Let’s kick off this year’s first admission cycle thread for the great and gorgeous Hamilton College!
A little bit about me: a helpless lover of Hamilton from Hungary, I was waitlisted last year, then not accepted. After a gap year, here we go again.
Good luck, its a great school to shoot for again! We have twin DD’s that started this Fall, and as expected they both love life on the Hill.
Thanks! I’m so happy to hear that, I hope I will meet them one day. I feel like if I would be a college, I would definitely be Hamilton – now I only have to channel this through my essays!
I would venture to say that our family has, over the past several years, put as much time, effort, and research into determining the best school for our son as anyone. We eventually had our list down to a dozen elite LAC’s (NESCAC) and felt his chances were pretty good at all of them. But since going Early Decision increases one’s chances, and you have to select your top choice at some point anyway, we planned on doing that, but to which school? They are all pretty awesome, and of course everyone knows the so-called ‘rankings,’ but what made our choice clear would be the visits we made to each one (some of them two or three times), where we made it a point to talk with as many of the students there as possible. Without a doubt, the most favorable impression we came away with each time was at Hamilton College, and my guess is that it may have something to do with the fact that some schools do interviews (Hamilton), and some don’t (Williams, Amherst…). This mattered to us because the school wasn’t selecting only our son, but also his 500 classmates, and no matter how high someone’s SAT scores are or how good they might look on paper, pay attention to the groups you encounter on the tours. There are definitely places where you’ll find a bunch of perfect SAT score kids who can’t make conversation, look you in the eye, or even shake someone’s hand. In some of the various college tour groups we participated in, the prospective students barely came up for air from their iPhone for the entire day.
My son decided to apply Early Decision at Hamilton and was accepted nearly a year ago, beginning this past August. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the happiest he has ever been in his entire life. He loves everything - the campus, his classes, his teachers, and especially his classmates who without question will include a good many of his friends for life. We get texts out of the blue where he just thanks us for making it all possible. We knew it was going to be great when we went out there on Accepted Students’ Day in April, and right now we are in the middle of the four day Family Weekend, where the parents get the opportunity to roam the gorgeous campus and attend classes, meeting the teachers, friends, classmates, and watching sporting events, concerts, and even eating in the dining hall, where the food is outstanding. Every part of this weekend has only reaffirmed all the reasons we knew this was the best place for our son to get his college education.
One final comment - Hamilton Admissions often references an applicant’s “demonstrated interest.” This is important. We were actually told by the admissions people at Williams that they don’t pay any attention to this (which we found odd), and they sometimes ignored my son’s emails over the years, while Hamilton was the only school that responded 100% of the times to my son’s emails, telling us after he was admitted that they were impressed with his “demonstrated interest.” Good luck.
@straydog, we’re at Parents Weekend as well. Great to see every team win at home today!
Not only are they a diverse group of really smart students, but they seem to genuinely care about each other - it’s clear that admissions walks the talk with their focus on this when selecting their Hamily.
And, yes every friend of both DD’s confidently introduced and shared something about themselves when we met them.
We definitely feel like both DD’s made a great choice in choosing Hamilton.
Williams doesn’t offer interviews, except in the summer and only for seniors, is because the administration believes eliminating the interview in the application process levels the playing field. Middlebury is similar to a degree. Only alumni interviews are offered, and even those are often limited or not available in many areas.
Another reason demonstrated interest isn’t considered is because many/most students are sophisticated enough to know how to ‘play the game’. And because Williams isn’t a safety or match for anyone, demonstrated interest is, for all intents and purposes, meaningless. Yale, among others, doesn’t track or consider demonstrated interest for the same aforementioned reasons.
You seem defensive, for some reason, although there’s no reason to be. The only purpose of my post was to pass on information obtained either from personal observation or what I was told by various colleges, for the benefit of anyone going through the application process. Whether you might agree with a particular school’s philosophy or reasoning behind some practice or not really has no bearing.
Williams told us, and they write in their own literature, that they neither require nor recommend interviews. When I asked about it during an information session, their response was that they just had too many applicants. Whether you or anyone else believes that may “level the playing field” does not interest me - I am merely the messenger. And again, my observation has been that, just as in any long-term commitment being considered, whether it’s a college application, a job application, or even someone seeking a spouse, you’re going to have a considerably different outcome when you go only by how someone looks on paper, versus actually meeting them, wouldn’t you agree?
