Williams Current Student Taking Questions...

Colleges & Universities A-Z Williams College
1

<p>Hello,
I'm a current Ephman, class of 08. From the boards, I see that there may be some confusion by the CC'ers as to the atmosphere at Williams/other things that might go through a pre-frosh's mind as he contemplates April 1st. I'll try my best to answer whatever questions y'all potential/actual 09'ers might have concerning anything Williams, and if I can't I'll try to to point you to a resource which can.</p>

<p>A little bit about me:
Ethnicity: Asian/First-Generation college student
State: NJ
HS: Public
Class size: 65
Other schools considered last year: Georgetown, Bowdoin, UPenn(SAS), Notre Dame, Babson</p>

<p>I'm pretty involved in service activities, minority groups, and theatre on campus, so I can answer those questions fairly well.</p>

<p>Quick note: The best way to decide if Williams is for you is to schedule an overnight visit. Just check out the Purple Key Society to arrange one. Included in your visit are 3 free meal tickets, a schedule of classes, and notable other places of interest such as MASS MOCA and the Clark Art Museum.</p>

<p>Good Luck to everyone who is applying! Feel free to ask questions!</p>

2

<p>Cool. How was the transition? Was it easy to get into the groove of things and meet new people at Williams?</p>

3

<p>Would it be almost impossible to pursue two extracurriculars passionately? (for me, piano and tennis-- takes about an 1hr 30min each day).</p>

4

<p>i mean 1hr 30 min for each thing each day, so total of 3 hrs....</p>

5

<p>You should check with the coaches, but unless you are a recruited tennis player, I doubt that you would be able to play competitive tennis at Williams. Almost no "walk-on" student-athletes make the high profile varsity teams at Williams. </p>

<p>Both the mens and womens tennis teams have won back to back NCAA national championships, so it's basically recruited ranked players.</p>

6

<p>transition!
Academically: It was pretty tough first semester. I felt like I burned the midnight oil for classes that others were breezing through. However, my background/circumstances in attending college are a bit different than many of the students here. First semester was also trying because I had a play production that pushed sleep back 2-3 hours for a month and a half. I do feel that I have adjusted now though, and am able to juggle a few things at once.
Socially: Entries are great! They provide structure and it's a great way to make friends and really connect amongst your peers. The JA's are awesome as well. They help out by talking about classes, profs, little strange things, and whatever else is on a froshies mind. I've also met many different kinds of people through the activities that I'm involved in, including many upperclassmen. I think that it's really all about getting involved. If you get involved in an activity/sport/group, then close ties/friends will probably follow. People are just really nice here.
Extracurriculars!: No problem! Hello12, you actually sound like many people here. I have a friend who does five different orchestras/symphony things and juggles an intense pre-med schedule. Another guy in my entry manages to run Varsity Track and perform in the Berkshire Symphony at the same time. Though Williams does consistently dominate Track, I'm pretty sure the guy wasn't recruited. He just a person who ran Varsity track in HS and wanted to continue that here as well as his music interest. You can "walk-on" to a team. I know the girls tennis coach; she taught my paddle tennis PE over Winter study. (sidenote: Not such a good idea to take an outdoor PE class during Winter Study) As long as you bust through the workouts and practices, you should be fine. A girl who lives upstairs of me walked-on to the girls tennis team earlier this year. Williams does not just recruit. The coaches here are used to working with raw talent to make better athletes. The fact that you're already very competitive with Tennis is a great start! We have many composite courts, and a few clay courts. You should contact the coach, and set-up an overnight visit with a member of the tennis team.</p>

7

<p>There are plenty of "walk-ons" at Williams.</p>

8

<p>renja888...do you know who Hanna Na is by any chance?? i thought you were talking about her when u said "who does 5 diff. orchestra and premed schedule...." just curious...</p>

9

<p>Hello,
Yep, I know who Hanna Na is, but I was actually referring to a different person. Just goes to show that diff people can balance hectic schedules and all...</p>

10

<p>o ic.....hanna is my sister by the way...haha</p>

11

<p>I'm sure that the possibilty of a "walk on" student athlete making a varsity team varies from team to team. I would check with the coach for that particular team.</p>

<p>Here's what the recent Williams Faculty Committee on Athletics said:</p>

<p>"We note in this context how rare the “walk on” athlete has become on many of our varsity teams."</p>

12

<p>You said it was tough transitioning academically, how come? What was your high school like?</p>

