Williams College

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Williams is 1 of about four-dozen colleges (out of 2,500) in the U.S. that practice need-blind admission for domestic applicants (including undocumented students and those with DACA status) and meet 100 percent of the demonstrated need of every admitted student, every year. We go beyond that—we seek out exceptional students from low-income backgrounds. We view financial aid as money well spent—an investment in our community.
Our mission is to make sure all students thrive academically at Williams and beyond through opportunities and programs that eradicate racial and socioeconomic disparities in higher education.
Want to visit Williams but are not sure you can afford to? Windows on Williams (WOW) allows high school seniors to spend three all-expenses-paid days at Williams. WOW is a selective program open to high school students in the U.S., and the preference for Puerto Rico is given to high-achieving students. They could not otherwise afford to visit Williams.
On their way to a bachelor of arts degree, Williams students major in a core area of study (like Chinese or environmental policy). Instead of academic minors, we have concentrations, which are groupings of courses around specific topics that pull from many departments and disciplines (like cognitive science, which has elements of psychology, computer science, philosophy, math, and more). Still, other opportunities exist for students to pursue emerging fields, take individual classes, develop their majors, and participate in experiential education or off-campus study.
While there are no required courses at Williams, all students take at least three in arts and humanities, three in social sciences, and three in science and mathematics. Students also take at least two writing-intensive courses and one course to improve their ability to reason mathematically and abstractly. While Williams has no formal language requirement, we do require that all students explore diversity by taking at least one course that examines how groups, cultures, and societies interact with and challenge each other.
They are devoted, accomplished, innovative, inspiring, curious, collaborative, tenacious, award-winning, risk-taking. All of these terms and more characterize the almost 400 faculty members at Williams College who teach our students, pursue creative, ground-breaking arts and scholarship, and contribute to the short and long-term operations of the CollegeCollege.Details about individual faculty appear on the web pages of the academic departments and programs in which faculty are appointed. New faculty are featured here. If you are a prospective faculty member looking to learn more about the resources available to faculty at Williams College, you have come to the right place.
Whether you are new to Williams, a seasoned faculty member, a department or program chair, or contemplating retirement (perhaps even already retired!), you will find information about how to support your work and whom to contact in our office have questions.
A two-year master's program in conjunction with Williamstown's Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, the Graduate Program in the History of Art offers excellent preparation for careers in the academy, museums, and associated fields in the history of art.
A one-year master's program, the Center for Development Economics, is designed for emerging leaders from developing economies who want to assume increasingly essential roles in their home countries' treasuries, central banks, and governments. At Williams, you will follow your passions and discover new ones along the way. You will be challenged to think, learn, and do research in new and different ways. You will be part of an incredibly close-knit, diverse community. You will get to know your professors. You will be prepared for your first job–and your last one. Moreover, yes, you can afford it.
The Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity at Williams College dedicates itself to a community where all members can thrive. We work to eliminate harmful bias and discrimination, close opportunity gaps, and advance critical conversations and initiatives that promote inclusion, equity, and social justice on campus and beyond.
The Vice President's Office works to assess and improve campus climate, assists in the development and implementation of campus policies, procedures and practices impacting students, faculty, and staff, recruit, retain and develop a diverse faculty, staff, and student body, facilitate discussions around diversity, equity and inclusion in the community and resolves conflicts and grievances.
The Office of Special Academic Programs (OSAP) administers the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF), the Allison Davis Research Fellowship (ADRF), and the Summer Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) programs. Additionally, we work with the Summer Science Program, the C3 Undergraduate Fellowship, and other diversity initiatives at Williams or available to Williams students. OSAP is part of the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity. Together, this unit aims to transform the academy and strengthen the College' sCollege's commitment to inclusion by ensuring that diversity initiatives are advanced and celebrated.
Teaching and research come together unusually. In the context of a broad liberal arts education, that is all about learning to think critically and exploring an issue from many perspectives. At Williams, undergraduates research that at other places is done by graduate students. They contribute meaningfully to the creation of new knowledge.

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