<p>Oh no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to come off like that at all. I was going to say, “Williams has not accepted me” but thought that would make it sound like, “Williams has rejected me”. I am not expecting an acceptance from Williams (the Amherst early write absolutely floored me!) Sorry that came off so arrogantly, that’s embarrassing!</p>
<p>And yeah, I do have it made. I’m psyched. :)</p>
<p>Calm down! I’m just bored; I know what you’re talking about. It’s sometimes hard to show emotion or to phrase something correctly on an internet board. </p>
<p>I understood what you meant, but I was really just bored; hence the ;)</p>
<p>Good job on the Amherst, BTW!</p>
<p>Gavroche, Fill out those Williams financial aid forms and see what happens in April. </p>
<p>Amherst is a great school and a great town, but for someone interested in eventually pursuing architecture (as I see you are from a posting on the Amherst board) you should keep the Williams option open. </p>
<p>Williams offers superb programs in art and art history, as good I think as you could get at a larger university but with the advantages of an LAC education. Art history and studio arts, which curatorial and architecture sub-focuses, are strengths of Williams and weaknesses of Amherst. Of course you could always draw on the resources of the five college consortium, especially Smith, but, I think, this begs the question of why choose a small college in the first place.</p>
<p>
Good lord. Is such ignorance possible?</p>
<p>Williams was founded in 1793. Amherst was founded in 1821 by a group of students and administrators from Williams, who left because they didn’t like mountains. </p>
<p>There has been a bitter rivalry ever since, somewhat like Oxford-Cambridge, Harvard-Yale, Gryffindor-Slytherin, or Gondor-Mordor, only more intense</p>
<p>Hahahaha, I didn’t have a clue. Was it bad conduct to apply to both? ;)</p>
<p>Is it bad conduct to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge?<br>
Is it bad conduct to apply to both Harvard and Yale? </p>
<p>I didn’t think so. </p>
<p>My theory on these extreme rivalries is that they develop because both institutions in each instance are so similar…they’re competition for the other.</p>
<p>You can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge, can you?</p>
<p>Awww. I still wish I had applied to Oxford.</p>
<p>For social life, Amherst men have Amherst women plus women nearby from Smith and Mt. Holyoke. Then again, some would say Amherst men NEED that 1:6 male:female ratio. Go Ephs!</p>
<p>But man, have you seen Hampshire boys?</p>
<p>Um…if shaggy, grungy, dirty, granola eating vegan birkenstocked boys are your bag…wow, helloooooooooooooooo, hot.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>:-X!!!</p>
<p>Yeah, with those Hampshire stallions around, it’s amazing Amherst guys get any play at all.</p>
<p>Maybe closer to home: Why Williams over Dartmouth or vice versa? There must be a huge overlap in applications and acceptances. How about enrollment? What are the advantages of Williams over Dartmouth?</p>
<p>Daderoo
I like that Williams doesn’t have frats or sororities. At Dartmouth, Greek life is huge. I’m not opposed to going Greek, but i don’t want to feel like i have to just to have a normal social life at school.
Also I think williamstown has a better relation with the school, than hanover has with dartmouth.
