Williams College Class of 2022 Regular Decision

@philosophqe, My D18 got admitted to Williams. She is really excited and planning to attend Preview Day. BTW, can you please explain what are these “Summer Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) and the Summer Science Program (SSP)” programs? How do students get selected for them? I didn’t read my D’s acceptance letter completely, so not sure she was offered the same or not.
Also, my D18 got admitted to Pomona college, so we have to make a ‘hard’ decision which one to pick :slight_smile:

@philosophqe, never mind about SSP/SHSS. These are for underrepresented minorities and/or first generation college students. Our D18 won’t qualify for them.

Congrat on getting admitted to both Williams and Pomona, this is quite an accomplishment. There have been numerous posting comparing both schools. You cannot make a bad choice, both will offer a great undergraduate education. Williams has the lowest student to faculty ratio of any school, but Pomona has better weather (although you have to get used to constant dry summer weather). Take a look at the specific course requirements and flexibility within her possible majors to study abroad or to double major.

@sanjosedad indeed congrats on your D getting into Pomona and Williams (and Grinnell)! Really amazing that Pomona only accepted 7% of applicants this year. Makes me happy that I got in myself, albeit many years ago when it was surely easier to get in. I noticed your posts considering the selectively of Pomona as a factor in the college decision process. I have to admit, I was thinking the same thing as my S was given offers(he was a recruited athlete) by D3 schools with lower acceptance rates compared to Williams, but I think he made the right decision to commit to Williams. Nonetheless, I was scratching my head as to why Williams, such an extraordinary school with a great reputation, had an acceptance rate of 20-50% higher compared to other selective LACs.

I think you are right that Williamstown is a factor. As the Fisk guide says, Williamstown is either a blessing or a curse. I think the place is amazing (as is Claremont in a very different way), but it took my S a bit of time to warm up to it. The caliber and diversity of students at Pomona and Williams are impressive. So that is a long way of saying that I do not recommend considering the acceptance as a decision factor, Ultimately it comes down to fit. Hope you both enjoy Previews. I will be there too.

I believe the lower acceptance rate was due to the fact Williams was later than Pomona to not required the subject tests. Also, Williams is a larger school. This year the number of applications to both was about 9,500 to 10,000. Pomona also has ED1 and ED2 options (which pulls in more interest) and Williams just has ED and RD.

Williams and Pomona got rid of subject tests at the same time. They’re both COFHE members, and there was a meeting by the members where Columbia launched the initiative to start making subject tests optional (to prevent low-income students from feeling discouraged to apply). Amherst, Dartmouth, Williams, and Pomona, alongside many other COFHE members, all followed suit in the same admissions cycle. Also, the Williams essay is optional while Pomona’s is required, so it’s easier to apply to the former. I don’t know if ED1/ED2 has any significance, since in total numbers, Pomona usually takes about 50 fewer through both ED processes than Williams does with just ED1 (the complicating factor being that those ED admits could not apply elsewhere).

The biggest reason is that Pomona is in both a less competitive and more desirable market. Williams competes against the other 10 NESCACs, Swarthmore, Haverford, and numerous other top LACs for the same applicant, not to mention the liberal arts Ivies like Dartmouth and Columbia. Add the 5 top women’s colleges in the East Coast for women, who are more likely to consider LACs. The closest to Pomona on the West is Occidental, which is still not in the same overlap group as Amherst and Middlebury are to Williams. Women will also check out Scripps. Beyond that, there’s really no one else. The other Claremont Colleges are specialized and very different from the traditional LACs/Pomona. Williams’s cold, rural location and lack of a consortium discourages many applicants to an extent which might not happen with Pomona (suburban, associated with sunny SoCal “glamour”, Claremont Colleges). If anything, it’s actually surprising that Pomona isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of every other LAC in total applications, since highly populated California is filled with competitive high school students (which is why places like UCLA get over 100,000 applications).

But there’s a reason for this. Pomona isn’t a heavy user of print-based publication or applicant soliciting. The bulk of recruitment is spent in person, visiting high schools/community organizations and connecting personally with students. They require a substantive, complex essay for the Common App & Coalition. Other LACs have gotten rid of essays, testing requirements, and application fees, along with mass emailing prospective students. Pomona’s perspective is- our present strategy works, and we get a qualified, diverse admitted profile alongside the lowest acceptance rate and the highest yield of our peer group. Why inundate our exhausted officers with potentially double the applications and without as much clarity on who is actually passionate about attending?

Size is also a major player: Pomona is on the smaller end for the top liberal art colleges, nearly 500 students smaller than Williams and 1000 smaller than Middlebury and Wellesley. If Williams’s target class size were 410 like Pomona, with their current yield expectations, they’d have to admit 910 rather than 1163: pushing their acceptance rate to 9.4%. Wellesley’s acceptance rate would go down to 12.3% instead of 19% this year. You see similar effects with Swarthmore and Claremont McKenna, who are smaller than Pomona and will also hit a single digit acceptance rate this year. Ultimately, Pomona is in a golden spot for admissions where less effort is required on their part to get applications, have a low acceptance rate, and enroll students than peer schools.

