Hamilton College

Date: Feb 21 2005
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
Hamilton wasn't my first choice… I got into Swarthmore as well but chose Hamilton because it was the best school academically that I got a large scholarship to. During my first semester and the beginning of the second semester, I really didn't like Hamilton and was considering transferring. I was very lonely and I felt as though everyone was shallow and only cared about partying. But now, in the second semester of my sophmore year, I'm really happy to be here. I think that I was expecting college to be something it wasn't. Now that I've gotten beyond intro classes, I feel like I'm really being challenged. I've only had two sub-par professors, while the rest have just been fantastic and incredibly engaging.

Hamilton is intimidating for freshmen, I think. It is a very preppy campus, and when you get here, it feels a bit like if you don't own those hideous Ugg boots, you're going to be shunned. But people are actually very accepting and friendly when you get to know them. The campus community, because it's so small, is very closely knit and there really aren't well-defined social groups. Everyone's friends tend to overlap and you generally hang out with multiple groups of people.

Lots of people pledge the Greek organizations, but I never found that limiting to social life. Because they don't have housing anymore, people in societies are spread out all over campus and have lots of friends utside of their society. The societies really just throw silly theme parties that are generally open to the campus. I don't belong to a society, though some of my closest friends are in fraternities. It really isn't a big deal and the Greeks aren't incredibly visible. The social scene really consists of the frat parties, school sponsered comedians and concerts, movies in the auditorium, smaller parties that upperclassmen throw in the dorms, hanging out in dorms with friends, and the bar scene in Clinton.

After freshmen year, a car at Hamilton is a huge plus. We have a decent suburb-y type town about 10 minutes away with a mall and chain restaurants and a really nice movie theater, which really helps supplement the limited social scene. The Jitney goes there, but during the winter when it's snowing, service is pretty limited. Utica also has a bunch of decent ethnic food places.

I've happy here. I've met a lot of interesting people. While a significant portion of students are fairly apathetic, there are also students who are very active politically and intellectually. The best way to find them is to get involved in extracurriculars.