S19’s list includes schools like Carleton, Hamilton, Davidson, Bowdoin, and Kenyon. I’m not exactly sure why but we haven’t considered Colgate until now. Anyone out there who can let us know what the vibe is like at Colgate compared to these other schools?
Especially curious about how it’s different than Hamilton since they are only 30 minutes away from each other.
Both are wonderful colleges!
Colgate: some required courses that everyone takes that provide a common experience
Hamilton: one of the nation’s few colleges with a completely open curriculum (along with Amherst, Brown, Grinnell, and Smith, according to Hamilton’s own brochures)
Colgate: division one sports
Hamilton: division three sports (NESCAC)
Colgate: heavy fraternity/sorority culture, with residences, although a new housing system aims to build social alternatives
Hamilton: there are frats/sors, but these are nonresidential and required to welcome all to their parties
Colgate: uniformly beautiful, unified look to buildings
Hamilton: two sides to campus- the light side that looks a lot like Colgate, and the dark side that is modern (formerly the campus for Kirkland, a women’s college, that merged with Hamilton many years ago)
Colgate: compact campus
Hamilton: large campus, with two parts (light and dark), and a root glen/ hiking trails
Both: loyal active alumni- and Colgate has a funny tradition of alumni wearing Colgate gear on the 13th or something like that
Both: excellent academics
Hamilton is famous for its emphasis on teaching students to write well.
Purely subjective view of one family:
Colgate: a surprising number of students were so good-looking that it looked like they should be models
Hamilton: interesting mix of many types of students, all interacting, although the students will tell you that there are playful stereotypes of the light siders (athletes and preppy types) and the dark siders (artsy or hipster or granola types).
Socially, Hamilton felt to me like Bates, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Amherst.
Socially, Colgate felt to me like Lafayette and Franklin and Marshall. We did not visit Bucknell, but I would think that it would join this list. (Son liked Colgate more than Lafayette or Franklin and Marshall.)
We liked both colleges a lot, but Hamilton was one of my son’s top choices and one of the final five considered for ED. It was one of the friendliest, warmest colleges we visited. Everyone was SO nice!
Colgate people were very nice, too- in fact, at Colgate, a pretty girl we asked randomly where a certain building was walked with us across campus to show us.
But something about Hamilton just felt really, really positive and friendly.
And we liked the light side-dark side stuff: it felt like there was a wide variety of people and there would be a diversity of views and activities.
I definitely felt Hamilton was a very comfortable social fit for my kid. He would have found his people at Colgate too, but Hamilton felt like a slightly more perfect fit. From your descriptions of your son, at other times, I might predict Hamilton would be a slightly better match for him as well. If he returns to Hamilton for an interview (if he did not interview yet), Colgate is really close, so he can check it out.
But really, you can’t go wrong with either of these two stellar small liberal arts colleges!
@TheGreyKing thank you! I agree that Hamilton could be a good fit. I can see the differences between Colgate and Hamilton a little better now. It’s funny about the “pretty people” comment. We only know one student at Colgate. Handsome as heck and a football player.
On a completely different note: S19 just started working on his Williams supplement!
Colgate: Notable academics across various fields. Many students pursue social sciences such as those related to government and economics, but excellent programs and facilities in the natural sciences would be a strong draw for many as well. Intermediate size may suit the indecisive. Graduates earn good early career salaries as reported by U.S. News. Athletics and fraternities set a theme for the school, though their importance may be of one’s choosing. Receives recognition from the Princeton Review for an active party scene. Not a squash powerhouse. Authentic countryside location cum village, the latter of which Forbes named among America’s “15 Friendliest.” Beautiful campus, on a hillside. Good access to the Finger Lakes.
Hamilton: Benefits from the curricular, architectural, spatial and cultural legacy of once having been two colleges of complementary characteristics and attributes. A writers’ college for students who want to enhance this skill – as they should – but curriculum otherwise nicely balanced across sciences and math, humanities and fine arts and social sciences. Accordingly, the science center tends to impress as the largest academic building, while the visual and performing arts facilities anchor a central-campus neighborhood. Adherence to a smaller student body allows for full access to a range of curricular and extracurricular programs and activities. Graduates earn solid salaries. Beautiful east-facing campus overlooks a valley and the village of Clinton. Good access to the Adirondacks.
We visited Hamilton and Colgate back to back 2 different times for 2 different kids. I agree with a lot of what TheGreyKing said, but not everything. While Hamilton technically has a bigger campus due to the many acres of trails, the parts that you would traverse on a daily basis going to class, dorms, dining hall, felt much more compact than Colgate which seemed a bit more sprawling and because of the hill and lake more scenic. Both in tiny towns, but the town is very accessible to Colgate students, while for Hamilton it is not in walking distance. Colgate does have the reputation for not being as diverse as other colleges, but we saw more diversity walking on campus then any other school we have visited. It was a very upbeat and friendly vibe with lots of kids smiling, talking in groups and saying hello to my D. A lot depends on the particular time and day you hit a campus. At Hamilton it was very quiet. We just didn’t see a lot of kids walking around. But we were impressed with the writing program and art center there, and I’m sure kids are friendly there, we just didn’t see many. But if you were to ask my D to compare schools, she would say Colgate is similar to Bucknell, Midd, Williams, Bowdoin, Holy Cross, Colby. Hamilton more like Vassar, Conn College and Bates. So a lot of it is in the eye of the beholder.
