I know there’s quite a few posts about Williams or Pomona, but most of them recommend a visit to get a good feel of the schools. Obviously that isn’t possible right now, so does anyone have any insight to the “feel” of the schools or any other information that can’t be accessed by looking at their websites? Any recommendations?
The biggest–and most obvious–difference is that one is much more isolated than the other.
Big difference with respect to weather as well.
Williams tends to appear on the college matriculation lists of highly selective East Coast private schools (e.g., https://www.groton.org/matriculations), which might suggest aspects of its atmosphere as well as indicate its quality. Williams also tends to be popular with athletes: https://www.newsweek.com/25-schools-stocked-jocks-71873.
Other than the geographic and cultural differences (which are significant –– east coast vs. west coast; isolated rural campus versus more somewhat more urban but fairly suburban campus; the weather), Williams is a stand-alone LAC whereas Pomona is part of a consortium of 5 colleges, giving you the advantage of cross-registration and a larger pool of students and faculty from which to draw.
What are you interested in studying and where do you think you would fit in better?
I don’t have a set idea on what a want to study—I know Williams is really strong in Economics and Math, which are some good options, but I’m also interested in English and social science courses. Are there better majors to take at each college, and if so, which?
I think I could do well in either environment but I’m leaning more towards the Pomona campus right now just based on description.
Also, is the fact that Williams is ranked #1 an important factor to consider?
Are the academics more or less the same and are they viewed with similar prestige? Thanks for your help.
With respect to academics by major, Williams and Pomona tend to appear in some of the same analyses and articles:
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html
https://www.flavorwire.com/409437/the-25-most-literary-colleges-in-america
Both also appear in “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors” in The Princeton Review’s Best 385 Colleges print edition.
Two things stood out to me when I took the Williams tour a couple of years ago, which distinguish it from almost any other college:
- January Semester - Students actually come back to campus after the first of the year for a 3 week “winter study”, unusual learning experiences which could not be accomplished within the confines of the regular academic calendar. The student who was part of our presentation described his most recent experience. His group of students was given a problem to solve working as a team, which was to build a bridge with legos to span across the open atrium which extends above the cafeteria from one side of the 2nd floor to the other. Sounds easy right? It took them the full 3 weeks, and he said that he learned more applied math in those 3 weeks than at any other time in all of his schooling. More examples and details are available on the Williams website.
- Tutorials - Based on the Oxford model (England), pairs of students meet with a single professor for an hour. Taking turns, one student presents a paper each week. The other student critiques the paper . . .rigorously. The presenting student defends his paper. And so the hour goes. These tutorials are available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Talk about small class sizes! Again, more info is available on the website.
I believe that both of these represent unique learning opportunities. I am not able to comment on Pomona.
@septmares Are you thinking about applying ED to one or the other? Hopefully you’ll be able to visit before ED applications are due in November. Otherwise, there’s no reason why you can’t apply to both.
My son is a Williams grad. He had a great four years and would do it again in a heartbeat. Several of his friends attended Pomona and I would say that the academics and intellectual caliber of the students are equal. You’d get a great education at either plus ample career and graduate school opportunities. Both offer academic strength across disciplines – math/science, humanities, social sciences.
The major difference, as others have noted, is in location and environment. A mountain village in western New England couldn’t be more different from a southern California suburb.
I think of Williamstown as being more insular than isolated. The Berkshires are actually a sophisticated weekend playground for Boston and New York, with a lot of culture and nature oriented activities. Students usually manage to get to a city once or twice a term (and many study abroad) but the real draw of Williams is the close knit campus community and profoundly beautiful natural setting. My observation is that students who choose Williams because of its rural setting rather than in spite of it, are the happiest.
Both schools are amazing and also have liberal bents. I suspect Williams is relatively more conservative, given high % of athletic and prep school students.
Both beautiful campuses , but in very different environments. Williams is pretty much standalone, whereas Pomona is surrounded by suburban Claremont, and its consortium colleges. Both schools are in the elite dozen of schools with endowments of > $1 million/student.