Williams College

Date: Jun 11 2007
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
I absolutely love Williams. The academic experience I've had here has been top-notch, and while I have had a few professors who weren't that spectacular, the vast majority of them are amazing.

I've had a great time socially too, but I understand that in part depends on who you fall in with, just as it does at every other university. Williams is full of smart, extroverted, very "normal" people. Drinking and partying do occur in substantial amounts on the weekends, but it's very easy to avoid them if you don't want to take part—there's very little social pressure, and the school sponsors tons of other activities. Low pressure, in fact characterizes pretty much everything about the school. People in general tend to astonishingly accepting of differences—and while professors generally expect a lot from their students, there is little competitiveness, and it's considered very bad manners to talk about grades. Drugs except for pot (which itself is not particularly popular) are practically nonexistant.

Sports are pretty prevalent, but I don't play one—never have—and neither do most of my friends. There are plenty of other people like us as well. All in all I'd say the social scene is very low-key, oriented towards hanging out a lot, with significant (but well integrated) subgroups of people who are into sports, outdoorsy stuff, art, music, or more odd (their word, not mine) activeties such as the Marching Band and the Medieval-dress a cappella group. There's very little cliqueishnes, and what there is (mostly centered around a cappella groups), is easy to avoid—just don't join one, and avoid their parties.

Everyone is incredibly friendly here, and I've never in person met anyone who doesn't love the school. All in all, I'd highly recommend it on all fronts—the only warning I'd give is that yes, it is in a very small town. There's no escaping that fact. If you are more oriented towards big cities, you will probably experience serious culture shock in Williamstown. Think carefully about whether rural is the right college environment for you before making your decision. If it is, you really can't do better than Williams.