How good is Williams College?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>Just got the news that I was accepted to Williams College in MA. I know the admissions rate was reasonably competitive this year (17 percent or so) and I was wondering how a Williams education would compare with an undergrad degree from schools such as, say Harvard, U Penn, or Princeton, based on these factors:</p>

<p>1) Quality of education
2) Job opportunity/Easiness entering the market
3) Accessibility to professors
4) Social life/ musical extracurriculars</p>

<p>Anyone have info/though on this? I'd greatly appreciate it.</p>

2

<p>Congrats!! My friend, who is also the salutatorian, got accepted to Williams ED. It’s very prestigious and selective. From what I’ve heard from my friend, it was ranked as the number 1 undergraduate institution by forbes and the best liberal arts college in the nation. I’d say you would get an education of the caliber of an ivy league school (I’m not saying that based on those 2 rankings of course)</p>

3

<p>Very good haha! I have a friend who chose Williams over Princeton last year. If you’re looking for a liberal arts college, it’s probably the best there is.
You’ll have a different experience socially and academically at Williams vs. A school like Princeton or harvard, so it all comes down to personal preference. My friend is very happy at Williams.</p>

4

<p>Williams is one of the few schools that could hold its own with HYPSM</p>

<p>congratulations!</p>

5

<p>It is widely accepted as the #1 LAC in the U.S. It certainly has a different feel than the other colleges you listed, so I suggest that you decide which college to go to based on fit. Do you like LACs or would you be happier at a larger university? If you prefer the LAC feel, Williams is almost undoubtedly the way to go. As for your 4 points…</p>

<p>1 and 2 are on par with the top of the ivy leagues. I would imagine you would have more accessibility to professors at Williams than most of the other schools (this is a strong point of most LACs). I’m not too knowledgable about 4, so I can’t speak about that.</p>

6

<p>Congratulations. I agree with the other posters, the biggest thing will to decide if you want a small LAC or a university. It is impossible to make a bad choice here. Try to go to a few of your top choices on admitted students day and see how you feel.</p>

7

<p>wow guys, thank you so much for the insight and quick responses. I hope I can have ivy options to compare when ivy results come out on the 29th, haha!</p>

<p>how are all of you doing in your respective college searches? have you heard back from anywhere, and is williams a top choice for you guys?</p>

8

<p>pd, Williams is indeed very, very good, but it’s difficult to compare it to the others on your list because the LAC experience in general is quite different from the medium-to-large university experience. Further, even among academically rigorous LACs, Williams’ rural environment puts it into a special class – either this is a positive or a negative depending on your interest in being surrounded by the Great Outdoors versus an urban environment.</p>

<p>The Williams name carries a lot of weight in some circles – for example, academia, finance, art history – but may be totally unknown in some parts of the country and overseas. You have to decide how important name recognition is to you personally.</p>

<p>My son graduated from Williams in 07 and is now in a professional graduate program at a large Ivy. His experience at Williams was overwhelmingly positive. </p>

<p>1) Quality of education is among the best anywhere. Small classes (including 2 student, 1 professor tutorials), nuturing and accessible professors, bright and engaged fellow students.</p>

<p>2) Job opportunities after graduation depend a lot on how much you take advantage of the progression of opportunities as an undergrad – internships, summer jobs, career counseling, alumni/ae network, faculty connections. All of these are very strong at Williams.My son and his friends had no problems finding jobs in their areas of interests – from Wall Street to the arts to the Peace Corps – and now most are in top graduate programs. </p>

<p>3) Accessibilty to professors is one of Williams’ (and other LACs’) great strengths. The professors, along with being full PhD’s and often published experts in their fields, are first and foremost teachers. They are there for the undergraduates. When the time comes for recommendations, for jobs, for grants, for graduate school, they know who you are.</p>

<p>4) Social life/music My son was an art kid, but many of his friends were involved in music ECs – classical and contemporary. There are plenty of performance opportunities even for non-majors. </p>

<p>Social life, from my perspective, seemed to involve a lot of hanging out with friends. It helps to have something you like to do outside in the winter.</p>

9

<p>These threads always crack me up. Sorry. Someone applies to the TOP LAC in the country, gets in and then asks how good it is compared to Harvard, on a college opinion thread? </p>

<p>Okey dokey. </p>

<p>If you applied and didnt investigate the school beforehand, what were you doing? Is it not a serious application? Or are you waiting on Harvard to admit you? Sigh.</p>

<p>Congratulations on getting in…but good grief. I think you are smart enough to figure it out and see if you are a good fit there. </p>

<p>Its in the Berkshire Mtns of Massachusetts, in case you didnt know. LOL.</p>

10

<p>I just got the news of my acceptance to Williams a couple of hours ago! I’m really excited and very surprised to have gotten an ‘early-write’ from them.</p>

11

<p>lalaland: congrats! </p>

<p>sovereigndebt: I think you’re missing the point of my questions. I obviously know that Williams is a fantastic place with many opportunities, but for someone who’s a first generation student from his family going to college in the US, it’s very hard to compare all these different options. It helps so much to have the view of experienced people such as momrath, whose advice I found extremely helpful and useful. You only get one undergraduate education, and it should be as well-planned as possible. </p>

<p>momrath-thank you so much for all the insight!</p>

12

<p>pd, I would add one more observation. It seems to me that the least happy kids at Williams were the ones who really wanted HYP etc and didn’t get in. They chose Williams for what, to me, were all the wrong reasons – like USNWR ranking – and didn’t consider the environment. </p>

<p>They might have been better off at medium sized academically sound choice like Duke, Johns Hopkins or Carnegie Mellon, that has more in common with HYP in environment and teaching style. </p>

<p>The kids who were the happiest and therefore the most successful at Williams seemed to be the ones who really wanted to be there and didn’t view it as a top ranked consolation prize. </p>

<p>Be sure to visit before you decide.</p>

13

<p>That is a great point, momrath.</p>

14

<p>Happily agree with sovereigndebt and momrath.</p>