Williams College Visit Report by aquaphiliac

Visit Activities:

Admissions Interview: No - I did not schedule an admissions interview yet, but plan to.

Information Session: No - I am commenting on my second visit, a recruiting trip for swimming. I went to an info session on my first visit to Williams in February.

Campus Tour: No - Not an official tour, but I know the whole campus now by walking around with my host and the swim team.

Classroom Visit: Yes - I went to Organic Chemistry and Geology. Both were lecture style classes but the Chem class was very engaging due to the eccentricity of the professor.

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Campus:

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I love the Williams students; everyone says hello to each other walking past one another around campus and the general feeling I got from them was one of genuine compassion.

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The teachers were great, the security people were nice for the most part, and the food services people were pretty nice as well.

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Buildings are spaced out and aesthetically pleasing. Williamstown is way out in Western Mass, almost Vermont, so the scenery and foliage is beautiful.

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Some of the building are older, but they are well kept and attractive. The newer buildings (eg. student center) are gorgeous.

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The dorm I stayed in was... "cozy" is a nice euphemism. It was somewhat small. Still, I liked the layout of the dorms and they're not cramped by any means.

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There is absolutely no feeling of insecurity on campus. The campus security people are friendly.

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Nice buildings, lots of lawn space and New England scenery.

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Off-Campus:

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Kind of in the middle of nowhere, but the Berkshire Mts and the surrounding woods are nice for hiking, etc.

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The campus IS the town. There is literally one that has any sort of shops on it. Not a huge detraction for me at least.

Campus Visit Notes for Williams College

Visit Description:

I arrived at Williams just before 9 AM on Friday morning, it took me about 2.5 hrs to drive there by myself (which included a stop at Honey Dew donuts; an absolute necessity or else I'm convinced I would have fallen asleep on the highway) and I parked in a lot on Spring st, the only street in williamstown with stores on it. I'll come back to this lot at the end of my description because it is significant. I was going to Williams on a recruiting trip for swimming so the first thing I set out to do was meet the swim coach at the athletic offices. While I'm mentioning athletics, Williams has the 6th best swim team in the country for division 3. I grabbed my stuff out of the car and went to the athletic complex where I was met by the coach. We hung out in the lobby until the other recruits arrived and we got our schedule of classes we would attend for the day. I was scheduled to go to Organic Chemistry and Geology. Geology was the only class that day somewhat pertaining to Environmental Science/studies, which I am interested in. Both classes were lecture style; the chem class must have had over 50 people in it. This is very large for Williams, but may seem tame in comparison to bigger schools (Williams is a school of just over 2000 kids) so bear that in mind. Still, the professor was a crazy guy and he kept the lecture interesting. Maybe it was the fact that I was still tired from waking up at 5:30 AM, or maybe it was the visiting professor's low voice, but I was fighting to stay away in geology.

We went to lunch with the swim team next. Williams has 5 dining halls and all of them are quite good. Certainly above average for college dining hall fare. After lunch, we hung out until swim practice, which on that day, consisted of a game of dodgeball. We had a barbaque as a team after that and hung out until around 7 PM. The swim team had planned a party that night (Jungle theme) so we started preparing for that after the barbaque (yes, much preparation was needed). Small liberal arts schools sometimes get a bad reputation as not throwing very good parties, but this is not the case at Williams. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I ended up going to one of the dining halls just before its closing; it's nice that it's open till 1 AM, and grabbing a snack which was really good and not just because I was starving.

The next day, I woke up at 9 because all the recruits were meeting with the swim coach individually and my meeting was at 9:20. My host and I had breakfast at one of the Dining halls closer to the pool and then we headed over for the meeting. After that, most of the swim team hopped in the pool for a 2 hour workout. You can really only appreciate this next part if you are a competitive swimmer, but when I stepped out of the locker room and saw that the pool was set up long course meters instead of short course yards, I died a little inside. Yea, corny swimming joke. Anyway, after that we ate brunch; you get 3 meals a day, even on weekends but lunch is sort of breakfast food and lunch food together. Again, the food is delicious. I didn't have to leave Williams until later in the afternoon so I hung out with some new friends and my host until I had to go.

Now I'll address the parking lot fiasco I alluded to earlier (didn't know it was a fiasco did you!). When I parked in the spring st lot, I thought it was a Williams college parking lot, so when I saw the sign "no overnight parking" I figured I could ignore it because I had been told that I wouldn't have to pay any tickets received from campus security. Turns out, the lot is not owned by the campus but by the town of Williamstown. This meant that I had a parking ticket that I wouldn't necessarily be able to get rid of. I am working on it though.

Overall, my trip was fantastic. I went there knowing that Williams was my number one choice, and I came out with a confirmation of that opinion. I'm not exactly at the early decision level of commitment, but like I said, I loved it and it is my number one choice right now. Williams could be the right place for you if you...
-value small class sizes and a world class liberal arts education
-a tight knit social community
-rigorous classes
-the outdoors (Williamstown is, for all intents and purposed, in the middle of nowhere)
-good food
Williams probably isn't the right place for you if you...
-seek a place where you can get lost in the student body
-want to go through a course without the professor knowing you name
-want an engineering degree
-want a division 1 athletic program (Williams is div 3 but still very good)

Hope this helped a little bit, feel free to ask any questions you want and I'll do my best to answer them.