<p>How hard is it be to be a student-athlete at Williams--specifically, to be a biology major and run track (if you're not a natural genius!).</p>
<p>Does the lack of a reply indicate there are no science majors who play sports?</p>
<p>No it doesn’t, it just means that not many actual Williams students post/look at this site on a regular basis. I actually have a friend who runs track and plans to major in math/computer science, and he seems to balance things out well. There are plenty of science major athletes.</p>
<p>Alum here:</p>
<p>People do it all the time, the thought of the “difficulty in being a student athlete in the sciences” never crossed my mind in my four years there. My roommate played tennis, was a CS/Econ major, and went to a top grad school.</p>
<p>Plan your time. Plan your time.</p>
<p>That’s the key.</p>
<p>My S was being recruited to play a sport-no concerns about his planned bio major, and other bio majors on the team this past fall.</p>
<p>My S is an athlete and planned chem/math major, took two sciences and math in both first and second semesters and managed the load successfully.</p>
<p>Just want to bump this thread –</p>
<p>how rigorous is the science workload at Williams? Are the intro classes “weed out” classes, or do the professors want you to succeed? Can you successfully major in science and play a sport if you’re not a science genius?</p>
<p>FYI - smaill LACs like Williams have among the MOST varisty NCAA teams of any college … I believe they have just over 30 varsity teams. As a percentage of students small LACs with a lot of varsity teams like Williams have the highest percentage of students who are versity athletes. So clearly being a student athlete is quite possible and done by numerous Williams students … and Williams does not have gut majors so all the athletes are in real majors.</p>
<p>PS - All the NESCAC schools share this attribute … as do almost all the other top LACs</p>
<p>@ minoafrau</p>
<p>No science intro class is intended to weed out anyone. However, the 200 level classes are intended to give you more of a view into what is actually expected of someone wanting to major in that field.</p>
<p>Can you play a sport and be a successful science major? Sure.
Can you play a sport, be a successful science major, and not be very good at science? Probably not, but that’s really not unique to the sciences. It kinda depends on what you consider a “genius” to be. If you got 5’s on your science AP’s, you’d be fine.</p>
<p>Or 4s or 3s. People can do relatively poorly on these tests and still have great academic careers. It depends on discipline and structure. Some kids do better with the team commitment because they don’t procrastinate as much, and the team structure supports academics, esp at a school like Williams</p>
<p>mino, I couldn’t tell you “how hard” but I can tell you that it is very, very common for athletes at Williams to excel academically – in the sciences and everything else. These are high energy multi-faceted kids and many are involved in the arts – theater, music, etc. – along with their sport or outdoorsy activity.</p>
<p>Williams encourages participation in athletics and the arts. Academics are demanding sure, but they manange to fit in everything, including a party or two.</p>
<p>My only qualifier would be that the personal satisfaction level depends on your GPA expectation. If you’re targeting a 4.0 you may be disappointed. If you’re okay with a mix of A’s and B’s you’ll be fine with a life outside of the classroom.</p>