Sat 8 Aug 2009
Not To Be Missed
Posted by Larry George under Admissions, Advice to Undergraduates, Alumni, Local Places, Williamstown at 2:15 am
(graphic copyright Williams Office of Public Affairs)
Three members of the Class of 2009 (Hillary Betchelder, Donald Molosi, and Amanda Montano) compiled a list of things their classmates recommend that current and prospective students do before leaving Williams. The Office of Public Affairs has made a poster posting. There are plenty of things visiting alums can catch up on, too.
You’ll see a lot of EphBloggers’ favorites: adventures on Stone Hill, apple cider donuts on Stoney Ledge on Mountain Day, taking a math class, playing broom ball, and taking a tutorial.
What would you add?
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32 Responses to “Not To Be Missed”
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PTC says:
All great things. First thing that struck me, is how much of a connection there is with the outdoors.
“Stick around for a summer”- hit the local Berkshire indoor and outdoor summer venues- that is the only thing I would add to the list.
http://www.ephblog.com/2009/04/12/stick-around-for-the-summer/
Pretty cool.
Oh, and become and author for Ephblog.
August 8th, 2009 at 3:30 amJeffZ says:
Great post, and a great list! Very few folks know about the natural bridge in North Adams, but it is really cool. I’d add a few more:
— get a group of friends together to participate in end-of-semester trivia
August 8th, 2009 at 6:48 am— attend at least one home and one away basketball game vs. Amherst: no crowds on campus have more energy, and being an away fan and shouting down the home crowd is especially fun; try to think of some particularly creative taunts / signs / t-shirts to display
— attend at least one soccer game on a gorgeous fall day — the field is in a perfect setting
— get your family or your friend’s family to spring for dinner at Mezze
lgeorge says:
Visit a local farm. Pick apples. Buy local or Vermont cheese to go with them. If you add a good loaf of bread, you have the makings of an excuse for a hike, bike ride, or cross country ski to go with the picnic. Consult with the Outing Club: Hanging Rock? Monumental Mountain? Broad Brook?
August 8th, 2009 at 7:24 amlgeorge says:
Do the weekly Polar Bear Swim in the Green River with the Outing Club — the colder the better. Extra points if you have to break ice. Infinite extra points on the coolness and Ephness scales at your 50th if you did every swim for a whole academic year.
August 8th, 2009 at 7:31 amlgeorge says:
Break your personal mold and do something wildly different for a Winter Study Project.
August 8th, 2009 at 7:32 amJeffZ says:
Teach a Free University class.
Invent your own sandwich at Pappa C’s.
I bet we could EASILY come up with enough cool ideas for a sequel to this poster. Heck, we’re already a good part of the way there …
August 8th, 2009 at 7:47 amJeffZ says:
Make a snow sculpture at winter carnival (is that going on still?)
August 8th, 2009 at 7:55 amfrank uible says:
Do something certainly iconoclastic, foreseeably not to be permitted by the College for mention on any of its silly ass, sanitary posters and also probably immature and foolish, of which all or almost all of those of authority in your life would strongly disapprove!
August 8th, 2009 at 9:21 amlgeorge says:
Practice uncomfortable learning, Gaudino style
August 8th, 2009 at 9:30 amlgeorge says:
Egg a curmudgeon on into doing something fun.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:31 amRonit says:
– explore the steam tunnels
– stay out late drinking with a professor
– watch the sun rise on Easter morning from Petersburg Pass
– play in the rain
– sit on a stone bench in the cemetery in the middle of the night talking about life, the universe, and everything
– do a service trip during spring break
August 8th, 2009 at 9:45 amhwc says:
Williams needs ya’ll to write them some new material. Their list is lacking a bit in the humor, fun, and Frank Ubile “to hell with it all” department.
Almost every college has one of these lists. Wellesley publishes theirs each year in the school paper, but I couldn’t manage to find it thanks to no search feature. All I could find for Amherst was a top-10 list. Here are three for comparison:
Top 10 Things to Do Before Graduating Amherst
47 Things Every Sagehen Should Do
Before Leaving Pomona
75 Ways to Be a Swarthmorean
August 8th, 2009 at 10:39 amlgeorge says:
From that Amherst list: “Live in a tiny one room double, then appreciate getting your own room even more.”
