Not sure if we’re missing something, but we can’t find a supplemental essay for Williams this year on the Common App or the school website, just the optional academic paper. Did they drop it this year? Seems so unlikely. Thanks for any insight -
I believe they don’t have one. The supplement is an optional school paper you can submit.
That was the case two years ago - did they have a question last year?
Williams did have a required essay last year asking about an experience with someone with a different interest, background or viewpoint. Looks that was a trial run and they have decided against making it a required essay. They still have the optional supplement which is to submit an essay or paper from a class. The optional paper supplement should be submitted if you are really interested.
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Wonder if it was because they had a drop off in number of applications last year and a higher admission rate.
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Williams is widely regarded at the Harvard of LACs. I don’t think they have to worry about fewer apps.
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Love love Williams but don’t all of the schools worry about apps and artificially elevated admissions stats? Why does S24 get hundreds of pieces of mail from every Ivy League school? A drop of applications by 4000 is certainly something administrators would notice?
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many elite schools have their e-marketing machine on full power to generate more applications, decrease their admit rate and enhance their perceived elitism
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Exactly. You’d think schools getting such a high volume of applicants would cut down on the mail/email. S24 literally gets daily emails from a couple of the ivies as well as lots of snail mail. He’s smart enough to know it doesn’t mean anything but others think it’s a signal that these schools “want” them.
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I’m unclear about where your information has come from. Last cycle, 22-23, Williams had 15,321 applicants. The previous cycle, for 21-22, had it had 2869 fewer. The numbers come from Williams’ own CDS.
Assuming your information is correct though, It’s not going to make a dent in Williams’ standing as probably the most prestigious LAC in the country. Williams has a $4.2 billion endowment. They can be as picky as they choose.
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Totally agree on all fronts. They are the premier LAC and S24 is applying Ed. The Williams records showed that for the class of 2027 they had about 1000 apply ED and 10000 apply RD
We have been watching this closely since it is S24s first choice but with elimination of the diversity essay that many schools have implemented for the first time they will have many many many more applicants this year in the RD round since it is so easy for a high stays kid to just press send to their already completed application.
I agree.
But often, senior administrators and boards of trustees do care about a drop in apps, sometimes enough to have a conversation with the senior enrollment person. Sometimes enough to make a change in enrollment leadership. (not that this happened at Williams)
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Amherst also had a small decrease in applications. Amherst and Williams are the only 2 NESCACs (and the only highly rejective SLACs that I can think of) that don’t offer ED2. I wonder if that might account for some of the decline.
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I note my understanding is many highly selective colleges are interested in getting more applications of particular sorts. Raw volumes are not going to capture that, but my understanding is they often have quite sophisticated analysis of application trends that inform their marketing efforts.
Obviously there are going to be many “false positives”. But the marginal costs of outreach are often low enough that they could economically further their institutional goals even if only a fraction of their outreach efforts result in an additional application of the sorts they want to increase.
I know so many ‘22 kids who maxed out their common app with Williams (and Wesleyan, and Middlebury, and Northeastern) after an ED1 rejection.
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Insightful observation.
How does one avoid being fooled by marketing and choose schools with appropriate academic/extracurricular fit?
You seem very experienced.
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So interestingly, I think in many cases when it comes to academic fit, many people are being too narrow, not too broad, in their thinking. Basically, most selective colleges are going to be “good enough” in almost anything they offer, meaning if you attend that college, do really well in that subject, get to know the professors, and so on, you will likely have good opportunities for your next step.
Rankings and such necessarily create a sort of zero sum mindset, because in order for one college to be ranked higher, all the colleges below have to be ranked lower. But I think the truth is there are really a lot of very big ties in the sense that among a very long list of colleges, what happens to the individual will really depend on that individual, and not which of those colleges they choose.
I note that is true in part because getting a faculty position at ANY selective college is usually quite hard, and as a result usually most of the faculty at selective colleges went to one of the top graduate programs in their field. The main difference is that there are a few “superstar” faculty in most fields, the kind who produce a very disproportionate amount of cited scholarship and such. Having a few of those people is often the main driver of how a department “ranks” in terms of peer reputation, or indeed scholarly output.
But it is not at all clear that such superstar faculty are actually better at, say, teaching undergraduates. And even a non-superstar faculty member is going to be able to write a credible recommendation about how, say, a student would do well in a top graduate program, because very likely they went to one themselves and did very well.
Now this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look at what colleges offer. Quite the opposite, if you have specific known interests you can and should seek out the colleges which offer classes and other programs you would like. But I think people often place too much emphasis on whether a college is particularly “good” or highly “ranked” or so on, as opposed to just seeing what they offer.
So my main answer to your question is basically just to look at department webpages and such. See what majors, minors, courses, and programs they offer. If you like, look at faculty. But don’t worry too much about how they “rank” versus what they offer.
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Thank you for your thoughtful response and the time it must have taken to answer my question seriously.
What is your take on the importance athletic recruiting plays in college choice? For example, if a HS student is an average athlete, should he (or she) try to get recruited to a heavily-marketed/prestigious school, even though the athlete does not meet the recruiting standards of the heavily marketed program? Is athletic recruiting still a back door into heavily-marketed academic programs?
In the alternative, if sports are important to the HS student, would it be better for the mediocre athlete to find a less heavily-marketed school, with an abilities-appropriate athletic program?
We have struggled with this question on another thread as marketing/school prestige is very important to some parents.
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So I think it obviously depends, but consistent with my prior comment, my overriding hope for student-athletes is they end up at colleges that would be great for them even if their sport fell through, but that does not necessarily mean going to the most academically famous or highly-ranked college that they can get into.
And of course balancing a serious academic program and an intense sport is sometimes doable, but sometimes proves not possible. So all the more reason to make sure the college would be a great college for that kid either way, and a bit of a reason to maybe not just automatically choose the most intense athletic option either.
Of course I don’t know if every kid wants to hear not pursuing the most famous college, academically or athletically, might be a smart idea. But if anyone asks me, I would say you are smart kids who can chart your own path, and you shouldn’t let fame or rankings or whatever trump your own good sense, including as to how to balance academics and athletics in a way that will work out great for you no matter what happens.
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Please stay on topic. This thread is about Williams and their supplemental essay. Feel free to start a new topic.
Schools have different options available to them to attract and fill their classes with the students they want. They can try to filter for kids who are genuinely interested by creating unique application hurdles – their own application form, supplemental essays, etc. This will lower the # of applications and make each one more work to review, but they’ll know the applicants are truly interested because it took effort to throw their hat in the ring. At the same time, this may keep some applicants from applying, especially those who know less about the school and/or who feel they can’t tailor answers well enough to be competitive.
Otoh, a school could lower the barriers to applying – including getting rid of additional essays – which will probably get them more applicants. Each application will be easier to review as it will only have the one common app essay, which hoped all candidate have used thoughtfully to best show who they are. This is probably more inclusive, and that inclusivity may include kids who aren’t all that interested in the school but figured “why not?”
Both methods (and everything in between) have validity, so it’s really a question of what each school wants its process to prioritize as well as how it wants to use the resources of its admission office. My guess is that a school that has more challenges in predicting yield might prefer more hurdles whereas one that is focusing on expanding diversity (including geographic) might want to get the applications and then try to convince admitted students to come. Williams’ FA alone could be attractive in that regard. At the same time, elimination of supplies essays makes each file that much more manageable.
They will almost certainly be measuring a number of factors as they do this to see what impact it has, but it doesn’t seem surprising that they are giving this a try.
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