<p>What do current or former students think Williams has to offer that no other college does?
What specific events have made you think "I could only get this at Williams?" (other than tutorials, which I already think are great and distinctive)</p>
<ol>
<li>Three AMAZING art museums nearby, one right on campus.</li>
<li>Excellent hiking 10 minutes walk from your dorm.</li>
<li>A truly accessible administration (though that doesn’t mean they listen to us :)</li>
<li>Excellence in the arts, academics, and athletics all in the same student body.</li>
<li>Libraries you can take food into.</li>
<li>Special, Williams-student only fellowships for post-grad study.</li>
<li>Alumni-sponsored internships - pay you well for your time in an unpaid internship.</li>
<li>Travel fellowships - go somewhere(s) over the summer and learn stuff for free.</li>
<li>A very active Outing Club that sends people backpacking for orientation if they want, and leads all sorts of other things, like MOUNTAIN DAY! (which Holyoke and Smith have lesser versions of.)</li>
<li>7 a capella groups, lots of other performance groups, way too many for 2000 students to support, esp since most of us are varsity athletes.</li>
<li>A world class theater building with three stages and a director’s studio.</li>
<li>WEPO - Williams students who study abroad at Oxford in this program are not considered “visiting students,” like most people - they have the full rights and privileges as any other student @ Oxford.</li>
<li>Entries - entering group of 20-30 freshmen living with 2 unpaid JAs of 52 picked from a pool or 160 or so applicants. NOT RA’s, much better.</li>
<li>Lots of old & gorgeous former frat houses to live in.</li>
<li>A graduate program in developmental economics for people from governments around the world.</li>
</ol>
<p>Hows that.</p>
<p>wow three museums!How much time do you and your friends spend at these museums? Hiking sounds nice but there are great places to hike all over the east coast. Furthermore, how can an administration be accessible without listening?This confuses me a bit. There is a phrase for “excellence in the arts,academics,and athletics.” It is called a liberal arts education, and at my last school we had more than three categories. It has become essential to bring food and beverages into libraries. Everyone practically lives in the library during finals week, so essentials of life such as food and drinks are all over the library. What do you mean exactly by "how’s that?"it sounds like a challenge.What are you criticizing ,exactly and why do you care so much about other schools?</p>
<p>Tutorials, the entry system, and art are the quintessential big “only Williams” items. I think the WOOLF outdoor orientation program is more or less unique, at least among northeastern schools - other schools have versions of outdoor orientation, but I don’t think there’s any other program that’s student-led, free, and popular to the same degree that WOOLF is. WSO (an online discussion and message board for Williams students) is also unique as far as I know. I’d also say Williams is “unique” among LACs for having unusually strong math and science programs, although of course there are non-LAC schools with stronger programs.</p>
<p>But most of the things that make Williams great are not unique to Williams - it’s just that Williams puts together a great overall package. Lots of schools are in beautiful locations and have active outing clubs, lots of schools have strong professors, lots of schools have small classes, lots of schools have nice facilities, lots of schools have nice housing and food, lots of schools have Winter Study or its equivalent - but very few schools have <em>all</em> of those things. Williams does. (of course there are lots of things we don’t have as well; I’m not trying to say it’s a perfect place. But it’s pretty nice.)</p>
<p>i am not a current student at Williams but, as an artist, the one thing i really noticed about Williams was how amazing/expansive the art (especially sculpture) studios were. The museum was also amazing, and the proximity of so many other museums is really exciting. No other school i looked at had studios or museums to rival those at Williams, and I was only interested in small LAC’s. </p>
<p>Also, about food in the library, i may be wrong but if Williams allows food in the stacks, that is definitely unique. while food has a presence in most if not al libraries, it is not generally in the stacks but in cafes that are usually part of the library building but a separate eating environment. Also, these cafes tend to close, but if food is allowed in the stacks i think the appeal of that is to bring your food into the library and eat it while you study, and most libraries wouldn’t allow food in the stacks, in fact not even all libraries have open stacks.</p>
<p>The Oxford Tutorial system is one characteristic of Williams that’s really awesome.</p>
<p>tutorial system – 5 page paper due every week, only 10 people accepted for each class. hard to get in, and if you do get in, its a lot of work.</p>
<p>entries – mixed bag, i hated mine.</p>
<p>have good art department. unfortunately, it is very possible that you will get through all 4 years without meeting a single professor from the department.</p>
<p>I’ve taken a tutorial. Yes, I worked a lot (as in, never have I written so much in my life!), and it was competitive to get into, but it was incredibly rewarding - my writing improved significantly (and now I can whip out papers like crazy), as did my articulation, and I got to work closely with my professor. It’s really quite the experience.</p>
<p>I’m going to second Ephtastic - the outing club is awesome here. You can rent skis, snowshoes, and all sorts of mountain gear for free, and they provide transportation to nearby trails and ski mountains. A lot of my friends learned to telemark over winter study (free!), and I spent a lot of time cross country skiing on and around campus. What’s a more idyllic way to spend a winter afternoon?</p>