Williams, Amherst, Pomona: how are the different or the same in terms of rigor, styles of student who excel/best fit...

[Anonymous]

Williams and Pomona are more STEM-y. Amherst specialty is the humanities, especially law. All are decent. I’d go to each one for very different circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Williams and Pomona are more STEM-y. Amherst specialty is the humanities, especially law. All are decent. I’d go to each one for very different circumstances.

We loved the Williams campus. Absolutely stunning and the pastoral appeal is very strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams and Pomona are more STEM-y. Amherst specialty is the humanities, especially law. All are decent. I’d go to each one for very different circumstances.

We loved the Williams campus. Absolutely stunning and the pastoral appeal is very strong.

+1, we ended up ED to Pomona, it Williams was such a nice school it was a difficult decision for DS!

[Anonymous]

Don't know much about Pomona but I think both Williams and Amherst are wonderful for students looking at a small liberal arts college. I believe Amherst had a record number of applicants for class of 2029 with over 16,000 apps, don't recall for Williams. I doubt a student can go wrong at either school for humanities or STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't know much about Pomona but I think both Williams and Amherst are wonderful for students looking at a small liberal arts college. I believe Amherst had a record number of applicants for class of 2029 with over 16,000 apps, don't recall for Williams. I doubt a student can go wrong at either school for humanities or STEM.

Williams is much better than Amherst for stem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know much about Pomona but I think both Williams and Amherst are wonderful for students looking at a small liberal arts college. I believe Amherst had a record number of applicants for class of 2029 with over 16,000 apps, don't recall for Williams. I doubt a student can go wrong at either school for humanities or STEM.

Williams is much better than Amherst for stem.

Perhaps years ago that may have been true, no longer in 2026. Williams may have a slight edge in theoretical math/physics but Amherst's consortium and the open curriculum may be better for CS and other interdisciplinary STEM. Both send about same percentage of students to PhD programs. Neither school is "much" better than the other.

[Anonymous]

Williams is absolutely incredible - I have never met a grad who didn’t love their 4 years in Williamstown. Totally unique in terms of the quality of education and overall experience. Don’t really know much about the other schools

[Anonymous]

OP, I think your question is a bit splitting hairs. There's nothing you can accomplish academically at Williams that can't be accomplished at Pomona or Amherst. They're all rigorous. The big difference to me is the locations. Some may love the remoteness of Williams, others may hate it. Some like the West Coast, others the Northeast. They're small schools but your student will likely find their people (I hate the word "tribe"). One thing of note is a student at these great LACs often get more direct research access with professors than undergraduates at places like Harvard University, Columbia University, etc.

[Anonymous]

All three are great schools, if you are lucky enough to have a choice, location and vibe should probably be the decider. Since someone asked what stands out about Amherst I would say: very strong law and med placement, special law jurisprudence and social thought major, flexibility of open curriculum, very strong creative writing classes and a bit more humanities focused (but you could do fine with humanities at the other two as well). Location is the key: decent college town, very close to funky more urban Northampton, but also hiking trails right on campus, consortium is not used as much as Pomona, but students can supplement with the occasional class, esp advanced STEM at UMass, and participate in ECs like theater productions on other campuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Williams is absolutely incredible - I have never met a grad who didn’t love their 4 years in Williamstown. Totally unique in terms of the quality of education and overall experience. Don’t really know much about the other schools

Not very unique at all. This applies to all 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know much about Pomona but I think both Williams and Amherst are wonderful for students looking at a small liberal arts college. I believe Amherst had a record number of applicants for class of 2029 with over 16,000 apps, don't recall for Williams. I doubt a student can go wrong at either school for humanities or STEM.

Williams is much better than Amherst for stem.

Perhaps years ago that may have been true, no longer in 2026. Williams may have a slight edge in theoretical math/physics but Amherst's consortium and the open curriculum may be better for CS and other interdisciplinary STEM. Both send about same percentage of students to PhD programs. Neither school is "much" better than the other.

Williams students are getting more awards and more recognition in Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Geosciences. Amherst is better for psych and bio. Especially math, there is no argument that Williams is much better than Amherst

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams is absolutely incredible - I have never met a grad who didn’t love their 4 years in Williamstown. Totally unique in terms of the quality of education and overall experience. Don’t really know much about the other schools

Not very unique at all. This applies to all 3

yes 100%! applied to all three but I do agree Williams is very very special

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams is absolutely incredible - I have never met a grad who didn’t love their 4 years in Williamstown. Totally unique in terms of the quality of education and overall experience. Don’t really know much about the other schools

Not very unique at all. This applies to all 3

yes 100%! applied to all three but I do agree Williams is very very special

They all are. Nothing unique about Williams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know much about Pomona but I think both Williams and Amherst are wonderful for students looking at a small liberal arts college. I believe Amherst had a record number of applicants for class of 2029 with over 16,000 apps, don't recall for Williams. I doubt a student can go wrong at either school for humanities or STEM.

Williams is much better than Amherst for stem.

Perhaps years ago that may have been true, no longer in 2026. Williams may have a slight edge in theoretical math/physics but Amherst's consortium and the open curriculum may be better for CS and other interdisciplinary STEM. Both send about same percentage of students to PhD programs. Neither school is "much" better than the other.

Williams students are getting more awards and more recognition in Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Geosciences. Amherst is better for psych and bio. Especially math, there is no argument that Williams is much better than Amherst

I don't think so - similar for major awards normalized for size. The interdisciplinary sciences may be better at Amherst esp the research environment offered by UMass and the other LACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amherst and Pomona are exceptional schools, but Williams is in another class entirely - Williams on par with ivies, specifically Dartmouth and even Princeton

Nope. All three are great schools but there is another 10 or so which are every bit as good. You are correct that any of the top 12 are better than most Ivies for undergraduate education but the two examples you picked might be the best Ivies for undergraduate study.