The Global Economy. Look at the tag on your shirt. It was probably made overseas—and brought to the United States by ship. Eighty percent of all the world's goods are moved by ships, the heartbeat of the global economy.

The Global Climate. The world's oceans control the Earth's climate.

The World's Water—and the World's Life. Ninety-seven percent of the world's water, and the world's life, are in the sea.

The Sea Connects and the Sea Divides. The oceans have been the great corridors and great barriers connecting and dividing hundreds of civilizations over the past 5,000 years.

The Oceans are Covering the Land. The sea is rising, and the land is shrinking.

It's time to spend one semester
of your college career learning
about most of the world.

We here at Williams-Mystic are inspired by the world's oceans. To understand the history and importance of the sea is to know the world itself. There are over 300,000 miles of coastline worldwide and 50 percent of the world's population lives within 60 miles of these coasts.

Students come to Williams-Mystic to spend one-eighth of their college career exploring three-quarters of the world. They come to respect, admire and be in awe of the world's oceans.

Our interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary educational philosophy is the cornerstone of our program. More than 1,200 students have joined us to explore the history, literature, policy, and science of the world's waterways.

Our courses—your courses—are hands-on and discussion-based with an emphasis on original research to truly experience the world around you: it's not unusual to be on a tugboat, at the beach, or studying Mystic Seaport's vast collections for class. You may learn to forge iron, build a wooden boat and sail while making Mystic Seaport—the largest maritime museum in America—your campus for the semester.

You'll also see America—in a way you've probably never seen it before. You travel on three extended field seminars, exploring the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.

We read and discuss Steinbeck's Cannery Row while on Cannery Row in Monterey, California, and consider the turmoil of Captain Ahab from Melville's Moby Dick while sitting on the deck of a the world's last remaining historic whaling ship. We explore the Louisiana bayous and Cajun history of the Mississippi Delta, dip into Atlantic and Pacific tide pools to study the amazing diversity of sea life, and explore the awe-inspiring landscape of the Columbia River Gorge. We have lively discussions on international trade regulations while standing on tugboats in busy ports, and venture to a Louisiana oilrig to analyze the environmental impact of our nation's industries on coastal change. Offshore, aboard a tall ship, we experience the vastness—and power—of the ocean.

To explore the ocean is to explore the world.

Join us.