Davidson vs. Williams

<p>Besides the obvious difference in location (North Carolina vs. Massachusetts), these schools sound pretty similar to me. Can anyone discuss some of their similarities and differences overall or in the following areas:</p>

<ol>
<li>Academic strengths</li>
<li>Quality of professors</li>
<li>Difficulty of workload</li>
<li>Social scene (what students do on weekends, prevalence of drugs/alcohol, etc.)</li>
<li>What's the average student there like? (stereotypes)</li>
<li>Liberal or conservative</li>
<li>Study abroad program</li>
<li>Overall atmosphere</li>
</ol>

<p>I’d love for you to get a response.</p>

<p>I’m working on a reply - just realized, however, that I’m late for a meeting, so I’ll post it later! :)</p>

<p>I can’t really speak for Williams…I don’t know much except that a lot of my classmates also applied there and chose Davidson in the end. But I can tell you about Davidson and maybe someone in the Williams group will give you answers for Williams.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Academic strengths. Davidson is really known for all of its majors, but the most popular ones are probably Political Science, English, History, Biology, Economics, Spanish, and French. All of its departments have received major international and national awards. Additionally, Davidson is very well known for the success of its premed students. Over 90% get into their first choice medical school, and nearly 100% are accepted during the first year of applications. Because the student body is so small (1,800 students), the class sizes are very small. My largest class had 38 students. They almost always cap classes around 32, and my average class size has been between 20 and 25 students. </p></li>
<li><p>Quality of professors. This year, Davidson won Princeton Review’s “Best Professors” recognition, and with good reason. I guarantee you, by the end of the first few weeks, all of your professors will know your name. Your advisor will probably invite you to lunch or a cookout at his house. Your English professor might have you over for a study session with others from your class. Your professors will be happy for you to come by and chat during office hours. The professors here put teaching first and research second, so you can be sure that if you need extra help or if you just want an adult mentor, you have always have someone there. I declared my major this semester and I had the absolute hardest time picking my advisor, because they’re all so sweet and smart. Some of them are too smart for their own good! But most of the professors are down-to-earth, cool people. Most are graduates of Ivy Leagues or schools Stanford and Georgetown. Several are actually Davidson grads who just loved it here too much to leave for more than it took to get their PhD. You would be very satisfied with the professors here and hard-pressed to find one you don’t like. Check out student reviews on RateMyProfessor to see what some have to say about the professors in your favorite departments.</p></li>
<li><p>I would be lying to say Davidson is easy. This is another category we won from Princeton Review this year - #10 for “Students Study the Most.” Usually the work comes in waves. You’ll have weeks where you just have 1-3 hours of work a night. And then you’ll have weeks where you feel guilty sleeping and going to meals because you’ve got SO much to do. But after a semester, you get used to the grind. Graduate schools recognize how hard we work here and excuse our often lower GPAs. A rep from a Yale grad program commented that a Davidson 3.0 is like a 3.5 anywhere else. Even if you’re a bit overwhelmed at times, you find a balance pretty quickly and Davidson helps you do that.</p></li>
<li><p>The alcohol and party scene is as prevalent as you make it. About 40% of men pledge and about 60-80% of women join eating houses. We don’t have sororities here - instead we have eating houses, like Princeton’s eating clubs. They’re like sororities, but generally bigger and they’re entirely non-selective. You choose to join a house and you will probably get your first choice. If you don’t pledge or join an eating house, you’re certainly going to have a social life. Social life isn’t dominated by Greek life. All parties are open except formals and semiformals (although even the semiformals are open to everyone else after midnight). You can also join the Black Student Coalition (BSC) which also has a meal plan and has really great parties. All of the houses are non-residential, but if you need to escape your roommate for a night, there are plenty of soft, squishy sofas to go around “down-the-hill” in the houses. There are two to five parties in a given week, and the big nights are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Most people don’t go out more than three times a week, but by senior year they make it easy to go out as much as you want (they have a 21-year-old night in the Union 900 Room every Tuesday and a local pizzeria/pub, the Brickhouse, has a Thirsty Thursday thing, as well, I believe). There are almost always parties at the biggest senior apartment complex called F, and there are frequently parties at the sophomore apartments (Irwin, Akers, and Knox), too. Alcohol is not hard to come by, if you want to obtain it…but as I just said, you don’t have to drink.
About a third of the student body chooses not to drink at all. In fact, there are even substance-free halls for both freshmen and upperclassmen who want to live on a quieter floor where drinking is absolutely not allowed on the hall.<br>
For every party held down at the “court” (Patterson Court Circle where all of the houses are), there is a Union event for those who do not wish to drink. Pottery painting. Build-a-Bear. Laser Tag. Hypnotist Shows. Cirque de Solei performers walking around doing tricks. Ice skating. Excursions to Carowinds… You name it, they’ve done it.
