• Majors available
• 33
• Concentrations and special programs
• 17
• Percent of Williams students who double (or triple) major
• 28
• Median class size
• 12
• Percent of classes with 25 or fewer students
• 80
• Number of courses offered in Russian literature and history
• 11
• Number of physics courses offered
• 21
• Williams students of color who annually earn Mellon Foundation fellowships that support year-round academic research and travel
• 5
• Value of two recent grants from the Hughes Medical Institute to encourage students to pursue scientific research and teaching
• $1,400,000
• Number of graduate-level math courses offered (e.g. Ergodic Theory, Wavelets and Fourier Series, Algebraic Number Theory, Soap Bubbles and Geometric Measures Theory)
• 5
• Members of the Class of 2008 graduating summa cum laude
• 10
• Williams students earning departmental honors in 2008
• 128

Marked by intelligence and high energy, the Williams community is a lively one, always in ferment. It’s a place where people learn to learn from one another-through shared experience, intellectual engagement, and their enjoyment of life together in a decidedly noncompetitive environment. Williams is an institution whose primary purpose is, and always has been, undergraduate college education. Being a liberal arts college really describes both what, and how, we teach. Academic life at Williams stems from these two important distinctions.

What do we teach?

At Williams, a liberal arts education doesn’t simply mean learning a little bit about a lot of subjects. Nor does it necessarily mean that our graduates will leave having taken the same classes. What we teach today recognizes that a successful undergraduate education should primarily develop the essential skills of writing, researching, articulating and defending ideas, and working with others – the skills that prepare graduates for leadership in most any career.

Requirements at Williams are simple and designed to ensure that every student is availed of the depth and breadth of a liberal arts education. Students typically take four courses per semester—for eight semesters—to graduate. All students must take at minimum three courses from each of our three academic divisions (humanities, social sciences, and natural/physical sciences) over four years. However, students are not required to take courses in specific departments to fulfill these distributional requirements (i.e. math, English or foreign languages). We also require: one course in cultural pluralism, two courses which are writing intensive, and one course involving formal reasoning.

Williams students choose among 33 academic majors and 17 concentrations and special programs. Students declare majors at the end of their sophomore year, and most require nine or ten courses in the major field. While Williams does not offer minors, students are able to choose an interdisciplinary concentration or another major. Nearly a third of our students choose to double (or triple) major.

Check out the Williams Difference for more information about our academic offerings.

How do we teach?

The distinguishing features of all academic work at Williams are intimate classes and day-to-day interactions with renowned professors. As a liberal arts college, we differ greatly from a university in that our classes are nearly uniformly small (the median class size being 14), our professors teach every class offered, and we don’t have graduate schools. Our students study in a variety of formats, most frequently in small, discussion-based seminars, but also often in student-led workshops or tutorials, all designed to maximize student contact with faculty.

The commitment of the faculty shapes our learning community. Every class at Williams is taught by a professor—a professor passionate about teaching—as are all weekly labs and discussions. While all Williams faculty have earned advanced degrees from the world’s top universities and are actively engaged in high-level research, their primary focus is directly engaging our 2,000 students, whether in or out of the classroom, carrying out joint research projects, or simply enjoying life together in Williamstown. More than teachers, our faculty members are role models, advisors and advocates.

Moreover, believing that the pursuit of excellence is nurtured best in an atmosphere of generosity, Williams professors and administrators intentionally set a tone that encourages students to see each other as resources and colleagues rather than as competitors. Students work hard because they want to, grades are rarely discussed and GPA is for personal reference, not public comparison.