I’m not much of an athletic person, and I know that there is a Physical Education requirement. Could anyone tell me about how intense it is?
I have not participated in sports in high school.
Hello! I’m facing the same problem as you (not being athletic) but as I was reading online that there are several ways to make up for the PE requirement, such as the outdoor club or dance for example.
It’s not intense at all. You can take classes to fulfill it easily. I was a two-sport varsity athlete, but I took squash one semester…just wanted to learn to play haha…turns out it’s super fun).
No stress at all. Daughter fulfilled requirement very easily with fun activities.
Do not let this enter into your decision making process. You can do general wellness activities like yoga, fun things like bowling, badminton, dance, figure skating. No stress, not at all intense. It’s not factored into your GPA either.
As said above, not stressful at all, so please don’t worry about this! I’m the farthest thing from an athlete, and I’ve had fun completing my PE requirements.
Though Williams academics run on a semester schedule, with winter study in between, PE runs by quarters. Which is great, because it means each PE class is only something like 5 or 6 weeks long, so if you realize you hate what you’re doing, it’s not all that much time wasted. But it’s also very easy to find stuff you won’t hate doing.
There are classes run by the PE department–I took figure skating one quarter, quite fun! There are classes run by WOC, the outing club, for things like hiking, canoeing, rock climbing (Williams has a wall). If you’re an athlete, your sport counts as a certain number of PE credits (again, not an athlete, so I don’t know the exact numbers; I do know that people I know who are 2-sport athletes won’t have to take any PE class). There are some individual training options (if you’ve taken 3 PE credits, you can do individual weight lifting, for example, and get credit for it).
During winter study, there are very, very fun winter sport classes; taking 3 3-hour lessons counts as 1 PE credit. I’d never gone skiing in my life, and I’m so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to do so. There’s a big sign-up night at the beginning of winter study to buy discounted passes to Jimminy Peak, the local small but adorable alpine ski mountain, as well as to sign up for classes. I bought a 3-visit pass and signed up for my 3 skiing lessons, and they were a great time. During winter study, you can also do nording (cross country) skiing, snowshoeing, and I’m sure a bunch of other things that I’m forgetting.
So, lots of options. I guarantee you’ll find something that you’ll genuinely look forward to doing!