The drug scene is virtually nonexistent. When you do hear of it, it’s almost always just weed, but yeah…most people stay away from it. Not a lot of cigarette smokers, either.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t think there’s any one stereotype for Davidson students. There aren’t really jocks here…people say we’re a DI school with a DIII attitude. A lot of people say we’re preppy…but I went to a really preppy high school, and at least by comparison, Davidson students aren’t really preppy. Davidson students aren’t nerds…you know, they’re intellectual, but they’re not nerdy. It’s an expensive private school, but the people aren’t pretentious or stuck up. I would say most Davidson students are very real, very healthy in their habits, very studious, but also very fun and energetic. Davidson students are honest, they’re honorable…there’s a huge emphasis on the Honor Code here and you really don’t get many violations. There’s a sense of family, a sense of community, but I wouldn’t say there’s really a Davidson type.</p></li>
<li><p>I get the sense that the student body is socially very liberal. But admissions statistics, according to my Senior Admissions Fellow friend, indicate that the student body is actually very even, fifty/fifty. Political Science is the most popular major, but the atmosphere is not extremely political. If you’re looking for seriously politically active students, you’d be better off looking at schools in Washington, DC. We have politicians come speak here, we have political commentators come, and all these events are well attended, but as President of the Young Democrats Association here on campus, I can say that people are not really that active (my first meeting had almost fifty people in attendance; my last meeting had about fifteen…might have just been the timing, because there was a big event going on at the same time…but even so). Davidson is probably not as overwhelmingly liberal as Williams probably is, but it’s not as conservative as say, Washington & Lee.</p></li>
<li><p>Study Abroad Program. Davidson is actually nationally famous for its abroad programs. We have the Dean Rusk organization, which gives a TON of money in grants to students every year. It’s so easy to get money from them. I know someone who went to work in an excavation in Mexico with a professor and some other students, and Dean Rusk covered the cost of all his meals, his transportation (including flights) and his accommodations. Last semester he went on the Davidson Classics Trip (Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Aegean Islands, Italy, and Germany), and because it was a Davidson program taught by Davidson professors, he paid only Davidson tuition and not a penny more. Not to mention, he got graded credit for all of his courses. Davidson has a LOT of programs. The most popular are probably the Classics Trip, Davidson in India, Davidson in France (Tours), Davidson in Florence (Italy), and the Cambridge Program (Cambridge, UK). Davidson also has domestic semester-long programs and summer programs. Davidson in Washington is very popular among Political Science majors. You have an internship and take a seminar. Well over 75% of our students study abroad. Davidson helps make it affordable and then easy to get credit. If you do a Davidson program, I’m pretty sure your financial aid extends to your trip!</p></li>
<li><p>Overall Atmosphere. Personally? I love it here. You can probably tell that from all of my posts on CC. Davidson was not my first choice, but if I could do it over, I would have applied EDI. Seriously. Davidson definitely has a family-feel. People speak to you and say hi. It’s not small enough that you’ll ever know EVERYONE. But it’s small enough that, for the most part, you’ll have a mutual friend or acquaintance with almost everyone. There’s not a lot of gossiping/rumors/etc. outside of a single year…freshmen gossip is freshmen gossip. There’s a bit of that sort of drama, but probably no more so than at a big university with a big frat scene. The staff will know you, the professors will know you. Everyone who works in Commons (the dining hall) knows my name…one woman knows what sandwich I order. In the Wildcat Den (soup, sandwiches, smoothies), same thing. The lady at the post office knows me by name and asked me this morning how I liked the book I ordered from Amazon. These people have 1,800 students to keep track of! But they do! They care! It’s amazing. It’s very personal. I have occasionally found it a little bit smothering…but only when I’m really stressed otherwise. If you’re feeling down, people notice and they want to help cheer you up. The kids who are here love being here and are grateful to be here. Many of them turned down a place at an Ivy League school to be here. They’re kids who are confident and fond of living to the fullest. Also, with the emphasis on the Honor Code, you can feel really safe and relaxed here. One time I lost my wallet. I retraced my steps to the Union after several hours of searching everywhere else I’d been that day…it was sitting on the table where I’d been sitting, untouched. When exam times roll around, you get to schedule your own exams!! Seriously, I was stressing over my English exam so much and I was planning to take it the first day of exams…and then just realized I wasn’t ready, so I blew it off a day to study more and get more sleep. There’s no way I would’ve made that A- if I’d been forced to take it the first day. You proctor the exam yourself…they trust you completely. You know you can just trust the people here. I love Davidson.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Wow! What a great post! amplifiar842, do you know anything about the strengths, weaknesses, or even just the noticeablility on campus of the music department? Thanks!</p>

