Shuttle, friend with car, car service. Also can shuttle from Boston if you get better flights from your hometown.
They also have Zipcars on campus.
Given the specific situation, I would email the admissions office and ask if they have any suggestions, they maybe able to send someone to pick you up at Albany. They are very accommodating and often send a van or shuttle, the college has a large fleet of vans and shuttles.
I can second the Fairfield Inn!
Very good breakfast, gorgeous terrace, nice sized rooms with coffee maker & fridge. Nice gym. Recommended!
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ā¦sprung for Williamsburg Inn but wow it was surprisingly priceyā¦
Canāt go wrong with the Williams Inn, very close to campus and right on Spring Street, you can also walk to the Clark from there. Definitely visit the Clark and MassMOCA in North Adams. Also Wild Oats Market for grab and go food and snacks.
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With its small class sizes, tutorials, and generally happy students, Iām puzzled why Williams is ranked (only) 23rd for āBest Undergraduate Teachingā among LACs by USN&WR? Any ideas?
What is Carleton doing that gets it to the #1 ranking for undergrad teaching year-over-year?
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Good question, not sure what metrics USN assigns each school, but the ranking definitely misses the mark. Any ranking of ābest undergraduate teachingā would be highly subjective in any case. If you look at outcomes, grad school placement, Williams would rank very highly but the real measure is the close relationships and know how transfer from very accomplished faculty to undergrads which is hard to capture in a ranking. Williams students routinely publish with their profs and conduct research and other work at grad school levels.
Hereās an excerpt from USN&WR on its methodology for ranking āBest Undergrad Teachingā:
U.S. News & World Report asked top academics to name the schools they believe have faculty with an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.
College presidents, provosts and admissions deans who participated in the annual U.S. News peer assessment survey were asked to nominate up to 15 schools in their ranking category that have strength in undergraduate teaching.
The lists include the colleges that received the most nominations. They are ranked in descending order based on the number of top-15 nominations they received. Schools had to receive seven or more nominations to be ranked.
Thank you, since it is based upon the number of nominations there may be some aspect of regional effects in that academics from the midwest would likely name Carleton whereas New England has so many schools with an undergraduate focus like Williams, Wesleyan, Bowdoin and Amherst, itās harder to get named.
For an alternative perspective, survey results from the Princeton Review place Williams 6th nationally for ābest classroom experienceā:
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Thank you, merc81!
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Hi TennisParent. My gut tells me youāre right . . . USN must be missing the mark on its ranking of undergrad teaching. Iām still unsure why, though!
Your explanation makes intuitive sense; however, other New England schools are getting named (e.g. Amherst #2, Bowdoin #3, Swarthmore #6, Bates #8).
I wonder why college Presidents, provosts, and admissions deans arenāt naming Williams for undergrad teaching? Hmm . . .
Good question, it may be the other New England schools get the nod since the college Presidents have already given Williams high marks on the reputational score which goes into the overall #1 ranking. So, they are using the undergrad teaching rating as way to acknowledge the other schools as well after having given Williams the highest rating overall.
In any case, the professor/student relationship is core to Williams, if you are going to previews try emailing a prof in your prospective major and mention you are attending previews, they will likely reach out to you. That way you can meet them on campus.
Also, before Previews take a look at each departmentās webpage to see the faculty profiles. Williams, due to the 7 to 1 student to faculty ratio, actually has fairly large faculty numbers in the may departments such as Econ, Math and the sciences.
Hi,
From the perspective of a student, I honestly wouldnāt go by which has the best pre-med program. To put it bluntly, while a parents hopes and dreams might be for their child to become a doctor, I wanna say like 70% of the students who come in expecting to do pre-med ultimately switch out/drop the major within a year or two. This isnāt to be discouraging, if he sticks with it thatās fantastic but honestly Vandy and Williams the difference in which one is better is going to be marginal and subjective. Both are wealthy colleges with a lot of resources and both are feeder schools.
What I would actually do is go through the course catalogs for each, look at faculty profiles for faculty he might wanna work with at some point, take a peak at clubs, ECs, and really think about if the classes interest him, not just in STEM but in other departments and if we offer programs/opportunities he might be interested in. Also really take into account the environments for all colleges heās considering. Williams is rural and people underestimate what that means in practice (no uber/lyft, less restaurants, no mall, etc) as some of the parents have previously pointed out
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Any reaction to this stunning news 
? April Fools! | Amherst and Williams Announce Historic Merger ā Today
Wow! I guess this means Previews will be in Amherst and Williamstown?!
Although mergers such as this are commonly promoted as having arisen from intentional planning, a look at underlying aspects usually reveals intractable difficulties at one or both of the colleges to be merged. For students considering these schools at this time, Iād regard this development as a red flag for the long-term prospects of even the joint institution.
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What will the mascot be? Elephant??
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