All this should point out to a well-informed reader how many factors can affect acceptance rate outside of simple “quality”. I wouldn’t call it “manipulation” in Pomona’s case, but I agree with @HPTD12 that pretty much 0 consideration should be placed on acceptance rate between these two schools. According to the Chronicle for Higher Ed’s peer survey, Williams listed 10 peer schools, including Pomona, and Pomona listed 7 peer schools, including Williams. Their endowment per student is indistinguishable, their retention rates are identical (98%), and the entering class is strong at both (slightly higher testing at Williams, slightly higher % ranked in the top 10% of their HS class at Pomona). According to one source, Williams ranks #9 of all colleges and universities for students winning competitive fellowships per capita, while Pomona is #6; according to another, Williams is #6 among all colleges and universities for representation of students in select top graduate, law, and business programs while Pomona is #13 (the schools surveyed are mostly on the East Coast, though). One is the #1 LAC according to US News, and the other is the #1 LAC according to Forbes. There are some big differences in their culture, campus feel/location, and unique opportunities presented, which I believe will readily direct students deciding to one or the other. No “Good Luck” needed here- you simply cannot go wrong either way.

My daughter was accepted for ED to Williams in December and of course will be attending. I just wanted to chime in on the Pomona College debate. I went to Pitzer many years ago and of course they are together in athletics. Pomona is in South California but by no means in a nice area. You are about an hour drive to LA and that is on a light traffic day. When I went the Pomona was the smog capital of the world and had the worst air pollution rates. There were days that practices got canceled because it was so heavy. So saying that Pomona is in California is a little misinforming, because not all areas in Cali are nice. With all the campuses together, Pomona, CMC, HM and Scripts it is very nice. But after visiting WIlliams last summer I would take it in a millisecond over Pomona.

Question for RD accepted families: Have you received your acceptance materials? We are US citizens living in Europe and still have nothing. Have received materials from other schools that accepted later than Williams. Just wondering if we should contact Williams yet. Thanks!

@Maxtheonly Similar geographic situation. Only received a letter with a card saying I was accepted.

Interesting. We have not even received that yet.

What about US resident students? Have you received a package in the mail from Williams?

Yes, I did - Southeast USA. I received the card late last week and then the financial pkg last Saturday.

Pitzer is not Pomona. Pomona has the loveliest campus and a cute and lively college town, and a train ride away from the city. My daughter does her internship every Friday in LA, and it is very manageable. In contrast Williams is in the styx. Very far from Boston. Snow country. It was okay but it was the size of her prep (boarding) school. Pomona has the 5Cs and it is the jewel in the crown.

Thanks! We’ll wait until the end of this week then.

@bresdo It sounds like you haven’t been back to the colleges/Claremont in a while. I have heard of air-quality issue from alumni (usually Class of '00 or older), but it hasn’t been of significance for at least a decade. I graduated two years back and there was never a smog/air quality warning, ever. Not even in summer, when smog tends to be heavier yet students are gone. There are plenty of topics on the matter with perspectives from parents/alums/visitors/students. It’s a non-issue now.

Claremont itself has seen a lot of development as well. Now there’s a train with daily service to Downtown Los Angeles bordering Pomona’s campus, so no need to worry about traffic. The quaint, walkable village charm with the east coast feel, tree-lined streets, Victorian houses, and a mountain backdrop is still there. But the core downtown area has greatly expanded with businesses, restaurants, and amenities to an extent that Claremont is packed on weekends by out of town people looking for an escape. Very different from the grit and expanse usually associated with Southern California, but also not the dull snoozefest town that many LAC settings can be in. You should come visit again; I think you’ll be surprised.

I took a Williams friend who lives inside Los Angeles and came home for spring break to an evening at Claremont. His words, not mine: “This is much nicer than what we have at Williamstown.”

@Maxtheonly @Islands I received mine on Saturday, I live in CA.

BTW, I submitted a request to review my FA decision on the Monday after decisions came out (my parent’s income dropped by 13% since 2016) and I received the new FA Award letter on Saturday too!!! I was very happy to get it and now know that I can truly afford college, without going into debt. Williams is amazing!!!

LOL. They are, for all intents and purposes, part of the same extended campus community. If it rains on Pitzer (rarely, I know) it’s gonna rain on Pomona, too.

waitlisted, some basic stats:

SAT: 1540 (Math 790, Reading 750) Subjects: Math II 800, Chem 720
ACT: 35 (Math 35, Reading 34, English 35, Science 35)
AP: Calc. BC 5/5, Chem 5, Bio 4; Physics I/II, Lit, Lang, and Stats to be taken
~4.2 weighted GPA, top of the class
Honors track, taking all offered AP courses at my school
ECs mostly performance (theatre, speech/debate, band) and community service

I was sort of surprised by the result, but I guess I just don’t fit their class image. It’s ok because I’m in at Princeton, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Carleton, Grinnell, and Macalester. Was also waitlisted by Swarthmore.

^^Each 5 C has its own complexion and personality. CMC has infinity pools and modern architecture . Mudd has its own very engineery look. So again, although it may rain in the same location, Pitzer isn’t Pomona

Yes I have not been back to Pomona since I left it in the 80’s and sure things have improved. But it is Pomona and will always be the armpit of LA.

I don’t think Claremont is the armpit of LA. There are a lot of seedier and dirty places than sunny, beautiful Claremont. If anything it may be a little sleepy, because it is now well known as a quaint, little, pretty retirement community.