Williamstown, MA
Rural
~2,000 students
Mascot: The Purple Cow!
Division III

ADMITS:

• 1,182 admitted/7,067 applicants
• 16.7% Acceptance Rate
• 731 CR 722 M average SAT (writing not reported)
• 54% Valedictorians or ranked top 1%

CLASS OF 2016:

• ~550 matriculating
• 80 First generation
• 38% students of color
• 13% Asian American (73)
• 13% Latinos (71)
• 10.5% African Americans (58)
• 1% Native Americans (6)
• 32 Questbridge Scholars

FINANCIAL AID

• $1.78 billion endowment (suck it, Amherst!)
• 100% Need met school
• 50% receive financial aid
• Your budget (in full, ~$58,000) breaks down into room+board, tuition+fees, books (paid for!), personal expenses, and travel. Work study is available.

ACADEMICS

• 44 majors, independent contract major available (create your own)
• Fall semester + Winter Study + Spring Semester
• 7:1 student to faculty ratio
• 12 average class size (I believe)
• 3 divisions: Math+Sci, Social Sciences, Languages+Arts
• Distributional, writing intensive, and diversity requirements (but super easy to fulfill and only the former requires more than one course)
• Most popular majors: Economics, Psychology, Art, Political Science, Biology, History, and Math.

ECONOMICS: Williams is an econ powerhouse. We got dem connections y’all. Something like a quarter of grads go into finance. You can major in econ OR combine it w/poli sci for the Political Economy major. It has two grad departments, one in Developmental Economics, the other in Art History.

ART HISTORY/STUDIO ART: So yeah there’s a little something called the Williams Art Mafia. If there’s a major museum out there, a Williams grad is either the curator, or up there in the woodwork and involved with it. Williams is home to the Williams College Museum of Art, and is in close proximity to the Mass MoCA, and some other really cool one (Clark, I believe).

MATH/SCIENCE: Williams has an incredibly strong mathematics program, one of the best in the nation. Its sciences are good too, I’m sure, and funded by the National Science Foundation and stuff, but this isn’t my forte, so I can’t really detail here…lol. Just letting you know, not to write off its math/science departments just for being an LAC.

ATHLETICS: Williams, as previously mentioned, is a D3 powerhouse. Women’s rowing, I believe, won their 7th straight championship this year. This is where Williams get’s its jock stereotype since 30% of the student body is involved in sports. But Williams students really aren’t super jocky at all. The starter on the football team could also be a great theater performer and an amazing biologist. Some of the teams are mostly made up of recruits, like track, football, and basketball. But you can always try to walk on. Other teams are made up almost entirely of walk-ons, like crew. The coaching staff is very nice and approachable and would love to work with you in any way they can if you set up a meeting. You also get to compete with a lot of D1 schools within the conference, like Brown and MIT.

FOOD: Williams has 3 dining halls. One in Missions, one in the student center, Paresky, and one near all the athletic buildings, Driscoll (this one is so quaint and adorble!). All of them have pretty good food. Missions has theme nights with lines out the door. Paresky is your standard, grab and go, college dining hall. There are lots of food options on Spring Street as well. Although the restaurants are a little pricey, there’s a Subway and lots of cafe’s and a candy shop and an ice cream factory.

EVERYTHING ELSE: still kicks tail. I just chose to divulge on those few since they’re exceptional here, but it’s prestigious, and good at everything, k? Grads go on to work, or grad/med/law school at Ivies/other prestigious unis, you name it!

WHY WILLIAMS: So all this stuff is all great, but all these schools you’re looking at have lots of money, great academic reps + programs, and full of amazing, talented, diverse students. What separates this one over all the others?

