Toward Equity & Inclusion
In the past to ensure our doors were open to the most talented students regardless of family financial circumstances we sustained twin commitments to need-blind admission and need-based aid that met 100% of students' demonstrated need.
But students have told us that the "hidden costs" of attending Williams were not always captured in aid awards. For too many students their financial obligations limited full participation in college life and for too many families the share of earnings and savings we were asking them to contribute caused significant stress.
We now know that in order to level the playing field for all enrolled students, true affordabilty must be our goal.
”We listened to students talk about what they wished they had more time to pour themselves into. We're passionate about giving them the flexibility to pursue what they love. All-Grant is our next major step toward making Williams truly affordable.
—Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services Liz Creighton '01
What is True Affordability?
• It's accounting for the full cost of attendance and participation: not just tuition but textbooks, study away, and career preparation, even health insurance and summer storage
• It's giving students the chance to have and educational experience or summer internship that they might not be able to because of financial obligations to Williams
• It's recognizing the lived reality of aided families--knowing there's a difference between asking families to invest in their child’s education and pushing them toward a point of pain in doing so
What is All-Grant?
In April 2022 Williams adopted the nation’s first-of-its-kind “All-Grant” financial aid program, the natural next step to advance a decade-long pursuit by college leaders to recognize the full cost of participation.
All Grant means:
NO loans
NO required campus jobs
NO summer earnings requirements
Williams still values work and many students continue to hold jobs on and off campus but we also now empower students to choose what is right for them and what they do with their time and earnings, both at and beyond Williams.
“All-Grant has allowed me to...take on jobs that are very fulfilling to me. As a teaching assistant, I’ve been able to tutor and mentor students who are coming from backgrounds like mine. ... I would have been working regardless of the All-Grant program, but because of it, I’ve been able to choose what I want to spend my time on." —Chris Flores '26