<p>I went to previews, loved the professors, loved the class and everyone was more than helpful and welcoming. </p>
<p>However...</p>
<p>I have heard that Williams was an athletics dominated school. When I visited, everyone I met was either very into sports or arts, and I'm not interested in neither. Is it hard to find a group of friends if you're not in sports nor arts? </p>
<p>Williams also seem like such a beer-drinking school, and I'm allergic.</p>
<p>Everyone I met was wonderful, but they're not the type that I would usually hang out with. They all seem very self-assured and out-going. I'm a bit shy, unsure about everything and very spontaneous.</p>
<p>Finally, Williams is so isolated. Will it be hard to find internship and volunteer opportunities?</p>
<p>You will be fine, the host I stayed with hasn’t touch any alcohol. Dont worry, there is so many activities happening on Friday and Saturday night you will feel no pressure to drink or party or anything you don’t feel comfortable doing.</p>
<p>arkli, No one’s going to hold you down and pour beer down your throat. As far as involvement in sports and/or the arts, I’d say that’s a fair assessment of most of Williams student body. The point is that these are, for the most part, active involved kids. They take academics seriously and they also take their extra-curriculars seriously. You may also, but you haven’t mentioned what it is that you do like to do when you’re not studying. </p>
<p>Also, in order to give you advice we’d have to know what other schools you are considering and how you feel about what is, to me, the salient characteristics of Williams: its size and location. Even though internship and volunteer activities may be available, whether or not you want to be at a small school in a rural environment is totally personal.</p>
<p>There are non-drinkers on campus. The reality is that, if you don’t drink and if you don’t like being at parties where people are drinking a lot (and the second does not necessarily follow the first), it may be harder for you. You may be lonely and feel left out on weekend nights and you may have to work harder at creating a social life than moderate or heavy drinkers do. This may be the case on many college campuses, not just at Williams.
(And, as a mother, I wish it weren’t so.)</p>
<p>Are you sure you have not left anything else out?</p>
<p>Then we hear if there are deviant, leftist, Marxist and other dysfunctional groupings.</p>
<p>Boy, this thread is getting interesting.</p>
<p>I empathize.</p>
<p>Be sure to wear a hat of distinction that identifies your symptoms such that you draw attention to your predilections and you do not remain in the company of one.</p>
<p>Besides your unsettling consternation, I think you will do just fine.</p>
<p>By deviant of leftist thought I did not mean deviant as in a group of people who deter from normal society but rather various schools of leftist thought such as Marxist, Maoist, Lenninst, anarchist, etc. </p>
<p>Every other student wishes to be apart of a club that shares their intrests, same as me looking for a club at Williams that discusses revolutionary leftist thought.</p>
<p>Haha I get that all the time. Its cause every username or email that I have on the internet is based off of an experience when I was young and foolish when I read “The Prince” I fell in love with the ideas of Machiavelli and this was when I was starting to get active on the internet thus I made all my emails and stuff Machiavelli12 or some form of it, and I haven’t changed it yet lol. Dont worry though, when I finally get into college I will be reborn in all of my internet forums with a new username that represents my true ideals :)</p>
<p>CB: haha, I guess so. But I like the name Hanover and how it sounds. </p>
<p>Also, the thing is, the Marxist doctrine hasn’t really ever been carried out the way it was supposed to, so we don’t even know yet, but I would project too that it isn’t really fully going to work. The closest we got was probably Lenin/Stalin <em>coughoverlyambitiousandinsanedictatorscough</em> and not so good results, to put it politely. Hmmmmmm…I wonder if a democratic Marxist society can work? With the rule of the majority, it probably can’t…</p>
<p>There is no Marxist doctrine. All Marx did was analyze the abuses of capitalism and bourgeois control of the the means of production. He did not recommend a solution except a vague notion of a society controlled by the proletariat.</p>
<p>Engels was a bit more forthcoming, but just a bit.</p>
<p>Trotsky Lenin, Mao, Tito, Castro, Gueverra et al all had more to do with what we think of as Communism than Marx.</p>
<p>Marx’s work was enormously important because he demonstrated that capitalism distorts human relationships and makes the economic relationship between people their primary relationship.</p>
<p>Have you read any of the works of Marx? He surely put out a solution; communism. Not really a solution more of an invetiable fact. </p>
<p>Keyword phrase is “What we think of communism” because it is what bourgoise propganda has put out. Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot all claimed to be variants of communism but what we must realize is that communism/capitalism/feudalism are all modes of production and distrbution, hence if the state controls the economy such as in the USSR then it is not communism not matter what the leaders claim.</p>
<p>Communism is stateless and classless, if you have a state and a division of classes then it isn’t communist.</p>
<p>I actually agree that pure capitalism is NOT the way to go. I hate how it distorts (good word choice) society as we know it. EVERYTHING is fueled by the capitalistic hedonist greed, and it’s no coincidence that the U.S. is not the best at science or stem cell research but at commercials. I mean, commercials? We should focus more on social benefits and strengthening our infrastructures rather than pumping billions into advertising spots during the SuperBowl.</p>
<p>On the other hand, communism/socialism is not the answer. It doesn’t work, period. However, I think the European-style reformed capitalism is the way to go. It’s a balance between capitalism and socialism, and it leans towards capitalism. Their people are much better off for it. Admittedly, the U.S. has a gigantic population and many of the aspects of the European system wouldn’t work with 300+ million people, but maybe we should look towards Europe for some political/economic strategies rather than stagnate with blinders on. </p>
<p>Sorry for ranting, but I just felt that my opinion is kind of under-represented
Not a revolutionary, definitely not a socialist, but I’m up for some reforms here and there.</p>
As far as involvement in sports and/or the arts, I’d say that’s a fair assessment of most of Williams student body. The point is that these are, for the most part, active involved kids. They take academics seriously and they also take their extra-curriculars seriously. You may also, but you haven’t mentioned what it is that you do like to do when you’re not studying. </p>