Hobart William Smith Colleges

Date: Jun 11 2011
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I have just finished my first year at HWS. When I first got on campus, it was a culture shock for me. I came from a public school, where kids were fairly well off, but not compared to the snooty stuck up rich kids from all the prep schools that are located at HWS. After looking around me, I realized about 65% seemed to be from private or prep schools, and were not at all that bright, but could afford the high price of the school because mommy and daddy are rich. They seem very unconcerned about their grades for the most part, because they will get jobs through their family connections anyways, and it's almost like they're just there to party and do cocaine. The other 35% are there on scholarship, and are hardworking, actually care about their grades, and are the people you WANT to be in class with because you can learn something useful from their prescence. The parties are repetitive and the social scene gets boring after a while, and you have to have a fake ID to go down to the bars. There are little cliques of girls that all fight to go to parties, and the fakeness is extremely apparent and hard to deal with. For many, it's a contiunation of prep school, except girls and guys go crazy. The drugs are out of control and are easier to get than anything else- cocaine is rampant on campus, and everyone is prescribed or abuses adderall and other prescription drugs. The food is pretty good- Show Time Joe makes great tortellini with alfredo sauce. If you are someone from a public school, think twice about coming to HWS. For all the entitled and stuck up people from prep schools- this is your place. But, hey, you should remember that money won't buy you happiness, and how much money you have doesn't make a person. It's almost like if you don't dress the same as everyone else and have money, then you're not fully "in" at the school. Once people get over their egos they'll realize that they're not going anywhere, and don't have anything going for them other than riding someone else's wave through "connections." It really disgusts me, and I realized I could not be in a place like HWS for four years.