Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 25, 2003–The Williams College Class of 2007 has been selected, and letters have been mailed offering admission to 1,092 of the 5,341 applicants. Last year, 4,930 students applied and 1,120 were accepted.
Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.
Five hundred sixty women were accepted; 532 men were accepted. There were 875 applications from foreign students and 878 students of color applied. The expected class size will be 525 first-year students.
“We were faced with the difficult task of choosing the class from among a large number of superbly qualified candidates,” said Richard Nesbitt, director of admission. “The percentage of admitted students (20 percent) was the lowest in 23 years.”
Admitted students have until the Common Reply Date of May 1 to decide whether or not to attend Williams.
The top five factors (in order of importance) cited by students who elect to come to Williams are academic reputation, personal attention, attractiveness of the campus, academic facilities, and extracurricular opportunity.
By all standard measures of academic talent, including test scores and academic performance in school, this year’s pool of accepted students is extremely impressive.
For example, seventy percent of the accepted students had both SAT math scores of 700 or more. One hundred sixty-six scored a perfect 800 on either the SAT I or II math tests and 172 scored a perfect 800 on the SAT II writing test.
Students indicated that their academic interests include biology (125 students), sociology (68 students), physics (54 students), English (71 students), political science (47 students) and history (47 students). Two hundred forty-three students said they were undecided.
Students are from the Mid Atlantic (32.5 percent), New England states (23.1percent), West (14.5 percent), South (9.5 percent), Midwest (9.4 percent), Overseas (8.7 percent), and Southwest (2.3 percent).
The Class of 2007 seems certain to continue the Williams tradition of significant nonacademic accomplishments. Of the accepted students, 175 are talented athletes and 175 are talented musicians, dancers, and actors.
Previews Programs for admitted students were held April 14 and 15 and April 21. Events included a couple of panel discussions, which included President Morton Owen Schapiro; Joseph Cruz, assistant professor of philosophy; Stephen Fix, the Robert G. Scott ’68 Professor of English; Amy Gehring, assistant professor of chemistry; Wendy Raymond, associate professor of biology; and seniors Aaron Jenkins, Rebecca Krass, Joseph Lucia, and Healy Thompson. In addition to a variety of campus tours, students attended classes, visited with the offices of career counseling and information technology, toured the libraries, and met with representatives of the academic departments. Prospective students ended their visit at The Purple Key Fair, where they had the chance to meet current students involved in the more than 120 clubs, causes, teams and organizations on campus. More than 380 admitted students and their parents attended the Preview Programs.
Preview Programs give students the chance not only to attend classes, to meet faculty, and to experience college life here firsthand, but also to meet the people who will be their future classmates. “Visitors appreciated the warm welcomes they received everywhere on campus,” said Karen Parkinson, assistant director of admission and coordinator of the Previews. “Williams faculty, staff, and students do a wonderful job of hosting our visitors and we cannot thank them enough for everything they do.”
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Published April 25, 2003
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