After a quite roundabout and short-sighted college application process, I can say that I’m blessed and fortunate enough to be attending WIlliams in the fall. That said, I want to pass down the lessons and tips I acquired about the whole process, from drafting a college list, to the essays, to anything else you’d like to know. Especially in terms of this great school I have yet to attend.
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Any student/parent/alumni/friend is also welcome to chime in and answers questions.
To say they see past simple numbers is a vast understatement. I was curious of what holistic admissions meant to college officials. I was also curious as to whether it made sense for someone with a 3.4 uw gpa and 1920 SAT to even waste the time and money applying.
But, since my numbers clearly didn’t speak my case effectively, I relied more on my ECs and essays. In them, I tried to appear more than just another of thousands of applicants. I had one club leadership position, but I was passionate about it and made that apparent.
My essay wasn’t about service trips or life-changing experiences I’ve never really gotten to have. I just talked about riding the train in new york, and how cool it was that you saw differrant people everyday.
What I’m trying to say is that Williams really searchs for and wants vibrant humans, people who are unique and provide some color. Even if your tests and grades are not up to standard, holistic vision truly applies.
The selection process is the way it is because it naturally creates probably the most welcoming and diverse college community I’ve ever seen, especially in such an isolated place.
When I visited in April, I sat in on a freshman dorm snack event, and was amazed at all the people I saw of different races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and origins all have fun and joke around with each other.
I believe one of the greatest factors in choosing a college is the community, and Williams does great in admitting people from all treks of life together.
Well, the same thing could be said about a number of the selective colleges and universities. Is it because Williams can afford to pick and choose due to the large and selective applicant pool, or is it something else?
For example, what is the underlying theme at Williams? What do graduates go do?
@JustOneDad, with all due respect, I don’t believe I have the resources to answer your ideological questions, simply because I am not Williams College. I cannot say what their admission missions and objectives are with 100% confidence just because I was accepted; I just want to offer a subjective view on how the experience was for my case.
The underlying theme? I’m unsure what you mean by this, but you may find the answer to this, and what graduates do, on the website pretty easily.
It’s tough to answer these questions with 100% certainty or accuracy, but in my opinion the underlying theme of Williams is well-roundedness. Without getting too much into the specifics, the college encourages its students to be broad in both academic and recreational interests, and the people who I am proudest to call classmates are the ones who are impressively accomplished in not just one thing, but three or four or five. Graduates I’ve met have reinforced this impression as well.
Williams is my top choice (maybe tied with another school) but I’m not sure how likely I am to get in. I have very strong SAT scores and consider myself to be a strong writer. I’m not good enough to play a varsity sport at Williams though and I don’t really have any standout EC’s. Some of my friends looking at similar colleges have found internship opportunities for this summer (all through people they knew) but I couldn’t find any. Did you have any sort of internship and will you be playing varsity? Also did you do the interview/do you think it’s important to do the interview?
This is also my question, that while the website says interviews do not play a part in the process, is there a teeny tiny bit of advantage? Just w ondering…
@momcinco, I’m a tour guide at Williams and I can definitively say that the interview does NOT play any role at all in admissions, not even a little. Similarly, we tour guides don’t have any say in admissions, so trying to impress us with your credentials is totally unnecessary (yes, it happens often enough for me to have to say that here).
@napoleon13, if you look at the raw numbers it appears that applying ED gives you a huge boost in chance, but in actuality it’s much less than it appears. Of the approximately 40% acceptance rate for ED, probably about 60% of the 40% are varsity athletes, who know they’re getting regardless. It’s still a small boost, but not at all worth applying early if you’re even slightly unsure about where you want to go.
Hey, what did your academics look like and can you PM your common app essay if possible. Williams is my top college but I was wondering how strong your academics should be to even stand a chance.
@mtan21 I sent you a PM reply, and academics are surely a top priority in Williams admissions, but not exclusively your GPA. The rigor of the class curriculum may even be more important, as the ones reading your application want to know that you are taking the hardest possible classes you can. Giving yourself a challenge in a subject, and doing fairly well in said class, strengthens an applicant’s prospect more than getting A’s in easier classes, in my humble opinion.
