Hampshire College

Date: Sep 02 2007
Major: Journalism (This Major's Salary over time)
Hampshire is not for everyone. That said, the only way to know whether it truly is is to go there and try it for yourself. I grew a tremendous amount while I was at Hampshire, and was fortunately able to actually graduate (a lot of my friends didn't). What it takes to succeed at Hampshire is a little different than most other schools. I know a bunch of kids who really did well early on and got great evals from their professors (unlike me), but never graduated.

My best advice about going to Hampshire is, don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole. For instance, when I went to Hampshire, I was an aspiring painter. After not getting a lot of love from the faculty in that area, I realized that the writing teachers really liked me. Well, after a while the writing teachers soured on me but by then the Journalism teachers liked me. I went from painting to the Cognitive Science department. I ultimately did my Div 3 on Child Development.

The marijuana thing was a real problem and socially this can be a major issue. If you don't smoke, and don't want to hang out with smokers, you can wind up feeling a bit isolated. I chose not to smoke but still hung out with some smokers. I dressed in a very mainstream manner and definitely was on the receiving end of some judgements from the general student population. I really enjoyed playing on the sports teams, which you only have to be not half-bad in order to participate. I wound up fitting into a couple groups; the minority guys on scholarship weren't so judgemental of me, and neither was the wacked-out drama crowd. It took a couple years but I did find my niche.

I really liked the professors and I followed the ones who really liked me. The others I left alone. Because of this I wound up with some great connections in high places that helped me a lot. I didn't do a lot of actual academic work but there must have been something powerful about the work I did do because I am in grad school now and the work seems pretty easy.

I guess I am in the minority here but I really liked the campus. It lacked all the pomposity of old "traditional" buildings and was nice and modest, reasonable. It was naturally beautiful around Hampshire. Also great to have the five colleges there because I made friends there. Even used the library a couple of times!

Most overrated part of Hampshire is the mods. I tried a couple of different mods and grew pretty sick of the craziness, would up moving back into the dorms. Peace at last! Most underrated part is the professors. These are people who really want to be there, be your friend and help you.

Overall, Hampshire was a very trying but great experience for me. I developed a lot as a human being and began to form a powerful intuition about people. I'm really proud of the Div 3 and that part of the school was absolutely awesome. If you're someone who really wants to do independant work and make a contribution then Hampshire is for you… just stick through the boring years early on and get to the Div 3. It is an absolutely incredible experience.