Williams is an iconic liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Home to about 2,000 undergraduate students, the college is with students pursuing majors in biology, psychology, history, mathematics, political science, computer science, English, art, and most of all economics. This highlights the intellectual diversity of the Williams community, with students pursuing the hard sciences and the humanities hand-in-hand. At the core of this is the Williams liberal arts foundation. This has made Williams a coveted school for top-performing students, driving down the acceptance rate to only .
The college is , meaning that first-year applicants can choose whether to submit SAT or ACT test results. They also superscore, meaning that if you submit the results of multiple sittings of the SAT or the ACT, they consider the highest section score for each when reviewing your application. This can be powerful for students who have worked hard to improve their scores, but with uneven results. If you choose to take the ACT, the science section is optional.
There is one other optional part of the Williams application, but this one isn’t really optional. In this post, we’re going to break down the Williams supplement. This one is weird, and it can require some pre-planning well (as in months) ahead of pressing submit. So, let’s get into it.
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The Williams supplement is not a traditional college application supplement. It isn’t cookie cutter, just like how Williams isn’t cookie cutter. Instead of asking you to write a response to a prompt, Williams asks students to submit a piece of writing that they have already done.
Through this supplement, Williams applicants to share the type of work that checks two boxes: they are proud of it and it is academic. Oh, and it also needs to be academic writing. Williams requests a 3-5 page academic paper, excluding citations, that you wrote in the last year. It can be creative, or it can be analytical. It can be about any subject, and it does not need to be graded. You do, however, need to describe what the assignment was, which helps them understand the purpose and goals of your work. And it should not be a lab report. They do not want to receive lab reports.
So, how does one go about picking a piece to submit? And what if you aren’t sure if you have something that fits the bill. We often find that students, especially in large public schools, are only assigned papers over 3 pages in length a few times a year — if at all. If this includes you, there is an extra layer of work that has to happen. Before you can submit a piece of written work, you need to write one. Go to your English, literature, political science, or history teacher, and talk to them about what you need. Ask if they can assign you a writing project with Williams specifically in mind. Most teachers, especially if they will also be writing you a recommendation.
But if you have a stack of pieces of writing from junior year, or early in senior year, to pick from you’ll need to filter through to find what represents you best. These are the things to consider:
Subject Matter Alignment
First, look at what you want to study in college, or your prospective major. Ideally, the piece of writing that you submit will be related to that area of study in some way. Sometimes this is easy. If you want to study English, history, or political science, for example, you’ve probably been assigned writing that fits the bill. If you want to study a hard science, it can be harder. Especially as Williams does not want lab reports. So, take a wide angle view. If you want to study biology, maybe there is a paper you wrote for history that hits on a biological concept in some way. The paper doesn’t need to be about biology to form a strong link to your science interests.
Quality of Writing
The paper doesn’t need to be graded, but having received a strong grade on a piece of writing may be a strong suggestion that it could be a good one to pick as your supplement submission. Grade doesn’t immediately communicate quality of writing, though, as it’s one teacher’s opinion and not at all an objective judgement of strength. Regardless of the grade, we recommend sharing the essay, or a few essays, that you are considering submitting to some older individuals, likely professionals, that you trust but who are also not your parents. Like teachers, parents cannot be objective. Get their take, and hear them.
As we work with our students on applications to Williams, being able to offer a writer’s perspective alongside expert college application guidance. As a team of professional writers, not simply college consultants, we know when words work.
“Hear them,” isn’t the same as saying “listen to them,” though. Ultimately, you need to go with your gut. As we work with students, this is something we emphasize alongside building an informed understanding of why and how college applications that work (i.e., an acceptance) happen.
Show Something Different
One last piece of advice in picking a piece of writing to submit as your Williams supplement: show something different. The writing in the supplement essay should align with your academic interests or personal passions, but it should also sound very different from your main college essay. You aren’t a one-trick pony, and your writing shouldn’t make you sound like one.
Writing the Williams application doesn’t involve much new writing (if, of course, you already have writing that fits the bill), but it does require a lot of thought and care. Williams is a school that appreciates the pairing of authenticity with intellectual rigor. To be a strong applicant, this is the key. Show yourself as a strong, community-minded, curious, and driven student, and they will be able to envision you at Williams.
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