<p>Coming from New Jersey (an “overrepresented” state) you will have to be absolutely outstanding or stunningly lucky even to get in RD let alone get an early write; check you own high school’s record with Williams admissions; also go to the Williams Web site and see if you can find out what the numbers and geographical and ethnic distributions of admittees have been over the past couple of years. That will help put things in perspective and possibly help you realize that you need to fall in love with a couple of other schools besides Williams. Then if you do get good news from the Purple Valley in the spring, it will be icing on the cake, but if you don’t get good news it will not be quite so devastating.</p>