I’m a spaz so it’s prohibiting one of the words in the link.
But go to collegekickstart (dot com) and hit up the blog.
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Applicants who were deferred or denied may want to consider other colleges from this Forbes article, in which Williams appears:
Looks like an increase in ED applications from last year as was expected, 33% may be the lowest ED admit rate ever, was a competitive year for sure and congratulations to all admitted. For those deferred, the opening may be wider for RD if the RD pool is close to last years size.
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Yes, if the blog is accurate, the number of accepted students in ED this year is a bit lower. I thought they accepted 257 for the Class of 2023 not sure about Class of 2024. Anyone know? The email that D21 received said “joining a class of 550”, which is the same size as Class of 2023 and this year the blog reports 235 accepted in ED. I wonder about the 18 or so reported Questbridge kids, because then that would make it 253. Not sure how that all works. What I do know is that the admissions cycle isn’t over and we won’t know the final count for some time, but with what we are seeing here, I am that much more grateful and feeling so blessed.
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I think there are around 60 gap year students who will be 2025s. My gap-year D just got an email from admissions asking her to confirm her enrollment this fall. There may be a few gappers who don’t enroll. I am curious about that blog post–without a link, I have my doubts. Maybe the Williams Record will have a story after the holidays. They have done such a good job reporting on enrollment this year. In any case, I’m with you, so grateful that my D will be an Eph.
Yes @gotham_mom, I’m with you in that I want to hear it straight from the purple 
's mouth. I had no idea the number of 2025 gaps. Btw I haven’t been accepted to the Williams College Parents group on FB, any idea what the acceptance rate to that is? lol! 
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The person who administers the group, who is the college’s director of family programs, posted that Williams staff is on break until January 4th. Hope you get in. 
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Agreed on the Record coverage! They also have a podcast series on their website.
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The best psychology courses at Williams are in the history department! Check out Kohut’s fascinating courses on the history of psychology.
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Welcome back, @TheGreyKing. Your insights were so helpful for my 2024-turned-2025 student. Any course/prof recommendations are appreciated, no pressure! 
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Poly sci intro course, Art History 101 is also great survey course, the STATS classes are all very good as well, also, any tutorial would be great
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Thank you. I wish I could audit Art History 101!
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If those figures are indeed correct, the bigger headline is that Williams decided to accept fewer students ED and wait for the RD round, i.e a bit more hope for deferred candidates. ED apps up 4% compared to last year (689), but ED acceptances down from 257 to 235. Williams typically takes about 250 in ED.
It should be noted that in the acceptance letter it said they were joining a class of 550, which would have to include last year’s admits that took a gap year. It could just be formulaic, but with the lower number ED acceptances, one has to wonder, no? Of course, time will only tell and these numbers are only targets. Anyone remember the number of admits last year that deferred?
This might make sense, since Williams offers one of the top history programs in the country.
Perhaps the lower number of ED admits this year is related to the number of 2024 ED-admitted athletes who opted for a gap year. I don’t know if the percentage of ED admits who are athletes is ever made public, but just looking through the Instagram account for the class of 2025 reveals that a large number are athletic admits (some of whom say they are on a gap year).
The only numbers I could find were from the Williams Record last fall, “Of first-years, 15.4 percent plan to take a gap year…” which is about 84 students assuming a class of 550. The College released its data on fall enrollment. It reveals disparities by race and financial aid status. – The Williams Record
I still think they’ll admit around the same number or more than they did last year. (Last year they admitted about 50 more students than they did for the class of 2023.) I suspect that they’ll lose a fair number of strong candidates to schools that offer ED2. I bet ED2 applications are up across the board. I interview for a SLAC, and they were slammed with interview requests after ED1 decisions were released.
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First year athletes taking a gap years makes sense. I sure hope for a better Fall and being able to see some of all of these young athletes compete.
RD and that waitlist will be interesting to follow. I don’t envy these AO’s. They are going to be busy.
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Hi, @purplemama - Back in early May, I had submitted a request to join the Williams College Families page. When my request wasn’t approved, I wrote to the staff member that @gotham_mom references above. This was his response - and is likely why you won’t get approved until May unless they change the policy:
We actually wait until all new students matriculate before welcoming their families into this Facebook group. Reasons range from the somewhat understandable (we don’t want families of June matriculants posting all the same questions their Early Decision counterparts asked in previous months) to the legal (FERPA requires that we give students the option of prohibiting family members from communicating with Williams…and a tiny handful of new students exercise that option).
My son is class of 2024 and was on campus first semester, so feel free to ask me any questions. Happy to help out if I can!
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Agreed that this bodes well for deferred applicants in the RD round. Will set up a RD discussion.
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Anyone’s kids get on the zoom session for admits tonight? I know there is another on Saturday.