<p>Ahh! I'm stuck between these schools and there are different things I like/dislike about each of them. I'm probably leaning towards Wash U and Williams. Which schools will provide the best opportunities after college? I'm interested in majoring in biology and attending med school or grad school.</p>
<p>Also I plan on taking Italian and hopefully study abroad in Italy. Does anyone know how good the Italian classes are at Williams?</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>Very different choices. LAC vs bigger universities. IMHO, if you truly want MD or grad school, you can’t beat the teaching environment of a LAC and Williams is a top tier LAC.</p>
<p>Did you visit Williams? Feel of a campus and student body can’t be emphasized enough. St Louis area is wonderful, so is Williamstown, but they are very different locations. If you like the outdoors, you’ll love Williams. Urban, St Louis. Both will give you a great education, but a very different experience. I found residents of Williamstown to be wonderful, very friendly.</p>
<p>Most Williams graduates who want to go to med school end up getting into their first choice school. It is extremely well regarded by major med schools and grad schools.</p>
<p>Research opportunities abound at Williams, and you will need to do undergrad research if you hope to get into a good med school or grad school. Also, your relationships with the professors you develop due to small class sizes allow them to get to know you. You’ll need recommendations from them when the time comes to apply for med school, and the profs at Williams are very well respected / connected.</p>
<p>Note that you definitely do not need to major in biology to go to med school. In fact, many med school students have told me they wished they had studied what they were interested in during their undergrad, as you will have plenty of focus in med school. Many MDs majored in music! When I asked some why, they told me the profession is stressful so they wanted a release…</p>
<p>The beauty of Williams is that they have strength in so many different areas, not just one. You can explore, and in the end you will be able to find what you like even if maybe it turns out not to be medicine / bio. </p>
<p>Consider the 4-1-4 calendar with great winter session, tutorials, Oxford Exceter, and WilliamsClub in NYC. Guess I’m sold on Williams, so take my comments there with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>My son got into Berkeley, UCI Honors, Brandeis, Georgetown, but is deciding between Williams, Bowdoin and Carleton. He visited all, and for undergrad decided LACs were best. He, like you, is planning on a MD or MD PhD.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Perhaps I’m splitting hairs, but Williams is at the top of the top tier (not merely because it ranks #1 in USNWR, Forbes, etc.) and the others are just below that- i.e. Wash U, Vandy, Tufts are more analagous to Wesleyan, Vassar, Davidson in terms of academic prestige, rigor and reputation with graduate and professional schools. I.e. go to Williams unless there is some particular reason to attend one of the others (geography, whatever). Good luck with your choice!</p>
<p>Italian at Williams is taught by one semi-adjunct prof. They offer (last time I looked) only three semesters, not enough to even be allowed to apply for the best study abroad programs. there will be very few students, likely no language tables or film series, etc. If you are really serious about the Italian thing, go elsewhere. You can find good pre-med prep in any of the schools mentioned.</p>
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<p>and, the teaching of Italian: [WesMaps</a> Catalog Description: RLAN - Wesleyan University](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/registrar/catalog/rlant.htm#Italian]WesMaps”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/registrar/catalog/rlant.htm#Italian) :)</p>
<p>In contrast:</p>
<p>[Center</a> for Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures](<a href=“http://cflang.williams.edu/language/italian/anthony-nicastro/]Center”>http://cflang.williams.edu/language/italian/anthony-nicastro/)</p>
<p>that’s it. I know of community colleges that have more.</p>
<p>Williams has many great strengths. This just happens to be not among them.</p>
<p>Mini. I think your advice about italian is excellent and pertinent. I find it odd with Williams’ interest in art and music.</p>
<p>It should be noted that no school here will have more research opportunities than wash u. It is a pre-med research institution first of foremost. If you don’t mind the heavy pre-med competition, their research opportunities and prestige in the medical field will take you wherever you want to go. USNWR is a load of hooey, but if were playing that game, Williams doesn’t have the #2 research med school in the country. WUSTL prides itself on having one he best, if not the best, pre-med tracks in the country.</p>
<p>And which did your son finally choose, carlsbaddad?</p>
<p>Credit where credit is due, WashU has a great medical school. That said, Williams is perceived as a more preeminent feeder school to top medical schools. After all, neither Princeton nor MIT have medical schools, and their graduates do just fine in medical school admissions, comparable to Williams’ record.</p>
<p>As a Vanderbilt grad with a son at Williams, the main thing you should note is that Williams is a very different sort of place than the other three, which are research oriented universities located in big cities–Willams is a small liberal arts school that’s pretty isolated–the closest city of any size is Albany New York. Being an undergraduate at a place with a good medical school really doesn’t do you much good–there are med schools that run serious summer research programs for smart undergrads–a friend of my son with interests similar to yours is involved in one at Duke, but he doesn’t go to school there. In general, the odds of serious contact with the med school as an undergrad are pretty slim. Williams also has serious summer research programs for their undergrads–my son’s interested in cognitive science and is involved in a pretty substantial project with a psych professor. A strong pre-med performance at Williams–which, as a couple of people have noted, doesn’t mean you have to major in biology–will get you into pretty much any med school you want to attend.</p>