Why is Williams easier to get into by acceptance rate than lesser ranked LACs?

[Anonymous]

I think it's location. We went to look at it (seemed like a good fit on paper) and as soon as I got out of the car I knew I wouldn't want to go there--just too far from anything. Didn't apply.

[Anonymous]

We were turned off by the location and the tour guide, who was less than impressive. He was a lacrosse player (I think) whose sole question for the group was "so, what sport do you guys play?" We got the feeling that if you didn't play a sport, you'd be seen as socially inferior.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Agreed that it's very remote. I went to Amherst and had some friends at Williams that I'd visit pretty regularly, but the place depressed me with its isolation.

Fellow Amherst grad here and I got a similar feeling whenever I visited the Williams campus (and Bowdoin for that matter). I was happy that I could so easily get away from Camp Amherst from time to time and visit HS and college friends at Smith, Mt Holyoke and UMass. Good times!

Agreed. Plus, even if I was with Amherst friends or on my own, I could hop the bus to Northampton and quickly be in another town with plenty to do but where I wasn't running into my classmates every 5 feet. If there was another town like that near Williamstown, my friends didn't seem to know about it. Plus it was so much easier to get to Boston from Amherst if you really wanted to get out of dodge.

This is good to know as my kid picked Amherst over Williams because he thought there'd be more to do off-campus.

Congrats!!! It is a special place. When I was there, it was quite common for students to take at least one class at the other colleges. When a professor who taught a certain class at Amherst went on sabbatical at least 8 male students and I ended up taking the equivalent class at Smith College. That made for an interesting experience on the first day of classes when Smithies did a double take entering the classroom for the first time. We also enjoyed the benefits of having lunch dining privileges there and discovering among other things that the food at Smith was so much better. Also, this is how one of my friends met his future wife...

Thanks - my son enjoyed your comment!

[Anonymous]

The remote location of Williams College has been an issue for a very long time. For example, the First President of Amherst College was a former President of Williams College, who left the school because he thought Williams College would never survive (in part because of the remote location).