Is Williams College an Intense Place

[Anonymous]

Obviously a fantastic school. Is it intense/competitive?

[Anonymous]

Too isolating and the benefits for the tutorial system are overblown

[Anonymous]

It is intense, intensely isolating... and you know what happens to kids in that situation.

[Anonymous]

Williams alum here- my experience might not be relevant 30+ years later, but I found it to be very friendly and laid back. People worked hard but it felt collaborative. I loved that people there could be serious about their academics without taking themselves too seriously, if that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Williams alum here- my experience might not be relevant 30+ years later, but I found it to be very friendly and laid back. People worked hard but it felt collaborative. I loved that people there could be serious about their academics without taking themselves too seriously, if that makes sense.

Not like this at all anymore. Very intensive culture these days.

[Anonymous]

Only WASP school that doesn't have a professional page for Model UN. It's a very laid back place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only WASP school that doesn't have a professional page for Model UN. It's a very laid back place.

WUT?

[Anonymous]

Wow. Someone is on an anti-SLAC rampage tonight. Their loss.

Not arguing that Williams is laid back - it's not. But this is way overblown. It is no more intense than any other top tier school these days.

But you go around with your agenda. Not sure who from a SLAC pissed in your Cheerios.

[Anonymous]

Great school. Many athletes

[Anonymous]

http://www.acquantclub.com
https://sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu/mocktrialtesting/
https://sagemun.squarespace.com/pcmun

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Someone is on an anti-SLAC rampage tonight. Their loss.

Not arguing that Williams is laid back - it's not. But this is way overblown. It is no more intense than any other top tier school these days.

But you go around with your agenda. Not sure who from a SLAC pissed in your Cheerios.

The combination of academic rigor and pressure to succeed in first-year fall often forces students to narrow their sights and forgo the work required to establish meaningful relationships. I felt this intensely during my first year. When I arrived wide-eyed on the steps of Sage Hall in the fall of 2019, I was entirely unprepared for what was to come over the next few months. As a low-income student from a high school that had never sent a student to a NESCAC or Ivy League institution, I had no conception of what Williams would entail or the opportunities it could provide me. I knew the College was intense, but I had no way of fully grasping the difference in academic intensity or the challenge of social adaptation in an environment so fundamentally different from the southern, Evangelical culture of my hometown.

During the fall of my first year, I often felt insecure, both socially and academically. Lacking any substantive community, I latched onto the only thing comparable between myself and my peers: a GPA and transcript. These became proxies for my personal value, worthiness, and eventual job prospects. The hope of securing a job warped my internal calculus around what courses were worth taking and how much time I could devote to activities outside of the classroom. It felt irresponsible to explore a course that satisfied an academic interest but hindered my ability to secure a job. Joining my entry for snacks, team for game days, or WOOLF group for a weekend outing did not seem justified given the stakes. Any free time felt like it should be dedicated to studying in a last-ditch effort to diminish an 18-year academic deficit. After all, was taking an interesting course outside of my comfort zone or building a snowman in Frosh Quad worth the risk of jeopardizing my opportunity for socioeconomic mobility? ...

The struggle of the first year is no secret to the College. The College attempts to address the inherent difficulty of this experience through an extensive First Days program and expansive entry system. But both First Days and entries act more as treatment than cure for the pressures induced by life at the College. While providing resources and attempting to cultivate inorganic communities is a noble start, both are insufficient for treating the root cause: overwhelming academic stress at the expense of holistic self-cultivation. The College must broaden its horizons and consider curricular solutions that enable students to invest the requisite time and energy into establishing themselves on-campus. One such solution is universal Pass/Fail in the fall of students’ first year.

Sounds pretty damn intense.

[Anonymous]

Pressure turns coal into diamonds. If you can’t hack it, just leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pressure turns coal into diamonds. If you can’t hack it, just leave.

Some schools are better at creating a strong academic environment without making students want to end their lives.

[Anonymous]

The combination of academic rigor and pressure to succeed in first-year fall often forces students to narrow their sights and forgo the work required to establish meaningful relationships. I felt this intensely during my first year. When I arrived wide-eyed on the steps of Sage Hall in the fall of 2019, I was entirely unprepared for what was to come over the next few months. As a low-income student from a high school that had never sent a student to a NESCAC or Ivy League institution, I had no conception of what Williams would entail or the opportunities it could provide me. I knew the College was intense, but I had no way of fully grasping the difference in academic intensity or the challenge of social adaptation in an environment so fundamentally different from the southern, Evangelical culture of my hometown.

During the fall of my first year, I often felt insecure, both socially and academically. Lacking any substantive community, I latched onto the only thing comparable between myself and my peers: a GPA and transcript. These became proxies for my personal value, worthiness, and eventual job prospects. The hope of securing a job warped my internal calculus around what courses were worth taking and how much time I could devote to activities outside of the classroom. It felt irresponsible to explore a course that satisfied an academic interest but hindered my ability to secure a job. Joining my entry for snacks, team for game days, or WOOLF group for a weekend outing did not seem justified given the stakes. Any free time felt like it should be dedicated to studying in a last-ditch effort to diminish an 18-year academic deficit. After all, was taking an interesting course outside of my comfort zone or building a snowman in Frosh Quad worth the risk of jeopardizing my opportunity for socioeconomic mobility? ...

The struggle of the first year is no secret to the College. The College attempts to address the inherent difficulty of this experience through an extensive First Days program and expansive entry system. But both First Days and entries act more as treatment than cure for the pressures induced by life at the College. While providing resources and attempting to cultivate inorganic communities is a noble start, both are insufficient for treating the root cause: overwhelming academic stress at the expense of holistic self-cultivation. The College must broaden its horizons and consider curricular solutions that enable students to invest the requisite time and energy into establishing themselves on-campus. One such solution is universal Pass/Fail in the fall of students’ first year.

Unfortunately, because of their academic background this student would have been overwhelmed and underprepared at many schools.

[Anonymous]

Back to the OP's question, I have heard Williams described as a serious school. That doesn't mean the kids are overly competitive or unkind. Obviously, fit depends on the kid. Some kids will thrive and be happy in such an environment and others will be stressed.