Hampshire College

Date: Feb 05 2009
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
I transferred to Hampshire for what I believed at the time to be all the right reasons: the so-called experimental curriculum, its politics, and the ability to do research as an undergraduate. If my Division III (final thesis) helps me to get into a good graduate school, then perhaps someday I will eat some of these words.

Going to Hampshire is probably the worst decision I have ever made, and my years here have been far and away the worst years of my life. I have never felt as deeply let down as I have during my time here. There are a few good professors (about a third of them, I would say), but that leaves two-thirds who are lazy or incompetent. Every semester I have been saddled with classes taught by nitwits who don't even seem to be doing their own reading. Class is frequently boring and surprisingly awkward as a result. Many of the teachers have political views that can drive you insane. Hampshire is probably one of the last strong bastions of political correctness in the nation. They continuously trivialize serious oppression by absurd theorizing.

The biggest problem at Hampshire, however, is the other students. What a bunch of clowns. Most people at the school do little to no work. I may be especially sensitive to this, as I am majoring in a field related to literature. My classes are crammed with hack poets who believe that their muse excuses them from doing any real work or having intellectual interests. I have been appalled in every way at Hampshire, which has some novelty and was initially quite funny, but has worn very thin over time. Even on the Division IIIs, which are supposed to take all of senior year and be some sort of crowning achievement, most students find ways to do work that is not only unimpressive, but juvenile. Last year, somebody has stitched together and displayed some rather hideous creation, something like a psychedelic shag carpet with a big text block in the middle, which used the word "you're" when it should have said "your." Somebody earned a degree for that. I am ashamed that I will one day have a Hampshire degree, because even though my own work will be of fine quality, there will be no means of distinguishing it. One only has to read a few Div IIIs to get a sense for how awful most of them are. People pay $40000 to spend their senior year doing this instead of taking classes. You're paying for your degree, not your education. Most students leave you to wonder why they came to Hampshire in the first place, because they do not seem to have any special interest in the things that make Hampshire unusual. They're largely just slackers, maybe with some deluded view about how "alternative" they are. You will meet some very interesting people as well, I must say, but they certainly don't make it worth it.

All of this is made worse by persistent bureaucratic problems, something which I understand to be pretty universal at college, but which is no less excusable. All of the "experimental" aspects at Hampshire end up being disguised bureaucracy. Having a committee of teachers to advise is worse than useless. Because there are so few really good teachers relative to the entire faculty, many of the good teachers are terribly overworked and will not have time for you. Finding a committee becomes a nightmare, and one which has no happy ending, as there is generally no reason to consult them in the first place until you are writing your Division III.

I would strongly discourage anyone who has other good options from attending Hampshire. Not only is it is a prison, but because of the grading system it is considerably more difficult to transfer from than most colleges. I read reviews of Hampshire on this site before I decided to accept my admissions, and I foolishly disregarded the negative things people have to say about the school—they're all true. Don't make the same mistake as I did.