Amherst vs Williams

<p>I have posted this in both Amherst and Williams threads since I got accepted into both. Comments are welcome.</p>

<p>Uh... anything specific? </p>

<p>... Our housing is better, I guess.</p>

<p>Plus we're just about the coolest cats you'll ever meet.</p>

<p>I got into both Amherst and Williams too. But then I got into Yale as well, so it pretty much cleared all doubts about where I'm going next fall :) </p>

<p>Still, if I were to chose between Amherst and Williams, I would definitely go for Williams, since it's bigger and, from what I gather, more comfortable than Amherst. Also, Williams feels more like an Ivy than any other top notch college. Anyway, the choice is yours! </p>

<p>Good luck, and have fun in college!</p>

<p>What do you mean "feels more like an Ivy"? Feels more like Columbia? Cornell? Harvard? All of the Ivy League schools have very different feels, don't be silly. </p>

<p>(If you're saying Williams has better academics, that's debateable, it would be very difficult to draw a distinction between the greatness of academics at Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Pomona...regardless of what US News tells you.)</p>

<p>I don't know that Williams could legitimately be called "more comfortable" than Amherst - this certainly would not seem to be the case for minorities or low-income people. As for it being bigger, well, sure...but when you consider the surrounding locations and the 5-college consortium, which really feels better?</p>

<p>It's a toss-up. Go where you love more, the academic experience will be very similar.</p>

<p>"I don't know that Williams could legitimately be called 'more comfortable' than Amherst - this certainly would not seem to be the case for minorities or low-income people."</p>

<p>It can be if that is someone's personal choice. And since half the student body is receiving financial aid (similar to Amherst) and the schools are comparable in terms of gender and ethnic diversity, your slams are ill-advised at best.</p>

<p>As I stated on the Amherst board, Williams students don't feel the need to take themselves quite as seriously -- or act quite as stridently.</p>

<p>They were not slams - and Amherst has far more students receiving Pell grants and quite a few more on financial aid. Thank you for insulting my character multiple times, but I don't think my comments were nearly as strident as yours in the Amherst board. I have expressed, multiple times, my affection for Williams College. You, on the other hand, are behaving in a way that would make me ashamed if you were my mother - where is the maturity? I don't tend to take myself seriously, however, I do address untrue things about my college, because people are making big decisions here, and I don't think it is fair to tell them lies as you have done. Likewise, I have addressed it when people have unfairly insulted Williams. Stop jabbing people less than half your age, please.</p>

<p>Edit: Amherst has time and time again been listed as one of the best colleges for Latinos and African Americans, and has in the past few years had either the highest black graduation rate or the second highest. I don't think it's "strident" to say that minorities and low-income people may view Amherst as a more comfortable place - President Marx is making it his entire mission to welcome more of them into Amherst.</p>

<p>"I don't think it is fair to tell them lies as you have done."</p>

<p>Very interesting -- which are these lies?</p>

<p>And it's truly unfortunate that, with all your so-called perceptive abilities, you did not recognize a tongue-in-cheek post (my earlier one on the Amherst thread) when you saw it.</p>

<p>I can see if your examples were tongue-in-cheek (they would have to be, right? The horrors, Amherst has not changed its school color or burned down its library!) but the gist of it most certainly did not seem tongue-in-cheek, and if it was, that would be due to the notorious difficulty of detecting tone through internet media, and not any lack of deductive abilities on my part.</p>

<p>some differences:</p>

<ul>
<li>Williams has the entry/JA system for freshmen. Amherst has a more conventional setup.</li>
<li>Williams is in a really pretty isolated/rural environment, with easy access to hiking and skiing. Amherst is more urban. </li>
<li>Amherst has the social life of a large college town, with shops and bars and much better concerts than Williams. Williams is more intimate.</li>
<li>I've heard that Williams has the better food. I don't know anything about housing. </li>
<li>Williams is probably a little stronger in math and the hard sciences.</li>
<li>Williams has tutorials; Amherst doesn't. </li>
<li>Amherst probably has more opportunities for studies in esoteric fields, especially with the Five College system.</li>
<li>We pretty consistently kick Amherst's ass at any sort of sport.</li>
</ul>

