Is UMass Amherst harder to get into than Williams College?

Williams College is much harder to get into than UMass Amherst. Williams is a highly selective private liberal arts college with a very small class size and a national applicant pool, while UMass Amherst is a large public research university that enrolls far more students each year. Even though UMass Amherst can be quite competitive for certain majors or for out-of-state applicants, it is not selective on the same level as Williams overall.

Williams tends to attract students who are aiming for an intimate academic setting, very discussion-heavy classes, and close relationships with professors from the start. Because it is small and has limited space, admissions there is extremely competitive across the board, and strong grades alone are rarely enough to make someone feel safe.

UMass Amherst fits a different kind of applicant. It serves a much larger student body, offers a wider range of programs, and has more variation in selectivity depending on the college or major.

So if your question is simply which school is more selective overall, the answer is Williams by a wide margin. UMass Amherst is respected and can absolutely be competitive, but Williams is in a different tier of admissions difficulty.