Hampshire College

Date: Feb 03 2008
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
I was ecstatic to get accepted to this school, but what followed ended up being the low point of my life thus far. There are some friendly people at Hampshire, but the vast majority are from the same socio economic bracket (here's a hint: it's one of the higher ones) and even from the same region (NY and LA). The classes are a mixed bag. There were a few that I really loved, but there were others with lazy professors who would literally chastise you for stating an opinion that they did not agree with. Most students are wannabe intellectuals spouting off viewpoints that they don't fully understand. The campus itself is ugly, and the school has no endowment, and no resources, so things like a student union building, a half decent library, or a computer lab with systems less than 5 years old were out of the question (the best were some Emacs; most were old XP machines or iMac G3s in 2006). I was seduced by the idea of spending four years working on something that interested me, but upon arriving I saw that I actually had a list of mostly arbitrary requirements (for example: I had to take one class in each of the college's five "Schools of Thought" [don't call them departments!], and I had to fulfill seven Learning Goals, which were abbreviations tacked onto the end of course descriptions that just about every professor admitted they knew nothing about). I transferred to a state school, and while I am not the type to enjoy frat parties which are prevalent here, I have met real people and am receiving a much better education.