<p>Amherst Basketball. 2007 Men's National Champions</p>

<p>yeah, well we still beat you. :-) </p>

<p>anyway, statistically speaking amherst is going to get lucky and accomplish something every so often. we still dominate the win/loss record against them in basically everything.</p>

<p>On the housing question, I've visited both Williams and Amherst and the dorms I saw at Amherst (Morrow and the newly renovated James) were the nicest I've seen anywhere. The rooms were literally twice the size as the ones I saw at Williams (Williams dorm).</p>

<p>The Amherst freshman dorms I saw last year looked really nice. I didn't see inside a room, but there was a fireplace in the lobby, which is more than you get in any Williams freshman dorm. Then again, Williams housing is pretty variable. None of it's <i>bad</i>, but some is a lot better than others - the coops and row houses are quite nice.</p>

<p>Also, Amherst has 65% singles, 25% doubles, and 10% triples/suites. Williams has 82% singles and 18% doubles. Note that that's including freshman housing, which means that quite a few people manage to have singles for all four years at Williams. I doubt the same is true of Amherst.</p>

<p>I'm curious, are the new two-room doubles in James and Stearns counted as singles or doubles in those figures?</p>

<p>Well, I'll post my biases first, both my husband and daughter did/are attending Amherst. That said, what stands out for me is running into a Williams' freshman and his mom at the Target near Amherst. They stopped there because it was the last place to buy stuff for his dorm room before they got to Williams. That seemed kind of isolated to me (and reminded me of Dartmouth).... in addition, I agree with the posts above, visit both and go with your gut.</p>

<p>"it was the last place to buy stuff for his dorm room before they got to Williams"</p>

<p>Perhaps the last Target? There's a Walmart 5-10 minutes away in North Adams (the next town) and a mall twenty minutes down the road in Lanesborough. And Albany, with at least one of every store you might want to shop at, is 40 miles west. Pittsfield is closer -- but I've never shopped there so I'm not familiar with the selection.</p>

<p>Amherst Freshman with a two room triple...all to myself. :)</p>

<p>There's a Target in the Berkshire Mall (20mins from Williams).</p>

<p>(cross posted from same thread on the Amherst side)</p>

<p>D is Amherst 09, S is Williams 11.
Wife and I are both Pomona and Yale alums.</p>

<h1>1. Go visit, preferably overnight. You will know better then.</h1>

<h1>2. Amherst and Williams are sibling schools with a healthy rivalry, but with great mutual respect. They are very similar in almost all respects. Williams has 25% larger student body, and the course offerings are correspondingly a little wider and deeper, particularly in the sciences.</h1>

<h1>3. Williams is very small town/village. One and a half blocks of Spring St. small shops, is all there is within walking distance. If you have a car or a bicycle, there is a Stop & Shop about 2 miles from campus, and North Adams about 5 miles away.</h1>

<p>Amherst the town is a small but very functional college town with several blocks of various shops and restaurants. The town also draws students from U Mass Amherst (16000 students). Hadley, just west of Amherst, is mall city. Northhampton and Smith College are 9 miles from Amherst, but Route 9 can be slow, driving past the Target, Wal Mart, Whole Foods, Best Buy...no cutesy awards there, but D loves being able to go to Trader Joe's and Target on her bicycle. Can't do that from Williams.</p>

<h1>4. You can take courses at Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, U Mass Amherst, but the bus commute can be more time consuming than ideal.</h1>

<h1>5. Pomona shares many of the attributes of Amherst and Williams, but with So Calif weather, a seemingly more low key but no less academically talented student body, and a 5 college system that you can use without thinking about the commute time.</h1>

<h1>6. I wouldn't be so quick to choose Yale College over Williams, Amherst, or Pomona. While Yale carries the bigger brand name presence (especially with the average joe), that doesn't mean the student will have a better four years there, or a better grad school/job/life after college.</h1>

<p>It would be a great thing to have such a choice!</p>

<p>That's a great post klee - from someone in a perfect position to answer this question!</p>