<p>I am very familiar with two of the schools being discussed here, Williams and Weslyean, and also very familar with two of the departments being discussed, the Film department at Wesleyan and the Art department at Williams.</p>
<p>Seriously, if your son is really looking for film studies without the limitations of a narrowly professional undergraduate education and with the benefits of a liberal arts curriculum, i strongly suggest you withhold your earlier impressions and head back to Middletown. The film studies program there is astonishingly strong and will set your son up for a career in film, while giving him the broad education you say he would like. It honestly is that good and its alumni network is comparable to what the art history or the economics departments at Williams can offer their students.</p>
<p>Williams is good at so many things and such a great place for the right student, but an “arts powerhouse?”. This is a statement that few of the most proud alumni or faculty would make. The money has been invested and we have seen many improvements, but this is not a college with the arts at its soul, and I doubt this will change for a very long time. Art history is the strong exception, though the department by reputation has been traditional rather than progressive.</p>
<p>Best to you and your son as you weight the options at all of these very fine schools.</p>