^^ D also thought H was a little like Amherst
In order to experience the scope of Hamilton physically, a visitor should walk from Major Hall to Taylor Science Center, then add Root Glen. These areas would be integral to a student’s daily life, but they aren’t fully covered on the tour. For a real adventure, try a walk from Rogers Estate to Kirner-Johnson.
While I understand we all might have different thresholds for what we consider to be reasonable walking distance, I’d note that the Hamilton campus is only 1.1 miles from downtown Clinton. It’s a lovely walk.
It may be a lovely walk but climbing the hill back to campus on a cold winter’s day seems like it might be unpleasant.
Hamilton is less compact that Colgate because it’s spread out over the formerly two separate colleges. Colgate hasthe hill but you don’t have to cover as much ground to get around. You can see this for yourself if you bring both up in Google Maps and select the 200 foot scale in satellite view.
In terms of proximity to town, Colgate is a closer walk to it’s tiny town but Hamilton is less remote overall and is closer (and has provided shuttle buses) to a much larger town with far more to do.
I’m not being negative on either school just clarifying the statements above.
And about the relative appeal of Colgate… It has roughly 35% more students and yet delivers that 9:1 student to faculty ratio, offers 25 D1 varsity sports for high(er) caliber spectator appeal, and yet is 30 minutes from Hamilton College (and whatever it is that Clinton’s environs are described as having “far more to do”), I would suggest that Colgate with its charming, nearby village of Hamilton make an excellent choice!
Go ‘gate!
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Hamilton is less compact that Colgate because it’s spread out over the formerly two separate colleges.
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While true that it formerly was 2 separate colleges, it didn’t really feel ‘spread out’ to us. It was more like crossing a street to get to some other buildings, just like you would cross the street to do the same at other schools, like Muhlenberg or Williams for example. Or even crossing a bigger street at Colgate to get to the athletic facilities.
Also agree that a 1 mile walk to town at Hamilton is not that far (my kid likes to walk), but if you just want to get off campus quickly, you can’t do that at H, while you can at C. Though there does seem to be more going on in the general surroundings at H
Colgate may be a little harder partying than the rest of the schools on the list. Academically, quite similar. On the isolation and climate scale, quite similar. It draws more heavily from affluent areas in the greater NY metro area than the others, I think. Although all these schools are of the highest national stature, they all still hAve a bit of their regional flavor which plays out a bit in the vibe. I am guessing you have been picking up on that in your visits.
@gardenstategal absolutely. Plus, none of these schools are “gimmees” for acceptances. S19 will be applying to quite a few LACs in the top 20 (with a few in the top 40 as safeties). He will see where the chips fall and then visit again to figure out where he fits best when it comes to vibe. All of the schools on his list give him what he wants academically.
@wisteria100 So Hamilton feels less spread out than Colgate despite physically being a greater distance to cover? I guess that’s a good thing for Hamilton if you can get more exercise but not feel like it.
@citivas - Yes to us, not counting the acres and acres of trails, the campus at Hamilton - the part that you would traverse most often - ie; classrooms, dorms, dining, gym, seemed more compact than Colgate. Perhaps that was because the ‘town’ down the hill from Colgate seemed like an extension of the campus and you may be going there frequently, as well as some of the upper class housing across and down the main road.
@wisteria100 Again, not even counting the trails and open acreage, etc. But they are both similar enough in size as to be immaterial.
Even if one were to ignore the eighteen-fold difference in campus acreage when comparing Hamilton to, particularly, Muhlenberg, I think it should at least be seen that the walk between Hamilton’s two core historical areas traverses more than a road crossing. Along this path, visitors will note a distinctive student activities village as well as a bridge over a ravine. The now symbolic gates of the former coordinate college, Kirkland, complete the transition.
Beyond acreage, the Hamilton campus felt ‘larger’ to us because it contains more voices: traditional, colonial american, brutalist, modernist et al. There are distinct “neighborhoods”. In addition, there is a fair amount of walking space between each building - not as much as Midd but more than Colgate.
Colgate has a very uniform look architecturally, even new buildings are made to look old. Colgate’s buildings are more physically contiguous, with many of them being literally connected by underground tunnels. The buildings sit on a hill and there are many lovely vistas at the periphery that give the campus a spacious feel.
Personally, we felt the architecture was reflected in the student body; with Colgate’s population being more uniform. Even the people of color felt more uniform stylistically - if that makes any sense.
We definitely felt the D1 influence of Colgate being more of a hard party school.
The biggest differences, from years of reading about them on this site, are in social and sports vibe:
Both are very good, but they are adequately different that most kids would be better off at one or the other.
@prezbucky Yet Colgate is ranked above Haverford and Hamilton in USNWR. I was surprised by that when I was looking at the list and, honestly, that’s why we were considering it. It must be somewhat intellectual to be ranked so high. S19 is leaning towards the sports vibe but he wants the scholar athlete place…not the party sporty place. He liked Carleton and found sporty kids there. He’s interested in places like Bowdoin, Midd, and Williams. Without even visiting Hamilton, I think it’s a match fit-wise. And I’m feeling like Colgate may be too “jocky”. The question will be whether he decides to add it to the list. I’ll have him look at it more.