<p>Which one offers better undergraduate education and why? Which one's more prestigious in the academic world and to grad school Admission Committees?</p>
<p>Definitely Williams.</p>
<p>Williams has a small edge, but WashU might be a better undergraduate experience depending on what you are looking for.</p>
<p>Williams has a stellar reputation for undergraduate teaching, which could be a deciding factor if having extensive student-professor interaction is important to you. Such interactions also occur at WUSTL, but in a less uniform manner because its a research-intensive institution. However, if doing undergrad research in a cutting-edge lab is important in your chosen field, a school like WUSTL could be a better choice. But even this distinction is not so simple, because Williams students can get research experience at other institutions during the summer. At the level of grad school admissions, there's not much to distinguish the two. If you excell at either place, you'll be admitted to the best grad schools. I know this because I've served on grad school admissions committees at WUSTL. Lastly, don't ignore the obvious differences: Williams is a small school in a rural area that gets tons of snow, whereas WUSTL is larger, semi-urban and warmer; WUSTL has business, architecture and engineering schools whereas Williams does not. These and other clear distinctions makes choosing between Williams and WUSTL relatively easy. Check both of them out! You'll see which is right for you.</p>
<p>Curious kid...what would you like to study? What sort of things matter most to you when choosing a university? (curriculum, social life, campus, food, extracurricular life, class sizes etc.)</p>