<p>I know that Williams's accept rate is dramatically higher for Early Decision. However, many recruited athletes apply early decision. Does anyone know if applying early to Williams really makes it THAT much easier (its about 40% admit rate early and 17% regular) or the athletic recruitment just skews the statistics?</p>
<p>Applying early to Williams does not really make a difference for the average applicant. There are not only athletes applying (I think there are about 80 spots for recruited athletes, as well as some extra that the coaches can push for) but legacy applicants as well. If you remove these, the acceptance rate should be almost identical to regular decision.</p>
<p>That said, the committment to attending if accepted ED probably gives you an edge, so go for it if Williams is your top choice.</p>
<p>Thanks for the numbers flaoser. I’m just curious, how do you know there are 80 or so spots? And, how much of the class is actually legacies, because if it’s only 100 or so (athletes and legacies together) there are still about 150 applicants they take out of like 450, leaving still a higher admit rate early for the non-athletes and non-legacies?</p>
<p>NESCAC schools like Williams have a limited number of spots for “tipped” athletes, per league rules. I believe that the number Williams works with is 66. There ARE a decent number of somewhat “hooked” applicants (URM, legacies, first gen) who apply to Williams ED as well - just like any other school with ED. Many applicants will fall into two of those categories - the first-gen athlete, the URM legacy - so a good number of “spots” remain for your average, unhooked applicant. Dad2 is probably right about commitment, though I doubt that it will have a huge effect at a school as selective as Williams.</p>
<p>Those numbers were from reading various posts on this website. I tried looking at the NESCAC website to find a definitive answer, but I couldn’t find one there.</p>
<p>Not all legacies apply in the ED round - many are admitted RD. We were specifically told that if one S applied RD, he would still have his “legacy edge”. I think that legacies typically end up being about 10% of the class, sometimes a bit more.</p>
<p>When we were at Williams a couple of weeks ago, they said that there is indeed a benefit to those who apply early, so besides the recruited athletes and the legacies, the figures are still statisically significant (it’s Williams after all 
for those who choose to apply early.</p>
<p>this is very helpful info: [Early-Decision</a> Applications Surge at Vanderbilt, George Washington and Dartmouth - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/ed/]Early-Decision”>Early-Decision Applications Surge at Vanderbilt, George Washington and Dartmouth - The New York Times)
simply scroll down to get to Williams</p>
<p>Just look at it from a mathematical perspective. Every year, Williams picks around 1200 students from approximately 7000 applicants and aims for a freshman class around 500 students. If Williams fills up 40% of the incoming class with early decision applicants, then Williams only has to accept enough people (which I assume is just shy of 1000 people) to fill up the remaining 250 or so spots in the freshman class.</p>
<p>Williams has 32 varsity sports teams, each of which get an average of 2-3 picks. Almost all go ED. Add 12-14% of each class as legacies, also ED.</p>
<p>That leaves about 130 “normal” ED admit spots per year. Divide by two, so there are 65 normal ED spots for each sex – nationally. ARE YOU THE AMONG THE 1.3 MALES IN YOUR STATE WHO WILL GET IN ED?</p>
<p>Don’t forget international applicants…my school in Seoul gets 1-2 ED a year…</p>