@napoleon13 I have studied ED vs. RD probabilities ever since I first started looking on this forum (about 5 months now I think), and I believe the idea that applying early to a school increases your chances is a little misguided, at least in some aspects. Sometimes it looks that going early shows to provide a little boost to an application, but in reality, the pool of applicants applying early are often much more competitive, giving kids a tougher preliminary hill. Also, more and more people are applying ED to college every year now, to the extent that any difference between early and regular decision is becoming solely a time gap. Lastly, if finances are a factor, Early Decision prevents you from comparing other aid packages from schools you may have been accepted to. Just be careful, and do well
@rckyle I did not do an interview, and the only internship I did prior to my application was an unpaid summer computer programming intensive in NYC, and it wasn’t really an internship. More of a class.
Do you know how strongly they weigh arts supplements? And how big of a thing music really is at Williams?
Also, I’m having a ton of trouble forming my college list generally (it’s at 15 and trying to narrow)-any advice? I’ve found I can hardly tell if I really like somewhere unless I visit-my strongest inclination to apply somewhere has been my gut instinct about the place. However, I haven’t visited Williams. The ones I visited that stood out the most to me were Duke, Davidson, and Bowdoin.
@AmeliaCharlotte, I submitted an arts supplement as a relatively amateur piano player/songwriter, and I got in ED on an application that I thought was otherwise not very strong. So, while I don’t know exactly how much they take that into consideration, it certainly can’t hurt!
As for music, I’m actually pretty involved in the music scene myself. A capella is, as it has always been, very popular (9 well-established groups on campus), but until recently the band scene had been somewhat lacking. However, there’s been a great surge of student interest in the past few years, getting clubs formed like All Acoustic Alliance and the Williams Student Musicians Association. There have been a lot of performances from indie-ish bands and new student bands created in just the past few years, one of which I’m a part of. The culture surrounding music at Williams is really supportive and relaxed, and I’m delighted to be a part of it.
It now strikes me that you may not be talking about bands/singing, and instead about orchestral music. Williams offers entirely free music lessons in literally any instrument, I’d actually challenge you to find one that there’s no instructor for. Additionally, we house the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, which is about half students and half professional musicians, which is always enjoyable and has a very high attendance record at its performances. Basically, Williams is an excellent place to come hone your musical taste/talent, whatever that may be.
In narrowing down your list, my advice is to list the pros and cons of each school while you’re there - take notes on everything from the food to the numbers (acceptance rates, diversity numbers, requirements, etc.) to the general feel you get at campus, which I rated from 1-10 when I was visiting. Also, don’t be afraid to ask a few students what they think about the school; tour guides basically put on a show, and, while the information they give out is valuable, it’s usually a reasonably biased perspective. Asking students in the dining halls and sidewalks what they think about the school is an awesome way to really see that the students perceive about their own situation. If you can’t visit, then just do the pros and cons list for what you can find on the website and stuff.
PM me if you have other questions, I could go on all day about music at Williams.
@AmeliaCharlotte I wouldn’t know too much on the weight of arts supplements specifically, but I strongly believe that if these supplements coincide with aforementioned interests and aspects of your application, it can’t help but give you a boost.
As for your college list, I also had 15 schools on my list. And that was at the end, even! I didn’t go about my college search process in the most sensical matter, and I want to help make sure other people sidestep the errors I made. To start, try looking inside yourself. As vague as this may sound, the college application process turns out to be one the most introspective and self-enlightening journeys you will go through, in my opinion. Do you like big or small schools? Do you want to be near a big city, or wouldn’t mind quietness in the isolated, albeit beautiful Berkshires? Is diversity essential? What about a household name to wear on your sweater or bumper sticker? There are endless factors and, trust me, there are top-tier institutions that go on either side of each coin.
That being said, try make a school in your list a realistic proposition, and you should be fine :).
Do you believe that Williams was a reach for you and you got somewhat lucky, or do you believe that there are many people like you at Williams who weren’t that good on paper, but great in character? Pretty much, do you believe that many people got in purely due to holistic grading? Sorry for being blunt and slightly rude, but I’m in the same boat, and I want to know if I even have a small chance of getting in.
Edit: I would also like to ask what Williams Admissions process is like with high schools that don’t rank.
