Academics
In addition to all the things that make liberal arts colleges the global gold standard—small classes, attentive faculty, close-knit community—Williams offers unique opportunities like our renowned tutorial and research programs. Choose among 64 areas of study across the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. Your intellectual journey will be guided by accomplished scientists and scholars whose own work often transcends traditional academic boundaries.
Tutorials
A Williams tutorial is your own personalized academic adventure: just two students and a professor meeting every week to read, research, analyze, debate and write at a level more common in graduate schools. Choose from among more than 65 topics across the curriculum, and you'll be guided and coaxed to reach for your most ambitious academic goals.

Research
A greater share of students conduct original research in the sciences, arts and humanities at Williams than at almost any comparable school. That's because our faculty are deeply committed to mentoring student researchers, and Williams backs them with the means and funding to support you. Whether you pursue your project on campus or abroad, during the academic year or over the summer, you'll find far more opportunities to pursue advanced projects here than just about anywhere else.
Winter Study
January at Williams is Winter Study, an eclectic selection of courses, independent studies, internships and travel opportunities that take you beyond the limits of conventional semesters. Move outside your educational comfort zone. By the time spring semester rolls around you’ll be recharged, refocused, and ready to dive back into your regular studies.
Study Away
From Lauterbrunnen to El Salar de Uyuni, Williams students crisscross the globe on academic adventures. Study with world-renowned mathematicians and computer scientists in Hungary, conduct human rights research in South Africa, or explore art history in Italy. Not to mention our Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford and the Williams-Mystic Program at historic Mystic Seaport. About half of all Williams students participate in Study Away. Once you explore the options, you'll want to, too.
Center for Learning in Action
Teach fourth graders about zebrafish and ocean ecology. Resettle refugees in nearby Pittsfield. Or study housing discrimination and advocate for the unsheltered. Every year the Center for Learning in Action connects more than 800 Williams students with a vast range of courses and extracurricular experiential opportunities that enrich learning and improve lives.
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