The official Williams press release for class of 2022 says 220 Asian Americans accepted out of 1163 total. For class 2021, it’s 220 out of 1253. That puts Asian% among accepted at 18.9% for 2022 and 17.6% for 2021. But when I brought up the common data set for class of 2021, the Asian number was 59 out of 548, which is 10.8%. This difference btw accepted and enrolled seems way too big to reconcile. A few reasons I can think of, 1) Asians don’t matriculate to Williams. This I find hard to believe. 2) Ethic numbers from the official press release is somehow fudged, as colleges generally don’t (can’t) lie on their common data set numbers (re Emory/Claremont debacle yrs back). Possible explanation could be that they double count ppl to include mixed races. That’s probably why white% in common data set is 47.8% vs 37% in the official press release for 2021. In any case, back to my original question: is 10.8% the actual number for Asians at Williams? This sounds pretty low to me among the elite colleges. Either Asians don’t matriculate to Williams, or is there some kind of bias at Williams? But if there is some bias, why Williams takes pain to hide it in their press release?
If colleges don’t lie in the CDS, then the CDS numbers are correct. My personal guess is that multi-racial people are included in the non-white numbers in the press release, but also that Williams gets lower yields for minority students.
FWIW, Williams’ yield for Native American students appears to be 0% for the Class of 2021.
The CDS says Williams’ Asian enrollment for all four years as a whole is 12.5%. 10.8% isn’t hugely discrepant.
Believe it. Most liberal arts colleges struggle to get even 10% Asian-American enrollment. In that context, Williams actually does pretty well. For example, I just looked up the following numbers for Asian-American enrollment at College Navigator:
14% Amherst
12% Williams
8% Grinnell
8% Carleton
8% Wesleyan
7% Bowdoin
7% Colby
7% Hamilton
6% Middlebury
6% Reed
6% Davidson
5% Whitman
5% Bucknell
4% Colgate
4% Lafayette
4% Oberlin
4% Bates
3% Washington & Lee
LACs with more than 10% Asian-American enrollment tend to fall into the following categories:
(1) Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore (historically the top-ranked LACs)
(2) Women’s colleges
(3) Southern California LACs (Claremonts, Oxy, Soka)
But even in those cases, Asian-American enrollment is commonly only in the 10-20% range, which is still not particularly high compared to many national universities.
Out of curiosity, I took the database I happened to have (146 mostly-secular, undergraduate-focused, residential, private colleges and universities, from the 2016-2017 IPEDS database), and here’s how the categories break down:
Carnegie Classification % Asian Example School # of Schools
Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus 6.65% Williams College 69
Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields 2.00% High Point University 3
Doctoral Universities: Higher Research Activity 5.14% American University 7
Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity 15.89% Harvard University 28
Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity 14.00% Clark University 5
Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs 4.10% Marist College 21
Master’s Colleges & Universities: Medium Programs 2.63% Elon University 8
Master’s Colleges & Universities: Small Programs 3.00% Trinity University (TX) 5
Overall 7.79% 146
In the category that includes Williams, the percentages are:
institution name State % Asian
Wellesley College Massachusetts 21
Swarthmore College Pennsylvania 16
Soka University of America California 15
Scripps College California 15
Occidental College California 14
Barnard College New York 14
Pomona College California 14
Amherst College Massachusetts 14
Austin College Texas 14
Williams College Massachusetts 13
Vassar College New York 12
Bryn Mawr College Pennsylvania 12
Smith College Massachusetts 12
Mount Holyoke College Massachusetts 10
Haverford College Pennsylvania 10
Claremont McKenna College California 10
Pitzer College California 9
Westmont College California 9
Willamette University Oregon 8
Agnes Scott College Georgia 8
University of Richmond Virginia 7
Kalamazoo College Michigan 7
Wesleyan University Connecticut 7
Hamilton College New York 7
Macalester College Minnesota 7
Reed College Oregon 6
Lewis & Clark College Oregon 6
University of Puget Sound Washington 6
Union College New York 6
Bowdoin College Maine 6
Bard College New York 6
Rhodes College Tennessee 6
Lawrence University Wisconsin 5
Franklin and Marshall College Pennsylvania 5
Lake Forest College Illinois 5
Wheaton College Massachusetts 5
Skidmore College New York 5
Davidson College North Carolina 5
Birmingham Southern College Alabama 5
Hendrix College Arkansas 5
Gustavus Adolphus College Minnesota 4
Colorado College Colorado 4
Trinity College Connecticut 4
Goucher College Maryland 4
Connecticut College Connecticut 4
Whitman College Washington 4
Illinois Wesleyan University Illinois 4
Bates College Maine 4
Ursinus College Pennsylvania 4
St. John’s College Maryland 4
Denison University Ohio 4
Oberlin College Ohio 4
Lafayette College Pennsylvania 4
Southwestern University Texas 4
Muhlenberg College Pennsylvania 3
Meredith College North Carolina 3
Beloit College Wisconsin 3
Dickinson College Pennsylvania 3
