Williams College is a highly selective private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Ranked 1st place in 2016 in the U.S. News & World Reports liberal arts ranking for the 14th consecutive year, Williams College is regarded as a leading institution of higher education in the United States. Forbes magazine ranked Williams the second best undergraduate institution in the United States in its 2016 publication of America's Top Colleges, and the best undergraduate institution in its 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2016 reports.
There are three academic curricular divisions 24 departments, 33 majors, and two small master's degree programs in art history and development economics. Students may also concentrate in 12 additional academic areas that are not offered as majors (e.g., environmental studies). The academic year follows a 4–1–4 schedule of two four-course semesters plus a one-course "winter study" term in January. There are 334 voting faculty members, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 7:1., the school has an enrollment of 2,052 undergraduate students and 54 graduate students. Certain portions of the Williams education are modeled after the tutorial systems at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Williams is on a 450acre campus in Williamstown, Massachusetts in the Berkshires in rural northwestern Massachusetts. The campus contains more than 100 academic, athletic, and residential buildings. The college competes in the NCAA Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference, and competes in the conference as the Ephs. The Williams college mascot is a purple cow.
The college has produced many prominent alumni, including 7 Pulitzer Prize winners, a Nobel Prize Laureate, 54 members of the United States Congress, 18 U.S. Governors, four U.S. Cabinet secretaries, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a President of the United States, CEOs and founders of Fortune 500 companies, high-ranking U.S. diplomats, scholars in academia, literary and media figures, and professional athletes. Other notable alumni include 35 Rhodes Scholars, 17 Marshall Scholarship winners, and numerous Watson Fellows and Fulbright scholarship recipients.