<p>how was it?</p>
<p>Are you not going to an overnight? You should visit yourself.....</p>
<p>AMAAAAZING.</p>
<p>The Previews were absolutely amazing. I was beyond impressed.</p>
<p>I mean, what college books Thomas Friedman to speak during the preview nights?</p>
<p>Not to mention, we actually got to sit on stage with him.</p>
<p>And that's just the beginning!</p>
<p>Yeah...the Friedman thing was nice. Other than that I was generally unimpressed. Um...the food was good. The parties were pretty bad though. Classes were great. I think most of the people who left afterwards though, were really pro Williams. I'm in the minority.</p>
<p>The food was good for college food. The campus is pretty, despite its isolation.</p>
<p>The classes were OK. German was good, Art History actually left me a little disappointed. Supposedly, Williams has the best art history program in the nation. The intro class at my school is loads better.</p>
<p>I think the reason why I loved Williams was because of the people I met, who were all mostly great.</p>
<p>Although, even though Williams has some of the best dorms in America, I still disliked them.</p>
<p>And I hate Fayerweather.</p>
<p>Some of you probably met my best friend there...best kid you'll ever meet.</p>
<p>I really loved the dorms. I stayed in williams in my host's common room. I loved actually having room to move around. The bathrooms were clean and nice, shockingly so, in fact. There was so much stuff going on all the time. I felt a little bad because I barely saw my host! And Friedman was amazing. I thought it was really indicative of how welcoming the college was that when all the seats filled up in the auditorium, the administration invited the college students up to sit on the stage with Friedman. I believe they were also simulcasting from another building. I sat in on a music theory course, an english class, and a political science/constitutional law class. All were good, although the english class was a little quiet, but that was probably because it was 8:30 am. By far the best class was the political science one. I felt like I was in law school. It was fascinating.
apparently I ate somewhere different from everyone else, because the food I had wasn't that great. I'm a fan of cafeterias that have stations and lots of choices, but maybe I was just so busy running from one activity to another that I missed out on the food.
I didn't go to the dance party, which I heard was pretty lame. I went on the "hike" which turned out to be a midnight walk around williamstown. It was beautiful, and I got a chance to really talk to people.</p>
<p>The reason I didn't like Williams was because of the people I met...oh well.</p>
<p>I stayed in Sage and the dorm ws pretty cool. The Entry System is really attractive. People were too squirmy though, about some things, and too apathetic about others.</p>
<p>rhapsody...which psci course was it?</p>
<p>Well, he mentioned that it was a constitutional law class, in which case it had to be PSCI 217: Constitutional Law II: Rights. It's taught by Professor George Thomas, and from what I hear, he's an amazing professor. Really takes the Socratic method and runs with it. I haven't taken any of his courses yet, but I plan on taking at least one constitutional law course next year.</p>
<p>what's the socratic method?</p>
<p>So I was kinda underwhelmed by the overnight. I'm choosing between williams and swarthmore. I had expected to love the overnight, because I had loved Williams before when I visited for an afternoon, but the longer I spent there, the more I felt that the actual students I met where kinda preppy social climbers who wanted to make lots of money. People were friendly, but in a pretty generic, non interesting way. People seemed very cookie cutter and label obsessed... I was a full scholarship student at a fancy private school in the east coast, and while it was a great experiance academically, I want to spend more time with people with different sorts of priorities in college. The problem is that williams is offering me 6000$ a year in grants more than swarthmore because of complex, and my family really really wants me to go to williams. Uch. In basically every other way (academics, beauty of campus) swarthmore and williams are tied, but then I like the atmosphere at swarthmore much better, but the money from williams is better... My family will ask me to repay to them the difference between williams and swat in a few years after graduating, which might be hard. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Fida, yes it was constitutional law: rights. I honestly felt like I was in law school. It was amazing. I approached the prof after class because its technically only open to people who have credit in AP gov, and while I've taken the class, I'm not taking the test (paying for 6 AP tests is a bit much). He was really accomodating, and told me to email him if I decided to come to campus. It was an amazing class!!!</p>
<p>oh, and deciding: the socratic method is a teaching style employed in nearly every law school in the country. It basically involves asking someone (either a volunteer or a randomly selected student) to summarize the case. Then the teacher asks more specific questions generated based on the student's answer. He/she can either ask the first student or open the floor to the entire class. it's an intense way to teach, and it results in the discussion ranging wildly on many different issues and cases. In the class I sat in on, they were debating two different cases with seemingly contradictory decisions on the issue of freedom of religion. it was in a word, fascinating.</p>
<p>oh xanadu83! Similar situations and thoughts on Williams and Swat. The thing that set me off though, was that all the Williams students were so morally opposed to Swat and they would all give me really bogus answers that I guess THEY thought made Williams seem better but in actuality, it made Williams seem worse. </p>
<p>And they were all so obsessed with Williams being number 1. "It doesn't matter where else you go, it won't be number 1." I got that alot. Like, they made fun of HYP in that skit, but people's attitudes made me feel like they were exactly the same.</p>
<p>I know it's not fair to base my thoughts about williams on the people I met, but honestly, I would have to spend the next 3 years at the most with those people, so it became an important part of they way I felt about it.</p>
<p>brickbreeze! at least if we both choose williams, we can be two laid back, non status obsessed freshman! and I'm sure we can find more! But I must say, the more I think about spending the next 4 years with people who really care about the difference between the gap and juicy couture, or between making 30 or 50k a year right out of college, the more I want to go to Swarthmore. And I was actually told by an prospective student who was sure they were going to williams that i should choose williams over swarthmore because swarthmore might go to #4 in the rankings, plus the girls are ugly (i'm a girl.... I think he was implying that there wouldn't be hot girls for me to go clubbing with? I don't know). I felt quite uncomfortable, and conscious of being in a sort of bastion of isolated priveledge - in a way that I did not feel at swarthmore. which way are you leaning?</p>
<p>Wow.. I'm sorry you had that experience. When I attended Williams, it was never ranked number 1, so no one really ever talked about the silly rankings. Although, judging by the mixed reactions on this board, it seems like you all must have been with totally different groups of people.</p>
<p>There are actually students at Williams who have no idea/concern what the labels in their clothes say -- only that they serve their purpose...</p>
<p>well xanadu, fyi, the guys at swarthmore are ugly too. </p>
<p>hahaha jk. well, not really. </p>
<p>but yeah i visited swarthmore last year and everything was perfect except for the student body, imo. i thought they seemed a lot more uptight and competitive. most of the students i saw and met with there seemed to be bookish to a fault-- almost to the point of snobbery (but then again maybe i was being overly sensitive). i mean, on paper, swarthmore seemed like the perfect school for me-- small classes, beautiful, beautiful campus (i prefer the style of buildings there), suburban area only 20 minutes away from philly... but when i visited, i was so disenchanted with it i didn't even want to apply there regular much less ED (which came down to williams, amherst & dartmouth). i don't know, my friend got the same impression when we visited: "for example, when i went to visit swarthmore, they said that it was a very accepting school.which i don't believe at all. tolerent of stupid people? tolerant of "conformists?" i doubt it." (from her post on the CMC board, where she's going). in any case, it's your choice and you probably aren't taking any of this into account. just adding my 2 (or a lot more) cents!</p>
<p>what on earth is (are?) gap and juicy couture?</p>
<p>~ignorant intl</p>