+Residential System

• Williams has two freshmen dorms, Frosh Quad and Missions, ALL GORGEOUS. Most are singles, but you will never be alone. The entry system is really cool. It’s where Williams puts students into groups of 20 or so that are microcosms of the school and little families. Williams organizes them to be truly diverse, and you’re ingratiated very deeply with your fellow entrymates. Fun dinners and stuffs! Each entry has 2 JA’s or Junior Advisers.
• Frosh quad (my fave, J)= Williams and Sage buildings, traditional style dormitory, in a quad right near the middle of campus, dining hall a minute away. Full of both singles and doubles. Entries aligned vertically like Willy C (Williams, dorm C) All the dorms/entries in a building are connected through the basement where the laundry is, but have their own entrance and main common room.
• Mission (my fave, R) = modern looking, designed to prevent riots (little trivia for ya  :), all singles, and has a dining hall on the bottom floor, but is a little farther from the center of campus. Entries aligned horizontally, so by hall with a main common room.

+Tutorials

• Based on the Oxford system; Your class consists of you, your partner, and a professor. You and your partner take turns presenting a 4-7 page paper each week, for discussion and critique. One of the best academic experiences at Williams! Everyone loves them!

+Location

• It can suck that it’s so rural but it’s awesome too because the campus doesn’t empty out on weekends. There is never a dull day on campus, and if it is, you’re doing it wrong. Being in the mountains allows you to have PE classes like ice skating, ice climbing, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, and kayaking! NYC and Boston are each like 2 or so hours anyway if you ever wanna get out, plus there are shuttles to take you every weekend. Closer by, there’s North Adams and Albany (read: WALMART and the MALL). YOU CAN SEE THE BERKSHIRES FROM YOUR DORMS. This place is gorgeous, especially in the fall. Like breathtaking. A chill place, but really vibrant. And this is coming from a city girl. Plus the sunrise and sunsets are amazing. 

+Williams-Exeter Programme

• So as a junior, you can apply to study abroad at Oxford with a group of your fellow Williams students. You are given the full rights and privileges of Oxford kids, not just being any old exchange student!

+Williams-Mystic Seaport

• Allows opportunities such as Semester at Sea, it’s a maritime studies program. I hear it’s a lot of fun, even if you don’t want to pursue something like marine biology.

+Winter Study/99

• So in January, you come back for a month and you have this AMAZING little thing called winter study. It’s where you take one course for the month, graded pass/fail. Now, it’s no ordinary class. You can take stuff like bartending, how to fix a car, build a car, classes over the art of cooking, guides to dating, internships, a trip to Europe, Asia, you have it, or sometimes intensive language learning and more in depth research or whatever. SO MANY OPTIONS…I CAN’T WAIT.

+People

• Williams kids work hard, play hard. There are no fraternities/sororities on campus, the college as whole decided to get rid of them. The stereotype is upper middle class/rich, preppy, athletic kids. Which is somewhat expected but honestly, only some people fit the stereotype and it’s not at all pressuring. But I met a lot of fascinating, incredible people. They’re social, and nice, and while you KNOW everyone is crazy intelligent, there is no competitive vibe or pretentiousness when it comes to the mind. It’s the kind of place where you really can’t judge a book by its cover, because that basketball recruit could’ve also started a thriving nonprofit. Also, there is SO much school spirit! (Everyone’s glad they’re not at Amherst…) And everyone’s hot (like everyone, don’t let college Prowler fool you), mmmkay?

RANKINGS (for those of you who care about them or have to convince your parents it’s a great school or need to be convinced it is!)

• #1 US News & World Report’s Liberal Arts College
• #1 Forbes’ America’s Best College (above all universities AND colleges!)
• #1 Forbes’ College That Will Make You Rich
• #1 Princeton Review’s Best Value Private College
• #1 National Collegiate Scouting Association (student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength, and athletic prowess)
• #5 Wall Street Journal  “feeder schools” to the top 15 business, law and medical schools (so don’t worry about getting in to med school)
• #6 Newsweek’s “Braniac Colleges” (success of alumni in winning Rhodes, Marshall, and Truman Scholarships)
• #7 Washington Monthly rankings (research, scientific grants, number of B.A’s earning Ph.Ds, public service contributions)