@starduste- Sure!
In post #6 above, I listed some of the things I loved best about Williams.
It really comes down to community- the incredible relationships with professors and students. It was great for me, as an only child who had never really been away from home, to be part of an “entry” at the start, with a built-in group of people to serve as a sort of family group. It made the transition easier. Then I branched out and made other friends, too. And professors really got to know you, too. I ate dinners with them- at their homes, in dining halls, and at school-run events. They brought their kids to a Halloween party our dorm ran for professors’ kids, and I went ice skating with a professor and her kid.
While I was at Williams, my advisor recommended me for all sorts of curriculum committees for the school (hey- I am currently a curriculum director in my post-Williams life!), to become a writing tutor for the college, to join a prejudice-reduction training group on campus, etc. I never would have known about these opportunities if he had not suggested them, because he knew me and guessed what would interest me.
I was an English major at Williams, mainly because I really enjoy reading fiction and I thought I would want to take an English class every semester anyway! (When I started at Williams, I thought I would major in biology, but I decided after a year of closely tracking a genetic mutation in fruit flies that lab work was not my passion.) I took a wide variety of classes in many subjects and enjoyed almost all of them. My career passion turned out to unrelated to anything I studied at Williams, as you will see below. But the skills I learned at Williams have benefitted me my whole life.
Williams has statistics available somewhere on their website about the percentage of alumni who get jobs through fellow alumni, and it is high. But personally, I did not. I went into public education on Long Island, so there were not any Williams alumni in the small districts responsible for hiring me. (At least not officially: I later learned that the superintendent of the first district that hired me had a son who went to Williams! So maybe that prejudiced him in my favor above the other finalist?) The name “Williams” was mentioned with an impressed voice at some of my interviews, as was the name of my grad school of Teachers College, Columbia U., which I went to on a big merit scholarship, which I am sure I received in large part because I went to Williams. So attending Williams helped that way.
As far as the location goes, for me it was a tremendous plus. I loved the beauty of the mountains. Growing up on Long Island, I only went into nearby Manhattan once a year, so I guess being close to a city was not important to me. And when I went to grad school at Columbia, I was less happy with the urban environment than I had been with the peaceful beauty of Williamstown. For my son, the final choice of Williams vs. another college for early decision came down to location: he wanted a rural college, since he had grown up in suburbia and did not find a suburb as appealing. Another CC poster has written that the happiest kids at Williams are those who go there in part because they like a rural area, not despite the area, and that may be true. (But almost everyone seems happy at Williams! Students seem to be very enthusiastic about the college.)
If you are worried that a rural area will not provide enough to do— well, just look at a weekly events schedule on their website. Any top college will be culture-saturated and have a lot going on: museums, concerts, theatre productions, famous speakers, sporting events, and tons of activities and events run by the college and by students. Add in unofficial parties and spontaneous games and conversations with your friends. And for Williams you can add all the local outdoor activities. It did not feel “monotonous” to me. I certainly was never bored!
(I am PM’ing you the name of the psychology prof you asked about, since I don’t know how people would feel about having their names shouted out on social media, even in a positive context!)