Lara Jean's Admission to William & Mary

Lara Jean's Admission to William & Mary is the turning point that gives Lara Jean a college place after a painful wait-list decision and a stretch of fearing she might be admitted nowhere. Its immediate consequence is relief; its larger significance lies in the provisional future the acceptance makes possible, including a plan with Peter that she might later transfer to the University of Virginia.

The Wait for an Answer

Lara Jean spends the day waiting for news from William & Mary, her attention fixed on her phone. In AP English, Mr. O’Bryan has to ask her three times about the slave narrative tradition in Beloved before she can properly focus. Messages from Margot and Peter ask whether she has heard anything, but neither brings the awaited decision.

Between classes, in a girls’ room stall, Lara Jean’s phone finally buzzes. The email is not from William & Mary but from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: her application has been updated. Though she does not expect good news, her heart pounds as she opens the link. The result is a wait-list decision.

The wait list might have felt like an achievement on its own; instead, it lands as another blow because Lara Jean has not yet been accepted to the University of Virginia. She imagines relatives comparing her unfavorably with Margot, whom they might call a go-getter, and wonders what she will do if both UVA and UNC reject her. The scene connects the admissions outcome to more than institutional access: it touches her fear of falling short of the path she had imagined and of being judged against her sister.

A Plan Before the Acceptance

Peter meets Lara Jean at lunch, eager to hear whether she has received news. When he says it should be her, rather than him, going to UVA, she rejects the suggestion: he worked hard for his lacrosse place and deserves to attend. Peter then recalls Toney Lewis, a former senior who went to PVCC for two years before transferring to UVA. He argues that Lara Jean could also transfer, perhaps sooner, since she would be starting at a four-year college.

The transfer possibility is new to Lara Jean, who is still adjusting to the idea that UVA may not be her immediate destination. Peter turns it into a concrete plan: she can attend William & Mary, the University of Richmond, or whichever college admits her, they can visit one another, and she can apply to transfer the following year. She slowly agrees. For Peter, the plan points toward their eventual reunion at UVA; for Lara Jean, it offers a way to imagine college without having to resolve every uncertainty at once.

The Acceptance and Its Immediate Effect

As Lara Jean steals a French fry from Peter’s plate, her appetite begins to return. Her phone vibrates again, this time with an email from William & Mary’s admissions office. Peter looks over her shoulder while his leg bounces against hers as they wait for the page to load. The message offers her admission to the College of William and Mary.

Relief floods Lara Jean. Peter jumps up, lifts her, and swings her around, announcing the news to their lunch table and anyone listening; their tablemates cheer. He says he knew everything would work out. Lara Jean hugs him tightly, recognizing that she is relieved both to have been admitted and to have a plan. The acceptance resolves the immediate fear that she may have nowhere to go, but it does not erase her earlier UVA hopes or decide whether a transfer will happen.

A Future Still Open

Peter imagines how the couple can manage the distance: William & Mary is two hours away, Lara Jean’s father might let her use the car, and Peter can make the trip with her until she feels comfortable driving it. Lara Jean nods. Their conversation turns an admissions result into a practical arrangement, while leaving the longer-term possibility of UVA as a shared hope rather than a guaranteed outcome.

The episode’s emotional movement is from suspended anticipation, through the sting of UNC’s wait list, to the release of a definite acceptance. Its ending is hopeful but provisional. William & Mary gives Lara Jean a place to begin, and Peter’s transfer plan helps her picture a future together; neither the acceptance nor the plan settles the question of where she will ultimately choose to study.