<p>Thanks for giving that background which will allow me to respond to your areas of interest. Please bear in mind that I am an alumnus and so not engaged in course work in the economics department. That said, I am sure that you can find course listings in that department with their descriptions and prerequisites. The Admissions Office, no doubt, would be happy to put you in contact with faculty and students in any academic department as well.</p>
<p>Firstly, Colgate is in rural Hamilton, NY, a world away from the distractions- good and not so good- of a big city. The community of 2850 students, 280 faculty, staff and the townspeople numbering roughly 3000 are a tight knit and rather self-contained unit. Think of the quintessential college town with several bars, restaurants, an old fashioned inn, 2 theaters, art galleries, and a large bookstore belonging to Colgate about 5 minutes from a gorgeous campus- and you have the vision. Transportation around town to the campus and its famed Hill are on the free campus cruisers which also takes you to the large supermarket another couple of minutes from town northward.</p>
<p>Nearby colleges and their towns are Hamilton College in Clinton 25 minutes away, Syracuse University 45 minutes away, and Cornell in Ithaca 90 minutes away. The region is beautiful in fall, spring and summer while winter can be cold and snowy; Colgate is at the geographic center of NY state.</p>
<p>About fitness, Colgate has superb facilities as you can see on gocolgateraiders.com including the Trudy center for the entire Colgate community. It’s 15000 square feet in size, was opened last year, and is heavily used. The varsity athletes also have a performance center which meets their training needs of over 9000 square feet. It was relocated last year in a renovated space cleared by the earlier fitness center. The space vacated by the performance center is given to dance and other uses. Colgate also has 9 tennis courts and several squash and racquetball courts for club sports (sub-varsity level) and intramural usage. These facilities and programs are most generous when you consider their scope and the size of the community.</p>
<p>About the core curriculum which you admire at Chicago and the freedom of Brown, I would think that the offerings of Colgate give you what you seek. Go ahead and read about the Core at the colgate.edu website alongside the requirements for majors, expectations for off campus study, and other courses of your interests. </p>
<p>Now about transferring… I sincerely doubt that anyone matriculates at Colgate with the intention of transferring elsewhere. You should enroll somewhere that suits you and get vested in the place as soon as possible. It’s up to you to show commitment to your class and your coursework and most importantly to be true to yourself. Should you realize after first semester that somehow you have made a terrible mistake, well, that would be a shame, wouldn’t it? Then you would be obliged to transfer and restart your college experience.</p>
<p>Good luck with your selection!</p>