Hi Everyone- We are considering Williams for our son, a great athlete and solid student. Would you consider Williams “liberal” by todays standards? We are not hyper religious but traditional and I’m very concerned about what’s going on in the universities, particularly the Ivy’s. Hillsdale is not an option but a conservative curriculum would be best. Where would you say Williams falls on the spectrum? My brother went to Amherst but even that has changed dramatically since then. His dad and I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks so much. MoO
Williams is a place where everyone is welcomed— regardless of race, nationality, religion, income level, gender, sexual identity or preference, athletic ability, music ability, you name it. You will find very liberal students as well as conservative future CEO/Wall Street-bound students. Some students on campus are religious, and there is a wide variety of religions; others are non-religious. Many more students are pro-choice than pro-life, but recently there was a student group that attended a pro-life rally. Williams may be considered liberal in the fact that it is welcoming of diversity. The entry system brings together students from all walks of life, so you get to know lots of people who are different from yourself. You learn to appreciate and become friends with people who are not exactly like you.
In terms of social life, there is a range of campus groups, with religious groups, political groups, LGBTQ groups, and many other interests that would not be considered to have any political slant at all— music groups, club sports, literary groups, all types of clubs… and if you have an interest that is not already represented and others share it, you can start your own club!
Alcohol is the most common drug on campus. There are many who party, but also many who do not drink at all.
Williams is not as famed for protests as some other colleges, but protests do happen there! It is part of the college experience, and college students have been protesting one issue or another for years and years, not just recently. If you don’t share the particular view of whatever the protesters are protesting, you can choose to engage in a debate, or just walk past and ignore the protesters, as you prefer.
You mentioned curriculum. Williams has distribution requirements of three courses each in the humanities, social sciences (history, etc.), and sciences, a quantitative requirement, a writing requirement, and a diversity course about another culture or part of the world. Within any humanity or social science department, you will be able to find more traditional course titles (Gaul After the Fall of Rome, Modern Japan, Modern US History, History of the Old South) as well as courses focused on one group’s experiences in and contributions to the world (Queer Europe: Sexualities and Politics since 1850; Women in National Politics).
I am concerned by the number of threads on College Confidential in which parents are looking for ‘conservative’ colleges for their children. If conservative students all go to Liberty and liberal students all go to Wesleyan, our country will become even more polarized than it is already. If students go to college with people of other views and backgrounds, they will have more tolerance and respect for all.
Let your kid visit Williams and see it for himself. He can contact a student leader of an organization that leans his way and ask the student leader if the group members feel at home on campus. I bet they will say they love Williams! But do not take my word for it. Ask some students.
Thanks for your response. He currently attends a liberal NYC Prep School. There are a number of threads regarding parents looking for conservative colleges because they are lacking and many see the culture going in the wrong direction on these campuses, in my opinion. Thanks for the help.
Religious schools like Notre Dame and Yeshiva tend to be more conservative. Military academies are also a good choice.
Our family appreciated the “Black Lives Matter” banner on the outside of the campus church and the increase in campus activism: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/collegeactivism/2016/03/22/blacklivesmatter-movement-williams-college/81854272/
Unless the OP’s son’s driving goal is to become an officer in a branch of the U.S. military, he won’t make it past his congressional nomination panel. It takes an entirely different applicant and mindset than the typical CC college applicant to make it into a service academy. And though the military in general may lean right, our son has not found the corps of cadets at West Point to be particularly conservative as they come from every quarter of our country and a few other countries and bring a diversity of viewpoints with them. He has been pleasantly surprised there.
It may be different at places like the Citadel or VMI, but I have no experience with those schools.
If you are looking at Williams, then you obviously are interested in liberal arts colleges. But if you are interested in liberal arts colleges, and want a more conservative school, then why is Hillsdale not an option?
Conservatives routinely express concern about the liberal atmosphere at top colleges and universities. Yet they seem to show surprisingly little interest in conservative alternatives. Hillsdale is universally endorsed by prominent conservatives nationwide, yet they only got 1,934 total applications for Fall 2016.
