Williams College has notified Early Decision applicants of their decisions. In all, 814 students applied to the Class of 2026 under the liberal arts college’s binding Early Decision program. Of these students, 255 earned admission, marking an Early Decision admission rate of 31.3%. Last year, for the Class of 2025, the Early Decision admission rate stood at 33%. For the Class of 2024, the Early Decision admission rate was 37%. So it sure is going down! And of the students who did not earn admission in the Early Decision round to the Class of 2026, approximately 180 were deferred to the Regular Decision round while around 400 were denied outright. Typically around 20-30 deferred students end up ultimately earning admission to Williams in the Regular Decision round.

As Gabe Miller reports for The Williams Record in a piece entitled “College admits 255 students to Class of 2026 through early decision,” “During the regular round, [Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services Liz] Creighton said that she expects the College to receive another 13,000 applications. This admission cycle’s projected application number, if accurate, would then total up to 14,000 applications, making it one of the largest applicant pools in the College’s history. The Class of 2025 had approximately 12,500 applicants and 1,000 admitted students, for an acceptance rate of 8 percent. The 2021-22 application cycle is the second in the College’s test-optional pilot program, which gives prospective students the choice to submit no standardized test results in their application. Next year’s admission cycle will be the final year of this pandemic-prompted pilot program, after which point a permanent testing policy will be announced, as other colleges and universities have started to do.”

Congratulations to Ivy Coach’s students who earned admission to Williams College’s Class of 2026 this Early Decision cycle. All of our students who completed applications with us and applied ED to Williams’ Class of 2026 got in!