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How many students attend Williams-Mystic each semester and where do they come from?

You and around 20 other students will be part of a Williams-Mystic semester. Your fellow students will come from about 14 colleges and represent 15 different majors. More than 100 colleges and universities have sent students to Williams-Mystic.

Do only science majors attend? What if I haven't studied marine topics before?

You'll join students with a diverse and amazing range of experiences and backgrounds. About half our students are science-oriented and the other half are humanities students. Some students are biology, geology and environmental majors eager to have a hands-on exploration of the world's oceans. Others are American studies, history and English majors who are drawn to our unique museum campus and to the dynamic role that the sea has played in shaping American and world cultures.

How long is the semester and how much of it is spent traveling?

Get ready to travel! You have the unique opportunity to explore part of the United States that few people get to experience. You will visit the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts during the course of a 17-week semester, including a 10 days offshore on a tall ship, 10 days on the Pacific Coast, and a week exploring the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. On all field seminars, students and faculty travel together. All travel arrangements are provided by Williams-Mystic. Throughout the semester, you'll also take a variety of day trips to local historical sights, locations of importance for marine policy issues and to various ecosystems for ecological and oceanographic study, including the rocky shore, Mystic River Estuary, salt marshes and a sandy beach—just to name a few!

What if I don't know how to sail?

Don't know the difference between a jib and a jibe? No problem. Many of our students don't know how to sail when they arrive at Williams-Mystic. If you'd like to learn to sail small boats, you have the opportunity through our Boat handling Skills class, and you'll get hands-on large vessel sail training on the Offshore Field Seminar. You may also use the fleet of more than 25 small boats belonging to Williams-Mystic and Mystic Seaport including sailboats, kayaks, motorboats and rowing shells, providing a chance to learn or strengthen your boat handling skills or just to relax and have a fun outing on the water with fellow classmates.

For those who know how to sail, participating in Williams-Mystic is an opportunity to strengthen your sailing skills on a range of types and sizes of boats. You can bring your understanding of boats and sailing to the next level by working at our preservation shipyard, working aloft on our historically-rigged tall ships or taking boat building as a maritime skill (see Student Life section for details on skills classes).

Where do students live?

… in really interesting homes! You live cooperatively in five centrally located, restored 19th-century houses, each housing from four to seven students. Each house has wireless internet connections and complete kitchen facilities where you will prepare meals together. These houses are steps away from Mystic Seaport's riverside grounds, which offer unique opportunities to explore the nation's largest maritime museum at any hour of the day. In addition, the scenic coastal village of Mystic is just a short walk away, offering an assortment of restaurants, ice cream shops and a variety of stores. Beaches, museums and other attractions populate the area, making Mystic a destination for travelers 12 months of the year.

What facilities are accessible to Williams-Mystic students?

Think of Mystic Seaport, one of the largest maritime museums in the world, and the nation's fourth largest history museum, as your campus for a semester… a very different sort of campus. How many college campuses do you know with its own tall ships and historical coastal village?

Our 8,000-square foot Carlton Marine Science Center (CMSC) houses our marine sciences courses and offers state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and research of estuarine and coastal processes. Classes in literature, history and marine policy often meet in Mystic Seaport's G. W. Blunt White Library, but are just as likely to meet at different locations around Mystic Seaport Museum, exploring the Museum's 70 buildings and many vessels. Our students also have access to Mystic Seaport's Collection Research Center, whose special collections and archives house nearly one million original maritime documents.

When not in class, the CMSC provides students with a 24-hour research, study and community space. The student life center, Sturges Cottage, offers work out machines and weights, as well as a comfortable area to watch tv, play board games, and use the foosball table. Students also receive Connecticut College ID cards, allowing access to the college's library, cultural events and athletic facilities.

How does academic credit transfer?

You receive a full semester's credit documented on a Williams College transcript. We will also work with you to make sure that your classes transfer back to your home college.

What do my comprehensive fees cover?

The comprehensive fees include tuition, room, board and travel expenses, including ship charter fees and airfare to the field seminars.

Can students have jobs and earn money during the semester?

Absolutely. You can choose to work in one of Mystic Seaport's 18 departments. You might work in the shipyard, in the museum archives, in the curatorial department cataloging historical objects and photographs, as a marine lab assistant or with faculty on research—a few of the more than two dozen positions available just to Williams-Mystic students.

Is there a summer program?

Though many Williams-Mystic alumni return to Mystic each summer for research and internship opportunities, there are no summer undergraduate classes. Contact Mystic Seaport at 860-572-0711 or www.mysticseaport.org for information about graduate-level maritime history courses offered through the Munson Institute.

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Please contact us at admissions@williamsmystic.org or by phone at 860-572-5359 x2 for more information.