<p>200 "Early write" letters sent for remaining 300 seats</p>
<p>About 40% of the seats have already been filled via ED, and now the School is looking to fill as many as possible of the remaining seats via its expanding "early write" program - which goes beyond the "likely letter" approach and is a form of rolling admissions for selected applicants.</p>
<p>"The admission staff is sending out early write letters to exceptionally well-qualified regular decision applicants this week.</p>
<p>"These students, whom the admission office believes will receive offers from other prestigious colleges, are mailed their acceptances a month before the rest of the applicant pool as a competitive measure to increase their chances of matriculation to the College.</p>
<p>We hope to yield 25 percent of the 200 students who will receive early write letters, Nesbitt said."</p>
<p>For RD admits generally, Williams plans on about a 38% yield.</p>
<p>well, its not like there won't be any room for those who don't get early write letters: Nesbitt did say that they "hope" to yield 25 percent of the 200, or 50 people. that's doesn't kill the hope for everyone else, especially given the number of acceptances they'll have to send out to achieve a 38 percent yield.</p>
<p>What is of interest is that a number of applicants equal to 80% of the slots in the freshman class have now been offered admission well before the "nominal" April 1 notification date for "regular" applicants.</p>
<p>What I see evolving (and expanding use of the "early write" device is part of this) is a move to rolling admissions, where candidates are offered places serially, based on some combination of (a) their desirability, and (b) their willingness to enroll.</p>
<p>Next on the horizon, I expect, will be the return of the "exploding admit letter": </p>
<p>This device, with which the "little Ivies" once experimented, puts pressure on applicants to take the "bird in the hand", by saying something like this -</p>
<p>"We are happy to offer you a place in the Class of 2010, subject to your acceptance of this offer within 10 days of this letter. Thereafter, the offer should be considered withdrawn, as we will find it necessary to extend it to other worthy applicants on our list who have indicated an interest in the limited number of openings available."</p>
<p>200 Early Writes is the same number quoted by the WSJ in its 2003 article on the subject of likely/wink letters, so I don't think you can say the practice is exploding.</p>
<p>Rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought I'd do a "year later" bump of this thread.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard whether last year's "Early Write" program will be implemented this year too? If so, Williams Early Write letters are right around the corner (at least some Early Write letters were dated 3/9 last year).</p>
<p>It's strange that no one on CC has heard anything yet. We generally have a few early writes.</p>
<p>I know that Williams sent a bunch of early write letters in late February, and that they are planning to send out letters throughout the month of March. After all, there's no reason to wait until April to send out acceptance letters if you know that the decision will be a favorable one.</p>
<p>And Byerly, I don't believe Williams would ever say the applicant only has 10 days to accept before the offer is withdrawn. Didn't carolyn once post a thread about how it's against NACAC rules or something like that?</p>
<p>She was probably referring to NESCAC, which is an athletic league, and yes, it would violate rules to do somthing like that with a recruited athlete. But they could probably do it with other applicants (although I haven't heard anything about it, except for Byerly) :)
Congrats, SotS!</p>
<p>SotS, do you know how many other people applied to Williams from your school? I heard that they might not send early writes to people who go to a school where a lot of other people applied, so that it wouldn't be some finding out before others...like 10 other people applied from my school so i hope they don't actually do that in case i might get one</p>
<p>An early write would take the sting out of my Dartmouth deferral, especially since I really like Williams. The more I learn about Williams, the more I really like it, and think it would be a great fit for me. Anyone know how many slots are open still after the Early Writes?</p>