Williams College Overview

Williams College is a private not-for-profit institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The location of Williams is a good match for students who are interested in living in a college town while they pursue their degree.

What Is Williams College Known For?

• Students who want to work more closely with their professors have an easier time at Williams since the student to facuty ratio is 6 to 1.
• The student loan default rate at Williams is 2%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• The highest award offered at Williams is the master's degree.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 85% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Williams makes roughly $59,000 a year. This is 45% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• The average Williams student graduates in 4.1 years. That's better than the national average of 4.4 years.

Williams College Rankings

Williams landed the #24 spot in our 2022 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,587 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation! It is also ranked #5 out of 72 schools in Massachusetts.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Williams has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#8	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#26	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Williams.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Social Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Other Social Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best General Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Economics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#22	Best English Language & Literature Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#37	Best Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Williams has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#2	Best History Schools	College Factual
#3	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central
#6	Best Social Sciences Schools	College Factual
#7	Best Psychology Schools	College Factual
#18	Best English Language & Literature Schools	College Factual
#33	Best Computer & Information Sciences Schools	College Factual

Where Is Williams College?

Contact details for Williams are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	880 Main St, Williamstown, MA 01267
Phone:	413-597-3131
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/williamscollege
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/williamscollege

How Do I Get Into Williams?

You can apply to Williams online at: https://admission.williams.edu/apply

Admission Requirements for Williams

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	considered but not required
High School Rank	considered but not required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	recommended
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	neither required nor recommended
TOEFL	neither required nor recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into Williams?

If you plan to apply to Williams, make sure you don't wait until the last minute to fill out your application. The school is one of the most selective in the United States and has a low acceptance rate of 15%. If you are admitted, that's something to brag about!

Approximately 48% of accepted students are men and 52% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 15%, and the acceptance rate for women is 15%.

Can I Afford Williams College?

The overall average net price of Williams is $37,702. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Williams, approximately 25% of students took out student loans averaging $5,044 a year. That adds up to $20,176 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Williams is 2.3%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Williams College Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 1,962 undergraduate students at Williams, with 1,917 being full-time and 45 being part-time.

There are also 25 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,917 full-time undergraduates at Williams, 50% are male and 50% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Williams College students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	272
Black or African American	129
Hispanic or Latino	252
White	873
International Students	166
Other Races/Ethnicities	225

Geographic Diversity

Massachusetts students aren't the only ones who study at Williams College. At this time, 42 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 59 countries are represented at Williams. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Canada, and South Korea.

Online Learning at Williams College

Williams College Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
Economics	108	27	135
Political Science & Government	70	0	70
Computer Science	64	0	64
General Biology	62	0	62
General Psychology	54	0	54
Mathematics	51	0	51
General English Literature	47	0	47
Fine & Studio Arts	31	15	46
Chemistry	43	0	43
History	39	0	39
Romance Languages	26	0	26
Area Studies	21	0	21
Statistics	19	0	19
Sociology	17	0	17
Natural Resources Conservation	15	0	15
Philosophy	14	0	14
Geological & Earth Sciences	14	0	14
East Asian Languages	12	0	12
Physics	11	0	11
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	10	0	10
Music	9	0	9
Ethnic Studies	8	0	8
Other Social Sciences	7	0	7
Astronomy & Astrophysics	6	0	6
Religious Studies	5	0	5
Anthropology	5	0	5
Classical Languages & Literature	3	0	3
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	2	0	2
Drama & Theater Arts	2	0	2
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	1	0	1
Germanic Languages	0	0	0
TOTAL	776	42	818

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Daderot under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.