Across the country, students admitted to the College’s Class of 2029 have been receiving a purple and gold surprise: a box full of confetti, merch, and an acceptance letter inviting them to join the next generation of Ephs.
“I was ecstatic, of course,” prospective student Asa Sterling ’29 said of receiving her box. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, Williams sent me something!’ and [was] really happy to get the package.”
The boxes, sent by the Office of Admission, are bright yellow on the outside with a purple cow print interior. Inside, prospective students found a tote bag, pins, cow-print ankle socks, a fabric pennant, and a printed acceptance letter.
“It’s this ‘Yay!’ joy factor that we think is important,” said Associate Director of Admission Kate Heekin.
In addition to reading applications, Heekin and her colleagues hold related responsibilities, including — but not limited to — developing the beloved boxes. “All of us have separate little hats that we wear,” she said. “My main role … is communications. That means everything from the emails that we send, to social media, to these congrats gifts that we send out.”
This box is by no means the admission office’s first attempt at a welcome gift. “This box is the third thing that I’ve experienced, that I’ve been a part of designing,” Heekin said. One year, the College sent accepted students cards with Williams-themed temporary tattoos inside. Another year, students received congratulatory golden tickets.
Then, the pandemic struck, and the admission office decided to go big. “We were like, ‘These students need something extra special,’” Heekin said. “We need to send them extra love. And so, the box was born.”
Each spring, the Office of Admission uses student input in crafting the contents of that year’s box. “We’re not going to pretend that we know what’s trendy or cool,” Heekin joked. “We mostly use our student tour guides and student ambassadors [for feedback].”
She added that she also keeps a list of current students who are unaffiliated with the Office of Admission but are happy to provide feedback. “I’ll email [them] and be like, ‘Listen, I need your opinion,’ and they’re always happy to give it.”
Heekin and her team want to send items to students that are useful, fun, and long-lasting. They also consider recent trends. “I would have assumed that buttons weren’t cool anymore, but students were like, ‘No, buttons are still cool.’ So we did some buttons,” she said.
The biggest hit thus far is the signature Williams tote bag, a gift-box exclusive which made its debut for the Class of 2028. “We’ve gotten a couple of emails from students who say [the reason they enrolled at the College] was the tote bag,” Heekin said. Demand for the bags even extends beyond the student population, she said. “We have had faculty and staff ask us, ‘Can I get one of those?’ And we’re like, ‘We really need to save those for students.’ It’s this coveted item on campus because, no, you can’t get it anywhere else.”
Not every gift box item, however, has been as successful. The boxes sent to the Class of 2027 and 2026 included a hat which Zoe Gabriel ’27 described as a “fuckass, ugly beanie.” Rhea Pandit ’27 added, “It’s just grey with a yellow ‘W’, but it’s really long so you gotta fold it up and it doesn’t look cute.” Heekin said of the contentious item, “It’s not people’s favorite, which is fine.”
Heekin emphasized that the Office of Admission isn’t trying to outdo other institutions. “We’re not looking to compete with our look, or with the things that we send students,” she said. “We’re comfortable doing something that’s different or maybe bold, and not worried about what other people are doing.”
Boxes are only sent to admitted students who reside in the United States, because sending gifts to international students is “prohibitively expensive,” Heekin said. “What we do for international students is we give [the boxes] to [Associate Dean of International Student Services] Ninah Pretto, and she gives them out when they arrive on campus.” This policy means that only international students that enroll at the College receive a box, while all admitted domestic students do.
Ana Lúcia Gomes ’28, who is from São Paulo, Brazil, received her box last fall and said, “I felt very special when I got it.”
Last year, the boxes made quite an unexpected splash, giving students a hint about their admission to the College before decisions were released. “When you mail something to someone, many people have opted in to get pinged [by USPS] that something is coming to them in the mail,” Heekin said.
When the congratulatory boxes were shipped — the morning before decisions came out — students and families across the country received the notification. “That was just something we didn’t foresee,” Heekin said, laughing. “Now, we don’t mail boxes until the day after decisions go out.”
Heekin noted that the Office of Admission assembles the boxes in-house — an unusual individual touch for admissions gifts. “There are companies who will do this whole thing for you and mail it out for you, but we literally sit in this building and we build this box,” she said. “We love to put in the time and care.”
That time and care is certainly appreciated. “My favorite thing was the tote bag,” said Sterling. “I put pins on it, not only the pins that they gave me, but also pins with me and my best friend on it. I was like, ‘Now I have a little something to carry everywhere.’”
