williams and grad school/wall street placement

<p>How does Williams do when it comes to grad school admissions among all colleges and universities? Because let's face it, a LOT of williams grads do choose to continue their education at grad schools. Put Williams against universities like Columbia and UChicago, or even the HYPS, where would you rank williams? And how does williams do when it comes to wall street placement among other universities aforementioned? What's the average GPA at williams?
Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Wall Street Journal Ranking of Top Feeders into the top Graduate Schools:</p>

<p>1 Harvard University<br>
2 Yale University<br>
3 Princeton University
4 Stanford University
5 Williams College<br>
6 Duke University
7 Dartmouth College
8 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
9 Amherst College
10 Swarthmore College
11 Columbia University
12 Brown University
13 Pomona College
14 University of Chicago
15 Wellesley College
16 University of Pennsylvania
17 Georgetown University
18 Haverford College
19 Bowdoin College
20 Rice University</p>

<p>i believe the ranking was for professional schools (i.e. law, biz, med), and not grad schools in general, not to mention the WSJ ranking is of quite some age</p>

<p>Yes, it does just pertain to top B, Law, and Med schools. </p>

<p>As for the age, I doubt the standing has changed significantly. If school standing was volatile, this sort of information would be useless, as one would have no idea where a given school will stand upon graduation.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t use grad school placement to split hairs between top schools. Doing well wherever you go has a much greater influence than the school name amongst these schools.</p>

<p>Williams places as well at top graduate programs as any college or university in the country. You will not be foreclosed from any grad program if you attend Williams, what is more important is your college gpa, especially in your field of interest (the average GPA at Williams is typically in the 3.3-3.5 range, obviously you will have to do better to gain admission into a top-10 Phd program in virtually any field), your GMAT score, research you do as an undergrad, and relationship with Professors who can advocate for you (a big advantage of a liberal arts college like Williams). </p>

<p>Williams also fares very well in Wall Street placement, certainly at the top of the liberal arts pyramid in this regard, and probably better than any college / university save for HYPS, MIT and Wharton. </p>

<p>I recommend browsing through individual dep’t webpages in areas that interest you, as a lot of them have lists like this:</p>

<p>[Economics</a> Alumni in Grad School](<a href=“http://econ.williams.edu/students/grad-student-list]Economics”>http://econ.williams.edu/students/grad-student-list)
[Math/Stat[/url</a>]
[url=&lt;a href=“http://physics.williams.edu/people/graduates/]Graduates”&gt;Graduates – Physics]Graduates</a> | Physics](<a href=“http://math.williams.edu/majors/post-graduate-plans/]Math/Stat[/url”>http://math.williams.edu/majors/post-graduate-plans/)</p>

<p>etc., etc.</p>

<p>For PhDs top programs, the most critical aspect of your application will be your recommendations from your professors for whom you have done substantial work and who will be known by the departments to which you will be applying-- it is very much of and old boy/girl network–which is in Williams’ favor. So it is imperative that you get to know professors in your field, do research for/with them, impress them with your sagacity and passion for the discipline and begin a dialogue with them about where to study and WITH WHOM. The professor is more important than the institution when you are going for the PHD.</p>

<p>Of equal importance is the stregnth of the alumni network, which you will come to appreciate when the time comes to find a job. The top, small schools tend to have the strongest alumni networks. The best are Williams and Amherst. It seems the alums are really willing to help each other out, and give young grads introductions, internships and sometimes even jobs. I have seen this with some of my family members who went to Williams. I think the large universities like Columbia or HYPS are much more anonymous, and the alumni really do not care about helping the young grads out–how can they, there are just too many of them.</p>