About 40 percent of students at Williams are recruited athletes. And a very high percentage of students go into finance and consulting. The days of Williams being a school of the mind are long gone. It's a bro school these days, albeit a prestigious one. Like a baby Penn in the north woods.

Kinda disagree w people saying Williams is the same as the others. In my snobby old-school prep school Northeast circle, Williams > Amherst > Bowdoin > Colby > Bates . I feel like it is pretty intuitive to all of us…and I have actually heard it said aloud, quite recently. But all of these are at least in play, as opposed to some of the commensurate but totally random ones mentioned upthread. I’ve always thought of Williams as a tier above the others, though. Anyway I went to an Ivy, so no chicken in this fight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams is a good school for the right student, period. Nothing so special about it compared to its peers.

Williams thinks they are Harvard.

And it’s really bizarre because no one at Harvard thinks the other way. The puffed up egos is especially strange and something that threw off DD when touring. They think they’re leagues above other LACs, and it’s strange because no one really sees to hold that opinion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams is a good school for the right student, period. Nothing so special about it compared to its peers.

Williams thinks they are Harvard.

I thought it felt like a mini-Harvard when we visited, in both good and bad ways.

Anonymous wrote:Williams is a good school for the right student, period. Nothing so special about it compared to its peers.

Williams thinks they are Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bruh, it depends what you study. If you graduate Williams with a History or Music or Art major, I'm not going to really respect that too much you know?

not true - there are probably more Williams humanities grads on Wall street than econ majors from most other SLACs - it’s a special place with rabid alumn who take care of their own

Maybe 20 years ago. These days it’s pretty much necessary that you’re quantitative and have a strong skill set, which most humanities majors lack.

Anonymous wrote:Bruh, it depends what you study. If you graduate Williams with a History or Music or Art major, I'm not going to really respect that too much you know?

not true - there are probably more Williams humanities grads on Wall street than econ majors from most other SLACs - it’s a special place with rabid alumn who take care of their own

Bruh, it depends what you study. If you graduate Williams with a History or Music or Art major, I'm not going to really respect that too much you know?

Anonymous wrote:Is it time for there to be a gap between Williams and all other LACs: most notable alumni, most successful in finance/art/math/physics/geology/English/pre-med/government, highly visible in academia AND top companies. The academics are a whole other level with no other college having tutorials. Even Oxford recognizes Williams as a top institution! It seems closer to a Harvard than a playtime palace college like Pomona.

Ironically this crazy booster post actually hurts the prestige of Williams.

Seems as if the desperate OP, or another sad Williams booster, has resurrected this year old post

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You want see a Pomona or Amherst kid in quant finance, but you will see a Williams student

I agree not many SLAC kids in quant finance, and it’s actually not a field I would encourage for anyone as the old quant models (linear factor models) are going the way of the stagecoach in favor of the new AI models (deep neural networks + hybrid ML models). I counsel my clients to send their kids to the best school where they can engage directly with their professors - and Williams wins that contest every time. Best school in the US imo, and I’ve been doing advising in the area for a long long time

There are various Pomona and Amherst grads in quant finance. I think the Williams exceptionalism is really strange, because the only difference is it has an extra billion.

Williams is a good school for the right student, period. Nothing so special about it compared to its peers.

Anonymous wrote:You want see a Pomona or Amherst kid in quant finance, but you will see a Williams student

I agree not many SLAC kids in quant finance, and it’s actually not a field I would encourage for anyone as the old quant models (linear factor models) are going the way of the stagecoach in favor of the new AI models (deep neural networks + hybrid ML models). I counsel my clients to send their kids to the best school where they can engage directly with their professors - and Williams wins that contest every time. Best school in the US imo, and I’ve been doing advising in the area for a long long time

Anonymous wrote:You want see a Pomona or Amherst kid in quant finance, but you will see a Williams student

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayzjiang

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-d-silverman

You want see a Pomona or Amherst kid in quant finance, but you will see a Williams student