William & Mary Paper Format & Writing Requirements

William & Mary at a glance

The second-oldest college in the United States, chartered by King William III and Queen Mary II in 1693, whose alumni include Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler and whose 37 percent admit rate now rivals the Ivy-adjacent publics.

The campus sits in Williamsburg, Virginia, operates as a public institution, and enrolls about 9,200 students — a scale that directly shapes how writing support works. Founded in 1693 with an acceptance rate around 37%, William & Mary pairs selective admissions with the large-course writing loads typical of its category.

Citation styles William & Mary actually requires

William & Mary courses predominantly require MLA 9 or Chicago 18 or APA 7. That is not a trivial preference: it decides your title page, heading levels, in-text punctuation and reference format on every graded document.

• MLA 9: used across humanities and writing-sequence courses
• Chicago 18: used across the university's signature programs
• APA 7: used across social science, nursing and business courses

Verify against the specific course syllabus anyway — instructors can override departmental defaults, and the first paper is where they enforce it.

The writing requirement, decoded

The COLLIN 150 first-year seminar and the lower-division writing requirement put graded essays in every first semester, government and history majors add research-paper loads, and the Writing Resources Center tutors in Swem Library.

Plan the sequence early: composition requirements compound, and students who defer them discover the advanced seminars — where the writing-intensity lives — conflict with major courses later. The registrar's degree audit shows exactly which flags remain; check it each semester.

Three things about William & Mary papers that surprise new students

• The Wren Building, begun in 1695, is the oldest academic building still in use in the United States, and classes still meet inside it as they have for three centuries.
• Jefferson studied law under Professor George Wythe in the Wren Building's chambers, making it the de facto first American law school a century before formal legal education existed.
• Athletic teams are the Tribe, a name adopted in the 1980s that survived NCAA review and remains one of the few tribal references still sanctioned in Division I.

None of these appear in the course description. All of them appear in the rubric. Students who learn them in week one report smoother first-semesters than students who meet them at the deadline.

Assignments William & Mary students face most

• Research Paper — most frequently assigned across William & Mary's programs
• Essay — most frequently assigned across William & Mary's programs
• Term Paper — most frequently assigned across William & Mary's programs
• Literature Review — most frequently assigned across William & Mary's programs
• Thesis (Senior/Honors) — most frequently assigned across William & Mary's programs

Popular programs at William & Mary include government and international relations, history, business (mason school) — each pairs the assignment list above with its own capstone or practicum expectations, detailed on our subject pages.