Williams is a highly-selective and equally highly-sought after small liberal arts college known for deep woods and even deeper thinkers. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was 8.5%. This continues a long-term downward trend in the Williams acceptance rate, which has dropped from about 14% to that 8.5% number over the past decade. The driver for this decline has been a huge increase in the number of applications submitted, while the number of students accepted has held fairly steady. Williams has, however, made moves to expand housing capacity for first-years such that they can increase the size of the incoming class. As they make these small adjustments, applicants may well see shifts in the role the waitlist plays as Williams’ admissions team calibrates for new targets.
Williams says that the waitlist typically has around 600 to 750 students on it and that, “in a typical year,” about 30 students are admitted from the waiting list.
That’s pretty vague, though, so let’s get specific to gain a deeper understanding of your odds as a student offered a spot on the Williams waiting list. For students enrolling in the fall of 2024, Williams received nearly 15,500 applications for the first year class. Of that group, they extended an offer to join the waitlist to about 15% of applicants, or 2,303 students. Ultimately, 858 students chose to join the waitlist and 113 were admitted — far exceeding the 30 student average Williams reports.
One year earlier, in the application cycle for students enrolling in the fall of 2023, a waitlist offer was extended to 1,606 of 11,465 applicants (14%). 637 students chose to join the waitlist, and only 3 were offered a spot in the first-year class, far below the 30 student target. If we look at one more year, when students applied for the fall of 2022, the numbers were even more dire. Zero (yes, 0) students were accepted off of a waitlist of 860 applicants after 2241 were offered the opportunity to wait and see.
So, how are they getting the 30-student average? Well, if you average out 113, 3, and 0 you get pretty close: 38.66. This is a useful illustration of how averages aren’t really helpful when the issue is personal. You are the one wondering if the Williams waitlist is worth it, and you certainly are not a fraction of a person that can fit into the 38.66 average.
Statistically, the odds of the Williams waitlist aren’t awesome. However, we’ve found through experience that when you take out the students who don’t do anything to improve their chances and filter out the students who also do too much, ignoring what Williams invites and ultimately leaving a bad taste in their mouth, your chances actually aren’t all that terrible. The waitlist isn’t ranked, after all. You aren’t at the top of a list nor at the bottom of a pile. You are in a pool, but the actions you take now can ensure that, when “the Admission Committee periodically reconvenes to assess the composition of the enrolled class to see what additions might be made to round out the group,” your application is the first one they reach for.
Below, we break down what you need to be doing now to raise your chances of breaking through the waitlist and reaching an offer of admission from Williams.
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How best to handle a waitlist decision isn’t an industry secret, but that doesn’t mean that it’s intuitive or easy. If you find yourself nodding along and saying, “that makes sense” to the steps below, that’s good. It really is quite intuitive, but you have to do it right.
Step One: Join the Waitlist
You’ve been offered a spot on the Williams waitlist, but now you have to claim it. To do this, you log into your My Williams Account and complete the Waiting List Offer form.
You have time to respond, but that doesn’t mean that you should wait around. You also shouldn’t rush. The waitlist response form is where Williams encourages students to include information about recent “awards, activities or achievements.” This means that you need to plan before you submit.
It’s important to know that being quick to respond to the waitlist offer does not increase your chances of getting in. It is much better to move in a measured and thoughtful way than to rush and then regret having missed something important.
You should also know that you are not limited in the number of waiting lists you can be on. “While it is important that you secure your place at one college,” Williams say, “you may simultaneously stay on any number of waiting lists.”
Then move on to step two.
Step Two: Update Williams
Normally updating the college is step three, but we are bumping this up to step two because Williams wants you to put your update into the Waiting List Offer form.
Williams invites students to include updates to their application on the waiting list response form. This is the only way that they want to receive updates and continued interest. Please take note that information emailed to admissions will not be added to your file — which is where things have to go to actually make a difference.
After you review the Waiting List Response form, set aside an hour or two to think about what has happened in the past few months that either builds upon things you emphasized in your application or is completely new information the admissions readers would have never seen before.
Aim to come up with 2-4 substantive updates to share, and experiences are more valuable than (most) awards here. Writing about how your interests have developed, you’ve worked as part of a team, or contributed to your community is nearly always more impactful than simply sharing that you’ve received a recognition.
You also need to underline your passion for Williams, and especially the academic program you hope to pursue.
As you pull these updates and specifics about Williams together, you’ll need to keep your update concise, formal, and carefully edited. We advise students to structure it as a short letter that follows this format:
Opening: Introduce yourself, state your prospective major, and state your intention for this letter. If you have the name of your regional representative, include their name after “Dear,” in lieu of “Williams Admissions.”
Update: The update is the most important part of your submission. Simply updating Williams helps to communicate your continued interest, but they need to know what (of importance) has happened in your life since you submitted your application. You should aim to provide 2-4 updates, as a long list dilutes impact. Each should be relevant to your application, whether academic or extracurricular, and we strongly emphasize putting a focus on community and teamwork. Help Williams envision how you will be a contributing member of their community by spotlighting ways that you continue to contribute to your own.
Reinforce: Next, you need to remind Williams why you love Williams. Do not lose site of the fact that you are applying to college to get an education, so spotlight two things about Williams academics that are particularly exciting to you.
Close: Finish the letter with a thank you and a quick sign-off.
Aim to submit this letter as part of the Waiting List Response form well ahead of the May 1 deadline. After that, important updates can be submitted through the Continued Interest form, but should not be emailed or snail-mailed to the admissions office. They also do not want additional letters of recommendation and will not schedule interviews or meetings with waitlisted students.
Step Three: Commit to a College
The next step is truly not optional: you need to pick a college to attend if the Williams waitlist doesn’t work out. Remember, the odds of getting into Williams off of the waiting list are very small. You absolutely cannot bet on it, and you need a back-up plan. So, commit to a college you were accepted by and remember that transfer is always an option if you aren’t thrilled about any of your options.
Step Four: Be Patient
Williams begins assessing the waitlist in the beginning of May, and it typically takes at least a few weeks for them to finalize the first-year class. All students on the waitlist will be notified when the class is completely filled and the waitlist is closed, so if you haven’t been told that they are done with the waitlist you are still in the running.
It’s also important to know that being on the Williams waiting list will not impact your financial aid. Unlike most highly-selective colleges, where being admitted off of the waitlist means you must start in the coming fall, you will also still be eligible to take a gap year before enrolling for your first year.
If you want a personalized strategy for handling the Williams waiting list, Email us.