<p>To current Williams students/parents of students: you're probably asked this way too many times on here, but exactly how big are sports on campus?</p>
<p>Dear Lady, DS does not play sports at Williams, he is into theatre and he loves it there! Does he attend sporting events to cheer his friends on? Yes...but they also attend his theatre productions and support him. Being into sports is not a prerequiste for being happy at Williams. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>It's hard to know what you mean by "big" but I'll give it a shot.</p>
<p>Any small college that wants to field a full set of varsity teams is going to have to have a higher percentage of athletes than one that doesn't particularly care about it. 34% of Williams students are varsity athletes. This is similar to Amherst (32%), a tad higher than Middlebury (28%), but substantially lower than both Colby and Haverford (42%). In addition, these schools all have unofficial intercollegiate teams--club sports such as rugby, Ultimate Frisbee, Men's Volleyball, etc. At Williams, this bumps the number up to 40%--and Haverford jumps to an amazing 50-55%. At the other end of the spectrum you have Swarthmore (21% varsity & club combined) and Wesleyan (25% varsity & club combined) and Hamilton at 30% combined. Virtually all these schools report intramural sports participation at around 75%--they're fun and good for you, they relieve stress, they're social (and often co-ed), and there often isn't that much else to do.</p>
<p>As to Williams, specifically: They love their sports, and excel at them, but it's only a part of the big panorama. I think of the kids there as big, happy puppies in the ultimate puppy park. They're always on the go, but they're far from being monothically, or even mostly, jocky. I spent a lovely fall morning there once chatting with the president and his young daughter as we strolled back and forth between a field hockey game and a Men's varsity soccer match. Later that day was a football game. The ultimators are always out there, too. But there are also plenty of kids chatting in the coffee shops, or hanging out enjoying the weather. It's not a bunch of cheerleaders and guys in varsity jackets, by any stretch of the imagination. UF, by the way, is huge at Williams, by far the largest and most popular EC. I'm going up for the Purple Valley Ultimate tournament in a few weeks.....(ex-Williams varsity parent here, I've got to get my cheering fix somehow.) After 2 years there, my daughter decided that varsity college sports were too demanding and she wanted more time to enjoy the rest of what Williams and the area have to offer. She was fully comfortable telling her coach and team-mates of her decision, and is enjoying a great Junior year. That should tell you something, I think</p>
<p>I think I made a semantic error that I'd like to correct in order to give Ladylazarus a clear picture. I said that 34% of Williams students are varsity athletes, but the implication that "varsity athlete"--i.e. "jock"--is their primary identifier, would be wrong (right in some cases, but wrong in most.) The college puts it this way: "34% of students participate in intercollegiate sports at the varsity level." This is true. But they are also actors, musicians, a capella singers, student teacher volunteers in North Adams, hikers, and scholars. They're Williams College students first, with all that that can encompass, and varsity athlete is just one component. In most cases.</p>
<p>LL, I think Proudmama and Driver summed it up well. Not all Williams kids are athletes, but most Williams kids are involved in some kind of physical activity. They are also multifaceted, or at least dual-faceted and are difficult to categorize by just one label. They also tend to support their friends activities by going to sports events, theater, dance performances, art openings, poetry readings, political forums.</p>
<p>My son, for example, is not a team athlete, but he is outdoorsy and involved in snowboarding, trekking and strictly for fun and social interaction plays on a couple of intramural teams. He is also an artist, an art historian, a poet and has lately developed a fascination with comparative religion. Which of these pastimes/interests defines him? Definitely the combination of the all of the above. You see this over and over again among Williams kids. Basically, they are active, healthy kids who like to get out there and do something. Like puppies, exactly!</p>
<p>From November to March Williams is cold and snowy. You should think about what you like to do in the snow. The kids that fit in best are those that develop some kind of winter physical activity even if its just for fun like broomball or sledding. If your inclination is to hibernate, then you might find Williams too confining.</p>