<p>Hello all, I havent posted much on this board but here goes.</p>
<p>I got accepted to Duke and waitlisted at Williams. Initially I had a high level of enthusiasm for Duke but now I'm thinking I may want to try to get off the waitlist at williams. I think this is just cold feet but I would hate to go through college thinking I made the wrong choice.</p>
<p>Does anybody have any suggestions?</p>
<p>Well, it wouldn't hurt to accept a spot on the waitlist. If you do hear back and get accepted, who knows? You have nothing to lose. :) Congrats on the Duke acceptance though!</p>
<p>yup~ there is nothing to lose for staying on the waitlist</p>
<p>Nothing lost except a stamp and the time to write a letter saying why you want to go to Williams. In fact, taking the time to write that letter might clarify for you whether this is cold feet or a true hankering for Williams. By the way, Duke is great school. A sophomore with strong grades who can articulate real reasons for preferring Williams to Duke might be a strong transfer candidate.
Write that letter, then see if you want to send it.</p>
<p>yup, I turned in my check to Duke</p>
<p>peace out in frigid massachusetts!</p>
<p>sempie out</p>
<p>Can you give some insight in to why you would prefer Williams over Duke? I am aware of few, if any, academic programs at Williams that would surpass what you could receive at Duke. I can see someone from the New England area preferring to stay closer to home. I can see someone wanting to go to a smaller school. Other than that, I can't see any reason to prefer Williams over Duke. Out of a hundred randomly chosen students, I would suspect 95 would take Duke over Williams. </p>
<p>Could it be that you prefer Williams because Williams waitlisted you? (The old theory that people sometimes want what they cannot have more than what they have attained.)</p>
<p>"The old theory that people sometimes want what they cannot have more than what they have attained"</p>
<p>I guess that's true</p>
<p>but I did end up matriculating to duke</p>
<p>Hmmph....</p>
<p>Actually people tend to prefer Williams over Duke.</p>
<p>Bigmain,</p>
<p>While I was visiting Williams during the fall preview days, I met a lot of students who turned down Duke for Williams... I also found a lot of prefrosh who were highly considering Williams in lieu of Duke-to be more precise I encountered no one who was favoring Duke over Williams.</p>
<p>bigmain--of those students admitted to both Williams and Duke, I believe that most end up at Williams. </p>
<p>Academically, also, I think Williams is better than Duke--smaller classes, more professor-student interaction, more school support, etc, etc.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about that...I know a heck of a lot of people here who turned down Williams, which is weird because it is so small... I'd guess it's pretty even if anything. Obviously if you're visiting or at one or the other you'll have a biased view...</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You don't want to go about posting things like that on the Williams Thread :D.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think that statistic is supremely wrong. I don't know much about the Williams-Duke ratio, but I guess it would be around 60-40 or 50-50.</p>
<p>Yeah... Williams rocks!! Don't post bad stuff... it'd be more productive to post your enthusiasm about Duke on the Duke site. :)</p>
<p>Hmmm, well, at Blue Devil Days, most people who got into Williams also that I spoke to (only like four) said they were definetely coming to Duke, or it was Between Duke and Columbia or something</p>
<p>I guess people apply to both, then visit the ones that they serioulsy consider.</p>
<p>Williams is awesome though, don't get me wrong</p>
<p>My impression is that of the people who got into both schools, those who matriculated at Williams preferred W, and those who preferred Duke preferred Duke. While different in some obvious ways(small vs. mid sized; northern vs. southern), I don't think you could tell the students or faculty apart.</p>
<p>bigmain:</p>
<p>People turn down Harvard and Yale for Williams. You are either underestimating Williams or overestimating Duke, either way, I am afraid it's a case of rather...errrr.. inaccurate estimations??</p>
<p>I suppose the no 1 liberal arts college in US which focuses totally on undergrad education can provide a superior, if not, far superior education than a national university like Duke.</p>
<p>I am not denouncing Duke btw, it's a great college i am sure, but Williams is just better.:D</p>
<p>It's surely not a 95:5 ratio of Duke vs Williams; I'd guess 50:50, but I don't have the data.</p>
<p>Oddly, I don't think people generally compare the 2 schools. Usually, the mid size private schools compete against each other as do the liberal arts ones. Having said that, they are similar (rural, jocky, intellectual, etc).</p>
<p>i really want to know why this post was bumped up after 10 months...</p>
<p>me too...i started reading without looking at the post dates, and i was utterly confused as to why someone would be waitlisted/accepted in february...</p>
<p>damn! I also posted without looking at the post date! hehe.</p>