Williams College is a small, private liberal arts
college located in Williamstown,
Massachusetts. As of 2004, the undergraduate enrollment was approximately 2,000 students. Fraternities were phased out beginning in
1962. Coeducation was adopted in 1970. There are three academic curricular divisions (humanities, sciences, social sciences), 24
departments, 31 majors, and two small masters programs in art history and development economics. The student:faculty ratio is
8:1. The academic year consists of two four-course semesters plus a one-course Winter Study term during the month of January.
Williamstown is located in the Berkshires in northwestern Massachusetts, 145 miles from Boston
and 165 miles from New York City. The College sits at the foot of
Mount Greylock. When Henry David Thoreau visited in 1844, he remarked that "It would
be no small advantage if every college were thus located at the base of a mountain."