13

<p>"Almost no "walk-on" student-athletes make the high profile varsity teams at Williams." Wrong.</p>

<p>I personally know walk-ons playing varsity squash, football, field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer at Williams. High-profile sports that definitely seek out and recruit superstars where they can. But there are only 66 athletic tips per year, divided among 30-some varsity teams. Hence a need for walk-ons. For you, as a long-ago non-athlete alum to tell a current Williams prospect that there is little hope of playing a varsity sport as a walk-on is innaccurate and unhelpful, regardless of what faculty meeting notes you dig up on the web site. You're way out of your area here.</p>

<p>Below is a paragraph from an NCAA News Magazine article from 2002.</p>

<p>"Participation is key</p>

<p>There's no denying that things are just different at Williams. According to the school's public affairs department, about 40 percent of Williams' students participate in intercollegiate sports, with 34 percent of the student body participating at the varsity level. There are 31 varsity teams (16 men's and 15 women's teams), 16 junior varsity teams (eight men's and eight women's), eight club sport teams and 11 intramural sports.</p>

<p>Sports -- whether intercollegiate athletics, broom ball (a popular form of ice hockey with a household broom) or simply the camping trips that serve as freshman orientations -- are one of the ways the students at Williams socialize and develop bonds with each other.</p>

<p>A priority is placed on participation, and Williams seems to attract people who like to take part, even if they don't start.</p>

<p>Ralph White, the men's and women's track and field coach for the past two years, has experienced times when 100 people showed up to participate.</p>

<p>"You don't have to be a star to make a team here," he said. "The opportunity to participate is given to every student."</p>

<p>Williams coaches also are given additional support in the form of more assistant coaches when their teams prove popular. "(More student-athletes) are welcome as long as they bust their butts," White said. "That willingness to include so many kids is not something I ever saw on the Division I level."</p>

<p>A former Division I coach, White built the track program at George Mason University and also served as head track coach at Southern Methodist University.</p>

<p>White thinks Williams is the good life for a coach. Coaches are faculty members, and they are not allowed to recruit off campus. It has allowed him to spend more time coaching some highly motivated and competitive student-athletes and also spend more time with his family.</p>

<p>"I don't go on the road to recruit, but this school attracts a lot of students and we can make a lot of phone calls and e-mails," White said. "The hard part is getting the kids with the 1500 SATs. Am I going to get any future Olympians here? No, I've done that and I'm done with that. But I am going to get a heck of a lot of doctors, lawyers and just great individuals. I think I probably have the best job in the country."</p>

<p>White also noted that the overall student body is relatively diverse for a liberal arts school -- with a U.S. ethnic minority enrollment of 25 percent -- another factor he counts in recruiting.</p>

<p>"As far as the facilities go, I think some of them are a little antiquated, but it's not the brick and mortar that gets the job done. It's the people -- the administrators, the coaches and the student-athletes," White said.</p>

<p>White also points out that Williams has great conference competition every year that challenges the Ephs, and that winning the Sears Cup is not a goal that's really discussed.</p>

<p>"I don't know that we've ever called a meeting of the athletics department where we sat around and said, 'We need to win the Sears Cup this year.' Instead, our objective is to do the best we can, give student-athletes a great experience and the rest will fall in place."</p>

14

<p>The question was about tennis at Williams. The mens and womens tennis teams at Williams have nationally ranked players. I certainly think it's reasonable for non-recruited high school tennis player to investigate whether or not they would have any chance of making the varsity team. Just like a high school football player would be wise to ask similar questions if he were considering the University of Miami or a high school golfer asking similar questions at Wake Forest or Stanford. I wouldn't want a pretty decent high school golfer to show up at Stanford expecting to play competitive golf only to find out that he's got to beat out Tiger Woods for a slot on the team!</p>

<p>I would make the same suggestion to any high school athlete who wants to play a varsity sport in college. What are the chances of being good enough to play for that college? The answer is going to be different for every sport at every school.</p>

<p>BTW, Williams has somewhere between 100 and 130 recruited athletes in each entering class. About 100 of these receive some degree of boost or "tip" in admissions from the athletic department. The 66 you refer to is the number of "recruited athlete slots" where the athletic department is given the sole decision-making selection power (as long as the overall group of 66 meets certain guidelines established by the admissions office). The next group of 36 or so are recruited athletes who are basically competive academically and receive support in the admissions office by the athletic department. The remainder may be recruited athletes, but whose academics are sufficiently high that the athletic department is willing to take their chances on admission without using up any of their "pull". This group would technically be considered "walk-on" athletes, although they may well have been "recruited" by the coaches.</p>

