<p>Does Williams have a Business school? Is it strong. I'm looking for something good for a future entreprenuer. Thanks.</p>
<p>As a liberal arts school Williams has no school of business but it graduates a large number of economics majors. Entrepreneurs can also come from a variety of non-business type majors of course.</p>
<p>Top undergraduate business schools can be found at Penn, Cornell, UVa, Notre Dame, etc. Williams, like HYP, does not have an undergraduate business degree, but is a successful feeder to top MBA programs and directly to Wall Street (if that is your goal).</p>
<p>@electronblue
@Dad2
Thanks for your replies. I am looking to start my own personal training business, so Wall St. is not my goal. I am looking for a major that would give me as much knowledge as possible to help me in my own business. I would assume this would include some economics, accounting, and business. Also, I only will go to a Division 2 or 3 school as I will play basketball in college and that is the level I can play at. Thank you.</p>
<p>There are tons of successful entrepeneurs from Williams (Steve Case, AOL founder, being probably the most famous). And actually, a class of 2010 grad who played basketball for Williams created a personal training business: [About</a> Charlie | Self Made®](<a href=“http://selfmadefitness.com/about-2/about-me]About”>http://selfmadefitness.com/about-2/about-me). But keep in mind, that other than one winter study course on entrepeneurship, there are no practical business classes offered at Williams: no accounting, no finance, no marketing, etc. You can certainly gain the intellectual skills needed to be a successful entrepeneur, but in terms of practical training, you will receive very little of it at Williams or any of its liberal arts peers. Most people learn that either on the job or at an MBA program. </p>
<p>If you want to play D3 basketball at a pretty solid program that also does a great job of training entrepeneurs, I recommend checking out Babson for sure. Bentley, another great business school, ahas a D-2 hoops program, so you would need to be very, very talented to play for them.</p>
<p>Babson has stood S’s friend in good stead.</p>
<p>@Ephman @mythmom Okay thank you very much. Does Williams have a strong exercise-science-type department?</p>
<p>Athletics are very strong at Williams. Williams perpetually has one of the best D-3 athletic programs in the country (winning 13 of the last 14 Director’s Cups, with Middlebury – which also has a tremendous program) breaking the streak. Plenty of very fit people on campus. Williams, unlike most of its peers, has a phys-ed requirement, but it is pretty much a joke to fulfill and is not an academic program. There is no exercise science department at Williams, nor will you find one at anything that would remotely be considered a peer of Williams. Williams usually has a great head strength and conditioning coach affiliated with the program, but again, this is NOT an academic program that you can take classes in, not remotely close to that. </p>
<p>The gym facilities at Williams, unlike virtually every other facility on campus (which are almost uniformly top-notch), could use some sprucing up, so that might be a concern. The basketball facilities are fantastic (you mentioned you played hoops), but the main athletic complex is over 25 years old and now starting to show its age a bit. The football field, track facilities, and fieldhouse are also badly in need of renovation (coming very soon, supposedly). The weight room is much improved in recent years, but still not quite at the level you may be looking for given your interest, you will have to see in a visit. In my view the success of Williams athletics is despite its facilities, not because of them.</p>
<p>To quote the late David Foster Wallace (a graduate of Williams College’s rival, Amherst College), “the liberal arts: philosophy, classical stuff, languages, [are] all very much about the nobility of the human spirit and broadening the mind”. At a Liberal Arts College, the idea isn’t to have an unbalanced education with a focus on preparation for a professional career, but rather to, as Wallace states, “broaden the mind”. While students will major, double major or triple major in academic fields, they are not coming to the school to be trained as businessmen, lawyers or doctors. This comes off as highly pretentious, and I apologize for the candid language, but if you’re looking for entrepreneurship classes or a school that gives off that vibe, look into schools with strong graduate schools for business. Stanford, really, is what comes to mind when the words “student” and “entrepreneur” are uttered in the same breath. You may end up finding entrepreneurship-minded people at Williams, but I wouldn’t say that students like that are generally attracted to LACs.</p>
<p>Edit: I remember seeing this roundtable with Williams alum discussing their careers as entrepreneurs. </p>
<p><a href=“Class of 1991 Entrepreneurship Roundtable: Williams College June 2011 - YouTube”>Class of 1991 Entrepreneurship Roundtable: Williams College June 2011 - YouTube;
<p>I feel like there are different thoughts concerning the word “entreprenuership”. I am not inventing anything. I am simply starting my own personal training business and eventually hope to open my own gym. I feel like some people associate the word “entreprenuer” with “inventor”, which is sometimes true.</p>