<p>I have a friend who wants to apply to Williams. She was homeschooled from day one. Anyone have an idea of how many homeschooled students have been accepted at Williams, and if it is viewed any differently. Thanks.</p>
<p>I looked around Williams' website pretty carefully and I also found no mention of homeschoolers and admissions. I will tell you that the day my son and I went to visit Williams, that he was not the only homeschooler in the room of prospective applicants. Aside from him there was another girl there, and it didn't seem to cause any disorientation for anyone present in the room. ;-)</p>
<p>Some schools do make specific references to homeschoolers -- Pomona, for example, has some additional testing recommendations (extra SAT IIs or APs), other schools ask for the Homeschool Supplement to the Common App. But I couldn't find any mention of different requirements for homeschoolers at Williams, so my guess would be they treat them like any other applicant, i.e., the evaluate them holistically based on the information they have.</p>
<p>We have visited a number of schools now, and talked to reps at a couple college fairs, and only in one case did I get any sense of pre-judgement or skepticism from anyone (well... make that one-and-a-half places.) I think these excellent schools have seen enough homeschooled applicants by now that it really isn't an issue. But that's just my impression. Obviously if you friend is really interested she should just call the admissions office and ask if they've admitted homeschoolers before and what kind of materials would they like to see included in an application. I'm pretty certain her questions would be received warmly and answered honestly.</p>
<p>A slightly different approach: have your friend's daughter email Williams, listing out some of her questions (including an open-ended one like "What else is it helpful for Williams to see from home-schooled applicants?"), and ask if she can set up a phone call with someone at Williams who is experienced working with home-schooled applicants. She'd need to give times when she would be available (probably easier for her than for someone in a regular school). She will need a carefully composed list of questions that are not answered on the website. She should be ready to take careful notes on the conversation.</p>
<p>When I had complicated questions, I found this approach helpful because I could talk with someone who knew the answers and, because we were talking instead of exchanging letters and emails, I could pick up more questions from the way the answers led. Also, since the admission people are on the road a lot, this approach makes it easier for Williams to reply.</p>
<p>Thanks for your answers, very helpful. Does anyone actually know or has heard of someone who was homeschooled and attended(ing) Williams.</p>
<p>Enquire directly. Direct questions to admissions. Be patient and work assiduously in finding answers. Be the best that you can be. </p>
<p>Best wishes.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from Williams a couple of years ago. One of her friends there was homeschooled. The friend fit in well at Williams, was highly successful, and graduated near the top of her class.</p>
<p>There is at least one current first year who was home schooled. Ask at Admission.</p>
<p>My d. was recruited and accepted by Williams (homeschooled all the way), and they were very generous with financial aid. But she chose to attend Smith. </p>
<p>We found homeschoolers welcome virtually everywhere, with very few extra hoops to jump through (though they were less "understanding" at Pomona, and Columbia requires like 5 SAT IIs.)</p>
<p>In what way were they less understanding at Pomona? I know they want 4 (?) SAT IIs or a combination of SAT IIs and AP scores. That's a lot, but in my son's case it would be fine since he has them. I'm wondering if you found them less cooperative in other ways as well. When we were there I asked a question related to applying as a homeschooler of the admissions guy who did the info session, and I don't know if it was my imagination or not, but I did sense maybe just the tiniest tone of derision in his answer. Didn't know what to make of it, so haven't really thought much about it since.</p>
<p>Let's just say they seemed extremely full of themselves, and really not particularly interested in folks who took a different path to the door. (School was better and better the further one got from the admissions office, or at least that was our experience.)</p>
<p>My friend and I were in Williamstown for an information session and a tour in mid-September at Williams. The info. session was led by the Director of Admissions before a very small group. Both of us are dancers and homeschooled, he from the beginning, me for the last couple of years. We are both finishing high school by taking courses at Harvard University's Extension School. </p>
<p>We were told that Williams likes homeschool students. Last year they received about 40 applications and accepted 10 students, "better than the average at Williams" according to the Director.</p>
<p>Like with all homeschooled students, to the extext you have excellent external bench marks (SATs, APs, college courses, etc.), have compelling reasons for homeschooling (beyond something overly precious and weird) and can show what you've done outside of academics that is distinctive and can contribute to the college community, you should be all set.</p>