If you are reading this post, things have not gone to plan. You applied to Williams Early Decision because you wanted a decision, early. If it was an acceptance, that would be preferred. If it was a rejection, at least you know where you stand. But now you have this deferral, and you don’t really know what to do about it. You’re neither in nor out, and Williams doesn’t give you a ton of guidance for what to do next. First, though, let’s make sense of where you stand.
The overall acceptance rate for the Williams Class of 2028 was 7.5%, the lowest acceptance rate on record. This was paired with the largest pool of applications in the history of the college. About 20% of all accepted students were admitted Early Decision, so the college puts an emphasis on prioritizing ED applicants. Digging in deeper, Williams deferred 155 of ED applicants that same year. From this list of 155, the college accepted only 14, or 9%, of deferred students in the Regular Decision cycle. However, this isn’t actually a horribly low acceptance rate. Since it’s in line with the overall acceptance rate, it tells us that deferred students aren’t ‘back ups’, they are truly still in the mix.
Our primary takeaway from the Williams admissions statistics is that, as a deferred student, you’re still in this. You have a chance, so it is absolutely worth pulling out all the stops to become one of the select few deferred students who is eventually accepted. So, you can get into Williams after a deferral, but it isn’t easy to pull off. You need a strategy. Luckily, we can help. Below we’ve broken down exactly what you need to do to get into Williams after a deferral.
First, though, we’ll outline the key steps you need to be taking to ensure that your entire college application experience is successful.
Applying to college can feel high-stakes, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be stressful. Contact us to learn how we make the college application process actually enjoyable.
Before you do anything else for Williams, you need to address the big picture of your college application experience. This breaks down to three key steps:
Review Your College List
The most important part of any college application process is the college list. A strong college list forms a solid foundation, but if you start with a list that’s out of balance you are starting out on rocky footing. A list full of reaches may look impressive on its face, but if you don’t have a range of schools, including realistically accessible ones, all it is is a list of school names with no meat behind it.
With this in mind, give your college list a fresh look. To start, you should have 3-4 foundation schools, commonly known as ‘safeties.’ These are schools that you are very likely to get into. There is no such thing as certainty until you have an offer of acceptance in hand, so don’t assume you’ll get into a school just because you’ve heard from friends or family that it should be easy for you. For a school to be a foundation, your grades and scores should be well above the average accepted scores, and sometimes it is also an ‘in-state’ school for you, so you have preferential admissions due to in-state residency.
Next, you’ll need 3-4 target schools. These are schools that you are likely to get into, but that are more competitive than your foundation schools. Your grades and scores should be within the middle 50% of recently accepted students, preferably towards the top end of any range given.
Finally, you’ll have 2-3 reaches, one of which is Williams. These are schools that are very difficult to get into, often with an acceptance rate of less than 15%. A good reach isn’t a moonshot. It’s a school you could feasibly get into, but it’s going to take some work. Now that your grades and scores are set, the big ‘difference maker’ for your application will be your writing.
Reassess Your Writing
Once you have confirmed your college list, it’s time to get back to your writing. You’ve already written everything needed for your Williams application, and you may have been working on your supplements for a while. That said, there are almost certainly improvements to be made. We are not suggesting that you have to start over, but you may decide to start over after reading our 2024-2025 Guide to the Common App Essay. You should also take a look at these college-specific supplement posts, which break down every supplement prompt for dozens of highly-competitive schools. Strong writing that stands out is a key factor in getting into a school that’s technically out of reach, so do work that makes a difference.
Press Submit
Once your list is confirmed, the writing is done, and all the other pieces of your application are in order, it’s time to submit. If this sounds obvious, good. It should be. But we often see that students hold off on submitting, even when an application is done. In theory, this doesn’t matter. In practice, students tend to get nervous as the deadline gets closer and begin making last minute edits that don’t actually improve their essays. To avoid this, we suggest submitting as soon as an application feels complete.
WHAT WILLIAMS WANTS
Some schools offer deferred students clear guidance as to what they want to see following the deferral decision to strengthen an application. Williams doesn’t give much, though. Lucky for you, we know what works from experience.
Williams does accept additional materials via email (applicationmaterials@williams.edu). We instruct deferred Early Decision applicants to take advantage of this by writing a letter to Williams, commonly called a Letter of Continued Interest.
A Letter of Continued Interest, or LOCI, is a concentrated and focused update, paired with restating that Williams is your first choice. A LOCI should be short, only about 300-400 words, and it’s important that it doesn’t sound like you’re begging for a spot in the first-year class. To avoid the begging vibe, this is what you need to do:
Reconfirm Interest: First, you need to open with a 2-4 sentence paragraph that clearly states that Williams is still your first choice and that you will attend if accepted. This is not a binding statement, but it is an important one. Be specific, too, reminding them of your academic area of interest.
Update the Application Readers: Next, you need to provide a focused update to your application. If you’ve been recognized or received an award, had a change in responsibilities or leadership roles, experienced a significant family change, or anything similar since you first applied to Williams, include it here. Less is more here. It’s better to provide a smaller number of updates, with more detail for each, than a long list that doesn’t feel curated.
Close Strong: Finally, you need to close the LOCI with a short paragraph stating one more time (yes, again) that Williams remains your first choice and that you will attend if accepted.
The letter should be sent to the admissions officer assigned to your region, with the application materials email added in the “CC” field. Be sure to address the letter the appropriate regional admissions officer in a formal way, like “Dear Mr. X.”
Grades
The final piece of your deferral puzzle is an updated grade report. Your school counselor should send this automatically, but it’s worth double-checking that it gets sent out. Book an in-person meeting with your counselor to confirm. When meeting with them, you should also ask if they would be willing to make an advocacy call on your behalf. An advocacy call is a phone call your school counselor would make to Williams in support of your application. This is not mandatory, and many school counselors are highly selective about when and in what situation to make an advocacy call.
Whether or not your counselor agrees to make an advocacy call on your behalf, you do have a chance of getting into Williams after a deferral. You also have a strong opportunity to get into another dream school in the regular decision round (or ED II) if you follow these steps.
Every year, we help strong students get into their dream schools, even after early disappointment. Email us to learn more.