<p>My sister will be applying next year and she is deciding between Williams College and Cambridge in the UK. She has legacy (mother went there) but her counseller has said that it only really matters for ED which she doesn't want to do. Is this true, or does it also play a part in regular decisions?</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>My understanding is that it generally helps a lot more in early decision and that that is also when most of the legacy students who have Williams as a top choice apply. It should help some in regular decision but not nearly as much.</p>
<p>She may be able to mitigate the "damage" with careful planning. Do the legacy college counseling/paper review/interview this summer if she can. Demonstrate a strong familiarity with and interest in Williams at the interview but also talk about why she is probably not going to apply early. Better for her to have said it in person, openly and sincerely, than to have them wondering about her motivation and level of interest. Have her guidance counselor echo this and back it up. Some people just are not ready to apply in November. </p>
<p>The tricky thing will be how to demonstrate a strong interest if she applies regular decision. Williams wants to accept only people who really want to come to school there. She should keep that idea in mind as she thinks about what to do.</p>
<p>I would have preferred that my daughter, who is a legacy, not apply ED. I wanted her to be sure it was right. I wanted her to have the opportunity to choose it from amidst other options. She went with ED and that was probably right for her because it is an amazingly good fit for her. Still, it was a tense time there as she came up to the deadline for telling her high school where, if anywhere, she was applying early. That was the low point of the admissions cycle for us this year. It's good that you are thinking about it now and she can do her research and be ready to make her decision in the fall.</p>
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Williams wants to accept only people who really want to come to school there.
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<p>I've seen no particular evidence that Williams cares one way or the other. They don't offer interviews. They don't ask any essay questions that suggest an interest in finding out, such as a "Why Williams?" essay. Having said that, I agree with you that a serious applicant, and especially a legacy, should proceed as if Williams does care.</p>
<p>To the orginal poster:</p>
<p>Nobody can give you a precise answer. There is no doubt in my mind that, if Williams is your first choice, then Early Decision is a significant plus. IMO, a qualified legacy (Academic 2, maybe 2.5, or higher) applying ED will get accepted unless something specifically shoots him/her down (bad recs or whatever).</p>
<p>But, if Williams isn't a clear first choice, then it doesn't really matter, does it? You have to accept the odds for what they are. We did. </p>
<p>My daughter was a qualfied Williams double-legacy (bothparents), but Williams was not her first choice. She and I had a conversation about whether she should just forget her first choice and apply ED to Williams. From a pure "game strategy" standpoint, doing so would have given her maximum odds of acceptance at a maximally selective school that she would have been happy attending. She understood that, but she accepted this potential scenario, knowing that her odds of acceptance to Williams declined without ED:</p>
<p>a) Would have gotten in Williams ED, but didn't apply</p>
<p>b) Wouldn't get in her first choice ED (equal reach with no legacy)</p>
<p>c) Wouldn't get in Williams RD (because RD is fraught with peril).</p>
<p>Things worked out for her (ED at her first choice). However, I can't advise someone else on what's the right decision. It's very personal; you have to weigh strength of feelings about the choices, financial considerations, etc. If she had felt a little stronger about Williams and a little less strongly about her first choice, she might well have tipped the scales the other direction.</p>
<p>None of this stuff is mathematically predictable to the point where you can find the answers in an Excel spreadsheet. You've ultimately got to go with your gut.</p>