Williams College 2021 Early Decision Results Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Williams College
1

Decision: Deferred

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT: 35 (36 E, 34 M, 36 R, 34 S)
SAT II: 790 chem, 790 math 2, 770 US history, 740 bio
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.91
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): bio 5, US history 5, world history 4, chemistry 4, English 4
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: Bc calc, AP physics C, honors English, AP latin, politics history elective, music appreciation
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): a few big ones from my school, national merit scholar semi-finalist, whatever the AP one is for 5 or more

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): head of model UN, head editor of literary magazine and yearbook, captain of JV lacrosse, varsity soccer
Job/Work Experience: summer job lifeguarding
Volunteer/Community service: organized a local event at my school, some assorted work but nothing too big
Essays: 8/10- I have a pretty bland background so nothing remarkable about me, but it was well-written and showed me in a good light
Supplement: 9/10- again, well written, but a tad bit generic
Teacher Recommendation: 9/10 and 10/10- very good relationship with both
Counselor Rec: 7.5/10- we aren’t best friends or anything, but I’m guessing it was solid
Additional Rec: N/A

Other

State (if domestic applicant): CT
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: very high
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nothing really, besides being rich, but my parents didn’t know anyone on the board or anything so not really a hook

Reflection

Strengths: Scores, Extracurriculars
Weaknesses: GPA is probably a little low, but I thought I had a really good shot
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Honestly, I’m pretty shocked. I guess its just a numbers game- after athletes, legacy, and URM, there really aren’t that many spots left for the rich white males.

General Comments:
Saw this thread from last year and I looked at it a lot when waiting for my results to come back so I thought I’d do the same for next year’s applicants. Just keep the same template and fill in your info.

2

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT: 35 (36 E, 32 M, 36 R, 35 S)
SAT II: 770 Math 2
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.95
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): None
IB (place score in parenthesis): None
Senior Year Course Load: My school does not offer APs: Honors Calc 2, Honors Physics, Honors English, Honors History, Honors French 5, Debate

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Nationally ranked debater, placed 5th in state for speech, attended speech nationals, won state for ethics bowl, speech captain, varsity Ultimate frisbee
Job/Work Experience: Summer working as a dishwasher
Volunteer/Community service: Some community service at local history museums
Essays: 6/10 - Nothing wrong with common app, but it was a pretty generic failure essay
Supplement: 8/10 - I thought it was pretty good, it was about how I would pick an alum I am friends with because he always questions other people in discussions in order to better understand issues.
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10 for all three, one english teacher, one history teacher, one my debate coach for 4 years.
Counselor Rec: 7.5/10- we aren’t best friends or anything, but I’m guessing it was solid

Other

State (if domestic applicant): WA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: high
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): legacy
Reflection

Strengths: Test scores, GPA, ECs legacy, supplemental essay, letters of rec
Weaknesses: Common app essay
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I think I’m a pretty good all around applicant with demonstrated interest and success in high school speech and debate, also being a legacy helps

General Comments:
I’m happy to answer questions

3

**Decision: Accepted **

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 800 M; 800 CR; 750 W
ACT: n/a
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 World History, 750 Spanish (reading only)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesn’t rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): World History (5); US History (5); Bio (5); Stat (5); Calc BC (5); English Lang (5); Spanish Lang (5);
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable Calc; AP Physics I; AP English Lit; AP Gov/Comp Gov; AP Macro/Micro Econ; AP Spanish Lit; Comp Sci
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): n/a

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Piano (American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra/Chamber Ensemble);
Spanish Honor Society (President); Speech and Debate; Varsity Crew; It’s Academic
Job/Work Experience: Paid intern at the Sully Historic Site (gave tours and worked on programs)
Volunteer/Community service: Interned at political campaigns for two years; Tutored through honor societies at
school; mentored middle school strings through Music Buddies program; gave free recitals at nursing homes with volunteer orchestra
Essays: 7/10 - I tried to iron this personal statement out for months (I wrote to the failure prompt), but I honestly have no idea how to rate it through the perspective of an adcom so 7 it is.
Supplement: 10/10 - I thought this essay did pretty well to connect my tutorial partner (he was fictional) to what it meant to be in a tutorial.
Teacher Recommendation: 9/10 and 9/10 One knew me better than the other did, but I believe both wrote me great recs.
Counselor Rec: 7/10 - I come from a large public high school, and each counselor is assigned to about 200 kids so they are extremely busy with a lot of seniors asking for recs. However, my counselor and I got to know each other after she worked with me on the NMS application process.
Additional Rec: 8/10 - This one was from my boss at the Sully Historic Site internship. I think a rec from someone outside of school gave admissions a more complete idea of who I am.

Other:

State (if domestic applicant): Virginia
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $50-70k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflection

Strengths: Test scores; GPA; ECs; Supplement essay; Recs
Weaknesses: Personal statement could have worked out some more?
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: There is no one reason why I was accepted, but a music supplement probably helped. I’ve been playing the piano for 12 years now, so I recorded some pieces and submitted videos.

General Comments: I hope this helps, but don’t fret over how your stats stack up.

