<p>Hi all,
I know there have been many posts about this, but none of them provided a clear-cut answer (if that's even possible).
Which one has a stronger science program? Which college has more students in its science program?
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>It may depend on type of science. My S is interested in physics and Williams seems to have about twice as many physics majors. And apparently more summer science research opportunities. But we will visit both.</p>
<p>bump bump bump (:</p>
<p>My nephew graduated from Williams in the mid-90's as a Science major and had a terrific experience with lots of personal attention and to this day contact with his favorite professors. He went to grad school directly after and is now a geologist. Don't know anything about Amherst's program.</p>
<p>According to this</a> link, biology, physical sciences, and math are among the most popular majors at Williams, with 7% each, or 21% total. This seems reasonably consistent with the detailed breakdown of Williams majors [url=<a href="http://www.williams.edu/home/fast_facts/%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.williams.edu/home/fast_facts/]here[/url</a>], which shows that 22.8 % of the majors are in astronomy, astrophysics, biology, chemistry, computer science, geosciences, mathematics, or physics.</p>
<p>For Amherst, the same [url=<a href="http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=2354&profileId=7%5Dsource%5B/url">http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=2354&profileId=7]source[/url</a>] lists only biology, with 5%, among the most popular majors. So I would guess that physical sciences and math are less than 5% each, and that the total for all three fields is in the 10-15% range.</p>
<p>So relatively speaking, there appear to be more significantly more science and math majors at Williams. In addition, the total Williams enrollment is about 20% larger than the total Amherst enrollment, so this would also increase the disparity. </p>
<p>On the other hand, science and math majors at Amherst are part of the larger 5-College community, which could provide access to a greater variety of classes, facilities, presentations, etc. </p>
<p>I expect that both schools do very well at undergraduate science education and graduate school placement.</p>
<p>According to the 2007-2008 Common Data Sets for each school, the % of degrees conferred in science and math for the 2006-2007 academic year broke down as follows:</p>
<p>Amherst - 13.1 % Total Science/Math:</p>
<ul>
<li>1.6 % Computer/Information Sciences</li>
<li>4.6 % Biological/life sciences</li>
<li>3.0 % Mathematics</li>
<li>3.9 % Physical Sciences</li>
</ul>
<p>Williams - 23.6 % Total Science/Math</p>
<ul>
<li>2.3 % Computer/Information Sciences</li>
<li>6.9 % Biological/life sciences</li>
<li>7.2 % Mathematics</li>
<li>7.2 % Physical Sciences</li>
</ul>
<p>So in general, science/math are more popular majors at Williams. However, this doesn't mean that Williams is automatically "better" for prospective science or math students.</p>