Most Williams students will become successful doctors, lawyers, or business execs after they graduate. So they are not radical left-wing anti-capitalist hippies. However, most Williams students are probably liberal on social issues; for example, most would probably support gay marriage or abortion rights. On the other hand, most of them probably come from traditional, stable two-parent families, and expect to adopt the same lifestyle after they leave school.
The Williams community won’t care if you go to church. They won’t care if you don’t go to church.
The Williams curriculum requires a certain breadth of study via distribution requirements, but there is no “core”. So the curriculum is as liberal or conservative as you want it to be. If you wanted to focus on “Dead White Males” in your humanities or social science coursework, you could do that. If you wanted to focus on gender or gay studies, you could do that too.
More info from a Williams Class of 2018 student: https://heterodoxacademy.org/2017/06/23/zachary-wood-senate-testimony-on-free-speech/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-williams-a-funny-way-of-listening-1510869906
The President of Williams barred the student in question from inviting John Derbyshire to speak at the campus.
This puts the President of Williams on the same page as … the National Review, the best-known conservative magazine in the country. Here’s what NR said about Derbyshire, who formerly wrote for them:
Williams took the same attitude. And if that makes Williams unreasonable, then can you name **any** college or university where Derbyshire has been invited to speak recently? As far as I can tell, no school -- liberal or conservative -- wants anything to do with him.Listen to Wood’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that’s linked to in the article at Heterodox Academy. And @Corbett what about the second link re Christina Hoff Sommers of the American Enterprise Institute? And then there’s the matter of how Zach Wood was treated by his peers for wanting to hear conservative speakers. http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-uncomfortable-truth/article/2005012. I’m not saying that the OP shouldn’t consider Williams but I also think it’s very liberal as are its peers. And I’m not sure what the OP means by “conservative curriculum” but that sounds like something one would get at Hillsdale.
It’s hard to read links that are behind expensive paywalls.
So you would argue there is no difference between the environment at Williams as compared to, say, Wesleyan or Brown or Vassar? You don’t believe that Williams is noticeably more conservative than these peers?
I’m not sure either. Reed College is widely considered to have a “conservative curriculum”; for example, conservatives admire their rigorous and mandatory one-year freshman class on Greek and Roman classics. Yet Reed is much more socially and politically liberal than Williams (in my opinion, perhaps you see it differently).
I agree that anyone seeking a “conservative LAC” should consider Hillsdale (as per Post 6 above). But for whatever reason, they struggle to get applicants.
It’s all relative. For example, from the point of view of constancy and resistance to change, one could argue that Wesleyan is the most conservative of the Little Three colleges. “Keep Wesleyan Weird!” has been the battle cry for almost a generation now and just about everyone in Middletown seems intent on doing just that. What could be more conservative! Indeed, I would argue, that a graduate of the1980s could walk across campus today and still feel very much at home; it’s the rest of the country that appears radical and unrecognizable. So much so that it easy to see how from the point of view of some, even the genteel liberalism of a Williams or the swifter currents coursing through the Pioneer Valley (I can’t type the real name of the college because my auto-correct always spits out UMass) would appear all of one piece.
@mamaofone said, " We are not hyper religious but traditional and I’m very concerned about what’s going on in the universities, particularly the Ivy’s"
What is going on at the Ivy’s that has you so concerned? Why is HIillsdate not an option?
If you could answer these questions, it would make it easier for those of us familiar with Williams to offer an opinion on whether Williams would be a good fit for your son.
Look at William and Lee
Your language intrigues me. I’m curious why you and your husband are the ones considering Williams, and not your son? Isn’t he the one who will spend the next four years wherever he goes? Why not let him visit schools, find his people and chose? It’s the best way to guarantee that ever elusive “fit” which makes for a happier and more successful college career. Good luck!
@ivegraduatedmom : you are absolutely correct. My son and I (his dad) visited 18 schools, including twice to a number of them (Williams also) so he can decide for himself which one is his ideal school. He puts Williams far ahead of other schools (including Columbia, Dartmouth, Northwestern and Vanderbilt) as his ED choice and was lucky to be accepted. He has been a happy camper ever since.