What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$881 to $34,370 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $43,035 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $32,732.Aid and debt
$28,934
average debt at graduation
662
students got merit aid
about 10% of undergraduates
$5,615
average merit award
Not reported by this school: share receiving need-based grants.
Getting In
Admit rates
37%
admitted overall
49.8%
admitted Early Decision
35.7%
admitted Regular Decision
A note for out-of-state applicants
College of William & Mary's out-of-state undergraduate share has already crossed a threshold set by Virginia's state budget law, which means the school can't let that share grow any further — though it isn't required to bring it back down. If you're applying from outside Virginia, this cap on further growth may affect your odds in ways the admit rate above doesn't show.
Early Decision
Early Decision applicants were admitted at 1x the Regular Decision rate, and Early Decision is binding: you commit to attend if admitted.
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Some of that gap reflects who applies early (recruited athletes, legacy applicants and highly committed students concentrate in that pool), so it isn't proof that applying early would raise any one student's own odds.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1390–1520 · 48% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 32–34 · 14% of the class submitted
78.7% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Class rank
- GPA
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Considered
- SAT/ACT scores
- First-gen status
- Where you're from
- Demonstrated interest
- Not considered
- Legacy status
What this means for you
William & Mary rates four things you can work on as Very Important: course rigor, your essay, your recommendations, and your activities.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. The essay is weighted like your GPA. Choose recommenders who can be specific about you, not just confirm your transcript. And depth in a few activities beats a long list.
William & Mary rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
William & Mary just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-William & Mary essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
47.6% of William & Mary classes have fewer than 20 students.
47.6%
under 20 students
43.6%
20 to 49
8.8%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. William & Mary CDS 2025–26, I-3.
11:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
64.7%
live on campus
~27%
in Greek life
Greek-life participation from W&M FSL (2025) — not reported in William & Mary's 2025–26 Common Data Set.
Who attends
- White63%
- Asian10.9%
- Hispanic9.1%
- Multiracial7.7%
- Black4.9%
- Unknown / other1.4%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. William & Mary CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
82.1% of William & Mary students graduate in 4 years.
82.1%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
88.3%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
95.3%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
80.3% finish in 6 years, against 88.3% of all students.
An 8-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Williamsburg.
William & Mary sits directly beside Colonial Williamsburg, the restored eighteenth-century town, so the campus edge blends into a working historical district of brick streets and costumed interpreters.
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Williamsburg itself is small — roughly 15,000 residents outside the student body — and quiet, with Richmond an hour west and the Virginia Beach coast about an hour southeast. The campus divides between the Ancient Campus around the Wren Building, the oldest college building still in use in the United States, and the modern academic buildings beyond Crim Dell.
The City
College town
Williamsburg, VA
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. He enrolled here in 1760 and studied mathematics, philosophy and law for two years, leaving in 1762 to read law under George Wythe — himself a W&M professor and the first law professor in America.
Robert Gates
U.S. secretary of defense under two presidents, of opposing parties, and a former director of the CIA. He returned to serve as the university's 24th chancellor.
Class of 1965
Glenn Close
Actress with eight Academy Award nominations, three Emmys and three Tony Awards, from Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons to Damages. She took her degree here in theatre.
Class of 1974
Jon Stewart
Host of The Daily Show for sixteen years, winner of more than twenty Emmy Awards, and the person most credited with turning satire into a primary news source for a generation. He studied psychology here.
Class of 1984
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
The Yule Log Ceremony
Begun in 1934, and held in the Great Hall each December: students crowd in, the president reads to them in costume, and everyone throws a sprig of holly into the Yule log fire — the sprig carrying whatever you want to leave behind that year. Hot cider and sugar cookies follow.
The Crim Dell Bridge
An ornate red-and-white footbridge built in 1966, crossing the lily pond that separates the old campus from the new. The legend is precise about the terms: cross it with someone and kiss at the crown and you will be together for life; cross it alone and you stay single.
The Sunken Garden
A 2.7-acre rectangle of lawn set below the surrounding ground, running west from the Wren Building. It is the campus's front lawn and its default venue — where people study, throw frisbees, hold the spring carnival and gather for anything that needs the whole college in one place.
Weekend escapes from Williamsburg
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Williamsburg
Virginia Beach & the Coast
1 hourThe Atlantic, the boardwalk and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, an easy warm-weather run southeast from campus.
Richmond
1 hourThe state capital and the nearest real city — a strong restaurant and music scene, the VMFA, and the government offices where a lot of W&M internships live.
Washington, D.C.
2 hours 45 minutesThe reason many students are here: the museums and monuments for a weekend, and the federal agencies, think tanks and Capitol Hill offices for a summer.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Newport News/Williamsburg International (PHF)
20 minutes from campus
For international flights: Washington Dulles International (IAD) — about 2 hours 45 minutes by road.
Pro sports nearby
- Norfolk Tides MiLBAbout 1 hour away
- Norfolk Admirals ECHLAbout 1 hour away
- Washington Commanders NFLAbout 2.5 hours away
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
William & Mary's pipeline runs on government and public service rather than on a local industry cluster: Richmond's state agencies are an hour away and Washington under three, which is why so much of its internship traffic points at capitals rather than at campus.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- U.S. federal agencies
- Commonwealth of Virginia
- Jefferson Lab
- Huntington Ingalls Industries
- Capital One
- Deloitte
Richmond, 1 hour
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
William & Mary is among the smallest public universities a family is likely to consider — 6,951 undergraduates, with 64.7% of them living on campus, which keeps the social life on the grounds rather than scattered across a city. Founded in 1693, it wears its age openly: the Yule Log ceremony and the Crim Dell bridge are traditions students genuinely organise a year around. Academically it behaves like a private college, with 47.6% of classes under 20 students and an 82.1% four-year graduation rate — the practical measure of whether students finish on time, and a strong one. Cost is where the word 'public' misleads. In-state tuition and fees run about $27,200, William & Mary meets 82% of demonstrated need, and graduates leave owing roughly $28,900, so this is not the cheap in-state option its label suggests. It admits 49.8% of Early Decision applicants against 37.0% overall; those are published rates for two different pools of students, not a tactic, and ED is binding, so it only makes sense once the money already works.