"Williams College? Oh, you mean The College of William & Mary?"

Uh, no. We at Williams hope you know the difference, especially if you've been accepted here. If you're wondering, Virginia's William & Mary is over 600 miles south, and is public. Williams, a private college known for its dedicated faculty, dynamic student groups, and unique programs, has been one of the top three liberal arts colleges in the nation for years.

Williams has about 2,000 students, with a portion of juniors abroad every semester. If you're into mascots, ours is the Eph. And no, there is no such thing as an Eph - it's the shortened name of our founder, Colonel Ephraim Williams. The physical representation of the Eph is a purple cow. Personally, I've never seen one. But I'd rather see than be one, as the poem goes.

At all colleges, including Williams, scholarly demands on professors are high. However, Williams profs endeavor to maximize their teaching potential. It is guaranteed that your prof will teach your class; TAs never teach and graduate students (of which there are few) only take classes. Profs are enthusiastic about meeting with students - during office hours as well as other times. It is common to see students and profs in the Snack Bar or in Cold Springs Coffee Roasters, a comfortable caf on Spring Street. Some professors actually hold office hours in Cold Springs. Be careful, though: if you're really well liked, you could find yourself babysitting your prof's children. Another sign of the close relationships: profs who research in the summer often invite students to help them out.

Classes at Williams are small, although introductory courses of the 101 genre can be somewhat large (as in 80, not 200). Size usually decreases after you choose your major. It can be difficult to enroll in some courses (i.e. Studio Art 100 and certain 100-level Environmental Studies classes) if you are not majoring in the subject. However, students who take initiative and talk to professors beforehand usually have no problems in enrollment.

Majors are usually fairly general; you can major in biology, but the more specific cellular biology is not offered. The best departments for majors are English, art history, history, economics, and biology. Weaker departments include romance languages and anthropology. Smaller departments - like philosophy and religion - offer more personal attention because of their size. For an externally competitive school, cutthroat behavior between students is surprisingly absent; personal goals are more the focus. There is a sense that everyone's grades are stellar, but GPAs are rarely discussed explicitly.

Involvement in sports is also widespread, and teams are generally successful. Sporting events against arch-rival Amherst are always packed, invariably including someone in a dorky cow outfit. Williams has been awarded the Sears Cup - which honors the best sports teams overall for a given size bracket - twice in the last three years.

Still, it is the rare student that claims the "jock" identity only. Don't be surprised to see a sculpture by a top swimmer, or a track star in an a cappella group. The newly-built Spencer Art Building is the home for many a budding artist, and a cappella is hugely popular: there are presently nine different groups. One of Williams' special offerings is Independent Music Project (IMP), which allows student composers to create and perform works for the community. Theater, too, can attract a good portion of the school. And just a few weeks ago, the location for the new Performing Arts Center was chosen: the popular African dance group Kusika, along with the Dance Company, will soon enjoy a new space.

The mythological purple cow symbolically links Williams to its rural surroundings: we are about as far as we can be from Boston and still be in the same state, and Vermont is 10 minutes away. This can be an asset or a disadvantage, depending on what you like.