4

Decision: Deferred

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 1430 (740 English stuff, 690 Math)
ACT: N/A
SAT II: 690 Lit, 730 USH
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9x
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): US History (5), Psychology (5), Seminar (5), English Language (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, AP Gov, AP Research, AP Literature, Honors Physics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semi-finalist, AP Scholar with Honor, multiple major school awards

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Cross country varsity and team captain, indoor track varsity and team captain, outdoor track varsity and team captain, Dorm Council, NHS, student dorm proctor (essentially an RA), Student Ambassador
Job/Work Experience: Full time summer sleep-away camp counselor
Volunteer/Community service: Service trip to Ghana, worked at and help organize several events for NHS
Essays: 8/10- About how I used to be super insecure and how working as a counselor has helped me gain confidence in myself and decide to become a teacher
Supplement: 9/10- worked on this one a lot, about Antonin Scalia and how writing against him in a tutorial would challenge all the liberalness that I have been secure in all my life
Teacher Recommendation: 8/10 and 9/10- APUSH and English teachers
Counselor Rec: 10/10- we are extremely close and she has nominated me for several national scholarships
Additional Rec: N/A

Other

State (if domestic applicant): NH
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: fairly high
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): not much except that my mom is friends with a guy who used to work in Williams admissions. I’ve tagged along to a lunch with him and his words of wisdom were “the whole thing is a crapshoot.”

Reflection

Strengths: Essays, ECs, Recommendations
Weaknesses: SAT/SATIIs are pretty eh, GPA could be higher
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I don’t think I was a bad candidate, but 1. I am compared to the 4.0 1600 star recruit started-a-hospital-and-lived-with-gorillas-and-cured-cancer folks, and 2. as said before, there isn’t much room for well-off white guys from New England.

General Comments:
I loved Williams and wish I could’ve gotten in, but this is probably a good experience. On to the other NESCACs…

5

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2360 (800 CR, 780 M, 780 W)
ACT: N/A
SAT II: 750 Bio, 770 USH
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School does not rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): US History (5), Biology (5), US Government (5), Lang (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP Lit, AP Micro, AP Psych, AP Spanish Language, Honors Journalism II, Honors Biotechnology
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semifinalist

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity Soccer; Club Soccer (Captain); Spanish Honor Society; assorted other clubs
Job/Work Experience: Paid intern at a software startup
Volunteer/Community service: Unpaid intern with a political action group, soccer referee for younger children, quite a few volunteering hours
Essays: 9/10 - Wrote about a problem I would like to solve/am solving, connected it to a real experience, everyone I shared it with thought it was extremely well written
Supplement: 9/10 - Got pretty personal with this one, my mom looked over this and didn’t like it as much as I did but I really enjoyed the process of completing the supplement
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10 and 9/10; The 10/10 was from my principal who was also my AP Gov teacher, he’s an incredibly intelligent guy and really likes me. 9/10 from my AP Bio teacher last year, I felt like I really developed as a student in his class.
Counselor Rec: 8/10 - My counselor and I are fairly close but he’s a bit hard to talk to, I think he wrote me a good rec though.
Additional Rec: ?/10 - This one was from an alumnus who I was in contact with throughout the college process and I spoke with extensively; I’m not really sure how much this helped.

Other

State (if domestic applicant): IL
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: High
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): n/a

Reflection:

Strengths: Essays, ECs, Objective scores
Weaknesses: Supplemental essay could come off weirdly
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I’m from a public high school with 30 something percent of the student body at or under what our school system defines as the poverty line. I feel like being from an incredibly diverse environment in a massive city helped, and I made sure to talk about that in my application.

Additionally, I have pretty high objective scores for the applicant pool and I was confident in my essays; my recommenders are all good, smart people. Additionally, while my high school is not by any means a prestigious prep school, it is typically rated as a top 10/20 public high school in the nation.

6

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 1550: 780 math 770 english
ACT: N/A
SAT II: 800 US history, 780 biology-E
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.79
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1
AP (place score in parenthesis): Bio (5), US history (5), world history (5), Environmental Science (5), US Government (5), English Lang (5), Statistics (5), Calc AB (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP Physics C- mechanics, AP English Lit, French 5 AP, Computer Science honors (tech credit), Orchestra (upper level), AP Human Geography
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): national merit scholarship semifinalist, honor roll

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): varsity cross country, indoor & outdoor track, student government (president), orchestra 2nd violin section leader, also private lessons, multiple religious youth groups, NHS
Job/Work Experience: camp counselor
Volunteer/Community service: volunteer at a wildlife refuge
Essay: 8/10- I worked really hard and got a lot of advice on it so I think the writing was pretty good. I wrote about a problem I’d like to solve and included some personal stories
Supplement: 7/10- not sure how good the writing was but I think the ideas were good. Wrote about the author of my favorite book
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10 and 10/10- they both like me a lot and let me read what they wrote. Great recommendations
Counselor Rec: 7/10- big public high school so she probably didn’t have a lot of time to write it. She knows me pretty well though
Additional Rec: 9/10- asked my SGA sponsor to write it to show that SGA president isn’t just a figurehead role

Other

State (if domestic applicant): MD
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: medium high
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A

Reflection

Strengths: transcript (I’ve definitely challenged myself and done well in HS), recommendations, being committed to my extracurriculars

Weaknesses: essays (I’m not the most confident writer)
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Being #1 in my class and student government president while also playing a sport all four years. I’m sure my recommendations were a part of it too because I genuinely care about learning

General Comments:
I’m really looking forward to going! Williams is my dream school

7

is there an rd discussion thread

8

@allima doesn’t look like it…I’ll start one :slight_smile: