Questions for current students or recently graduated Williams alumni

Colleges and Universities A-Z Williams College
1

I’m currently a rising senior going through many college tours and information sessions, relentlessly waiting for that ‘ah-hah’ moment when I step on a campus and know its where I belong. I have done a large amount of college tours… with only a small few that I actually like, William’s being one of my top colleges, if not the top. I loved the campus and thought the academic opportunities sounded amazing. That being said, I do have a few concerns after researching the college more and would be very grateful if current students or recently graduated alumni would answer some or all of the following questions (listed in order of most concern):

  1. I do play sports and hope to continue playing in college, however I don't think I will be good enough to play varsity if I go to Williams (or really any school for that matter). I've read that some people feel that athletics dominate Williams' campus. It seems as though a lot of the social life is centered around being on a varsity team and I am worried I will end up missing out on the social aspects of Williams if I'm not varsity. Is it right to worry about feeling secluded/excluded? Has anyone felt this?
  2. One of the things that drew me to Williams was the entry system--I think it sounds like such a cool idea and since I am not the best socially in new environments (until I get comfortable) it sounds helpful. That being said, I started to think it could go either way. I feel like the entry system could either serve the purpose it is supposed to and give students an immediate social base, or could do the opposite if a student does not fit in with his/her entrymates, then that student will have trouble due to everyone already having their own group of friends (entry). Of course everyone has different experiences, but what do you think about this? How many students would you guess feel more hurt by the system than helped?
  3. One of the repeating concerns about Williams I have seen is that it is in the middle of nowhere. I am still not sure whether I like or dislike about this feature, but I'm worried I'll feel stuck or go stir crazy. I love the fact that its rural and in such a beautiful place, I'm just worried about the lack of stores/restaurants/things to do that would typically be found in college towns. Is there really that little surrounding William's college (stores/places to eat, I know there are a lot of outdoorsy things to do around the college)? How did/do you feel about this?
  4. Obviously at the top liberal arts college in the nation the workload will be rigorous, but is it too much? Are you always stressed? Is it all work and no play?
  5. I am pretty sure I like a smaller school, but I don't want to sacrifice opportunities for the size of the school. With less students, does Williams seem to offer a less diverse array of classes than its research university counterparts do?

I know I’m not accepted into William’s yet (hopefully I will be), but I want to get this clarified as soon as possible so I can feel more confident about which schools are my top. Any advice or answers would be greatly appreciated and would help so much. I would especially love to hear from anyone who attended Williams with these same worries, and how it panned out for you. Thanks in advance!

2

First of all, just based on the questions you’re asking, it sounds like Williams is a perfect fit. I’ll answer the questions in the order in which you asked them.

36% of the college is on a varsity team. If that were the only way to be involved in the social scene, then there would only be 36% of the kids at school going to parties and hanging out, but that’s not the case. Everyone is involved in all aspects of social life, besides literal team-building activities within individual teams. The entry system actually alters the dynamic drastically, and, in my experience, does exactly what it is reported to do: bring together diverse groups of people as one “family”. Many parties are thrown by sports teams, but they’re all-inclusive (one team tried to throw an exclusive party and the school almost cancelled their season because everyone was so mad) and that’s the only aspect in which they’re really a major force of campus life. Besides throwing some parties, the sports teams are not dominant on campus at all. Athletes an non-athletes are all friends with each other, and I can say quite honestly that my best friends include people from both groups. In term of being on a team, almost every sports team has a JV roster as well, and you can always try ultimate frisbee or rugby where most of the players played different sports in high school. Which sport in particular were you interested in?

The entry system is one of Williams’ best programs. The only concern people usually have about it is “what if my entry doesn’t like me?” The answer is always the same: they’ll like you. Entries are like extended families: there are the people you like, the people you don’t like, and the people who annoy the crap out of you, but you love them all anyway because they’re family. Exactly the same in the entry. In my entry, there was a kid who I didn’t love per se, but when he was having trouble in a class we were in together, I helped him with his problem set. Everyone finds friends in the entry, even the ones who don’t congeal. Every few years, there’s an entry that just doesn’t buy in to the system, and it doesn’t become a familial unit (VERY rare). In these entries, however, everyone still finds a friend or two and ends up making friends in their classes or clubs or teams or whatever instead. Basically, in the 1% of the time the entry system doesn’t work and just becomes a regular housing situation, the people in that entry end up making friends in other entries (entry adoption) or in other activities. So there really weren’t people who were hurt by the system, but it’s possible that a very small minority weren’t exactly helped by the program. Again, though, I loved my entry, and I think that it probably was the most positive part of my first year experience.

Williams is definitely not in a big city, but it has plenty to do. The college itself provides plenty, with at least a concert or performance or big campus party each weekend, and the student groups provide the rest: musical performances, improv, comedy, sports games, plays, and parties happen literally every weekend. You’ll probably be in a few of these yourself, if statistics about student involvement are to be believed. Besides that, there is Spring Street, which has a small movie theater, a surprising variety of restaurants, and other conveniences (coffee shop, ice cream, drug store, barber shop, etc.). Plus, there’s snack bar. Go to snack bar.

The workload is a lot, much more than high school for me, but it’s manageable. I didn’t have to pull an all nighter at all and I exceeded my grade expectations, even with 2 labs and an intro language course. The tough thing about Williams isn’t the schoolwork, it’s trying to fit everything else you want to do into your day. Especially for athletes, balancing work, extracurriculars, and play can be tough without sacrificing sleep. You just need to prioritize and not bite off more than you can chew. A friend of mine got burned out first semester because she took a difficult courseload and was in an a cappella group and did a play and did JV basketball and was a writer for the school paper, but she cut out the paper and the play second semester and was totally fine with a similar schedule difficulty. For me, I just did a few activities (student band, pickup sports, slam poetry) and took a relatively tough courseload and was fine. Stay on top of your schedule and it won’t weigh you down.

If you KNOW you want to be an engineer, don’t go to Williams. If you want to be a business or communications major, don’t come to Williams. Williams offers an unimaginable variety of courses if you are interested in adding some breadth to your education, but if you know that you hate writing and hate history and only want to be an engineer, don’t come to Williams. If you want to try everything, or don’t know exactly what you want to do yet, or just want to do a few different things, definitely come to Williams. It has all the normal courses (Bio 101, stats, comp sci, chem, physics, econ, english, languages, etc.) and then some more unorthodox ones that are really interesting, mostly in the form of seminars and tutorials. I’m going to take a tutorial about the scarcity of water as an economic resource next semester, and there are others about things like apocalyptic thought in american writing or the israel-palestine conflict. I’ve never felt pigeonholed at Williams at all, and pretty much struggle to figure out how I can possibly choose just 4 courses every semester. Unless you’re totally single-minded on a subject, Williams should have more than enough course variety for you.

Hope I helped! Let me know if I need to clarify anything.

3

My entry mates did not become my closest friends, but they were my first friends at Williams. You start out with a group of people from your entry to hang out with while you get to know the school. Then you meet people through classes and activities as well and you find your friends.