Williams vs Wellesley vs UC Berkeley Dual Degree

momrath
Wed, 23 Mar 2022 04:05:13 +0000

@2022jl Parent of a Williams grad here. I wouldn’t consider Williamstown “the middle of nowhere.” The Berkshires are actually a sophisticated playground for New Yorkers and Bostonians with plenty of snow sports in the winter and arts activities in the summer. (See the Clark and MassMoCA museums, Williamstown theater festival, Tanglewood music, Jacob’s Pillow dance.)

Have you visited Williams? If you have and didn’t react positively to its mountain village setting, then I’d not pursue it further. My observation is that those that are happiest at Williams are those that choose it BECAUSE OF its rural setting, not IN SPITE of it. If you haven’t visited, try to do so before making a final decision. My son loved Williams insular environment, the natural beauty and availability of outdoorsy activities. Williams kids do manage to get to Boston or New York once or twice a term and many study abroad junior year and travel during Winter Study. But for sure, its location is not for everyone.

Some comments on your pros/cons:
Williams doesn’t have an open curriculum. It has distribution requirements (as does Wellesley) meaning students need to take a few classes from different academic categories.

Williams really, really cares about its students. To me, the close relationship with Williams professors is the gift that keeps on giving. They’re accessible while you’re there and for a long time afterwards in the form of job and graduate school recommendations.

Williams does have very good math and sciences, but it also has very strong humanities and social sciences. Political Science is one of the largest departments with connections to Political Economy, Economics, Global Studies and Williams Center for Development Economics.

Name recognition is variable. Certainly graduate and professional school adcoms know and respect Williams as do prominent NGOs and think tanks. Your relatives and neighbors may not have ever heard of it.

Some other Williams pros are Winter Study (as mentioned above, a month of relaxed learning and socializing or travel) and Oxford-style Tutorials (two students and one professor).