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

driver
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 16:08:41 +0000

Most of the differences among the NE top LACs are going to be feel, IMO. You have to check them out for yourself. Colgate’s a great school, and was on my daughter’s list. Since you asked about math, I think they all have very fine math departments, but I think that’s one area, along with Physics, where Williams really stands out. Both schools are big into sports; Colgate has a greek scene, Williams doesn’t. I think the Williams environment is prettier–lots of real mountains, closer to good skiing. But Colgate’s pretty too.

Some anecdotal stuff: Our HS guidance office keeps a rolling 5-year collection of reports on the freshman college year of our graduates. They’re very helpful in lots of ways, not unlike CC. One thing I noticed about kids who went to any of the top rural LACs was that they often said they felt isolated and bored. I never saw that on the reports from any of our grads who went to Williams, and pointed this out to the GC–a very savvy former Ivy admissions officer–who said “Good point, I can’t explain it.” Then he said that he thought that Williams did a good job of selecting kids who wanted to be in the Purple Bubble, and that they were an extremely interesting and diverse group of personalities. We’ve hosted 50 or so Williams students in our home over the past 2-1/2 years, mostly for sports purposes, and I have to say that they really were a terrific, interesting bunch of students (I had two here just last night, interviewing for grad schools in Philly). Best advice–go visit them.