Is Willams College prestigious?
How do Ivy league schools view Williams’ students when they apply to graduate programs at Ivy?
Prestige is in the eye of the beholder.
But generally, yes, people consider Williams prestigious. Some rate it the top Liberal Arts College.
Ivy League colleges have students in their graduate programs for all types of schools - the highly rated and not highly rated. They are looking at more than a school name.
But Williams is as good a school name as is out there.
But this is the wrong reason to pursue a college. Find the college where you belong, not one that meets a level of prestige for that reason alone.
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I agree with both of @tsbna44’s points - Williams prestige, and grad schools not caring about the prestige of your undergrad school. Rather than “where”, they care about what you studied, how you performed and what your professors think of you - i.e. curriculum and rigor, grades and recommendations.
I’ll also add that you should pick a grad school (when the time is right) based on your intended course of study, and if going for a PhD, pick the professor you want to study and work with. Based on these factors, an Ivy League school may or may not be the right answer.
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Williams reports an SAT middle range of 1470–1550 and an ultra-low acceptance rate. For the small percentage of prospective college students for whom the question might be material — that is, those who could get in — yes, Williams is prestigious.
Williams is consistently ranked among the top LACs and is well regarded by employers and grad schools.
Aren’t you finishing up your undergrad business degree at Baruch?
Ivy League graduate programs are not prestige whores when evaluating an applicant’s undergrad transcript. Individuals are best to avoid asking “Is XYZ prestigious?” as just asking the question in this manner has a negative connotation.
Regardless, as a 27 year-old non-traditional student, you really have no dog in this fight, so I’m unclear why you’re asking or why you care
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Deleted.
Williams is a wonderful school. Rest assured that Williams grads are well represented at first-rate grad school programs.
As others indicate, prestige does not operate in the same way when looking at PhD programs in comparison to professional programs like MBAs or JDs that out of necessity have to filter many similar applications.
Significant research accomplishments and high praise from professors in the particular discipline are the best pathways to solid PhD programs. The school name is not as important, but Williams and other “prestigious” schools tend to offer outstanding opportunities for research to undergraduates. If you look at the statistics for undergraduate origins of doctorate holders, you’ll see the top small LACs represented at a higher rate than Ivy undergrads. Carleton kills it on this metric.
Another consideration is that specific PhD programs have their own prestige pecking order. Ivies are prestigious overall because they have lots of great programs, but not every subject is great at every Ivy. And there are many fields where the large-scale grants and infrastructure that come with size provide a big advantage to top state schools (think Illinois for Computer Science - certainly a better choice than Dartmouth, for example, if you want to study CS).
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I am currently at Baruch.
Thinking of transferring out!
Aren’t you 28 or so years old? Would you be happy at a fairly remote LAC with no grad students? If accepted and affordable you are likely to be very dependent on financial aid (from your other posts). Would you be happy living on campus with 18-21 year olds.
In most years, Williams isn’t especially welcoming to transfer applicants. For last fall, for example, 3% of those who applied were accepted.
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