<p>My daughter visited Davidson a couple weeks ago. She was amazed at the amount of Davidson apparel the students were wearing. My wife is a Davidson alum and my father a Williams grad. Daughter will be applying to both, but I think her heart is set on being a wildcat.</p>

<p>thanks standrews, could you be any more specific about what made davidson stand out for her</p>

<p>It’s hard to say what puts Davidson ahead of Williams in her mind. It may be a regional thing. We live in VA. I don’t know that she sees a big difference in the academics, so the intangibles may be tipping the scale in favor of Davidson. There are recent graduates from her HS at both schools whom she has talked with and they like their respective schools. I know she likes Davidson’s small size, not just in terms of total students, but with respect to the small number of students majoring in her areas of interest. She sees about half a dozen smallish LACs as being quite similar and the difference makers tend to be rather subjective. Sorry I can’t offer more. Good Luck in your quest.</p>

<p>Linde: I don’t know a whole lot about the music department, but I know that Davidson has a very musical campus. We have four acapella groups (coed: Androgyny and Nuances; women: the Delilahs; men: the Generals), orchestra, pep band (they get to travel with the basketball team to the NCAA tourney), performance chorus, chorale, various musical theater groups, and many other performance groups. You can rent practice rooms in the Sloan music building for about $25/semester. There is also an annual competition called Davidson Idol and every Thursday, student singers and other musical artists from campus perform in the Union at a well-attended evening program called Live Thursdays. My understanding about the music department is that is has a good reputation, but beyond that, I can’t really say much.</p>

<p>Just to throw another consideration into the discussion; Williams’ endowment dwarfs Davidson’s endowment. (For what it is worth, I am a huge Davidson fan, but I was surprised that endowment has not been mentioned as a consideration).</p>

<p>Oh yeah! Williams has probably got twice as much…at least a billion and we’ve got about 500 million-ish? We took a bit hit with the economy…hopefully it’ll bounce back, though! </p>

<p>Also, I will say, in spite of the smaller endowment, we have no shortage of resources. We’re spoiled to death in terms of activities and fun/educational stuff to do around campus (Thomas Friedman came to lecture to us today…tough to beat that! It was awesome!), we have top-quality facilities, and the research you can do here is not limited to what we have in the Little Library (no pun intended, that’s seriously the name). We have an interlibrary loan program that will get you pretty much whatever you want within a few days! Plus, we have Charlotte and all the resources of a big city just fifteen minutes down the interstate. I’ve never felt limited here.</p>

<p>HELP! I have to decide between davidson, williams, rice and st. olaf… and I want to study music (theory or ed). It’s been hard to find info online about the music ensembles. (For example, this is the first time i’ve heard of the Nuances, and can’t find much of anything about the college choir.) Can you give me some thoughts?</p>