McDaniel College Maryland 3
Millsaps College Mississippi 3
Wofford College South Carolina 3
Albion College Michigan 3
Carthage College Wisconsin 2
Gettysburg College Pennsylvania 2
Hampshire College Massachusetts 2
Furman University South Carolina 2
Eckerd College Florida 2
Roanoke College Virginia 1
Lycoming College Pennsylvania 1
Note that @Corbett 's categories are pretty accurate!
So where do Asian kids matriculate?
institution name State % Asian Carnegie Classification
University of the Pacific California 37 Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity
Rice University Texas 24 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Johns Hopkins University Maryland 23 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Wellesley College Massachusetts 21 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
University of Southern California California 21 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Princeton University New Jersey 21 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Stanford University California 21 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Duke University North Carolina 21 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
New York University New York 20 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Case Western Reserve University Ohio 20 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 19 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
University of Chicago Illinois 18 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Columbia University in the City of New York New York 18 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Cornell University New York 18 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Emory University Georgia 18 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Yale University Connecticut 17 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Harvard University Massachusetts 17 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Northwestern University Illinois 17 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Washington University in St Louis Missouri 17 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Swarthmore College Pennsylvania 16 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Soka University of America California 15 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Scripps College California 15 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Occidental College California 14 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Barnard College New York 14 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Pomona College California 14 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Amherst College Massachusetts 14 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Austin College Texas 14 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Boston University Massachusetts 14 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Brown University Rhode Island 14 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Williams College Massachusetts 13 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Northeastern University Massachusetts 13 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Brandeis University Massachusetts 13 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Vassar College New York 12 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Bryn Mawr College Pennsylvania 12 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Smith College Massachusetts 12 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Vanderbilt University Tennessee 12 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Tufts University Massachusetts 12 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
University of Rochester New York 11 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Seattle Pacific University Washington 11 Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity
Chapman University California 11 Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs
Mount Holyoke College Massachusetts 10 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Haverford College Pennsylvania 10 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Claremont McKenna College California 10 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
George Washington University District of Columbia 10 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Hofstra University New York 10 Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity
You would get more schools with relatively high (over 20%) Asian-American enrollment if you included state universities. Likely examples might include multiple UCs and CSUs, UWashington, UHawaii, UT-Austin, UT-Dallas, Georgia Tech, Rutgers, Stony Brook, CUNYs, UMBC.
Also private engineering-oriented schools, like MIT or Caltech, which aren’t on the list above either.
The bottom line is that it’s not too difficult to identify universities with 20+% Asian-American enrollment. In contrast, it’s almost impossible to find LACs in that range. Wellesley might be the only one, at around 21%, and Wellesley is not a typical LAC.
Anything over 10% (like at Williams) is unusually high for a LAC. Many well-regarded LACs can’t even get to 5%.
However, note this is for “Asian-Americans”, not “International Asians”. If you include the latter, the overall “Asian presence” on campus may be significantly higher.
