Williams College

Williams College is an elite liberal arts college in northwestern Massachusetts. Williams, founded in 1793, offers faculty tutorials, mentored research, and excellent financial aid.

Affordability: Williams meets 100% of demonstrated need without student loans or work study (as of fall 2022). Theoretically, then, Williams is affordable for any student admitted. However, they do not offer merit aid. Higher income students will pay full price, which is high. According to NCES data, most students do not take out loans (15% of freshman borrowed an average of $4,090 in 2020-21). Based on recently improved financial aid policies, I expect these numbers may improve starting with 2022-23 data. 

Rankings: 

• #1 liberal arts colleges, U.S. News

• #13 colleges and universities, CollegeSimply

• #12 best liberal arts colleges, Niche

Popular Majors (NCES):

• Econometrics 

• Biology 

• Political Science 

• Computer Science 

• History 

• Art 

• English 

• Psychology 

Students, Admissions, enrollment, graduation rates (NCES):

• 2,174 undergraduate students; 50 graduate students

• 9% acceptance rate

• 52% enrolled

• 94% graduation rate