<p>hey commserver, all dorm houses at williams are gender-balanced. First-year housing, in particular, is also balanced geographically, racially (to the best of williams’s ability), and socioeconomically. It’s not unusual for campus life to make changes to first-year dorm assignments, as the selection process for first-years is entirely automated.</p>
<p>As for the increased size of this year’s freshman class, that was done intentionally, as the college figured it could bring in more tuition dollars by enrolling more students not requiring financial aid. I specifically remember this, because last year there was a bit of a dust-up about this decision impacting williams’s need-blind admission policy.</p>
<p>well, my room was also changed - it’s still a single in the frosh quad (and it’s a bit bigger actually), but it’s a bit of a shake up right when I was getting to know my JAs and entrymates.</p>
<p>Williams is still completely need blind, and is one of the only colleges and universities that is need blind for international students. Nothing has changed.</p>
<p>"As for the increased size of this year’s freshman class, that was done intentionally, as the college figured it could bring in more tuition dollars by enrolling more students not requiring financial aid. I specifically remember this, because last year there was a bit of a dust-up about this decision impacting williams’s need-blind admission policy. "</p>
<p>Williamsprof:</p>
<p>So, not that I think it was a bad decision, but is it true that the college decide that last year? Just curious.</p>
<p>Williams is indeed still need-blind, but a larger class size means more tuition-paying students. While technically speaking, williams is still entirely need blind, in some ways, enrolling more students can be construed as an attempt to side-step williams’s need-blind admissions policy.</p>
<p>The way I heard outgoing President Schapiro describe it, the marginal cost of enrolling additional students is significantly less than the additional tuition those students pay. The figure that was being mentioned was around 20 additional students, so 560 freshmen would be around that number.</p>
<p>rlhill, you are conflating two different things. Need blind simply means, the school doesn’t look at income levels in making admissions decision. That hasn’t changed. Adding more students in no way “sidesteps” being need blind. Either way, financial need plays no role at all in the admissions decision. And the incoming student body will still end up with around 50 percent of matriculants on financial aid. </p>
<p>The idea is, the school has plenty of capacity for the extra kids. In fact, I have long thought Williams should modestly expand in light of the absolute massive expansion in both the faculty size and the square footage of campus buildings in recent years, as well as the school’s broader appeal and effort to reach out to previously underrepresented groups, international applicants, and so on; 550 vs. 530 isn’t going to have a material impact on campus life, but it is a chance for an extra 20 kids a year to experience a Williams education, and there is way more demand from incredibly qualified kids than Williams could ever accommodate even if it expanded to 650. So if they take 20 extra kids, even if only 10 pay full tuition (as you’d expect under a need blind system), that will create additional income without a a concomitant increase in the school’s costs (they already have the dorm capacity and other infrastructure in place). So need blind is in no way affected or even relevant. Amherst (which has expanded a lot more, by around 200 kids total) and several others have taken a similar approach.</p>
<p>Oh, and to the OP – what I had heard was that Williams had a slightly higher yield than they were expecting, so they overenrolled by a few kids. But, usually there is summer melt, so the school may well end up right around 550 (which was the planned enrollment for this year), unless this summer featured an unusual lack of melt.</p>