Social Scene at Williams

I was accepted into Williams RD, and am looking to get some insight into student life outside of academics(which are obviously stellar). Do students have the time to spend time pursuing non-academic hobbies? Current students: how would you say your time is split between academic and social pursuits? A party scene isn’t a huge priority for me, but being able to socialize & blow off steam is important nonetheless. In a similar vein, is there a diversity of co-curriculars? I’m pretty outdoorsy, but there’s only so much hiking I can do before I lose it.

For context, the other schools that I’m considering rn are Colorado College and Oxford Uni(Brasenose college), if anyone is familiar enough to contrast those social dynamics to Williams’. Thanks in advance!

One statistical aspect that may enhance your experience at Williams when considered in relation to many other liberal arts colleges is its gender distribution, which falls at about 50/50 in most years. This can help create more natural relationships across all students in comparison to skewed environments.

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OP is comparing Williams to CC and Oxford, neither of which have wild gender imbalances (56:44 F:M at CC, 51:49 F:M at Oxford), so unlikely to be a determinative data point.

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I would contact admissions and ask them to put you in contact with a student, if they haven’t already. Last year when my son was still deciding a senior reached out to him and answered all his questions.

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My D is a current Williams student. She’s not an athlete or a musician (two of the most popular extracurricular groups) nor is she super outdoorsy, although she’s spent many summers at an outdoorsy summer camp that she loved. She grew up in a major city and is artsy and politically progressive. She’s found a great group of friends and has gotten involved in the radio station, the newspaper, and some political groups. Her friends are involved in a variety of activities from varsity teams to club sports like ultimate frisbee to acapella, dance, and more. While I don’t think she goes to a lot of the big parties that seem to be thrown by sports teams, she seems to have a friend’s birthday party or gathering almost every weekend. She goes to the movies regularly at the incredible independent movie theater that’s on Spring Street. It’s a gem that shows a wide variety of films. Good luck with your decision.

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Do students have time to pursue non-academic hobbies?

It depends on your area of study. STEM majors typically are overworked and don’t do much beyond their research and homework after their first year. For other majors, it honestly comes down to classes. Some students intentionally take “easier classes” and sometimes feel bored but generally have time outside of academics, other students feel as though academics take up all of their time because they take harder classes. It really comes down to personal choice and how you want to handle Williams as an individual.

How are social pursuits?
The social life is variable. To put it bluntly, it’s a LAC and that means it’s not only small but caters to a specific demographic. You either have a friend group or you hop from group to group. Friend groups are formed usually within the first few weeks of classes and then they’re kinda your group for the rest of your four years. Now this isn’t to sound defeatist, making friends at Williams is easy, the difficulty (I think) is in finding your group if the first couple of weeks don’t go well. But like anything else it kinda varies.
On the flip side, Williams students work hard and party hard so we have a good party scene.

Is there diversity of co-curriculars?
We’re a very outdoorsy campus but we have plenty of things to do related to arts, research, activism, and community service. I wouldn’t be too worried about that. Williams as an institution tries to provide a variety of co-curriculars since it’s a rural area and there’s not much to do off-campus.

Hope this helps on some level.

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My daughter is considering ED at Williams. She’s currently a senior at LaGuardia. I would love to talk to you about your daughter’s experience. They sound very similar. Please reach out my email is nydk@me.com. Thanks

I sent you a private message.