<p>Since "recruiting" at a Divison III school must be initiated by a student inquiry, the original poster must make contact with the tennis coach at Williams to even have the opportunity to be "recruited" or given a boost in admissions.</p>

15

<p>"The question was about tennis at Williams."</p>

<p>Yes, but your response addressed Williams athletics in general, and was incorrect. Where do you get your "recruitment" numbers? I know we've bandied this around before, and there isn't consensus as to the definition of "recruitment," but Williams admissions clearly smiles on the scholar athlete, whether or not they get an actual tip. Now, if your idea of a walk-on is someone who's had very limited experience with a particular sport, perhaps you have a point. But the poster you replied to didn't sound like that.</p>

<p>Recruitment in NESCAC must be initiated by the student athlete, although that doesn't hold throughout all of D3. But yes, the student who asked the question should definitely be communicating with the coach.</p>

16

<br>


<br>

<p>My advice still stands. Any high school athlete who is, in part, basing a college selection on the prospects for continuing in that sport at a varsity level, should investigate whether or not they are good enough to make the team at that particular school. The more the emphasis on recruited athletes and national championship caliber teams, the more important it is to fully explore this issue. Because Williams <b>the</b> most varsity-athletics focused Division III school in the United States, it would particularly important for a prospective student-athlete to do some research on his or her particular team.</p>

<p>The categories of athletic recruits was detailed in the Faculty Report on Athletics along with the academic "band" of each group.</p>

17

<p>Both mens and womens tennis welcome walk-ons (I was almost one myself) and I believe that neither turns away players who want to be on the team. Cross Country and Track (two of the other most high-profile teams) are the same. All sports at Williams welcome walk-ons, although obviously many cannot guarantee a spot on the team. However, teams that typically have size limits (such as soccer or bball) tend to have JV equivalents (which often feed into varsity) and IM equivalents (which tend not to feed into varsity). </p>

<p>Interesteddad--you provide a mischaracterization of athletics admission at Williams. Yes, there are athletes who are given some form of boost in admissions, but there are also musicians and actors who are given JUST as strong of an admissions "boost." This "boost" you speak of is known as "flagging"...students who are particularly talented in an area are flagged for that area (whether that area be flute, dance, science research, or volleyball), and these flags aid admissions in making their decision. </p>

<p>On a side note, krbxtigerz, tell your sister that she played her concerto beautifully.</p>

<p>CoOls875--Academically I too struggled with the transition from HS to college. My HS was academically terrible and I came to college very poorly prepared. However, Williams has SO many support networks, you'll find that while it might take you a while to really catch on to "college" work, you'll have all the help you need in doing so. Aside from professors continually reaching out to me and going way out of their way to help me in my work, I went to the writing workshop frequently and had a private (and free) writing tutor. I also went to the math/science resource center, and was often helped by my fellow classmates. If you get into Williams you have nothing to worry about.</p>

18

<p>Haon:</p>

<p>What you describe as "flagging" would be accurate for the second group of 36 I described. This is fixed, agreed-upon number of "slots" where the athletic department recommendation is the tipping factor among applicants who are roughly qualifiied academically. This is above and beyond the first tier of 66 slots where the athletic department has the actual power to select the specific applicants (assuming the overall group meets the reduced standards agreed upon by the admissions office. This group ranges from pretty bad academically to OK, with a specific distribution in between. These are the "impact" recruits.</p>

<p>The music department does not generally have the power to admit an oboe player who is "pretty bad" academically. However, I do agree that there is no difference between the second tier of 36 flagged athletes and an oboe player with decent mid-pack academics flagged by the music department. I have no problem whatsoever in admitting this kind of athletic recruit as long as the numbers are proportional to the goals and objectives of the college.</p>

<p>There is still another tier of students who are flagged as likely 4-year varsity players, but who get zero push from the athletic department because, academically, they don't need it. The coaches don't waste their negotiated slots on very high academic recruits.</p>

19

<p>It's funny that this thread slowly (or not so slowly) turned into every other on the Williams board. I'm sure as the number one LAC, there are more important things about Wiliams to talk about besides recruited athletes.</p>

20

<p>Probably not from an admissions standpoint. </p>

<p>However, from a college selection standpoint, I would probably point to the unbelieveably good art history department and career paths to the world of museum curatorship world as Williams most unique strength.</p>