(those are just two little enviorment type things)
Academically,
Williams’s tutorials sound incredible.</p>
<p>I think the Dartmouth-Plan also makes a huge difference. Dartmouth has a slightly complicated term system, where they have 3 trimesters of 3 months each. You end up taking the same number of courses in total, but you do only 3 courses a term. What that means is that you hit the ground running, and often have very little time to study for exams towards the end. Opponents of th D-Plan complain that it doesn’t give profs time to go as indepth into a subject as they could have with a 4-month semester, and students sometimes feel rushed. Proponents say its good because it presents a challenge, and instead of feeling wound out at the end of 4 months, you can finish off your courses in 3, take a short break and return re-energized to attack 3 new courses.</p>
<p>Another feature of the D-Plan is that all students spend sophomore summer on campus. In turn, they can choose to “move around” the other terms. Effectively this means that they can choose to take 3 months off in winter or fall and work then, instead of vying with their own classmates for limited summer internship opportunities. If you’re not a big winter person, you can also get by spending only a single winter on campus during your 4 years at Dartmouth. However, you have to change housing EVERY 3 months, which I imagine is perfectly tiresome, and after sophomore summer, it’s unlikely that all your friends will ever be on campus at the same time. For me, that sort of defeats the purpose of a close-knit community, if people aren’t really together a lot you know? </p>
<p>As Hansel says, the Greek life also makes a big difference in campus environment. Dartmouth students are notorious for their “work hard, party harder” style…you’ll probably find a lot more drinking there than at Williams. That’s not to say that Dartmouth students don’t do alot of other things, and like Williams, they have many plays, movies, concerts and lectures going on each weekend, but I believe the focus of Williams’ social life is more on these things - and weekend games - than at D. Besides, I’ve always felt that fraternities and sororities reduce the inclusiveness of campus, because they’re selective (although there is one frat at Dartmouth that is open for all to join…when my tour guide told me that, I said “aah, for the people who are rejected by the frats they wanted to get into” and he laughed but didn’t correct me, so I assume that’s at least partially true).</p>
<p>Plus, size does matter. Dartmouth has a little more than double the number of students than Williams. That means bigger lecture and seminar classes, more TAs, and coupled with the strong Greek system, a more segmented community. At Williams, you’ll get a lot more personal attention from your profs. Your largest lecture class will probably be 100-120 (and that’s only for really popular courses like Econ101), seminars about 8-40, and you even have tutorials where it’ll be just you, another student and a professor.</p>
<p>Another extremely important factor is Williams’ Winter Study programme. One month, in the middle of winter, when you have to do a single class (that too on a pass/fail grading system) and all your friends are on campus = a FANTASTIC time. Besides, the Winter Study courses are really interesting. You can do stuff that you might otherwise never have studied…courses range from Glassblowing, to Astronomy and English, to a study of Heavy Metal, to Food Culture in art and film, to archaeological digs in Armenia…the possibilites are endless. The Williams course catalog is available on the Williams website (<a href=“http://www.williams.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.williams.edu</a>) and has a list of Winter Study courses, plus you can see descriptions of lectures and seminars with class sizes etc. You can also go check out Ephman’s great post on the “Williams vs. Amherst” thread in this forum.
Sorry I don’t have exact links :(</p>
<p>Plus Williams has mountains. And Mountain Day, which is a random friday in October when classes are cancelled by all the bells on campus simultaneously ringing “The Mountain” song, and everyone goes up into the Berkshires to enjoy the spectacular autumn colours. People can sleep the whole day, hike, bike, or just walk up, and sometimes, I hear they even have mountain-top choir performances.</p>
<p>Not to mention the great Williams at Oxford programme where those of us, who, like Gavroche, wish we could have applied to Oxford, can take our financial aid packages to Oxford and spend junior year there, collecting full credit on courses while participating in almost all campus activities like any regular Oxford student.</p>
<p>I could go on and on, but it really just comes down to personal preference. I fell in love with Williams when I visited the campus - it just has an amazing openness, friendliness and warmth that hit me instantly. And while Dartmouth was nice, it just didn’t strike me the way Williams had. I suggest you visit both schools - both are superb academically but they have different vibes, and you can try out which one is a better fit for you. </p>
<p>I hope that helps.</p>
<p>wow. when i was typing, i didn’t realise it had gotten so long! sorry for taking up so much space guys…</p>
<p>No problem, thanks for all the info! It was really helpful :)</p>
<p>Great post Fida!:)</p>
<p>Just to add that, yes, you cannot apply to both Cambridge and Oxford. You have to choose one or the other. Unsure if this is a wise decision, but it makes applicants truly research and decide which they prefer. It might also cut down on the whole idea of “prestige whore” when it comes to applying to UK universities.</p>
<p>As of last year, that is not true. You can apply to both.</p>
<p>wow…I had no idea either way!</p>
<p>Whoopsie, sorry. I applied December 2004 to the UK and I remember my GC running around fretting. </p>
<p>But…wow…Oxbridge letting cross-applicants. I do wonder why they changed their policy…</p>