I know this sounds incredibly selfish - believe me, I wish the circumstances were different - but since we’re on this situation anyway, do you think more people will be committing close to the home, rather than a far away private school, and colleges will increase the amount of people they take off the waitlist?
I have to think it will. I don’t know how many will decide to stay close to home instead of traveling to college, but it has to be higher than normal. Everyone travels to go to Williams. In addition, they have 171 international students. That’s 8.5% for a school of 2000. I’m guessing that number will take a hit this year.
Good luck.
I’m just a mom who has been through 3 college admissions cycles with my kids, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Looking at the common data set for Williams, both the applicant pool and the yield rate make it harder for females to get off the waitlist. That is, females compose a larger percentage of Williams applicants, and those females who are admitted tend to accept in higher numbers than the males who are admitted. Admissions compensates somewhat for the difference in yield by admitting a smaller percentage of the female applicants. This is true at many coed liberal arts colleges, especially the smaller ones likes Carleton, Amherst, Haverford, because they are sensitive to gender balance in their student populations. So while I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the “virus effect” on waitlists this year, I would tell you what I told my daughter who is also on the Williams waitlist: chances are not good. If you are a boy @friedpotatoes you may have a better shot at an offer.
Hi, I actually believe that more people are going to be committing to Williams due to COVID uncertainty. Williams College has some of the most generous financial aid of the LACs and Ivies. We also prioritize financial aid alongside our educational goals. When times get tough, we contract everything else but the core parts of our mission. In fact an email the student body has from Dukes Loves has reassured us that financial aid is still a main priority. Thus, as more families face economic uncertainty, and there incomes are below 120K, then they will be more likely to commit to Williams rather than another similar school. If the student/family is on the wealthier end of the spectrum, then I assume, if their economic situations are impacted, then they may be more apt to go to a State school where tuition is lower. On the other hand, in harsh economic times, employers, if in the position to hire, will tend to rely more on the prestige of the undergrad school of the applicant, which might make high income families still want to commit.
We do have a killer alumni network.
About half of the students at Williams qualify for financial aid, about half don’t. It’s up to anyone’s guess how the pendulum will swing, but I have a feeling that we’ll be getting more commits from acceptances, especially since for Class of 2024 the offers handed out were increased slightly due to COVID uncertainty (only by around 50 or so).
I think waitlist activity will be up this year at 99% of colleges , some will not want to be far from home, some parents will no longer be confront able affording it and push for a cheaper school and some kids/ parents will not pay the tuition of a LAC if they are taking classes from their kitchen in the fall and some kids will try to take a gap year. IIRC Yale is using their waitlist so if they will Williams will is my guess. Now if you need a lot of aid to go that may not help you, Williams like most schools has take a big hit dollar wise.