Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My impression is that athletes at Williams College and at many SLACs are the happiest students and that social divides exist at many SLACs between athletes and non-athletes.

SLACs are great for two sport athletes. Isolation is countered by travel for competitions and close camaraderie among teammates.

Nope. My friends -- all non-athletes -- who are recent Williams grads and loved it have never cited this (or anything remotely like this) as an issue.

I'm not saying it's garbage, necessarily, but it does smack of someone casting about to try to find an overly simplistic (and inaccurate) way to categorize the differences between thousands of diverse colleges and universities out there.

Coupled with DCUM's chronic class paranoia that "they" -- the wealthier, the more gregarious, the more athletic -- are out there having more effortless fun than poor pressured DC who's been strategizing for college applications since turning 13.

Your friends may have loved their time at Williams, but also may have experienced or recognize the athlete/narp divide and just not cared for whatever reason. It is real at Williams, Amherst, Midd, etc. Don’t know about Wellesley.

Anonymous wrote:

My impression is that athletes at Williams College and at many SLACs are the happiest students and that social divides exist at many SLACs between athletes and non-athletes.

SLACs are great for two sport athletes. Isolation is countered by travel for competitions and close camaraderie among teammates.

Nope. My friends -- all non-athletes -- who are recent Williams grads and loved it have never cited this (or anything remotely like this) as an issue.

I'm not saying it's garbage, necessarily, but it does smack of someone casting about to try to find an overly simplistic (and inaccurate) way to categorize the differences between thousands of diverse colleges and universities out there.

Coupled with DCUM's chronic class paranoia that "they" -- the wealthier, the more gregarious, the more athletic -- are out there having more effortless fun than poor pressured DC who's been strategizing for college applications since turning 13.

Anonymous wrote:

My impression is that athletes at Williams College and at many SLACs are the happiest students and that social divides exist at many SLACs between athletes and non-athletes.

SLACs are great for two sport athletes. Isolation is countered by travel for competitions and close camaraderie among teammates.

Nope. My friends -- all non-athletes -- who are recent Williams grads and loved it have never cited this (or anything remotely like this) as an issue.

I'm not saying it's garbage, necessarily, but it does smack of someone casting about to try to find an overly simplistic (and inaccurate) way to categorize the differences between thousands of diverse colleges and universities out there.

Coupled with DCUM's chronic class paranoia that "they" -- the wealthier, the more gregarious, the more athletic -- are out there having more effortless fun than poor pressured DC who's been strategizing for college applications since turning 13.

My impression is that athletes at Williams College and at many SLACs are the happiest students and that social divides exist at many SLACs between athletes and non-athletes.

SLACs are great for two sport athletes. Isolation is countered by travel for competitions and close camaraderie among teammates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Middlebury College has a significantly larger student population than Williams College. More students/faculty/administrators, etc. can make a school feel less isolated.

Middlebury may be a little larger, but isolated actually means "not near to other places" - both in the dictionary, and in the context of PP's inquiry. Middlebury is indisputably more geographically isolated than Williams.

Also, the gap in size isn't that significant. It's about 500-600 students (in total, not per year). And Williams, despite having fewer students, in fact has a larger academic staff than Middlebury, per the Common Data Set.

Middlebury College has over 2,600 undergrads while Williams College has about 2,000. Middlebury's student body is 30% greater than Williams College.

I understand the term isolated, but in this context I think that the size of the undergraduate student bodies has an effect on the feeling of "isolation".

Maybe a more appropriate definition of "isolation" at either school is being a non-athlete.

I am the poster who asked for clarification as to Williams “isolation” (mentioned several times on this thread) vs the feel at Middlebury. But yikes now new line of inquiry - pp, are you saying that non-athletes feel isolated at both colleges? That was not at all the image DC and I have of either college (nor Wellesley)- can you please expand? Thanks!

Middlebury College athletes have a term or nickname that they use to refer to non-athletes.

My impression is that athletes at Williams College and at many SLACs are the happiest students and that social divides exist at many SLACs between athletes and non-athletes.

SLACs are great for two sport athletes. Isolation is countered by travel for competitions and close camaraderie among teammates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Middlebury College has a significantly larger student population than Williams College. More students/faculty/administrators, etc. can make a school feel less isolated.

