How Does Williams Compare With Colgate and Other Top LAC's?

MikeyD223
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 19:51:17 +0000

Certainly, if one needs to be in a city, neither of these schools would be good options.

My sense is that Williams is more academically focused than Colgate, though both are very good schools. Williams is about two rungs above Colgate in the academic food chain. Students who get rejected from Williams tend to matriculate at places like Bowdoin and Middlebury. People who get rejected from Bowdoin and Middlebury attend Hamilton and Colgate.

Students who find Williams remote would find Colgate unbearable. When I was at Williams and got cabin fever, I made day trips to Boston and New York. Yes, they were long days! When I was a senior, I went clubbing in Albany (1 hour by car) about once a month, and the Hudson valley offers a surprisingly large number of cultural attractions.

The nearest city to Colgate is Syracuse, and day trips to the “big cities” are less doable.

That said, I don’t think that I am the type of person who needs to have the “big city” at his fingertips.