<p>I heard Williams College gives admissions "bumps" to local students, from the Berkshire County area. If this is the case, how significant is this bump?</p>
<p>For example would a student like me with the following:</p>
<p>Good EC's, REcs, essays, won't go into detail but they're good</p>
<p>... do I have a chance, considering I live in Berkshire County (Adams), like 10 minutes from Williams College? I know there is a Berkshire County pool, but I do not know if I'm on the upper end of that pool, sufficient enough to get accepted?</p>
<p>I don't think any of us on College Confidential can predict acceptances with that degree of precision, especially acceptances that revolve around atypical factors, such as Berkshire County residency.</p>
<p>I would say Berkshire County residency is a slight boost. How slight? How much boost do you need? Those are the tough questions. You sound like a plausible applicant. All you can do is take a shot.</p>
<p>Kev,
Your GC will probably be the best person to ask about this. He or she should know the past history from your school and possibly others in the area.</p>
<p>Residents of the Berkshires get a very substantial boost in the admissions process at Williams. The "bump" that you will receive is equivalent to that of a legacy or a recruited athlete.</p>
<p>Over the years, I've heard that being from Berkshire County is looked upon very favorably by the Admission Office. It's a wonderful neighborly policy. Like legacies and recruited athletes, you still will have to come within the "bubble" and the standards are pretty high for everyone, but it definitely should help you.</p>
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I think my composite SAT score, and particularly my Writing score, are on the upper end of Berkshire County SAT scores. At least I hope.
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<p>Greylock Regional HS really skews the Berkshire County stats. It has some incredible college acceptances. I know that three students from Greylock were accepted for my daughter's class at Swarthmore -- the only other school in Massachusetts with three was Newton North. I'm assuming they are mostly Williams professors' kids.</p>
<p>The same thing happens in reverse. I think Swarthmore High sends a disproportionate number to Amherst, Williams, and so on and so forth.</p>
<p>Be that as it may, I do think Williams gives a significant boost for local kids. It's just that this sort of thing is so hard to quantify.</p>
<p>Yea... Mt. Greylock does skew the stats a bit... they are predominately professor's kids, with legacies, etc. etc. However, many of them have legacies at HYP and other top LAC's, and as such, acceptance to those is probably also a bit skewed.</p>
<p>There are a FEW other competitive public HS's in the Berkshires... Lenox comes to mind. Mine's more on the middle-to low tier of competitiveness.</p>
<p>But nonetheless, I still hope my chances are decent.</p>
<p>I'm from Berkshire County, Pittsfield to be exact, and I am applying to Williams as a transfer student...I wonder if I would get that same boost? I think it would be likely that I would be the only Berkshire County applicant, considering the transfer applicant pool is very small.</p>
<p>Umm... you're not on the high end... consider mt. greylock...you would be like 50th in their senior class...</p>
<p>also... your EC's are not impressive... you do not work on the yearbook at all, you are lazy and don't participate in any Student Council or LEO club activities...</p>
<p>please stop the lying and fake counseling to these other college bound seniors.</p>