Middlebury may be a little larger, but isolated actually means "not near to other places" - both in the dictionary, and in the context of PP's inquiry. Middlebury is indisputably more geographically isolated than Williams.

Also, the gap in size isn't that significant. It's about 500-600 students (in total, not per year). And Williams, despite having fewer students, in fact has a larger academic staff than Middlebury, per the Common Data Set.

Middlebury College has over 2,600 undergrads while Williams College has about 2,000. Middlebury's student body is 30% greater than Williams College.

I understand the term isolated, but in this context I think that the size of the undergraduate student bodies has an effect on the feeling of "isolation".

Maybe a more appropriate definition of "isolation" at either school is being a non-athlete.

I am the poster who asked for clarification as to Williams “isolation” (mentioned several times on this thread) vs the feel at Middlebury. But yikes now new line of inquiry - pp, are you saying that non-athletes feel isolated at both colleges? That was not at all the image DC and I have of either college (nor Wellesley)- can you please expand? Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Does she want a party culture or not? If she doesn’t care about single gender v coed and academics are considered on par and both have strong alumni/ae networks, does she want to spend the weekends drinking beer from kegs? It’s easier to get that college party experience at Williams. Wellesley has basically none, but the women can access this in Boston with the bus to MIT frats. Wellesley the town is cute as is Williamstown. Most people would pick Williams over Wellesley unless they are drawn to wellesley for a very specific reading.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Middlebury College has a significantly larger student population than Williams College. More students/faculty/administrators, etc. can make a school feel less isolated.

Middlebury may be a little larger, but isolated actually means "not near to other places" - both in the dictionary, and in the context of PP's inquiry. Middlebury is indisputably more geographically isolated than Williams.

Also, the gap in size isn't that significant. It's about 500-600 students (in total, not per year). And Williams, despite having fewer students, in fact has a larger academic staff than Middlebury, per the Common Data Set.

Middlebury College has over 2,600 undergrads while Williams College has about 2,000. Middlebury's student body is 30% greater than Williams College.

I understand the term isolated, but in this context I think that the size of the undergraduate student bodies has an effect on the feeling of "isolation".

Maybe a more appropriate definition of "isolation" at either school is being a non-athlete.

I am the poster who asked for clarification as to Williams “isolation” (mentioned several times on this thread) vs the feel at Middlebury. But yikes now new line of inquiry - pp, are you saying that non-athletes feel isolated at both colleges? That was not at all the image DC and I have of either college (nor Wellesley)- can you please expand? Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Middlebury College has a significantly larger student population than Williams College. More students/faculty/administrators, etc. can make a school feel less isolated.

Middlebury may be a little larger, but isolated actually means "not near to other places" - both in the dictionary, and in the context of PP's inquiry. Middlebury is indisputably more geographically isolated than Williams.

Also, the gap in size isn't that significant. It's about 500-600 students (in total, not per year). And Williams, despite having fewer students, in fact has a larger academic staff than Middlebury, per the Common Data Set.

Middlebury College has over 2,600 undergrads while Williams College has about 2,000. Middlebury's student body is 30% greater than Williams College.

I understand the term isolated, but in this context I think that the size of the undergraduate student bodies has an effect on the feeling of "isolation".

Maybe a more appropriate definition of "isolation" at either school is being a non-athlete.

Anonymous wrote:

Middlebury College has a significantly larger student population than Williams College. More students/faculty/administrators, etc. can make a school feel less isolated.

Middlebury may be a little larger, but isolated actually means "not near to other places" - both in the dictionary, and in the context of PP's inquiry. Middlebury is indisputably more geographically isolated than Williams.

Also, the gap in size isn't that significant. It's about 500-600 students (in total, not per year). And Williams, despite having fewer students, in fact has a larger academic staff than Middlebury, per the Common Data Set.

Anonymous wrote:

Middlebury College has a significantly larger student population than Williams College. More students/faculty/administrators, etc. can make a school feel less isolated.

Middlebury may be a little larger, but isolated actually means "not near to other places" - both in the dictionary, and in the context of PP's inquiry. Middlebury is indisputably more geographically isolated than Williams.

Also, the gap in size isn't that significant. It's about 500-600 students (in total, not per year). And Williams, despite having fewer students, in fact has a larger academic staff than Middlebury, per the Common Data Set.