Anonymous
Post 11/23/2025 09:56     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think you have to submit a graded paper to be in the running for Williams.

In some ways, I prefer this. I think it's a more honest example of the work you do while in school, not the work you do to get into a school. My older son applied a few years ago and, while happy enough with the graded paper he submitted, didn't have the confidence with other apps where he could write essays for each college. fully polished. papers he wrote for school were sometimes done the night before kind of thing.

He was WL at Williams and is at Princeton now. Williams is a tough admit.


But Princeton requires a graded paper too. Did he not have confidence with Princeton either?


Had confidence, but that paper didn't have the same level of polish as essays. The high school assigns loads of papers, so it was one of those. Probably finished at 1am the night before one night in junior year. I know some high schools have one, big end of term paper that would have been written and rewritten (like essays). He didn't have that. Anyhow, it worked out
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2025 09:39     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
Anonymous wrote:I think you have to submit a graded paper to be in the running for Williams.

In some ways, I prefer this. I think it's a more honest example of the work you do while in school, not the work you do to get into a school. My older son applied a few years ago and, while happy enough with the graded paper he submitted, didn't have the confidence with other apps where he could write essays for each college. fully polished. papers he wrote for school were sometimes done the night before kind of thing.

He was WL at Williams and is at Princeton now. Williams is a tough admit.


But Princeton requires a graded paper too. Did he not have confidence with Princeton either?
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2025 23:53     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:While I am sure there are many students at Williams who wish they were at HYP, my dd turned down one of those Ivies, as well as other T10 universities, to go to Williams - and she knows a number of other kids who were in similar positions. Williams is a very specific school - you should go because you *want* to be there, not because you don't have higher ranked choices. The graded paper is very important to them - if applying, I would definitely include that.

From our HS, the kids who go to WASP schools have higher average GPAs and test scores than the ones who go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton (and much higher than the ones who go to Columbia or Cornell). It is a self selecting group - the ones who want Harvard but don't get it end up at schools like UChicago or WashU.


+100


Obviously. That's why WASP schools have lower reported scores


Not really, the vast majority of the student bodies overlap. And, if you actually believe that there is a significant difference in 10 points or so on either tail you are a ripe target for a bridge salesman.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2025 20:06     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:While I am sure there are many students at Williams who wish they were at HYP, my dd turned down one of those Ivies, as well as other T10 universities, to go to Williams - and she knows a number of other kids who were in similar positions. Williams is a very specific school - you should go because you *want* to be there, not because you don't have higher ranked choices. The graded paper is very important to them - if applying, I would definitely include that.

From our HS, the kids who go to WASP schools have higher average GPAs and test scores than the ones who go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton (and much higher than the ones who go to Columbia or Cornell). It is a self selecting group - the ones who want Harvard but don't get it end up at schools like UChicago or WashU.


+100


Obviously. That's why WASP schools have lower reported scores
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2025 20:05     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
How do you prove the "graded paper" is actually a graded paper, unless it's part of the school counselor recommendation packet?
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2025 19:35     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this is legit or not, but at least one 3rd party college counselor said that for low-acceptance schools with no supplementals, you should still write an email to the AO that covers your territory and basically write a supplemental essay in your email.

It can just be effectively "Why Williams".

I don't know if this is true...but at the same time I can believe it's true and just adds to the BS.
No, that will just bother them. DC got into Middlebury (no supplements) without any of that garbage; at the time, Williams had a supplement

+1 if Williams (or any school) wants a Why Us essay, they’ll ask for it.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2025 15:57     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this is legit or not, but at least one 3rd party college counselor said that for low-acceptance schools with no supplementals, you should still write an email to the AO that covers your territory and basically write a supplemental essay in your email.

It can just be effectively "Why Williams".

I don't know if this is true...but at the same time I can believe it's true and just adds to the BS.
No, that will just bother them. DC got into Middlebury (no supplements) without any of that garbage; at the time, Williams had a supplement
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2025 15:21     Subject: Williams has no supplemental essays?
Anonymous wrote:While I am sure there are many students at Williams who wish they were at HYP, my dd turned down one of those Ivies, as well as other T10 universities, to go to Williams - and she knows a number of other kids who were in similar positions. Williams is a very specific school - you should go because you *want* to be there, not because you don't have higher ranked choices. The graded paper is very important to them - if applying, I would definitely include that.

From our HS, the kids who go to WASP schools have higher average GPAs and test scores than the ones who go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton (and much higher than the ones who go to Columbia or Cornell). It is a self selecting group - the ones who want Harvard but don't get it end up at schools like UChicago or WashU.


+100