Williams College Visit Report by Keilexandra

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - One student and one admissions officer, both obviously trained. Very "hollow" answers, especially to my question about the worst/weakest aspect of Williams.

Campus Tour: Yes - The tour guide was from North Carolina and...very bubbly. She kept calling everything fabulous. Again, uniformly positive.

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Campus:

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A passing student gave us directions to the admissions office, which was friendly about getting another guide to take us to the info session building (in a separate lecture hall).

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Courteous but not approachable.

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The campus is beautiful with organized quads and the typical/traditional buildings.

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See below due to space limitations.

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Williamstown is in the middle of nowhere and basically consists of the college plus a few Spring Street businesses and various scattered motels.

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I liked the cohesiveness of the Williams campus; it was a very different feel from Amherst, which is gorgeously expansive and hilly.

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Off-Campus:

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Williamstown is cute and safe, but there's not much in the way of restaurants, stores, or off-campus cultural offerings.

Campus Visit Notes for Williams College

Visit Description:

I like various aspects of both Williams and Amherst; perhaps my lack of a formal tour at Amherst is an influence, but after this visit, Williams gets a slight edge. The tutorials sound intriguing and accessible, with more underclassmen options, and the campus is less sprawled than Amherst's (important in the winter!). Mountains are mostly covered up by buildings or trees, but the buildings are beautiful and well-integrated into tiny Williamstown (which is very cute, but TINY--Spring Street is barely two blocks). I also liked the entryway system and how minors are all interdisciplinary concentrations. The curriculum is similar to the University of Rochester's, three courses in three broad divisions, plus other reqs; not as ideal as Amherst's open curriculum, but I can deal. 50% of the student body does play some type of sport.

Negatives: tour guide and admissions staff were uniformly positive and "hollow." The library is due to be renovated and needs it; currently it's a dreary brick rectangle with an unexciting interior.

We went to see a larger common room in the basement of a traditional entry hall; suite-style bathrooms are nice, but the adjoining double was tiny--bunked beds and still barely enough room to walk around with two desks jammed in as well. Windows did not have screens, which I found strange. The tour guide did take us upstairs to a more typical common room.

We stayed at Northside Motel, and I do NOT recommend it. Our first room had a terrible pungent, musty smell and we had to complain, insisting on a room change. The wireless is only available in one building, and the continental breakfast is the worst I've ever eaten--only orange juice, milk, stale bagels, and cereal.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

See above due to space limitations.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

The Japanese/Thai place is decent. It's also the only real restaurant in Williamstown, thus always busy. Also, Lickety-Split has good ice cream/frozen yogurt/smoothies.