Williams acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Williams admitted 1,336 of 15,520 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 8.6%. Every number below comes from the college’s own Common Data Set, each year linked to its document; a figure the college leaves blank says “Not published”, and the notes at the foot of the page say where a total is the sum of rows the college printed.
What did admitted applicants have? How to get into Williams counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Williams acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 15,520 | 1,336 | 8.6% | 567 | 42.4% |
| 2024-25 | 15,411 | 1,272 | 8.3% | 547 | 43.0% |
| 2023-24 | 11,465 | 1,145 | 10.0% | 541 | 47.2% |
Acceptance rate is admitted divided by applied; yield is enrolled divided by admitted. Both are computed by Aristo Scholars from the two counts printed beside them.
Early decision at Williams
Williams waitlist
Williams SAT and ACT scores
What Williams says matters in admission
In section C7 each college rates its own admission factors as Very Important, Important, Considered or Not Considered. These are the factors Williams rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, First generation, Volunteer work, Work experience
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, First generation, Volunteer work, Work experience
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, First generation, Volunteer work, Work experience
Williams testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test optional: 'Williams is truly test optional'; submitting SAT/ACT results is the applicant's choice, and submitted scores are superscored.
From Williams’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
2023-24 figures are from the April 2024 revision. That year's residency rows print 0, so its totals are from the gender Total column.
Williams acceptance rate questions
- What is the Williams acceptance rate?
- Williams's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 15,520 first-year applicants and 1,336 admitted, an acceptance rate of 8.6%. It was 8.3% in 2024-25 and 10.0% in 2023-24.
- What is the Williams early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 256 of 964 early decision applicants were admitted (26.6%), against 8.6% of all applicants. Early decision applicants are a different pool who commit to enroll, so the two rates are not a like-for-like comparison.
- What SAT scores do Williams students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1490 to 1550, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 35. 43.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Williams waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Williams offered 2,193 applicants a place on the waitlist; 850 accepted one, and 25 were admitted from it.
- Does Williams require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test optional: 'Williams is truly test optional'; submitting SAT/ACT results is the applicant's choice, and submitted scores are superscored.
Applying to Williams?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Williams says it weighs.
Source: Williams Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Williams. All official acceptance rates