<p>Hey guys. I'm really interested in using my ED on Williams. However, my parents suggest that I choose to apply to Northwestern or Cornell ED. I tried showing them rankings, that have Williams remarkably high, but they don't seem to be convinced, claiming that the name recognition Cornell holds is worth it. I really like Williams, and have done quite a bit of research on it and such. Do you guys have any tips as to how to persuade them? Why did YOU choose Williams over certain colleges. They are immigrants from the West Indies, so they aren't too familiar with liberal arts colleges, despite their superb education. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Just show them Forbes’ rankings with Williams (#2) above Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc. and only subordinate to Princeton. </p>
<p>[America’s</a> Top Colleges List - Forbes](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/]America’s”>Forbes America’s Top Colleges List 2022) </p>
<p>Also, if you won’t be happy at Cornell/Northwestern just make that as clear as possible to them…tell them why a large student body is less appealing to you and the advantages that come with a small one like that of Williams (smaller classes, more attention from professors, etc.) </p>
<p>Good luck :)</p>
<p>Yeah… some parents, especially from other countries, really want their kids to go to colleges that people back home have heard of. That can be challenging to get around. Have you visited Williams (and taken them along)? That might help.</p>
<p>You could skip ED altogether and just apply RD to Williams and several other schools. Once you have acceptances in hand (and FA offers if you are applying for FA), then you could determine where to go. You might not get in to any of these colleges, of course. But if you can’t agree with your parents, then maybe you need to just do RD applications.</p>
<p>I agree with intparent. Don’t apply early decision ANYWHERE you don’t really want to go. For me, the more important issue is the strength of the alumni network, which is really strong at Williams. I think that name recognition is much more important for advanced degrees PLUS Williams has strong name recognition in the US.</p>
<p>Agree with what others have said. Also, many departments at Williams feature webpages that list what recent alumni are doing (I posted one example in the recent Physics at Williams thread, there are plenty of others). If you have a particular departmental interest, you can show one of those pages to your parents, who will see the elite jobs, fellowships, and grad programs that Williams grads tend to gravitate towards. </p>
<p>Ask them, “why is name recognition important?” If it’s so they can brag about you to friends, that is pretty unseemly, and you can probably shame them out of that rationale. If, as is more likely (or at least they are more likely to admit), it is name recognition among employers and grad schools, well, Williams is generally more highly regarded than Cornell/Northwestern (or at worst, equally regarded) among employers and grad schools that you will be pursuing. And the proof is in the pudding based on the grad school / job destinations of Williams grads. </p>
<p>Moreover, this section on rankings from Williams’ Wikipedia page pretty much sums it up, whenever Williams is compared to Cornell/Northwestern, it comes ahead:</p>
<p>In 2010 and 2011 Forbes magazine ranked Williams College as the best undergraduate institution in the United States, ahead of every Ivy League university and national liberal arts college, including Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Amherst College, and Swarthmore College.[37] In its 2012 edition, Forbes ranked Williams College as the second best college in America, second only to Princeton University.[38]</p>
<p>Williams College is also - for the tenth consecutive year (2004-2013) - occupying first place in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 ranking of the 266 liberal arts colleges in the United States.[39]</p>
<p>In a 2004 survey by the Wall Street Journal, Williams college was ranked as the fifth largest feeder school to elite law, business, and medical schools in America, behind Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and Stanford University.[40][41][42]</p>
<p>Williams is ranked first by the National Collegiate Scouting Association, which ranks colleges based on student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength, and athletic prowess. Rounding out the top five are Amherst College, Middlebury College, Washington University in St. Louis, and Stanford University.[43]</p>
<p>Williams was ranked seventh in the 2012 Washington Monthly rankings,[44] which focuses on things such as social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).[45]</p>
<p>Williams ranked sixth after Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and Brown University in Newsweek’s 2011 ranking of “Brainiac” Colleges which measured the success of alumni in winning Rhodes, Marshall, and Truman Scholarships.[</p>
<p>I didn’t attend Williams, but did attend Swarthmore undergrad and Harvard for graduate school. IMO the little three (Wiilams, Amherst and Swarthmore) provide the finest undergraduate liberal arts education available in the world today. What they don’t provide is layman name recognition or, in the case of Williams and Amherst, an Engineering dept. If you will be remaining in the US for graduate school and work, Williams’ reputation among graduate schools and hiring professionals is, generally speaking, head and shoulders above Cornell or Northwestern. If you will be working abroad the lack of name recognition becomes a larger issue. </p>
<p>If you are convinced that you want to attend Williams you should definitively apply ED (unless you are concerned about the Financial Aid package). The Williams admissions rate for ED is 41% while the overall rate is 16.9%. Northwestern and Cornell have ED rates of 33% and 29.5%, respectively, so the same holds true for them.</p>
<p>Re name recognition, where it counts, business and academia, Williams is equal to any. So what if some ignorant person thinks my wife went to some school in Rhode Island or Virginia, the secret handshake opens doors. (Some people think Yale is a school for locksmiths.)</p>