<p>"Typically, the waiting list numbers between 350 and 600 candidates and in the past 10 years, 2, 41, 40, 51, 21, 71, 73, 40, 10 and 34 students have been admitted from that group. There are also some years when we are not able to draw at all from our Waiting List."</p>
<p>"The best thing to do is to update the Committee on any recent awards, activities or achievements you have received or participated in since your application was filed. This update should be in writing (preferably via e-mail) as we have a firm policy that we do not interview students who are on the Waiting List."</p>
<p>If I don't have any new awards, achievements, etc. can I still email them to show my interest? I want to include how the pending immigration of my half brother would affect our financial situation and that attending Williams would be a dream come true. Is this advisable or is it just another sob story? How long should the email be?</p>
<p>What are the chances of getting in from the wait list?</p>
<p>The only chances we can tell you are to take the (value admitted off waitlist) / (value on waitlist) * 100 = Percent chance. It’s very unpredictable.</p>
<p>I got in off of the waitlist. Very late, I might add - wasn’t admitted until early June.</p>
<p>It is unpredictable. I don’t think updating them on your familial issues is going to help your chances. I do think that sending a polite e-mail specifically informing the admissions office (I would send it there, attention of whomever it may concern) informing them of your intention to remain on the waitlist and continued interest in attending Williams college is a good thing to do. It does not behoove Williams to make offers to waitlistees who are not likely to attend, so expressing your interest can help make you more attractive. </p>
<p>If your school gives end of the year awards to graduating seniors and you happen to earn recognition, that is something that is worth updating the admissions office about. If your school sends out mid-semester progress reports, and yours is very good to exemplary, that is something worth updating the admissions office about. Even if these reports never go on your transcript, admissions committees are generally keen on admitting hard workers who show resolve to achieve academically even when many of their peers are experiencing “senior slump”. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that you will probably not hear anything until the beginning of May at the very earliest. Also keep in mind that it’s not over until the fat lady sings. Waitlist admissions trigger ripple effects. The Williams admissions office might be about to close their files when all of a sudden a number of their students are admitted off of waiting lists at places like Harvard or what have you, and some may very well decide to accept those. It can take a while to sort out - like I said, I was not admitted until June. In the end, the forces that drive the admissions committee to select particular students from the waitlist depends on what the incoming class ends up looking like. Perhaps not as many musicians as they had expected or hoped for enrolled - if you’re a musician on the waitlist, that bumps up your chances. The admissions committee spends a considerable amount of effort tailoring each incoming class, and to this end whether or not you get in off of the waitlist can come down to sheer luck.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be nice if they sent folks on the waitlist a conditional acceptance? – we’ll take you if you agree to take a gap year before starting.</p>
<p>rdgonzales, I am sure it is on the Williams website… </p>
<p>Thank Mandala for the wealth of information Did you also send in a letter of interest or did you just wait it out? What was your experience in the whole process?</p>
<p>And LoremIpsum, yeah that would be kind of awesome, hahah.</p>
<p>Also make sure your guidance counselor knows you are interested. Keep the GC informed of your latest activities, your growth, anything that shows you’re interested and interesting. Sometimes the guidance counselor can call on your behalf or, if contacted by the regional rep for Williams, they he/she can put in a good word for you.</p>
<p>Not a problem. Since you asked, here’s how my experience went down. I was actually waitlisted at both Williams and Amherst. Both were at the top of my list in terms of schools I wanted to attend, so I e-mailed both admissions offices explaining that I wanted to remain on the waitlist. That was at the beginning of April, soon after I was notified (it’s generally a good rule of thumb to be prompt in these matters). After that, I sort of just… forgot about it for a while. Part of that was my knowledge that I would not be contacted until the admissions offices worked out precisely just who ended up enrolling, and that would not be until early May. I did pretty well my second semester, and I can’t remember but I believe I asked my guidance counselor to send a copy of my mid-semester report to both schools. Around mid-May I still had not hear back in the positive or negative from either, and I had received recognition in the form of some awards given to the members of the senior class around that time. So I updated my resume and e-mailed a copy to both schools. Actually, Amherst never received it, since their admissions office did not allow attachments to be downloaded from e-mails tat the time (not sure if they still don’t - but it’s something you should keep in mind, making sure that your materials always get to the right places). But at that point I was rather resigned to attending the school at which I had enrolled, so I didn’t bother to correct the point. After that, I forgot about the matter some more. Then a few days after graduating in early June, I got a call completely out of the blue from the Williams admissions office. At that point I was not expecting any movement at all and was rather getting used to the idea of attending the institution in which i had enrolled. So it was quite a surprise. They gave me some time while they worked out financial aid details and I had a bit less than a week after that to make my final decision, IIRC. Ended up saying yes.</p>
<p>So yeah. It’s really unpredictable. And it’s not over until it’s over. I didn’t get an official letter from Amherst notifying me that their waitlist had stopped moving until late June, a couple of weeks I had enrolled at Williams. By that time I didn’t mind, and I sort of expected it. That my updated resume had reached Williams but not Amherst might constitute a natural experiment with a control and variable situation. It might not have also made a difference, but it might have. Who knows. It clearly didn’t hurt, but I wouldn’t recommend sending anything other than what you are confident will make you stand out further as the sort of student Williams admissions would want on their campus.</p>
<p>I’d also like to say that my experience as a student admitted off of the waitlist has been unremarkable, in a good way - as far as I know, the Williams that I know is identical to the Williams that any early or regular admit knows. Nobody can tell which students were waitlisted, and nobody makes any effort to identify them for any reason. When people find out I was admitted off of the waitlist, their perception of me doesn’t change in the slightest. The other current students here who I know were admitted off of the waitlist feel similarly, that they are right at home at Williams. I think in general, the students here feel a strong sense of community - even if you were an athletic tip or a legacy or a waitlist admit or whatever, the general sense is that if you were admitted here, you belong and deserve to be here (clearly many others do too, but unfortunately we can enroll only so many students). So if you do get admitted, and I wish you luck, you shouldn’t feel any trepidation about how your future experience at Williams will be affected by the origin of your admission. I even managed to score a single in Mission a month after all the other students had sent in their housing requests =p.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s a great story Mandala! I got accepted by Amherst, but I’m leaning a little more on Williams even though I got waitlisted, I’m not complaining though! haha</p>
<p>What does this mean? Affect your financial situation so that your demonstrated financial need would be even greater? If that is the case then I would definitely not tell Williams that.</p>
<p>I’ll throw out a general question here. I know Williams is need-blind for admissions but is Williams need-blind or need-aware when it comes to taking people off of the waiting list?</p>
<p>Thanks again Mandala, you are amazing! I hope I am of the lucky few admitted :D</p>
<p>And Pea, you make a good point. Since I have no new achievements or anything… I’ll just shoot an email demonstrating my strong interest and intent of enrolling (if accepted).</p>
<p>Financial Aid offers are out so I would say your chances are getting a lot better. My d was accepted but was about 20k short of where she needed to be on fin aid. She really liked Williams but has 100% offers from some other schools. Williams is great but probably not 20k better than Vanderbilt and Virgina and Penn. Good luck to you all!</p>
Did you also send in a letter of interest or did you just wait it out? What was your experience in the whole process?</p>