In the News

When it comes to providing access to high-achieving, low-income students, Williams is a “blueprint” for other elite colleges, according to a Hechinger Report story that appeared on PBS NewsHour’s website in January. “Generally, despite their prosperity, rich colleges don’t give many students of lesser means a shot at an elite, private education,” education writer Mikhail Zinshteyn wrote in the story. “Williams is rare.”

Last year, 19 percent of Williams students received Pell Grants—federal aid that’s typically for students from families earning less than $40,000 per year. And the college’s most recent six-year graduation rate for Pell students was 90 percent, nearly 40 points above the national average.

“To do this requires a very strong institutional commitment, not just from a philosophical point of view, but also from a financial point of view,” Williams director of admission Richard Nesbitt ’74 stated in the article. “Having a strong endowment certainly helps.”