An Inside View: Williams College

Williams College is generally acknowledged to be one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Founded in 1792, Williams has just over 1900 students on a 450 acre campus in the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts. Although all departments at Williams are quite strong, particular strengths are art history, the sciences, eonomics, history, and political science. Williams continues to be one of the most selective schools in the country, accepting about 19% of applicants each year. To get insight in to what it's like to be a student at Williams, I asked Noah, a junior Philosophy major, to share his experiences.

When you were looking at colleges, what were the three most important things you were looking for?

The quality of the undergraduate education, quality of life (how happy students seemed to be), and how I felt at the college.


What other schools besides Williams did you look at or consider?

I seriously considered Amherst, Wesleyan, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton, Carleton, Middlebury, and Oberlin. I also looked at Swarthmore, Pomona, Rice, Brown, and other similar colleges less closely.

What convinced you that Williams was the right school for you?

There really was no one thing--Williams seemed perfect for me in virtually every imaginable way. Every student I spoke with seemed incredibly happy and gushed about how much they loved the school. Everyone was interesting, friendly, and seemed to bring something unique to the school. All of the Williams professors were leaders in their field and excited about teaching and involving students in their research. Oh, and Williamstown is stunningly beautiful.

What has been your biggest surprise about Williams?

The JA (junior advisor) system made such an incredibly positive impact on my first year at Williams. From the moment you step foot on campus, you have a group of 20-30 other frosh (your "entry") who have your back as well as two cool upperclassmen friends (your Junior Advisors). I didn't give the JA system a second thought when applying to Williams, but it turned out to be one of the best things about my first year (its positive impact has extended through my second year as well). *I'd be happy to elaborate more on the JA system if you're curious.* Also, while I knew Williams had great housing, I'm continually impressed by how nice it's turning out to be--more about that later.

How would you describe the academic work load at Williams?

The workload is certainly challenging, but by no means unmanageable. There are tons of academic support services, from the Deans, to professor-led review sessions, to the math-science resource center, to the writing workshop. Classmates are always eager to help out. Students are able to make free time to pursue extracurriculars, and most students are extremely involved both in and out of the classroom. Despite the challenging work load, the stress level on campus is extremely low.

What's the "typical" Williams student like and how does that match up with the stereotypes in guidebooks?

The typical Williams students is intelligent, involved with academics both in and out of the classroom, and active in at least one (usually many) extracurricular activities. Many guidebooks stereotype Ephs (the nickname for Williams students)as being "smart jocks" and while there are many "smart jocks" at Williams, the majority of students don't really fall into this category. Athletics is but one of the many extracurriculars Ephs are involved with, and while Williams sports teams are extremely successful and well-supported by the student body, so are Williams theatre productions, Jazz Bands, Art Shows, etc. To characterize Williams as only a school for athletic students is to overlook the numerous other passions and successes of the student body. I think there are very few types of students who wouldn't fit in at Williams (note the high retention/graduation rate). Any student interested in meeting and become friends with a diverse group of interesting people and in being involved both in and out of the classroom would fit right in at Williams.


What was your dorm room like freshman year? How are the dorms in general?

I lived in a smallish double (the smallest double on campus in fact) which shared a larger common room with a single. Our suite shared a bathroom with one other similar suite (such suites are comprised from 2-4 frosh, so frosh bathrooms are typically shared by 4-8 students and are all unisex). This common room setup is typical frosh year and throughout all four years. It's great in that it allows students a private space to sleep/study in as well as a distinct social area. About 1/2 of frosh rooms are singles as are 90% of upperclass rooms. The dorms are all beautiful and well-maintained and the rooms are all large.

How's the food? What's your favorite item on the menu? Your least favorite?

In my opinion, the food is great. There are five dining halls and three snack bars, which is more than most colleges twice Williams size have. Since each dining hall prepares food for a smaller number of students, they are able to prepare more complicated dishes and put more care into each food item. The expansive salad bars are largely comprised of organic and locally grown food. One dining hall serves exclusively hormone-free meat and the others may begin doing so next year. Little specialty items such as real maple syrup, real whipped cream, and local apple cider are common. There are seasonal specialty meals throughout the year, such as Harvest Dinner which includes a beautiful Maine lobster for each student as well as great cuts of steak, where Dining Services sets out cloth tablecloths, decorates the dining halls, and has live music. There there were four accordion players serenading us for the Winter Carnival dinner. Some Dining Services highlights include a Recipes From Home day where all of the menu items for the day are made from recipes that parents send in (students vote at the end of the day for their favorite which is then incorporated into the permanent menu), cooking courses for students, and meal points at the snack bars if you miss a meal. My favorite items have to be the desserts which compare favorably with anything you'd get at a nice restaurant and the fresh warm breads, which are both made on-campus at the bakery. The crab cakes aren't great, but then again, few crab cakes outside of Maryland are.

What's the best part of the campus? What's the worst part? What is the area around the campus like?

My favorite part of campus probably is Mission Park which is the area between Mission Dorm (where about 2/3's of all Sophomores live) and the Frosh Quad (where about 2/3's of all Frosh live); It's a great place to go sledding in winter or find a quiet bench/sculpture to read or talk by. However, there are so many great areas like this--the campus is quite picturesque--that it's fair to say that my favorite part of campus is wherever I'm thinking about at the moment. The area around Williamstown is stunningly beautiful and provides a seemingly unending amount of great sledding/skiing/swimming/canoeing (depending on the season) locations. Despite being very rural, the Berkshires are far from being the "middle of nowhere:" between the Clark Art Institute, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Williams, Bennington, and other local cultural institutions, there is a constant stream of events going on within walking or short driving distance of campus. Williams itself provides enough going on that I very rarely left Williamstown during my first two years and was NEVER bored.

Where do people hang out, on and off campus? What do people do on the weekends?

People hang out in the common rooms of the dorms (either their own private common rooms or the larger all-dorm common rooms), the snack bar/student center, and outside when it's warm enough. Virtually all students stay on campus (or around campus--nobody goes home other than over the breaks) during the weekends, usually hanging out with friends and going to college-sponsored comedians/concerts/parties/etc, and going out to see sports games and student performances.

What advice would you give to someone still in high school about looking for colleges?

Visit, visit, visit! The US News rankings will give you a very rough idea of where colleges fall, and guidebooks will let you know what a college's stereotypes are, but neither comes close to capturing what a campus is really like. Use the guidebooks and rankings to narrow your list to a manageable size and to come up with questions to ask students during your visit. Try to get a feel for what the academics and student life is like at each college. Day visits are helpful, but ultimately try to do overnight visits with students at as many colleges as possible. However, most importantly, realize that it's YOUR impression that counts the most. Your parents, extended family, teachers, and guidance counselor will all likely try to influence your decision. Listen to what they say--they probably have a lot of good advice--but go where you want to go, not where they want you to go.

Also, apply to a good range of colleges, and only apply Early Decision (ED) if you're sure it's your first choice--the advantage ED gives applicants is negligible compared with the chance that you will have committed to attend a college that is not your first choice. Chances are you'll get a lot out of wherever you end up whether it is your first choice or your eight, so don't kill yourself stressing over getting into college. I'd be happy to answer more specific questions about Williams or college admissions. Email me: 07ns@williams.edu.

Best of luck with the whole admissions process!