25th percentile, 1470 at the median and 1530 at the 75th. A score at or above 1530 is a clear strength in the application; below 1400 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures William & Mary reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for William & Mary?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 32-34 on the ACT, with a composite of 33 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 32. Reported by William & Mary to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for William & Mary?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for William & Mary is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that William & Mary admits 34.1% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into William & Mary?
- William & Mary admits 34.1% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 3 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What William & Mary costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
William & Mary essay questions, answered
- Does William & Mary have supplemental essays?
- Yes, but every one is optional. William & Mary prints six supplemental essays in 2026-27 and requires none of them. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: 300 words.
- How many essays do you write for William & Mary in 2026-27?
- Up to two supplements, plus the Common App personal statement.
Schools with similar admit rates
William & Mary admits 34.1% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Kenyon College (31.0%), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO) (31.3%), Lafayette College (31.4%), Oberlin College (34.2%), Mount Holyoke College (36.0%), San Diego State University (SDSU) (36.2%).