<p>Fabulous econ and math departments</p>
<p>Don't forget Physics :)</p>
<p>Friendly student body
Cozy dorms
Tasty food
Aesthetic campus
Excellent support system.</p>
<p>Mikey says I have to make his day:</p>
<p>So here are several of many great things about Williams:</p>
<p>a) The number one college in America for art history or a careeer as a museum curator.</p>
<p>b) Playing golf at the Taconic.</p>
<p>c) Meeting your future Ephman wife at an art history professor's house.</p>
<p>d) skinny-dipping at Roaring Brook in the summer time (which should count as successfully passing the freshmen swimming test)</p>
<p>e) Taking classes on Doestoevsky novels and Russian politics at the same time.</p>
<p>f) A course on James Joyce's Ulysses with the late Don Gifford. Even better: when Gifford took students to the Log for a pitcher of beer afterwards.</p>
<p>g) Going to a Pink Floyd concert in Chapin Hall.</p>
<p>I've only done (b) and (d).</p>
<p>I think Winter Study is one of the best things about the school and something that sets it apart from other similar schools. To be able to be around one's peers in a less intense academic term is wonderful. To be able to explore in depth an unusual subject for a month is invaluable. I took a month of Old English my freshman year and a month of Ancient Greek (Aeolic dialect) my senior year and loved both of them. I've encouraged my daughter to start tallying pros and cons of the various schools she's considering, and Winter Study is definitely in Williams' plus column (among many other things).</p>
<p>*tutorials
*winter study
*free wednesday night massages
*spending from 7:30-2am at dinner at a professor's house
*having college money easily available for virtually you could ever imagine doing ("you want to form a model rocket club...? ok, here's $500 to start out--let us know if you need more")<br>
*having discussions over wine/beer with professors
*the entry system
*being able to go to the head of dining services, saying "it'd be nice if we could have different furniture at the snack bar" and seeing the snack bar furniture entirely replaced three days later.
*having to pull an all-nighter writing a paper because you were involved with a discussion about what you were writing with a friend all evening.
*pulling all-nighters, not because you need to, but because you want to (hey, i like my philosophy!)
*having a weekly class in goodrich living room, always taking a break in which everyone got coffee/hot cocoa on the college's tab (good ol' CUL points)
*feeling like your biggest dissapointment with college will be that there are far too many cool students to actually be friends with all of them.</p>
<p>I know the entry system was mentioned already, but I think it deserves a lot of attention in a "posititve things about Williams" thread. The entry/JA system seems to be one of the best frosh-support systems in the country. Whether or not you love your entry and JA's, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a current or former Williams student who isn't a fan of the system as a whole. One of the biggest concerns during recent housing reorganization debates was over what would happen to the entry system-- it quickly became evident that all Ephs are fiercely protective of our version of the freshman experience. </p>
<p>If you are a prospective student who doesn't know what the entry/JA system is, you are missing a HUGE reason why Williams gets to the top of so many people's lists. </p>
<p>Here's what is published on the housing website about the entry system:
"Williams College Frosh dorm arrangements are broken down into what are known as "entries." Imagine if you will, a large rectangular cake that someone has already sliced into seven pieces, but no one has taken a piece yet. This is an edible version of the entry system at Williams College. Each piece represents a group of students living together with two JA's in a "family-ish" environment. This vertical setup is true to Morgan Hall, Lehman Hall, Williams Hall and Sage Hall. East College and Fayerweather Hall are more like a layer cake; the entry is setup along a great big hallway. As doubles go, East and Fay doubles are a bit more generous than those of Williams Hall (while it can get confusing, most people call the dorms here by their first name "Williams" or "East"
97% of the people living in East did not know its full name "East College." In most cases there will be an adjacent room, shared by 2 to 6 other students, which allows for students to expand into the common room. </p>
<p>Common rooms will act as a personal living room and be a fine place for everything from social gatherings to heated N64 and Playstation battles to a space for much needed relaxation. It is a good place for any comfy furniture you have brought from home (beans bags, somehow a staple in frosh living, make good seats, foot rests or large-scale pillows in case a pillow-fight were to break out during exam week). If you lack the comfy furniture, I am the College's leading proponent of the Western Mass. tag sale. I make regular homages to these Fall and Spring creations, and have found everything from a well-worn Lazy-College-Boy to faux museum-quality 4 x 6 impressionist painting that hangs above my bed."</p>
<p>
[quote]
