<p>"williams spends by far the most on athletics in the NESCAC"</p>
<p>It could have something to do with, year in and year out, having so many varsity athletes (both women and men) qualify for so many ncaa post-season championship competitions (and this doesn't include football, which per NESCAC policy does not participate in post-season play).</p>
<p>Quoting Williams Provost and Treasurer William Lenhart: "Of the four essential operating budget areas: Salaries, wages and benefits; financial aid; managers budgets (...) financial aid will increase because of the college's ongoing commitment to make sure students can afford to attend the college."</p>
<p>(This may be one of the primary reasons for Williams's rank as one of the "best value colleges" in the U.S. as well.)</p>
<p>Williams has a top women's crew program. Does anyone know how many slots they allow for freshman women's crew recruits or what the minimum academic stats are? </p>
<p>I've been told they are quite flexible with lacrosse and swimming when it comes to academic standards.</p>
<p>Williams is athletic-centric and proud of it. They have great athletic programs and superb academics. This is from a perspective of someone’s DD who chose NOT to go there based on a perceived “fit”. The school, athletics, facilities, coaches, town are all superb for those who feel well suited to Williams’ overall environment. As great as it is, it is not the best fit for everyone. Visit during school and examine closely. Get a feel for the staff, students and athletes. Ask players for your sport what is most important to them. It’s rural, outdoorsy, artsy and students tend to embrace the area. But it’s not for everyone. If it’s on your short list it will part of a tough decision as it has an excellent overall college experience.</p>
<p>I haven’t had time to read all the responses, so apologies for any redundancy.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is what’s worrying you, but at a place as small as Williams, there tends to be <em>a</em> campus culture rather than several sub-cultures. What I didn’t like about the emphasis placed on athletics at Williams was that the ‘sports culture’ completely dominated the social scene. </p>
<p>Does this mean that there’s no place for non-sporty people who are into the arts or something else? No. I know of quite a few non-sporty people who managed to find a small group of friends they had a lot in common with, and these people have been very happy at Williams. But I don’t know if they’d say that Williams was the best choice they could have made. </p>
<p>If everything else about Williams seems wonderful to you, and this is the <em>only</em> thing that is somewhat worrisome, I’d not give it much more thought. Depending on how good you are, you could always join student groups in your areas of interest (Student Symphony, for instance) and you’d be sure to find like-minded people to hang out with on weekends. Just know that you’d be a definite minority at Williams.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Just because 40% of students “participate” in a varsity sport DOES NOT MEAN that they are really on a team. I trained with the Tennis and Wrestling teams, but was never good enough to actually represent Williams in intercollegiate athletics, it was just a fun thing to do.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t pigeonhole athletes. Many people in the a cappella/music scene were also varsity athletes; I directed an a cappella group and played in the Berkshire Symphony. Of the 3 other people I lived with senior year, 2 of us ,“participated” in varsity sports, and all 4 of us went to good graduate PhD programs.</p></li>
<li><p>MYTH: 150 students are “recruited” to sports every year.
FACT: 150 students might be quite good at a sport, and that might push their application over the edge, not unlike my proficiency with a musical instrument did for my application.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Feel free to msg me questions about medical school (currently attending), or Economics.</p>
<p>Athletes can be cool, too. But seriously, non-athletes (especially with some outdoorsy interests) are in moderate supply at Williams and are generally very happy. One potential issue with a large athlete population at any school is the clique-ishness that can go along with it (i.e. teams hang out with other team mates, making it a bit difficult for a non-athlete to break in to that circle). Williams, as opposed to, say, Swarthmore, is a bit more analagous in this way to Stanford, Dartmouth, etc.</p>