<p>You won’t have to work as hard at Stanford as you will at Swat. Williams is somewhere in between but you’ll get <em>lots</em> of personal attention from professors that you won’t get at Stanford…no grad students to compete with for time & resources. Among the cognoscenti—as opposed to the average Jane/Joe (or Yoshi/Eko or Wang/Jing) on the street—those who are on graduate admissions committees and those who hire at high levels, Williams is just fine.</p>
<p>You have three great choices. If you want the best <em>education</em>, I’d go with one of the two LAC’s. Swat is in less remote location and thus offers more cosmopolitan opportunities for trying new things but sitting idle there would not be a problem in any event.</p>
<p>TheDad: I wouldn’t bet the bank that you won’t have to work as hard at Williams. On the Boalt scale Williams was just a whisker behind Swat as the two hardest schools in the country to get an A at.</p>
<p>My S works constantly. He really does. And boasts his B+'s. (Not to say that he’s had no A’s.)</p>
<p>Williams is more remote but feels less to me while on campus because the town is integrated into the campus.</p>
<p>Both are great schools, and I have no problems with folks preferring Swat. I can understand why they would, just as I can understand why others would prefer Williams.</p>
<p>Huh. I would have guessed at U/Chicago and Reed being harder than Williams for an A grade but this is verging on Theology and how many angels etc etc etc. I’ll stipulate that Williams is more than challenging enough. Anyway, I wouldn’t worry that a Williams degree would be any disadvantage versus a Stanford or Swat degree.</p>
<p>I know someone who recently went to Williams and got A’s in the classes he worked at and C’s in the classes he didn’t. </p>
<p>MM: town and campus have to be integrated because they’re so small that otherwise they’d be dis-integrated, neh?</p>
<p>*Here is the info from the posting. Sorry, but there was no link.
In 1997 UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law
did a ranking of the toughest schools to get an “A”.</p>
<p>Are they still ranking the schools accordingly?</p>
<p>The L.A. Times ran an article 7/16/97 "Grading the Grades:
All A’s Are Not Created Equal "on how the admissions dept.
from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall re-formulated the law school’s
applicant’s G.P.A. The formula ranked each college
according to how its students perform on the standardized
law board exam, the LSAT, and how common a certain
G.P.A. is at that school.</p>
<p>The following is UC Berkeley’s rankings of toughest schools
to get an “A”</p>
<p>Swarthmore 89.5
Williams 89.0
Duke 88.5
Carleton 88.0
Colgate 88.0
J. Hopkins 87.5
Chicago 87.0
Dartmouth 87.0
Wesleyan 87.0
Cornell 86.5
Harvard 86.5
Middlebury 86.0
Princeton 86.0
Bates 85.5
MIT 85.5
Haverford 85.0
Pomona 85.0
Virginia 85.0
Amherst 84.5
Reed 84.5
Vanderbilt 84.5
Wm & Mary 84.5
Bowdoin 83.5
Tufts 83.5
Vassar 83.5
Bryn Mawr 83.0
Hamilton 83.0
Oberlin 83.0
Rice 83.0
U. Pennsylvania 83.0
Clrmt. McK. 82.5
Yale 82.5
Brandeis 82.0
Northwestern 82.0
Colby 81.5
Michigan 81.5
Notre Dame 81.5
Wash. U. 81.0
Barnard 80.5
Columbia 80.5 Stanford 80.5
Brown 80.0
Georgetown 80.0
Smith 80.0
Wellesley 80.0
Emory 79.5
U. North Carolina 79.5
Whitman C. 79.5
Rochester 79.0
UC Berkeley 78.5
UC San Diego 78.5
Illinois 78.0
SUNY Bing 78.0
Texas 78.0
Trinity U. 77.5
Boston College 77.0
UC S. Barbara 77.0
Wisconsin 77.0
Florida 76.5
U. Washington 76.5
Santa Clara 76.0
Geo. Wash. 75.5
UC Davis 75.5
UCLA 75.5
Colorado 75.0
Michigan State 75.0
Boston University 74.5
Cal Poly SLO 74.5
Massachusetts 74.0
Penn State 74.0
Iowa 73.5
Purdue 73.5
SMU 73.5
SUNY Albany 73.5
BYU 73.0
Minnesota 73.0
Ohio State 73.0
Oregon 73.0
UC Irvine 73.0
Indiana 72.5
NYU 72.0
SUNY Buff 72.0
SUNY Stony 72.0
Mills 71.5
American 71.0
Arizona 71.0
Loyola Mary. 71.0
Maryland 71.0
Fordham 70.5
Kansas 70.0
Syracuse 70.0
USC 70.0
Arizona St. 69.5
CS San Diego 69.5
Catholic U. 69.5
Oklahoma 69.5
Pacific 69.5
Hofstra 69.0
UC Riverside 68.5
Utah 68.5
CS Chico 68.5
Miami 68.0
New Mexico 68.0
San Diego 68.0
CS Northridge 67.0
Pepperdine 67.0
CS San Fran. 66.0
CS Sacramento 65.0
Hawaii 64.5
Denver 63.5
CS Fullerton 63.0
CS Hayward 63.0
CS Long Beach 63.0
CS San Jose 63.0
CS Fresno 62.5
St. Mary’s 61.5
CCNY 59.0
CS LA 58.5
Howard 57.5
San Francisco 57.5*</p>
<p>WOWWz. I hope I am not picking a school based on which one gives me an A–although As are nice. I have a different question. ARE THERE ANY DIFFS BETWEEN AMHERST AND WILLIAMS? ( Aside from the fact that Amherst students seem like Williams haters?) I really liked them both so much, but wonder if one is better for me. Please note: I am NOT a jock by any stretch. Also, I don’t work out like its my job. I like frisbee and yoga, sometimes. The academics seem great at both places–also the community and the profs. Any leads?</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be snippy, just helpful. There are many threads that detail the differences between Amherst and Williams. The rivalry is really something that exists for entertainment value.</p>
<p>I think the schools and their populations have a lot in common.</p>
<p>People offer the consortium as a major way they’re different, but statistics show that most Amherst students take all their courses at Amherst. Still, I guess it’s nice to know it’s there.</p>
<p>Most students have a visceral feel for which school they prefer. For my S it was definitely Williams for reasons he couldn’t articulate. Probably the same number of kids who prefer Williams prefer Amherst; I think they are about equal in wooing cross admits.</p>
<p>The open curriculum is the major difference I can see. At Amherst you won’t have to take courses you don’t want to. At Williams there are broad and loose and to my mind not oppressive distribution requirements.</p>
<p>The next difference is that Amherst’s location is not as isolated at Williams, but I feel the integration of Williamstown and Williams make the college feel like a small town and not a bubble campus. Others will disagree.</p>
<p>Williams is purported to be stronger in science and fine arts, Amherst in social sciences. However, I am sure this isn’t true in all cases.</p>
<p>If you have this choice and are really undecided, read course descriptions and see which school’s pedagogy appeals more.</p>
<p>thanks, Mythmom but my major concern is the difference in the JOCK and BRO culture. Will I feel like a loser because I am NOT one? At either school?</p>
<p>Relatively recent alum here. I had a great time at Williams, but I certainly wasn’t a jock or a bro (knew plenty of people who did fit those descriptions, though). Williams is small, but most people still find a niche.</p>