<p>My son wants to attend an academically challenging school with a strong Division III soccer program. Does anyone have information about the Williams Men's Soccer team which is nationally-ranked? How do athletes and non-athletes mix? Most of his h.s. friends are non-athletes with non-sports interests. Thanks.</p>
<p>Your son shouldn't have reservations over the social interactions between athletes and non-athletes. Certainly, there are times when it seems like the "athlete culture" self-insulates itself from the larger student body (e.g. team parties), but for the most part, Williams kids have friends from across the spectrum. I know a bunch of soccer players at Williams, and they're all really good guys. Many will be living in the floor directly below me next year.</p>
<p>I'm sure that your son has other strong interests in addition to his soccer. One of the glories of Williams is that he should be able to pursue both his athletic and his other interests. If he goes to Williams, many of his friends will come from the soccer team and many other friendships will probably grow out of his other interests.</p>
<p>If I were he, I'd contact the coaches and try to get to spend a weekend with the team. I'd ask to be introduced to people who shared a non-athletic interest of mine as well (my daughter's future teammates were really helpful about this on her visit). On my own, I'd also look for, and contact, clubs for my interest and talk with people majoring in areas that interested me. That should give your son a good idea of whether Williams would be a good fit for him. I think that he'll find that being an athlete isn't socially confining.</p>
<p>pmyen, my son was just the opposite: many of his highschool friends were athletes while he didn't participate in team sports. He found the same situation at Williams -- many of his friends, male and female, are varsity athletes and all of them are physically active either in club sports or outdoorsy pursuits. </p>
<p>As Grace mentions Williams kids tend to be multifaceted, e.g., athletes plus musicians, actors, artists, campus politicians. Thus they will overlap with non-athletes in other extracurricular areas as well as in the classroom and residence houses.</p>
<p>My D is a student athlete at Williams and absolutely loves the team, her class mates and the college as a whole.
If your son is serious about attending Williams, and playing soccer at a high level, he absolutely definitely "must" get in touch with the coach and visit the school.
As part of the NESCAC, Williams coach's can use "tips" to help an otherwise "average" applicant (i.e. top 5% of HS class, etc.) get admitted.
I wholeheartedly recommend Williams. My D can't wait to get back for her soph year.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Here's an interesting link - this dude from the soccer team got the scholar athlete of the year award -</p>
<p>And he received more honors and awards after that piece was written.</p>
<p>Every year Williams scholar-athletes achieve national recognition -- I'm thinking of this soccer player, some of the women on the basketball team this year, a female runner this year, a woman who swan last year, and many others. This doesn't happen without a culture that strongly supports them in their academics, their athletics, and the interstices between the two areas, as well as in their other interests. Best of all, there seems to be support for whole teams, not just for the stars and superstars.</p>
<p>A member of the varsity squash team won the Apker award in physics (apker award is given to the best physics student in the US or something) a couple of years ago. Squash is a D1 sport in Williams and i believe that the team is ranked no 6 in the country. Williams student athletes definitely break the 'dumb jock' stereotype!</p>