<p>Once upon a time, it was likely Williams, but this is a very outdated stereotype that has persisted despite evidence to the contrary. Williams has deemphasized athletic recruiting a bit over the past decade, while Amherst has really amped up its athletic recruiting and emphasis to the point where it is roughly equal to Williams in terms of athletics (I’d say Williams is stronger overall in individual sports, but Amherst has had the slight edge in recent years overall in team sports – just look at Amherst’s fall team sports performance this year – which would stun most casual observers relying on 15-year-old data). Amherst, and not Williams, has made a consistent habit over the past five years of accepting multiple transfers per year from scholarship-level athletic programs to bolster its teams. Amherst, like Williams, has won multiple national championships in various sports in recent years: for Williams, that is old hat, but again, Amherst has really been bringing in more and more star athletes over time to the point where the schools are again roughly equal in that regard. And Amherst and Williams are basically even overall year in and year out in terms of head-to-head athletic competition. Those two, along with Midd and Emory, can claim to have the top overall D-3 athletic program, year in and year out. </p>
<p>The student bodies are very similar, and I doubt you’d notice much of a difference walking around campus. Each has an equal number of highly recruited tipped athletes (66 per class), but Amherst has a smaller student body overall. If there is a difference in this regard, I’d say that Williams probably has among non-varsity-athletes more casually athletic / outdoorsy people into running, hiking, frisbee, and other nature / fitness activities, and Amherst might have more kids with a more preppy / urban bent, but I wouldn’t call those Williams folks “jocks” in the traditional sense you mean, and again, the difference is very slight. </p>
<p>I also wouldn’t say that Amherst is appreciably more “diverse” or worldly. Williams’ first year class is 37 percent American minority students and another 7 or 8 percent international, which is roughly similar (maybe a few points less in terms of percentage, but higher in absolute numbers) than Amherst’s figures. Williams also has a higher percentage of first-generation college students than Amherst. Once again, while Amherst in its publicity places a huge emphasis on socioeconomic diversity, as usual, the two schools are essentially mirroring each other’s policies in this regard, with the end result of a very similar student body composition. </p>
<p>I’d say in terms of differences between the two schools, the bigger differences are the respective settings, the size of the undergrad population, campus facilities and overall campus vibe / feeling, winter study, the five college consortium, and tutorials. Each also has some academic strengths relative to the other, but that is only in a few specific (and generally fairly small) departments.</p>