Williams or Amherst Admission - Realistic Chances

amfreborg
Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:28:49 +0000

Thanks all! I am grateful for the quick and numerous responses.

I know I am stressing about this much more than my son, mainly because I’ve seen first hand the doors that are opened with credentials from the elite schools. The potential is there for him, whereas it wasn’t for his parents.

We are not ethnic Japanese, but my son has taken very strongly to the language and culture (except the eating of raw eggs ). It will be interesting to see how much more of the language he picks-up after his term in Japan this summer.

He’s retaking the SAT in March, though the tutor he works with says that at a certain point getting higher score boils down to missing 1 question instead of 2 or 3 on the entire exam.

Ultimately it’s his happiness and success that matters. I need to keep reminding myself of that. My main point in asking was to get a realistic picture of the possibilities - and have all of us fall into a trap chasing a false hope.

Any thoughts on Amherst admissions relative to Williams? My son seemed somewhat more enthusiastic about Amherst after looking at their course descriptions.