WANTED: Eph Advice
by Ashley Weeks Cart
This is a shameless Williams-centric post. I apologize to my non-Eph readers (do come back tomorrow! Pretty please!), and I beg of my abundant Purple Cows to please please please comment on this post. I know that many of you are out there, and I ask that for today you overcome your comment shyness, delurk, and share with me some pearls of wisdom… for the love of purple and gold.
I’m working on a super fun project with our fellow Ephs of Idiots Books, Robbi Behr ’97 and Matthew Swanson ’97, to create a lil sumfin sumfin for our incoming First Years. I promise to share the details as they develop, but I need your help first to get things rolling.
Tell me, please, if you were talking to a First Year student, what would you tell him or her s/he MUST DO before graduating? I want as many items as you’re willing to share. Everything from having breakfast at the Blue Benn diner to taking Art History 101. Send ‘em my way. Comment at will!
And do look out for posts here and on the Idiots Books blog as we work our way through this project.
And I leave you with one of Robbi’s doodles of chickens, because ya know, I heart chickens AND Robbi’s illustrative style.
Thanks for your help! I can’t wait to hear from you!
Image: Courtesy of Idiots Books
Visit the Grafton Peace Pagoda!
Visit the Bookmill in Montague, MA
Join an IM Soccer team freshman Fall
Take a class with Peter Murphy and Robert Bell
Get dinner at the House of India and Elizabeth’s in Pittsfield
Pick courses by professors, not subject.
Don’t get involved in too many things, but kill it in the things you do.
Sleep! It makes everything better.
There’s a good list of these already from the public affairs office, but here’s a quick list:
Try everything your first three semesters, and write about what you liked so that you can pick the right things in your last five..
Meet lots of professors early on – even those you don’t have classes with.
Travel to the other freshman dorms.
Don’t try to be perfect. Most everyone is just faking that.
Get to know college staff in areas of interest – facilities has blueprints, the alumni office has shwag, and Dick Quinn is simply stellar when it comes to sports.
Set hard and fast deadlines three working days before assignments are due so you can take a day off and then correct/revise. .1 on the old GPA right there.
Otherwise, don’t worry about your GPA.
You won’t find all of your friends this year; many of them aren’t at Williams yet.
Find the hidden treehouse.
Hike up Mount Greylock for Mountain Day and Pine Cobble for the sunrise.
Join WOC.
Get a student job.
Hangout at the hairpin turn.
Spend some time outside of Williamstown, in places like North Adams.
Do random things at random times.
Get a carrel and keep the library for studying and your room for relaxation.
When your first mountain day comes and you think it would be a better day if you slept in and you grouch about thinking that everyone who wants to go climb a mountain is crazy…remember the following: mountain day is a real holiday, actually climbing the mountain means you get to eat more donuts, you only get 4 mountain days surrounded by ephs so use them wisely – people in your post Williams life will think you are crazy for continuing to celebrate mountain day, even though your 18 year old self “needs sleep”, your 28 (or 38 or 68) year old self needs your memories of mountain more!
Go on a WOOLF trip. Skinny-dip in the Green River. Take a tutorial. Join WOC. Know that some people make a difference in the world with what they study in college. Hike Mountain Day — really. Take a look at the college calendar, and attend one event each week that’s outside your normal pattern of engagements. Varsity sports aren’t everything — if they feel like an unhealthy social environment, they probably are. There are other options. Study abroad — though it will feel like a sacrifice of your time at Williams, it will actually enhance it. If something doesn’t exist which you’d like to see happening, make it happen. Find the appropriate peers, staff, faculty, and get a recurring thing going. And know that you may not ‘find your stride’ until later in college — that’s okay. Keep doing your daily routine and your non-routine things, and it will happen. Drinking so much that you can’t remember what happened is drinking too much, no matter what the dominant culture around you suggests. There are plenty of folks at Williams who already know this, and they’re the folks who are more secure in themselves, and more interesting, to boot. Remember those folks who make a difference in the world with what they study in college? Open your mind to ‘cool’ looking pretty darn different than you thought.
Pick courses for the professor, not the subject.
Spend a summer in Williamstown.
Have coffee with your favorite professor (don’t be afraid to ask them!)
Speak up in class if you are normally quiet and stay quiet if you are usually talkative.
Try not to compete with your friends about who has more hours of homework, all Williams students feel like they have the most homework.
Take a tutorial.
Go swimming in the Green River.
Do something different your junior year, study abroad, JA, or just try a new activity or sport.
Invite a friend or international student who can’t go home for Thanksgiving to join yours.
Use your dinner points at the Snack Bar and share with friends.
Eat a cider donut on Mountain Day.
Go to your friends’ concerts, events, games, matches, and cheer for them.
Enjoy living in a beautiful part of the world!
Oh! So, I know I’m not an official Eph or anything, but I do love Billsville :) Some of my favorite things that I’ve done and would recommend:
-enjoy a cup of coffee and rocking on a rocking chair at Porches
-That fabulous restaurant (of course the name escapes me) with the corn chowder that is cash or IOU only…I know I should know this…Elizabeth’s??? I think that’s it.
-Take hilarious pictures with the eye sculpture on campus.
I love what everyone’s added so far! I second the take a tutorial, join a club sport, and enjoy Williamstown advice, and would add:
- Visit the archives and read a past graduation speach.
