Hamilton College

Date: Feb 25 2010
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
Hamilton is a great school with awesome academics, dedicated faculty, beautiful facilities, and well-rounded students. Students at Hamilton are given the opportunity to take control of their own educations and are able to choose all of their own classes through the open curriculum. Hamilton is a great community to spend four years learning about yourself in preparation for the rest of your life.

One of the best features of Hamilton is the amount of opportunity available to students here. We have great classes with amazing, highly-accessible professors who are always willing to meet with, get to know, and help their students. For students needing (or simply wanting) extra help outside of classes, we have a Writing Center, a Quantitative Literacy Center (for any courses dealing with numbers), and a Foreign Language Lab, and there are also individual tutors available for other subjects. Hamilton has connections with about 180 study abroad programs, so students can travel to nearly any country in the world. Students can also participate in Hamilton's own programs, both abroad or in Washington DC and NYC. There are a ton of student-run clubs on campus, and the College enthusiastically supports students who want to start new ones. There are so many opportunities, both on and off campus; students just have to be willing to go out and find what interests them.

Hamilton's open curriculum has been one of the highlights of my time here because I have been able to completely tailor my education to my own interests. An open curriculum means that we don't have any distributional general education requirements (students don't have to have a math, science, English, history, art (etc.) credit). Even though there are no requirements to guide students through choosing classes, we have a strong advising program in which students work one-on-one with professors. Because students can choose their own classes, everyone in your classes is truly interested in the material and excited to participate in class.

Although a lot of visitors to campus might complain that Hamilton is not in a big city, I think this location is one of Hamilton's greatest assets. We are able to develop a tight-knit community and have many on-campus events because students stay here on the weekends and are still involved in campus activities. All of our entertainment comes to us on campus instead of forcing us to leave to enjoy concerts, lectures, comedians, and shows. If Hamilton were in an urban location, I'm sure students would disperse on the weekends. Personally, if I can't be on campus for a weekend, I feel like I've missed out on a lot of fun times with my friends. Also, even though Hamilton appears to be in a rural area, we are only 10 minutes from a shopping mall and all of the other suburban amenities that most people are used to having nearby. Utica also has great restaurants with different types of food from cultures around the world! In my opinion, Hamilton offers the best location possible- scenic rural landscapes, suburban conveniences, and international experiences (and we're only an hour away from the Adirondacks, too!).

I think generally happy, well-rounded,and dedicated students who are willing to take advantage of all that Hamilton offers are the type of people who will be the most satisfied here. Hamilton offers so many opportunities for involvement that I feel like any students who are unhappy with their Hamilton experience can only blame themselves for that outcome. If you've chosen classes you're interested in, gotten to know your professors and fellow classmates, and involved yourself in activities and events that interest you, you will have gotten the most out of your time at Hamilton.