Williams is a small private liberal arts college in Massachusetts with a reputation for bringing together students who are both brilliant and who want to impact the world in a positive way. The community has a tight-knit culture, and students both push and support each other towards excellence. The acceptance rate for the last few years has fluctuated between 8.5% and 10%, making Williams a very selective school.
The Williams acceptance rate has risen slightly (although still under 10%) since breaking records in 2021 and 2022, which was a common theme among selective private colleges during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The waitlist, though, has shown the opposite trend. Prior to COVID, it was normal for Williams to accept a few dozen students off of the waitlist each year. Not a massive number, but enough for wait-listed students to feel like there was a real possibility of getting in. For the past two years, that hasn’t been the case. In the 2021-2022 application cycle, Williams waitlisted 2,241 students (or 14.6% of all applicants). 860 accepted a spot on the waiting list, and zero were admitted. The number of students offered a spot on the waiting list in 2023 was smaller, only 1,970, but few — if any — were admitted.
This may all sound pretty negative if you’ve received a waitlist offer from Williams, but we don’t mean it to be. We’re in the business of helping students achieve what may seem impossible, and we find that the best first step is to recognize the reality of the situation. Now that we know just how hard it is to get in off the Williams waitlist, it’s time to try to make it happen anyway.
This post will be your step-by-step guide to what to do next if you’ve received a waitlist decision from Williams.
If you’re already feeling overwhelmed, send us an email. We help students move past disappointment to find a spot at their dream college.
Breathe Deeply
First, you need to re-find your center. You may be frustrated, sad, or simply annoyed. You may want to cry, scream, or eat a massive chocolate bar. All of that is valid and fair, and we encourage you to give yourself a day or two to feel all of those feelings — and then it’s time to take a deep breath and look towards the future. You have until April 30th to claim your spot on the waitlist, and students are not ranked based on how quickly they replay, so you don’t need to rush anything. You don’t even need to rush deciding if you want to be on the waitlist at all.
However, your opportunity to update Williams on your application (the Letter of Continued Interest we’ll be talking about in a moment) is in the same spot as the waitlist acceptance response form, and we encourage students to submit both at the same time. We’ll break down what this update will consist of and how to make yours stand out below, but first we want to share a little about the mechanics of waiting lists.
Let’s use Williams numbers to illustrate how this whole waitlist thing functions. Last year, Williams accepted 1,302 and 577 people enrolled. This is because they know that not everyone who is accepted will pick Williams in the end. So, they admit more students than they need for the first-year class. The waitlist is their way of bridging any gap between the number of students who say “yes” initially and the ideal number they want to hit for the first-year class. If fewer admitted students pick Williams than they expected (this is called the ‘yield rate’), they dip into the waitlist to find students to fill that gap. But it’s not like they swish their hand around in a hat full of names and simply pull one out. Instead, they reassess the applications — and updates — of students who have claimed their spot on the waitlist to find a good fit not just for Williams but for the composition of the first-year class. Each class needs to have a distribution of potential majors, areas of interest, backgrounds, etc., so it’s not random who they pick off the waitlist and it isn’t ranked, either. It’s highly strategic.
Obviously, this doesn’t always work out in favor of those on the waitlist. For the fall of 2022 admissions, the first-year class was entirely full and they didn’t need to even look at the waitlist. In earlier years, the average number of students admitted off of the waitlist was 35.
So, after you feel frustrated and sad, it’s time to keep your head in the game and set yourself up to be part of that select few if a window of opportunity arises. It’s also time, though, to plan for if you need an alternative.
Line up a Backup
Before you even accept your spot on the Williams waitlist, you need to line up a backup that you’d be satisfied attending. To do this, you’ll need to accept a spot at a school you were accepted to, and place whatever deposit they require. This is your backup plan, and you will most likely lose the deposit if you do get into Williams and choose to attend.
Reinforce Your Interest
Once you’ve accepted a spot at a school for the fall so that you know for sure that you’re headed to college, it’s time to go back to dealing with Williams. In addition to needing to proactively claim your spot on the waitlist through the applicant portal, Williams wants an update from you to augment your application. The deadline for both things — claiming your spot and the update — is April 30th, so we recommend doing them at the same time.
The update, which is often called a Letter of Continued Interest (or LOCI), should include your, “continued interest in Williams” and any updates on “awards, activities, or achievements” since you submitted your application. It should be short, polite, and professional. It must be well-written and perfectly edited. We advise students to break the LOCI down into four core parts:
Formal Greeting: To even call this a ‘part’ is a bit silly as it’s so short, but it bears repeating that this must be professional and must start with a formal opening. “Dear Williams Admissions,” will work just perfectly.
Reinforce Interest: Next, we recommend 3-4 sentences reminding Williams why they are your first choice. This should include very clear and specific information on why you want to study your prospective major (the one you listed in your application), and what it is about the culture and community of Williams that you are drawn to. Look for inspiration in how Williams talks about themselves. They value inclusiveness, intellectual curiousity, and sustainability and care for the environment, to name just a few things. Find matches between your interests and what Williams prioritizes, and highlight those.
Short Update: Next, it’s time for an update. This should be less than 300 words, so don’t include every tiny little thing you did over the past few months. Acing a quiz isn’t something that needs to be in your update. But winning an award, being published in a local paper or literary magazine, or being recognized for your work on a project are all the types of things that are important to include. This is why we encourage all students to continue striving into your senior spring, rather than sitting back and resting on your laurels. Williams wants to see that the version of you that excelled into your senior fall is still going at it pursuing your passions. Aim for 3-6 key updates total.
Closing: Close things out with 1-2 sentences reminding them again that Williams is your first choice. Then sign off with a professional “Sincerely,” “Respectfully,” or something similar.
“But this is annoying, and I don’t want to do more work,” we hear some readers saying. Well, too bad. If you don’t write a letter of continued interest, you’re basically saying that you don’t want to go to Williams, and they shouldn’t try to find a place for you. If you want Williams, you need to do more than simply claim your spot on the list. You need to tell them why and give them more reasons to want you.
If you’re really not excited, or are simply feeling intimidated, send us a note. The Letter of Continued Interest is something we can help with, and we’re experts at working with students to write LOCIs that make a different.
Follow Instructions
Once you’ve submitted your update and claimed your spot on the waitlist, you need to step back from the computer. If you email things to Williams, they will not consider them. “Please note,” they say, “that information shared via email will not be added to application files.” So, follow instructions. They don’t want you to call, and they do not interview or schedule campus visits for students on the waiting list.
Be Patient
This last part is probably the hardest. You’re going to have to wait, likely until well into summer, to hear back. In 2023, a small number of waitlisted students were even invited to opt into a summer waitlist after no one was accepted off of the standard waitlist, meaning they would have to wait even longer for a decision. So, it might be a while. To get through it, you need to keep your cool while accepting the idea that you most likely will not get in — and that, ultimately, that will be okay.
Getting off of any waitlist is tough, but Williams gives students a path towards acceptance that’s more straightforward than most. This doesn’t guarantee any spots will even open up for you to claim, but by encouraging updates from waitlisted students they let us know what they care about most. They want students who want them. So, tell them you care and show them that you’re a perfect fit.
If you’re unsure of how to navigate a tough waitlist situation, we can help. We guide exceptional students to outstanding colleges.