- Leave Williamstown, whether for a semester, year, or winter study–there’s something about traveling as a college kid that can’t be beat, plus leaving brings a whole new perspecting to your return.
- Walk through the eye sculptures at night in the snow.
Take a class with professor K. Scott Wong (american studies)
Don’t study too hard, make sure to enjoy your complete Williams experience. What you learn in the class room is just one component of it.
Enjoy the outdoors while you’re surrounded in them.
In the fall go down to Cole Field, lay on the grass and look up at the mountains in their full autumn foliage.
The upstairs of Goodrich Hall is a great little study area with a coffee shop vibe.
Take the time to get to know the professors you enjoy. The professors at Williams really care about you as a person not just as a student.
Study abroad.
Senior week in Hilton Head, do it.
Your friends might change over time as you’re at Williams. You might lose some and you’ll gain some as well. Don’t freak out about it. It’s normal. Sometimes you grow closer together and sometimes you’ll grow apart.
Take the time to enjoy the fact that you are living surrounded by your best friends. You’ll miss it dearly when you all graduate and are off to separate cities/countries and it’s not so easy to meet up for a meal. Seriously, enjoy that and take advantage of it.
I’m sure there are more…I’ll post if I come up with any
Go on adventures — get to know all the nearby areas and drives, find a favorite place that will always feel like a home to return to. I recommend the reservoir.
Get to know and stay in touch with professors. It’s fulfilling and rewarding and a really special thing about Williams.
Climb on top of the observatory.
Get to know all the running paths – know how to give directions like – fork left at the house with the tire swing.
Eat at all the places people say you ought to. They are all as good as advertised — and also, DEFINITELY eat at Brew Haha and then go to Mass MoCA
It’s cheesy – but take art history, it totally changed the direction of my life.
Use the library at the Clark – not sure if you need special permission or how that comes about but its incredibly gorgeous and peaceful.
Cultivate friendships with everyone you want to – don’t feel limited to one group or sport or whatever. Every person at Williams (seriously) is interesting and special and you should know as many of them as possible.
Keep a journal or take lots of pictures or something. It will all feel surreal years later when you’re back visiting or at Eph weddings and trust me, you want to remember it in totally glorious detail.
Sled on trays or chairs by greylock. Or just generally – say yes to silly things when asked.
Give back to Williams – while you’re there – when you leave – it will give you so much more than you ever realized.
Really invest in your entry life – many of my best friends 11 years later were in my entry, and those that aren’t my best friends are people that I think the world of and know in a totally unique way.
-(Shameless plug) Try rugby, you’ll meet a whole new cross-section of Ephs
-Eat dinner in every dining hall.
- Go to Jack’s in North Adams and try the chili cheese dog
- Get nasty chinese food from the Pittsfield mall and sneak it into a movie. (6 pack of beers optional)
- Take a drive with your friends to a new town- whether it be Bennington, Pittsfield, etc. It’s good to explore.
- APPLE PICK. FOR THE LOVE OF CHAPIN, APPLE PICK.
-Make broomball more than a freshman yr thing. It gets so much more fun when you really know each other.
- Indoor slip n side in Fay… I’m not saying anything happened, but it could happen, and if it could, it would be awesome.
I wish tutorials were open to non-seniors while I was at Williams; take a few outside of your usual areas of academic interest.
Work a campus job.(Even if you don’t have to.)
Definitely apply to be a reunion ranger and get acquainted with as many alums as you can.
If you spend all your time in the MCC quad try to leave every once in a while and if you never go to the MCC quad please do, you’re cards work there as well.
On that note, go to as many lectures, concerts, dinners, events, etc. organized by campus groups as your schedule permits.
Do not graduate without going to a BSU party.
Never be afraid to ask for help. From anyone. And on the flip side, always be willing to help anyone whenever you can.
If you like working on multiple projects, and let’s face it, you’re an Eph so you do, learn to say “No” to the familiar and “Yes” to the unfamiliar
If you’re in any leadership capacity: Delegate. Delegate. Delegate.
Get involved in some kind of sport AND art (performance and otherwise) AND activism.
Live off-campus or in a co-op and try as much as possible not to live with the same people every year.
Study abroad.
I don’t know if there will there be monkey carrells in the new library. If so, find one and make it your home for a couple nights.
Get a group of people together and design a winter study.
Be on campus for at least one summer, but don’t spend all your summers on campus.
Have dinner at Elizabeths in Pittsfield; generally get to know the surrounding towns. There IS public transportation on Route 2. Try it.
Most importantly, find something you think will change Williams for the good and get it done.
Where to begin!?
-take a tutorial
-Choose “bush whacking” for Mountain day
-tubing down Green River
-go to an acapella concert. Better yet, join one
-do the student discount and slurge on a night at porches
-take or audit art history 101
-spend a summer on campus
-go abroad
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Meet your professors, and ask them about their research and their work, beyond your classroom.
Take the bus to North Adams.
Don’t be cheap. Someday you’ll have more money but less time. Right now, you have time but no money. Indulge a little. Go out to dinner with friends, even when you have meals left or dinner points to spend.
Don’t make a ‘bucket-list’. Just do things that make you happy, even if it means graduating without ever hiking Greylock or visiting the Clark. Graduate knowing that you took advantage of the school while you were there because you made friends who you can always go back someday and hike Greylock with.