<p>As an outsider neither on Team Williams nor Team OP, can I just ask that we move this thread at least marginally towards its main intention. Look, the kid may just be lazy and not have put in the time to ask more thorough questions, or he may be even lazier and is expecting others to do his research for him, but as a prospective applicant to this school, my admittedly selfish plea is that you answer his questions.</p>
<p>Yes, I have done my research. I’ve done a lot of it, actually. I’ve even visited campus and had a fairly lengthy discussion with the admissions officer at the information session about Winter Study. But there is no such thing as too much information. Every time a new thread is started with questions about the school, I hope to find new perspectives, gold nuggets of new information and even restated opinions. All of this makes me more excited as a prospective student, and more competitive as an applicant. Having this meta debate about the thread and not even vaguely discussing the questions isn’t doing much good besides scaring off future posters and quenching some people’s evident thirst for the blood of other CCers.</p>
<p>I could chip in here and ask more detailed questions on the OP’s behalf, but my hope was (and still is) that the open-ended nature of the question will lead to a greater breadth of answers, whereas more specific questions would limit discussion to the context of the OP’s interest.</p>
<p>Meaningful answers, as opposed to glib ones, to all the original questions can only be answered by the questioner.</p>
<p>I believe everyone is saying there are no easy answers, which comes from an impulse to both be helpful and not be superficial.*</p>
<p>Based on the responses above, those affiliated with Williams, which included an Amherst parent, appear to value the individual as part of a community. </p>
<p>Through that lens, or window, if one’s working on an admission’s essay, one can understand the responses to the OP’s questions.</p>
<p>*btw, that’s my general impression of Ephs. They look below the surface.</p>
<p>This thread is ridiculous. No one here is forced to read or respond to posts. Why couldn’t you just leave it alone if you felt that the OP was lazy or whatever. Please move on. So what this person did not do research. If you feel moved to respond to the questions…do so, if not move along. Seriously. Also, we are all talking about a high school kid.</p>
<p>Hey OP!!</p>
<p>I’m a current Williams Student. Williams is an incredible place. Nevermind a few parents, a few students… CC isn’t exactly an ideal sample for making judgments about a college. The simple fact is that people are pretty unkind to each other. (See Changes by Tupac)
So, ignoring all that, I’ll tell you a bit about why I love Williams.</p>
<p>I was a pretty low-income high school student from Texas. I had taken only 1 AP class when I applied to Williams. I hadn’t taken Calculus in high school, yet I wanted to do something in Division III (Sciences and Mathematics). I wasn’t ready for how difficult Williams was. There are really gifted kids from fortunate backgrounds… Exeter and Andover and all kinds of places I had never heard of! But they didn’t cut my throat and make me feel bad for coming in with a lower level of knowledge, they reached out and helped me to step up to their level.</p>
<p>In my first week of classes a student I had just met took the time to teach me all of Calculus I. I got to skip through Calculus I and with the help of an incredible math faculty and kind peers, I just made an A in Multivariable Calculus (Calc III). This is particularly special to me because when I was in 8th grade my teacher told me I would never make it to Calculus (She thought I was too dense).Williams is a very very difficult school. But Williams is also very nurturing. This is what I find special about Williams. </p>
<p>Regarding the town… it’s small, but it doesn’t feel terribly small. Only isolated! Which is a plus or a minus, depending on the person. </p>
<p>All in all, there are unfriendly people all around the world. Wherever you go! Williams, Amherst, MIT, Harvard, Centenery College of Louisiana… There will be people who aren’t welcoming. Perhaps take this thread as a lesson to not take any of that too seriously, and to always take the best things you can out of any fiasco. </p>
<p>PM me if you’d like to know more about Williams, I really do love it here.</p>
<p>@USCviaMD
Lol wow some people are smart</p>
<p>Geez. What a bunch of busy bodies. You people need to get day jobs.</p>