For example, College Navigator shows 10% Asian-Americans at Mt. Holyoke, which is not especially high. But it also shows 27% “non-resident aliens”, most of whom are probably from Asia (particularly China). It wouldn’t surprise me if the combined “International Asian” plus “Asian-American” presence at MHC is over 30%.
Of course, the numbers at many universities would be inflated by this approach as well, particularly if graduate students were included.
Do the Asian percentage includes internationals. I’m sure that they do not.
@Corbett - the file I happened to have handy was the data dump that met my kid’s requirements. 
Speaking purely for my own kid, international students, regardless of nationality, aren’t the same thing. What she’s looking for is more like commonality of experience, not physical appearance. Among domestic students, same-race isn’t necessarily a proxy for that, but different-race is pretty reliably a proxy for not-that. IMHO it’s good for kids who live in an area where they’re an extreme minority (in any respect - ethnic, religious, political, etc) to have the opportunity to live as part of a more numerous community.
2017-2018 IPEDS dump of all public and not-for-profit private schools that offer at least a 4-year degree (no purely 2-year schools) and have some undergrad presence (no purely graduate schools):
Category [Private # Schools] [Private % Asian] [Public # Schools] [Public % Asian] [Total # Schools] [Total % Asian]
Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus 214 3.9% 27 2.9% 241 3.7%
Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields 200 1.9% 71 3.4% 271 2.3%
Baccalaureate/Associate’s Colleges: Associate’s Dominant 7 1.7% 62 3.6% 69 3.4%
Baccalaureate/Associate’s Colleges: Mixed Baccalaureate/Associate’s 46 2.3% 36 2.6% 82 2.4%
Doctoral Universities: Higher Research Activity 28 6.2% 75 4.5% 103 5.0%
Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity 34 16.3% 81 11.0% 115 12.6%
Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity 54 5.8% 38 4.1% 92 5.1%
Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs 206 3.7% 161 4.7% 367 4.2%
Master’s Colleges & Universities: Medium Programs 127 2.9% 68 2.8% 195 2.9%
Master’s Colleges & Universities: Small Programs 82 2.3% 42 2.7% 124 2.5%
Special Focus Four-Year: Arts, Music & Design Schools 48 7.4% 4 2.3% 52 7.0%
Special Focus Four-Year: Business & Management Schools 18 3.5% 0 0.0% 18 3.5%
Special Focus Four-Year: Engineering Schools 5 6.4% 1 1.3% 6 5.5%
Special Focus Four-Year: Faith-Related Institutions 180 2.4% 0 0.0% 180 2.4%
Special Focus Four-Year: Medical Schools & Centers 6 12.5% 15 7.1% 21 8.6%
Special Focus Four-Year: Other Health Professions Schools 80 5.9% 4 9.5% 84 6.1%
Special Focus Four-Year: Other Special Focus Institutions 12 2.1% 0 0.0% 12 2.1%
Special Focus Four-Year: Other Technology-Related Schools 3 6.0% 1 7.0% 4 6.3%
Tribal Colleges 7 0.1% 27 0.5% 34 0.4%
Schools that have 20% or more Asian undergrads:
Public:
Name State % Asian
University of Guam Guam 45%
University of Hawaii at Manoa Hawaii 38%
University of California-Irvine California 36%
University of California-San Diego California 36%
San Jose State University California 35%
University of California-Berkeley California 35%
University of Hawaii-West Oahu Hawaii 35%
University of California-Riverside California 35%
Northern Marianas College Northern Marianas 31%
CUNY Bernard M Baruch College New York 31%
University of California-Davis California 30%
The University of Texas at Dallas Texas 29%
University of California-Los Angeles California 29%
University of Hawaii Maui College Hawaii 28%
CUNY Queens College New York 28%
San Francisco State University California 27%
University of Washington-Bothell Campus Washington 25%
Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Jersey 25%
CUNY Hunter College New York 25%
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Texas 24%
CUNY City College New York 23%
California State University-East Bay California 23%
CUNY York College New York 23%
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona California 23%
California State University-Long Beach California 22%
Stony Brook University New York 22%
University of California-Santa Cruz California 22%
University of Houston Texas 21%
University of Washington-Seattle Campus Washington 21%
University of Illinois at Chicago Illinois 21%
University of California-Merced California 21%
California State University-Fullerton California 21%
California State University-Sacramento California 21%
University of Maryland-Baltimore County Maryland 21%
The University of Texas at Austin Texas 20%
New Jersey Institute of Technology New Jersey 20%