August 8th, 2009 at 10:47 amOuch.
JeffZ says:
Speaking of Amherst, do folks still do the Pratt-to-Pratt run? I’d add that as well …
August 8th, 2009 at 11:09 amlgeorge says:
Eat grilled honey buns. (Your arteries will never tolerate them again.)
August 8th, 2009 at 11:39 amlgeorge says:
Frank @8 — Have any concrete suggestions?
August 8th, 2009 at 11:43 amlgeorge says:
First-years: find out which of your classmates have never seen snow fall. Throw them a snowperson building and snowball fight party when the first good snowfall comes.
Do a WOOLF trip. Then become a WOOLF leader the next year and then a leader instructor/planner/equipment manager that.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:48 amlgeorge says:
Surprise the whole campus with a well-organized, clever prank.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:49 amhwc says:
Here is Stanford’s list of 99 things to do
August 8th, 2009 at 11:56 amhwc says:
And, 100 from Harvard
August 8th, 2009 at 11:59 amfrank uible says:
lgeorge: 20 year olds would clearly exercise irreverence better – but at any rate merely for brainstorming purposes – organize and execute a giant group fart (including a cloud of sulphurous odor) to be delivered at a most solemn moment or moments of an important, College sponsored, public speech – to be remembered decades long after the loss of all recall about the substance of the speech.
August 8th, 2009 at 3:18 pmlgeorge says:
Re #21. Thank you, Frank. I suspect that that might also be quite effective should mass protests against dining hall budget cuts be deemed necessary.
August 8th, 2009 at 3:26 pmhwc says:
Speaking of clever pranks, anybody have any really good ones from Williams?
August 8th, 2009 at 4:10 pmJeffZ says:
I heard of that A / B-plus field prank, but that may be apocraphal.
I don’t think the Harvard/Yale “we suck” prank will ever be topped …
August 8th, 2009 at 4:33 pmlgeorge says:
The best Williams prank I know was done in the early 70s. With great care and working with the professor who looked out for the clock mechanism (so as not to damage anything), a student or students carefully placed Mickey Mouse hands on the clock in the gym tower. It was amazing.
Does anyone have other stunts from their era?
August 8th, 2009 at 6:21 pmJeff S says:
lgeorge –
it may have been a redux – but graduation 1984 fatured those mickey mouse hands on Lasell too.
Some friends of my brother an ’84 were the schemers in question.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:32 pmchenry09 says:
@Ronit:
they have sensors in those now. several alumni found that out the hard way when they exited right in front of police, fire dept. and morty (i think he was there)
August 9th, 2009 at 8:44 pmLarry George says:
Re: 11, 27 (and in the spirit of 21) —
if there are sensors on the steam tunnels now, figure out a way to override them…
August 10th, 2009 at 4:37 amRonit says:
@Larry George: I agree. Sensors are made to be evaded.
August 10th, 2009 at 7:27 amJeffZ says:
I think our collective Ephblog gift to the incoming frosh should be to compile the suggestions in this thread into a post to run during previews. Larry, I’ll defer to you since you started this, but if you don’t, I will …
August 10th, 2009 at 7:33 amLarry George says:
Jeff – That’s a great idea. Please go ahead and do it when you are ready. I’ll be on vacation and suspect the Internet access will be iffy. You might link back to the list that is on the official website, and then supplement it with something that includes a few edgier bits (sensor evasion?). (Did you know that all of the cold weather Polar Bear Swims are done in the buff? Not that folks are looking around when they run into a nearly frozen river, but surely you can make something of that.)
August 10th, 2009 at 9:11 amJeffZ says:
Sounds good. Although I must confess, the Polar Bear swims are not something I regret skipping — I am sure Uible knows of several choice adjectives that could, ummm, characterize my lack of enthusiasm …
August 10th, 2009 at 9:41 am