Williams has a larger endowment, but both are very well-resourced, and the question is really how that endowment impacts a student. My Colby grad had $ from the school for an interesting summer internship. But he would have had that at Connecticut College too, with a much smaller endowment, because that is how they choose to spend it.
This student may be able to optimize for her interests but she can’t make a bad choice. She’ll have super smart classmates, great profs, lots of student-athlete classmates, etc at either.
If it were me, if the price were the same and was okay I would probably pick Williams. Someone else might very reasonably make a different choice.
Between Williams versus Colby (and if you want also including Carleton and Kenyon) I do not consider this to be an easy choice at all. They are all very good. I doubt that a student’s likelihood of ever getting to medical school will vary in any significant way based on this choice.
I think that you are comparing excellent with excellent. “Fit” seems like the main issue here.
Congratulations on having these great schools to choose between.
I don’t think housing is decided till July at the earliest, so this won’t be an issue. We’re only a couple of weeks past the decision date, so students have barely gotten information about registration, orientation, housing preference forms, etc. Most of this is not available yet (I think these things work differently in LACs than they do in larger universities – my experience is only with LACs).
Your description of the Williams social scene accurately reflects my non-athlete, artsy D’s experience. (She graduated last year.) She was also accepted to Colby, but felt like it was more sporty and less arts-oriented. Unfortunately, she was accepted during the pandemic so couldn’t revisit the campuses in person. She never regretted her decision.
@31fan, if your D hasn’t already connected with current students, particularly those who are pre-med, I would have her do that asap. You’ve probably seen this Connect with a Student page on the Williams Admissions site. My D was not pre-med, nor were any of her close friends, but she often remarked that Williams has a grind culture. She loved almost all of her classes and profs and got an extraordinary education. Williams is a wonderful place for all kinds of intellectual pursuits, and I’m sure Colby is demanding, too, but I think students have to be prepared for academic intensity.
Premed and grindy also tend to go together a lot, at least at first. I do think a lot of people discover that the grinding that worked in HS stops working at a very selective college, and that can lead to some interesting evolutions (including a lot of people not sticking with premed plans). Those who persist might actually skew a little more toward efficient than pure grindy.
But still, entirely relaxing about grades isn’t like to happen, and they tend to put in whatever work it takes. Like if they need to leave a party earlier when their next Orgo exam is tomorrow, so be it.
I guess my point is you can’t really escape this premed dynamic entirely at these sorts of colleges. I do think you want to feel comfortably well-prepared to do well in your classes from the jump, including having good, sustainable work habits. But also prepared for the premed culture around grades and work and such to be pretty intense.
What I may not have made clear is that the overall culture at Williams is often described as a grind–not just for pre-med or pre-law students. My D was a humanities major with no pre-med, pre-law, or finance/consulting aspirations, which was also true of many of her friends, but they definitely were focused on excelling in their classes. This suited my D, but it’s not for everyone.
There are definitely students at Williams who are focused on their sport, their EC’s, social life but they are not the norm. And for the most part, students there prioritize their academics and THEN get excited/devote time and attention to the other stuff.
Re her initial preference, she really preferred Dartmouth, and then Amherst and Bowdoin, and beyond that it was up in the air. She had visited Williams on the same trip as Dartmouth and Colby and didn’t like it as much as those three favorites, but it stayed on her list. After admissions decisions, she visited many schools, including Colby for a second time, and ultimately picked Colby over Kenyon but didn’t really “love” any of the choices. I’m sure she would be happy at Colby.
We obviously hadn’t revisited Williams for admitted students day or even really thought about it at all other than doing her LOCI, but she’s looking into it more and starting to get excited. And I’m glad to see her excited about one of her choices, because she has worked really hard and deserves to be excited!
I selfishly would rather have her at Williams because it’s less than four hours away from us versus eight hours.
These are both great schools - I’m an alum of W and my kid is at C now. From my perspective, they have a similar vibe in terms of students - rural, outdoorsy, hard working. For W, access to the town is a short walk, whereas C is a shuttle bus ride, but both schools are more in the self-sufficient make-your-own-fun mode being in small rural towns. I would say W might be a little more multifaceted, but C is slightly bigger. W slightly more prestigious, though C has made huge strides in the last decade and is definitely on an. upward trajectory. I know successful doctors from both schools, and many alums from both who loved their experiences (and a few who didn’t). I’d pick W again myself, I loved the mountains and the people, but feel that C is absolutely the right spot for my kid. Tell your kid to go with her gut on this one!
My SIL is a Williams grad who was an athlete and now a physician. He came from Long Island and was fine with the isolation of Williams. My daughter went to Amherst (also a physician) which is also somewhat isolated and she loved it. She was also an athlete but had many friends outside of sports. She grew up in a major city suburb, and yes there were times she felt Amherst was small, but she wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Kids are adaptable, let her go with her gut.
We probably won’t revisit. Funnily enough we were there a few weeks ago for a track meet for S24 and we asked D26 if she wanted to come and check it out again just in case and she said no. She was very much not getting her hopes up for the two waitlists she stayed on (Williams and Bowdoin).
I don’t know enough specifics about Colby to make a comparison but I can say that my son had a wonderful experience at Williams. He’d do it again in a heartbeat.
What he liked most (in no special order)
•The insular mountain village setting with easy access to nature which is a great stress buster. (but close enough to Boston and New York for occasional weekend trips).
•The residential housing system. He started out with a group of friends on day one and years later they’re still close. Social life involved parties, sports and arts events plus a lot of hanging out with friends in the common room. The JAs were incredibly helpful. (Later he became a JA himself).
•The personal support from professors. At first he found the academic standards daunting, not because of competition from classmates but rather from the instructors’ expectations which were a lot more intense than high school. Ultimately he got into the rhythm of the place and excelled. He also profited from his classmates’ level and breadth of intellectual curiosity.
• Help from the placement center (or whatever they call it) in securing summer internships and a job after graduation. His professors came through a few years later with personal grad school recommendations. (Admission to top graduate programs was the norm.)
• Williams’ other points of distinction: Winter Study, a month of fun activities and quirky courses. The Oxford style tutorials, two students, one professor for a whole semester. 3 world class art museums on or near campus. Lastly, 5 dining halls