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Georgia 20%
Private:
Name State % Asian Classification
Wellesley College Massachusetts 20% Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus
Georgia Christian University Georgia 80% Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields
Remington College-Honolulu Campus Hawaii 37% Baccalaureate/Associate’s Colleges: Mixed Baccalaureate/Associate’s
California Institute of Technology California 43% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Carnegie Mellon University Pennsylvania 27% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts 25% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Rice University Texas 24% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Johns Hopkins University Maryland 22% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Duke University North Carolina 21% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Harvard University Massachusetts 20% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Princeton University New Jersey 20% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
University of Southern California California 20% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Stanford University California 20% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
Case Western Reserve University Ohio 20% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 20% Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity
University of the Pacific California 41% Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity
University of San Francisco California 21% Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity
Chaminade University of Honolulu Hawaii 29% Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs
Dominican University of California California 23% Master’s Colleges & Universities: Medium Programs
Art Center College of Design California 34% Special Focus Four-Year: Arts, Music & Design Schools
Otis College of Art and Design California 25% Special Focus Four-Year: Arts, Music & Design Schools
Curtis Institute of Music Pennsylvania 23% Special Focus Four-Year: Arts, Music & Design Schools
Rhode Island School of Design Rhode Island 20% Special Focus Four-Year: Arts, Music & Design Schools
World Mission University California 67% Special Focus Four-Year: Faith-Related Institutions
Grace Mission University California 64% Special Focus Four-Year: Faith-Related Institutions
Bethesda University California 60% Special Focus Four-Year: Faith-Related Institutions
Faith International University Washington 26% Special Focus Four-Year: Faith-Related Institutions
Christian Life College Illinois 20% Special Focus Four-Year: Faith-Related Institutions
Touro University Nevada Nevada 35% Special Focus Four-Year: Medical Schools & Centers
Loma Linda University California 23% Special Focus Four-Year: Medical Schools & Centers
South Baylo University California 48% Special Focus Four-Year: Other Health Professions Schools
Roseman University of Health Sciences Nevada 37% Special Focus Four-Year: Other Health Professions Schools
University of the Sciences Pennsylvania 35% Special Focus Four-Year: Other Health Professions Schools
Samuel Merritt University California 25% Special Focus Four-Year: Other Health Professions Schools
MCPHS University Massachusetts 23% Special Focus Four-Year: Other Health Professions Schools
Point of interest - even though conventional wisdom is that Asian kids are overrepresented in colleges and universities, the Asian American population made up 5.6% of the US population in the 2010 Census, but only 4.1% of the 4-year-college-going population in 2017-2018. So overall underrepresented, but disproportionately concentrated.
Subjectively, as my husband and I walked around campus, we were impressed by the diversity of students, including the presence of many Asians. (We also noticed that kids dress casually- t-shirts, jeans, etc.- and wear a lot of “Williams College” clothes.)
There are active Asian-American groups at Williams, for those looking for the bonding around common experiences of which @allyphoe spoke. During a performance of student groups during Admitted Students Days, students of all backgrounds were stating their support for the creation of an Asian-American Studies concentration. There already are Asian studies, but the students were speaking about the importance of attention to the experience of being an Asian-American.
For what it’s worth, the new director of admissions is of Asian background.
My daughter is mix half Asian half caucasian and in her apps enter white/caucasian. Reason being is that in our research to get accepted as an Asian you are held to higher standards and scores for acceptance are much higher then the other groups.