<p>S hoping to hear good news from williams college on dec 15th.</p>
<p>I absolutely loved Williams, and I advocate for it on here. While it’s not for everyone, I believe that for a certain type of student, no school offers a better education or better post-grad opportunities.</p>
<p>BUT, and this is particularly important to keep in mind for those applying E.D., this board, among other college-obsessed places, tends to, by a huge, huge factor, exaggerate the costs and benefits of college choice, especially among closely-matched schools. I married someone who attended a liberal arts college about the same size as Williams, it is in the midwest and by no means a name school or close to a top 25 US News liberal arts college, and she and her group of friends all had an incredible college experience, formed tight lifelong bonds, and have gone on to highly successful careers, just like my peer group from Williams. There are just tons of great schools out there (most of which most of the country has never heard of), we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to higher education in this country, and for the most part, your college experience is what you make it. People who freak out about whether they, say attend Williams or Kenyon or Dickinson or Bowdoin or Middlebury are really missing the forest for the trees. </p>
<p>It’s most important to figure out the type of institution you will thrive at, and focus on schools of that type, rather than worry about which has the biggest endowment or the most prestige. That doesn’t mean that, once you get accepted, you should carefully scrutinize the costs and benefits … it is an important four years of your life, and you want to maximize the experience. But it does mean that (a) not getting accepted at a first, or even first, second, third, or fourth, choice schools is not even close to the end of the world, even if it feels that way when you are 18, and (b) in most cases, if you think that choosing a difference college (even one as great as Williams :)) would cure all unhappiness experienced at whatever college you did choose, you are most likely mistaken.</p>