Regarding your comment that demonstrated interest is “meaningless” because students are sophisticated enough to ‘play the game,’ you’re certainly entitled to your opinion, although many don’t happen to share it. And really, who cares whether you or I might think it’s meaningless? All that matters to the people reading this forum is whether the school thinks it’s meaningless, and I’m simply informing people who are asking about it that Williams doesn’t consider it and Hamilton does. And sure, Williams isn’t a safety, but guess what. One of their admission counsellors, who has since moved on to Columbia, told me when we were down there that they of course are aware of who has been writing to them for years versus just hearing from an applicant for the first time in December of the senior year. Safety or not, what school wants a kid who might have no motivation or any idea what they want? You can say the entire process is ‘playing the game,’ whether it’s trying to get inside information on this forum or getting tutored on SAT’s (which didn’t exist when I was applying back in the sixties), or a long list of other strategies. So what? My son made sure his application was on their desk on the first day possible, and they noticed.
Just sharing information and experience here. You’re absolutely welcome to ignore it.
@straydog, absolutely agree about the importance of demonstrated interest at least in the case of Hamilton College - and it’s not just pinging admissions and yes they see through that, but rather demonstrating that one is a fit with and will contribute to the school’s mission. Case in point at Hamilton, only 50% of those with SATs above 1500 were accepted.
@straydog, I, too, was just sharing information. I wasn’t being defensive. It’s unfortunate that you misconstrued my post. My response was in regard to Williams. It had nothing to do with Hamilton. I felt that it was important for prospective students to be aware that various colleges do not take demonstrated interest into consideration. Actually, I was told that considering demonstrated interest was meaningless and that students know how to ‘play the game’ by the Director of Admission at a top 5 LAC 
Because Hamilton is very concerned with yield, I agree showing demonstrated interest is imperative. There’s no reason to accepted a student with >1500 SATs when they likely have no intention of matriculating.
@CrewDad, true, but as those over 1500 SAT and 34 ACT make up 22% of those that matriculated this year and as that group only made up 16% of acceptances, it’s a significant portion of the Hamilton 2021 class.
@Chembiodad . Thank you for underscoring my point. As with other colleges, Hamilton is protecting yield and admission rate, which is affected by yield. Hence, only 16% of those scoring >1500 SAT/ 34 ACT are accepted.
@CrewDad, my bad as I posted “% of Applicants over 1500 / 34 ACT”. The “% of Acceptances over 1500 / 34 ACT was 39%” so protecting yield doesn’t seem to be a concern at Hamilton as hasn’t trying to get a larger applicant pool by eliminating application fee or supplemental essay.
“I felt that it was important for prospective students to be aware that various colleges do not take demonstrated interest into consideration.”
So did I. That’s the reason I mentioned that some schools (such as Hamilton) take demonstrated interest into consideration, while others (such as Williams) do not. Regardless of who told you it was meaningless, not all schools feel that way, and I think it pretty much goes without saying that students know how to play the game.
@straydog, agree that your focus was solely intended to help future prospects; our DD’s went through the same process last year and some such as Amherst didn’t even register a prospect as having taken a tour - every school is different in their approach.
@Chembiodad What percentage of the 39% were admitted ED? Hamilton isn’t going to eliminate the application fee because it’s a cash cow. 
And they shouldn’t. Eliminating loans at some future time is more important.
@crewdad, feel free to research as Hamilton Colleges is one of the colleges that not only provides detailed score distribution data, but also publishes the same information on their admissions page, in the Common Data Set, in public announcements, etc. - others seem to mix and match applied, accepted, and admitted data when they do the same…
I have. Some reason Hamilton doesn’t publish the distribution scores for ED vs RD admits.
They also don’t publish the scores for the 20% who submitted SAT subject tests the IB in lieu of the SAT/ACT.
All, it is important to remember that this is a Hamilton Class 2022 ED Post for prospective students - am sure there are better places to debate the merit of Demonstrated Interest in admission criteria.
@Chembiodad , This is why I love you. Change the subject when stumped.
@CrewDad, regarding post #19, am not aware of any that break put ED as compared to RD - I am moving on as they are of a limited set that posts the same data in all places, so all good by me.