Saw this post in the past for a few other schools and so I just want to see what did you guys choose Williams over? This will also helps people to see that unis are not necessarily better than LACs or vice versa.
Personally, I chose Williams over Dartmouth, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Colby, Hamilton, and UF even though it tied with Dartmouth as the second most expensive option(Swarthmore was the most expensive).
I chose Williams over Dartmouth because Dartmouth put way too much emphasis on frat and drinking. Dartmouth’s diversity is also lacking a social-economic balance(I am not rich) and so I feel like like I would not be as welcomed as at Williams.
I chose Williams over Swarthmore because Swarthmore is $6k more expensive /year and it also places too much emphasis on going to grad school.
I chose Williams over Middlebury, Colby, and Hamilton because they are all similar to Williams yet weaker in prestige as well as in my field(economics.) Harder to get into wallstreet from those places than from Williams
Son was a recruited swimmer and picked Williams over Dartmouth, Middlebury, Pomona, Chicago, Washington (St. Louis), Amherst, Bowdoin, Kenyon, and Johns Hopkins.
I am going to be in the minority here…I’d choose Williams over Harvard.
This is admittedly a superficial impression based on a few hours on both campuses, tours, presentations by admissions officers, conversations with students and campus vibe. If prestige is your criteria then obviously Harvard comes out ahead. Harvard probably comes out ahead on other criteria like diversity, urban setting, selectivity, etc. But if criteria is undergraduate education—the return on your sweat equity—I’d pick Williams, hands down. Veritas.
A few years dated, but I chose Williams over three ivies (Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia), three non-ivies (UChicago, Duke, Northwestern), and two other LACs (Amherst and Pomona). I applied across the board to colleges (was rejected from my top choice - Princeton), as I was unsure of what I really wanted out of college; it wasn’t until speaking with alumni (and ruling out the possibility of pursuing engineering) did I actually understand where I wanted to be.
Between them, both our kids chose Williams ED over Brown, Dartmouth, Tufts, and almost every comparable LAC in the Northeast. Neither of them were fans of the other ivies. Even over my own alma mater! Both of them are mountain kids and the local hiking/skiing/snowboarding are important for their mental and physical health. They’re brave and rise to a challenge, so the reputation didn’t scare them. They both wanted as good an education as they could get as undergrads. They’re well-rounded, big-picture generalists and good at a lot of things, which Williams appreciates. Both of them fell in love with the campus and people. DS applied because of the scholar-athlete vibe and strength of the physics, math and econ depts. DD applied because of the strength of the music dept., especially in vocal, choral and composition. The dept. head at the time begged her to apply, because of her music accomplishments and goals were a great fit. And he was right.
@Grandbassam : If I understand correctly, Your son never received decisions from Columbia, Yale, Dartmouth, Northwestern & Vanderbilt since he applied binding ED to Williams College.
Interesting because some may apply to a second or third or fourth choice school ED when applying to ultra-selective schools based on the perceived “necessity” to apply ED in today’s highly competitive college & university marketplace in which students are primarily concerned about getting an acceptance while schools focus on yield.
@publisher Recruited athletes do get offers from schools before officially applying and usually accept one of the offers and turn down the others so those coaches can move on to another recruit.
I think this thread’s premise is that you “choose” a school over others when you have been accepted to those others, not just in the search process, by which latter criterion we each would have chosen our college above every other college in the world!
Basically, when you have been accepted to multiple colleges and they are real, concrete options, which did you ultimately select?
MY daughter choose Williams over MIT…She did her research and came to the realization that she would get a better undergrad education at Williams working with Professors rather then at MIT dealing with TA’s. She plans to go to MIT for her Masters. Hope it works out for her.
@bresdo MIT does not offer a terminal masters degree in computer science or electrical engineering anymore, only PhDs. MIT undergrads in EECS can earn a co op masters degree but thats program is not open to non MIT undergrads. MIT’s programs in the sciences, and math, pretty much only PhDs. (the masters would be a consolation prize for those that do not pass the PhD qualifying oral or written, depending on what department she is interested in) There are masters degrees at MIT in most other engineering subjects, an MBA at Sloan, and architecture, urban planning, and the social sciences offer masters degrees, but MIT is today by and large a place to get a bachelors or PhD degree, even for engineers. PhD programs are fully funded is one reason, and PhDs get better job options in most engineering fields, its not a degree for an “academic”, although MIT produces those too, but more for a technical specialist. One other program: MIT offers a Global Leaders masters program with Sloan that leads to a degree in EE, CS and business.
MIT does use TAs to help with freshman requirements like physics, chemistry and biology, which are required
for every bachelors degree at MIT, hard science classes in all three disciplines,
MIT undergrads will get to know their professors very well given
the number of students who do bachelors level thesis work. and its a very small undergraduate school, just to clear that up. Its not the same level of teacher interaction as Williams in the sciences,as a big part of what MIT does is train up PhD students and perform world class research with government grants, but the interactions at MIT are pretty close in some of the small departments like Materials Science.Students go to dinner all the time with MIT professors. The research work at MIT is big projects, big equipment, and very interdisciplinary, see MIT Media Lab which combines design, science, math, engineering to create new ways of learning, new wearable technology etc.
Both of them are mountain kids and the local hiking/skiing/snowboarding are important for their mental and physical health. They’re brave and rise to a challenge, so the reputation didn’t scare them. They both wanted as good an education as they could get as undergrads. They’re well-rounded, big-picture generalists and good at a lot of things, which Williams appreciates. Both of them fell in love with the campus and people. DS applied because of the scholar-athlete vibe and strength of the physics, math and econ depts. DD applied because of the strength of the music dept., especially in vocal, choral and composition. The dept. head at the time begged her to apply, because of her music accomplishments and goals were a great fit. And he was right.