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[quote=Anonymous]I was admitted to Williams many years ago and turned it down to attend Princeton, but it was a really tough decision.  When I'd first started looking at schools, I fell in love with Williams, based primarily on what I'd read in various college guides.  This was all a bit of a mystery to my middle-class, Southern parents, but they let me run with it and visit the school on my own.

To me, Williams was the perfect small LAC in a beautiful town, but it was also a long way away from the DC area, where I'd grown up, whereas it was easy to get to Princeton from DC by either train or car.   The admissions director at the time, a gentleman by the name of Phil Smith, was incredibly nice.  I was, of course, predisposed to like him, since he'd admitted me to his school, but what I'll never forget was that, after I'd sent him a letter explaining in far more detail than was necessary why I'd decided to go elsewhere, he quickly responded with a note wishing me good luck and saying it was Williams's loss.  All of which made me wonder even more whether I'd made the right decision, since the vibe from Princeton was much more along the lines of "we'll let you know if you're good enough to come here" and "OK, we've admitted you, so surely you'll come."  I ended up having a great time at Princeton, and had some excellent professors, but the relationship that students there tended to have with administrators was much more arm's-length.

While this is more biography than advice, the relevance is that everyone that I've ever met from Williams since then, in either a personal or professional capacity, has been like Phil Smith in his or her own way - always very bright, but also extremely polite, with a touch of old-school class.  It really does seem to be a school that not only attracts, but also cultivates, people with both brains and manners.  I'm inclined to think the fact that it's a smaller school in a remote area, where people know they are going to be spending a lot of time with each other, has something to do with that.

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