Whether or not you love your entry and JA's, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a current or former Williams student who isn't a fan of the system as a whole.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The positive of the entry system is that it provides an instant group of familiar faces during the first weeks.</p>
<p>The negative of freshmen dorms/vertical entries is that it tends to be somewhat isolating. Freshmen don't interact as much (in a casual dorm setting) with upperclassmen or even with freshmen from other entries. Because each entry has its own door, you don't casually meet the other freshmen going up and down the stairs or hanging out watching a big screen TV in a larger dorm common room, so the network of friendly faces tends to stay oriented to the entry mates longer, rather than spreading more quickly as it does in a different kind of dorm layout.</p>
<p>The segration of freshmen tends to continue on with the majority of sophmores living together in Mission Park, the majority of juniors living together in Greylock Quad, etc.</p>
<p>You're partly right, interesteddad, but not entirely. Most of the freshman dorms (definitely the frosh quad dorms and Lehman, not sure about the other 3) have big common rec rooms in the basement, with free cable, foosball, etc where all the entries in the building can hang out together. Also, people may not have tons of interaction with EVERYONE in the dorm, but people tend to know the frosh in the entries on either side of them quite well. For example, I lived in Williams F, and I spent tons of time hanging out with the Willy E kids, which was typical. We are, I suppose, isolated from upperclassmen as frosh. I've seen lots of arguments on both sides of the argument over seperating frosh to achieve class cohesion/bonding vs. inter-class relations, and both have good and bad things. The entry system would completely fall apart in non-freshman houses, though, so Williams won't be changing that anytime soon. Also, there is more casual mixing than you might think. Williamstown can be cold or wet pretty often, and you go in the dorm through whichever door you're near, and then you walk through five or so common rooms on your way to your own entry, which leads to a "network of friendly faces" throughout the dorm. Many entry activities (barbecues, parties, movie nights, etc) are also co-sponsored with more than one entry, so you are rarely confined to just the 25 people you live with.</p>
<p>As far as the Mission and Greylock "segregations", those could be changing soon with anchor housing. But most people don't mind living with their class-- you get better housing as you get older, so it only makes sense that it happens that way. The singles in Mission are smaller than those in Greylock, so older students want to live in them. No getting around that one unless all housing is equitable.</p>
<p>I think that the issue of segregated freshmen housing versus mixed classes may have more impact than any other campus life policy. For example, I think it impacts the number of disruptive alcohol behaviors.</p>
<p>There are strong arguments on both sides of the issue. It's the kind of seemingly insignificant policy that I think prospective students should weigh more heavily in their decision making. Different types of freshmen personalities might very well reach different conclusions.</p>
<p>Interesteddad--is it really that hard for you to keep from speaking negatively about Williams?</p>
<p>As you're obviously interested in discussing the differences between frosh housing and integrated housing, start another thread--this is not the place for such a discussion.</p>
<p>I <3 williams</p>
<p>share the love</p>
<p>great athletics program and athletes.</p>
<p>There are so many positives. My top ten:
Happy, friendly, intelligent, funny kids
Accessible and supportive faculty
Tutorials
Emphasis on health
Profoundly beautiful surroundings
Proactive career counseling
Winter Study
Freshman entries and JAs
World class museums
Warm and caring community</p>
<p>-outstanding teachers (when I visited Williams for the Multicultural Weekend, I sat in on Biology 306 Cellular Regulatory Mechanism. It was fantastic. The teacher got her PhD from Caltech and she was so passionate about her teaching. I love it!)</p>
<p>-friendly people (god the jocks were so nice to us prefrosh. they offered us food and drinks. We watched Family Guy. It was just really nice.)</p>
<p>students who are so passionate about their school!</p>
<p>Interesteddad: did you take Joyce with Gifford? I got to spend a few hours with him years ago. Such deep learning, so lightly worn! Always wished I had a chance to read Joyce with him.</p>
<p>I did Joyce with Gifford as well. In fact, it was sitting in on a Gifford class that made me come to the Purple Valley. </p>
<p>Nowadays, of course, Gifford couldn't even get a job. (no Ph.D.)</p>
<p>Like I-D, I also studied with Fersen (Russian novel, etc.) He made the biggest impression on me of all my profs. He also couldn't get a job.</p>
<p>Oh, and Shainman in music, an old family friend. He also couldn't get a job.</p>
<p>Interesting trend....:)</p>
<p>Yes. Joyce with Gifford, who routinely got standing ovations at the end of each class. </p>
<p>I took two classes from Fersen. Basically just signed up for whatever he was teaching. Not quite the same tour de force performances as you got from Gifford, but my favorite professor.</p>